Welcome to my little corner of the blogosphere to share the ups and downs of starting a craft business, with plenty of tips, mishaps and the odd glass of wine!

Sunday 23 June 2013

UK Handmade Interview & a Day at Pre-School

I forgot to mention a couple of weeks ago that I had been interviewed by the lovely and ever-so patient Kirsten Miller of UK Handmade for their Road Less Traveled series. I was a little bit nervous as it's the first proper interview I've done since starting Grace's Favours but it wasn't scary and the end result is something I'm really really pleased with and as soon as I can work out how to I'll be adding a "Press" section to the website!



to see the rest of the pics (and read the words!) click here

The other thing I wanted to share this week was the session I did at my daughter, Seren's, Pre-School class. Her teacher (who knows what I do for a living) asked if I would be interested in going into the nursery for a day to teach the Pre-School children how to sew! I was delighted to be asked and decided that I would get them doing a basic sampler like this:

Flower sampler
So I cut out a square of material for each child and machine stitched round the edges so it didn't fray once they started sewing. Then I drew the flower in 4 different colours (green stalk & leaves, orange centre, red for one set of petals and purple for the other set of petals)

I'd ordered a batch of large plastic needles and some embroidery threads in different colours and armed with all of this I set off for nursery on Tuesday morning.

Seren was beside herself with excitement and all her friends (actually, thankfully only 6 of them and 2 staff members!) were really enthusiastic about their "lesson"

Here are some pics from the day:

Great concentration from the boys - surprisingly!

Seren (in the heart dress) very keen to get every stitch right!

Mary: Are you sure I'm showing him right???

Sue: I'm sure I can do this!

One of the best results!

Stopped for lunch and a play, great progress!
They all worked SO hard, I was really proud of all the children! We didn't quite finish our projects in the day (interspersed with playing, running round outside and many pit stops for food and drinks!) so I'm going back in a fortnight's time to help them finish off.

I really really enjoyed my day with the kids, but my god, was I exhausted at the end of it!! I have a newfound respect for Nursery Staff!

Now pootling over to Handmade Monday now for a mooch round to see what everyone else has been up to this week!

16 comments:

  1. congratulations on the interview! its really interesting to hear your story and all the pictures of your creations look amazing!

    awww it sounds like you had such a fun day with the kids, i bet they loved every minute of it :) there is sure to be a few who you will have introduced to a lifetime love affair with sewing! x

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  2. A great interview with Kirsten, hope Harrogate goes well for you (I'll wave as I'm not far away!)

    Looks like you had a great time with the children - I admire your patience!

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  3. Great interview, Simmi. I've met the lovely Kirsten. And lovely creations from the children.

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  4. I think you made the right decision as your things are very good - quirky and attractive, plus what's better than never having the 'sunday night work blues' again! Well done coping with teaching pre-schoolers sewing too!!

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  5. Congrats on the interview!

    What lovely photos of the children and their sewing. I love the images showing their concentration!

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  6. I agree with Wendy about the concentration on the children's faces (and the adults too). I am very impressed with how far they got! How could you forget something as exciting as the interview?

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  7. Congratulations on the interview. It's nice to know your daughter's pre school want their pupils to learn sewing. You came up with a good pattern too. I didn't know that they made plastic needles, that's so clever.
    Have a creative week.

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  8. I love seeing your pre-schoolers sewing, and their work is amazing. I ran a craft club for a few years, with Year 1 and 2 pupils, and it was so hard to come up with sewing projects that they all could have a stab at (pun intended).

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  9. The children look like they had a wonderful time!

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  10. Congratulations on being featured. The pre-school sewing looks to be a success. Lots of enthusiasm there!
    Wendy x

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  11. Congratulations on your interview. I'll pop over to have a read.

    Sounds like both you and the children had a great time. They did some really good work xx

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  12. What a great idea for the pre-schoolers. They were obviously very interested in doing them - and I know at this age they generally have the attention span of a gnat! Congratulations on the interview too.

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  13. Great interview :-) I love finding out a bit more about people and how they run their businesses.

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  14. I remember when my son was younger he really loved doing cross stitch, but mention it now and I'm in trouble lol well he is 26.

    Just popped over from Handmade Monday

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  15. I'm so impressed with the pre-schoolers sewing and what a great idea to draw patterns on and then sew them (so many shop bought kits aren't that inspiring or look to complicated for littler ones). Where did you get the plastic needles from? I'd love to try this with my girls. x

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I really appreciate all comments made on the blog (it reminds me that I'm not talking to myself!) so just wanted to say thanks for adding your thoughts. Simmi x

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