Present for teacher

The end of term is fast approaching and with it the annual dilemma of present for teacher/no present....I don't like to try and give anything too personal and try to involve T in the process as I am trying to teach him that it is a Good Thing to Think of Others in Life and Say Thank You. But I do not want to go down the competitive present buying route or have him think you just go and mindlessly buy something for a present. I am hoping he can see it is more about making a bit of an effort for another person.

I was also plotting to get him onto the sewing machine - okay so he is only seven but my far reaching plan is that by the time he leaves home he can at least sew a seam, and sew on buttons.

So, at the risk of sounding like a "crafting mommy" blog I am showing you the bag I made with T aged seven last night to give to his class teacher as a Thank You for the end of school year. Look it's reversible... and let's hope she likes dogs.

I sat T on my lap at the sewing machine and he fed the fabric through and was in charge of the reverse stitch dial and shouting STOP at the end of a seam. (That last one was his idea) I was in charge of the pedal. Being of a technical mind, he was interested to know what all the different knobs were for. It was all very wholesome and lovely, we were talking about his great grandfather whose family were all tailors and shirtmakers, and who himself, ran a wedding and evening dressmaking business.

Then of course I had to ruin it by saying that people had machined their own fingers in sewing machines, this scared the poor kid so much that he had to stop sewing and go build some lego instead.

Ooops - there is obviously a fine line between promoting a safe attitude to working with a machine and overdoing it. This morning he was fully recovered from the imagined sewing machine trauma and was composing lists of what the teacher could put in her bag....so far, lots of books, a sandwich, a thermos and a DS lite.