Teacher Tote

As a kid I have fond memories of working on a class gift for my teacher.  The roommom would come in and we would get pulled one by one out into the hallway to work on something special to give our teacher for Christmas or at the end of the year.  So I was shocked this past Christmas to find out that the school I volunteer at does not have roommoms (I help out in one of the kindergarten classrooms, and no I do not have kids yet, my neighbor got me involved at the school and I am loving helping out with the little kids).  I don't know if this is a sign of the times or just a sign of the area we live in, but I decided right then and there that I would help the kids make an end of the year gift for their teacher.

The teacher's favorite animals are sheep and goats, and since I can't draw a goat I decided to do something with sheep :)  I sketched out this little guy and used it to make a template.

Helpful hint- if you don't have any card stock lying around, a file folder works too :)

I used white fleece for the sheep's fur and black cotton for the face.  As you might have noticed, I did not make feet for the sheep.  I wanted the kids to be able to personalize their sheep a little so I bought some fabric paint and decided to let the kids make their fingerprints into the sheeps' feet.

Here is the example I made.  I used my pointer finger to make the feet, I figured that was closer in size to a kindergartners thumb :)  I had bought a fabric marker and was going to have the kids write their name on their sheep, but when I tried the marker mixed with the fleece just didn't work out and there was no way the kids could have written anything even halfway legible on such a small piece of fabric (I couldn't even do it).  Embroidery machine to the rescue!  I kind of like it better since it will look more uniform, but I would have liked the kids to be able to write their name- its so cute at that age with backward letters and such.  Instead I think I am going to have them write their names on a piece of white paper for me with a black marker and I am going to see if I can create some fabric on Spoonflower with their names- I think it would be a cute lining to the bag.  Oh, yes!  This is going to turn into a tote bag, I probably should have mentioned that.

(please excuse the icky cutting mat, basting spray+a cheap Walmart cutting mat + 4 years= ickiness)

See, there is my little sketch.  I love it!  I really (really, really!) hope it turns out as well in reality as it does in my head!  Very possible I will be more excited to give this to the teacher than the kids are.  I will make an excellent roommom one day (or certainly an enthusiastic one :)