My daughter has never been a fan of lacing cards.
My son enjoys them, but is much more into swinging the strings around tied to favorite toys.
Most of our purchased lacing cards, which I thought were so cool, have been re-purposed into little flat wooden toys or pretend pets on a leash.
I have tried explaining that lacing cards are an introductory activity for sewing.
Neither “big kid” cares, they really just want to make something and play.
Better than Lacing Cards
These simple paper (cardstock) pillows inspired by Mother Goose Time ihave been a wonderful solution that allows them to gain some of the skills they would get from traditional lacing cards, while still being able to actually make something. Hooray!
As an added bonus, these simple lacing pillows are really easy to make with materials you likely already have at home.
Suggested Materials
We use colored cardstock paper, because it is plentiful, comes in different colors, and is easy for the kids to cut with their scissors. It can also be taped back together if parts of it rip.
Construction paper will work too, although it’s a bit more easy to tear.
Other materials, such as felt or craft foam will be more lasting. Given the plethora of kid paraphernalia ever growing in this house, ever lasting kid made pillows isn’t on the wish list for this project 🙂
Ladybug is using suggestions from Mother Goose Time to create a beak and feathers for her bird.
I love that she sings while she works 🙂
Using paper lets kids to draw and design their own pillows with washable markers.
The black eye stickers are great for helping my little ones figure out where to put the rest of the face parts.
Pillows can be made in any symmetrical shape or quasi-shape.
Hearts and ovals are our favorites.
Other fabulous examples for shapes include
- circles for the sun
- crescents for the moon
- or fruit shapes
Since, we are learning all about birds and eggs with our preschool program from Mother Goose Time, the kids were all over making a bird pillow.
This little guy still needs a little help getting the string in all the holes.
Going in order is always a challenge.
Look at that concentration!
But once the whole thing is complete, he’s very excited to display his work and most importantly to play with what he’s made.
The easiest way to complete fun projects like these is to have Mother Goose Time deliver the pre-cut templates directly to your door like I do 🙂
But, if you want to try the activity first or have kids that liked it so much they wanted to add additional birds to their nest (hence, why I know how to do this), here’s a quick set of steps you can use to create your own lacing pillow.
Steps to Create Your Own Home Made Lacing Pillow
Preparing the Paper Card/Pillow
Fold a piece of card stock in half.
Draw half of the desired shape.
Here is a hand drawn Oval Lacing Card Pillow Template with markings for holes for your convenience.
Draw marks where you wish to place holes.
(I recommend every 4 inches or so, at least 1/4 inch from the edge of the paper).
Cut the image out with the cardstock still folded.
Be sure to leave approximately 3.5 inches of folded edge intact.
Use a hole punch to add holes with the cardstock still folded.
Unfold the card stock and you’ll have a ready made lacing pillow to put together.
Yarn
Regular yarns works fine for connecting the halves.
Our yarn pieces were approximately 1 1/2 feet in length.
Most lacing cards some with a shoe lace. This is for good reason, it’s hard for little hands to get the yarn into the holes and when that happens the yarn also tends to unravel.
A simple solution when using plain yarn is to wrap a piece of scotch tape around one end.
Play
My kids chose to build a nest for their birds in the backyard.
They used packing paper from a recent delivery box.
We love partnering with Mother Goose Time to show case some of our favorite activities from their preschool curriculum. Check out this awesome list of upcoming themes for 2017-2018!
Happy Learning!
