And suddenly, it was the last week of term. What to give the teachers?
This year, the Bee’s reception class teachers had worked a miracle: our young-in-the-year daughter had developed from a fearful, overtired and overwhelmed little girl into one brimming with excitement and confidence. In no small measure, this was due to the kindness and encouragement of her teacher and two teaching assistants… If you have to leave your sobbing child in the arms of a teacher, these are the kind you’d want: the ones who take time out to comfort, make her giggle, and give a hug when needed.
So it had to be something personal, but we were short on time. Cue my favourite zip pouch tutorial and a pack of hastily purchased fabric pens! The Bee relished the task of creating the artwork and took the process very seriously: her lettering for the teacher’s names was completed with more care than normal, and if she’d had more time, we’d have redone the rainbow drawing (the colours bled into each other a bit), but we barely had time to fit it all in between breakfasts and finding missing shoes and PE kits as it was.
These pictures are pretty self-explanatory: rainbows, smiling teachers, even a few apples thrown in for good measure:
This one needs a little more explanation. It’s a teacher, “dressed as princess Elsa, throwing ice, with her ice cat and some snowflakes”. I love it!
I wanted the Bee’s name and the year to be on the bags somewhere for memory’s sake, but not too overtly, so made little tabs with light coloured fabric on the underside (yes, I did remember to fill in her real name!):
The Bee was delighted with the result (as always! She is such a rewarding child to sew for!):
I sewed as fast as I could, but still ended up taking photos on the morning of the last day of school. Unfortunately, minutes after this picture was taken, she threw up everywhere, thus barring her from attending her last day in reception! She didn’t care much about being ill but was very upset about missing her last day, and not being able to give her presents. She needn’t have worried about that though: after rushing for the end-of-term deadline, there was NO WAY I was going to let these bags sit around until next year! I dropped them off myself, later in the day.
It was a lot of fun, and really nice to give something the Bee had helped create, but I think next year I’ll find something a little quicker for her to make!
esme in the attic 