Our church is very active in the Operation Christmas Child program. This meaningful charity gives a shoebox of presents to individual children around the world who would otherwise receive no Christmas gifts.
I was asked to make something for the 2-4 year olds, an especially challenging age group. Everything in the box must be safe for little ones who regularly put things like buttons in their mouths.
Another consideration is that 2 year olds are still babies while the 4 year olds are likely marching full stride into the big kid category. The box contents must be appropriate for all the children in this age range.
Anita Goodesign’s Baby Stuffed Animals
My 8 yo granddaughter Laurel wanted to help so we spent the weekend making stuffed dolls and toys for the boxes. There was plenty of time to talk about less fortunate children, about sewing and about giving. This was quality time together in the sewing room.
Laurel is making a Matryoshka doll in the hoop.
I started with the Babushka Matryoshka design from the Etsy shop, Digitized Creations.  The design was edited to include a face from Elsa’s baby angel designs.
Then I moved on to Anita Goodesign’s Baby Stuffed Animals and Kid’s Alphabet. That is no longer shown on their web site so it must be retired. Surely am glad I got mine a while ago.
We have lots of other collections to draw from so Laurel so I will be working on Operation Christmas Child every time she is at Nana’s house.
Have you done any charity sewing with children? Tell us about it.
Connie who write a great blog, blumenkinderheirlooms.wordpress.com, wrote:
These are lovely gifts. I am sure they will be well received by the children. On your question on charity sewing, we had a fun experience this year to share. My kids are part of a new, small co-op locally. Sewing was one topic of interest. A friend (mom of four) and my oldest daughter coordinated a sewing day with the co-op kids where the kids and moms made the Dresses for Africa little pillowcase dresses pattern by Nancy’s Notions. You have to know that my little one was just a few months old, so I was mostly just a witness to this event while holding baby Ben. We had the advantage of some of the quilting ladies coming in to help us. We made 14 dresses in that afternoon! It was a blast!
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