Handmade Monday - The recycling centre

This is my post for Handmade Monday, hosted by Wendy at 1st unique gifts.  But this week it is not my work you'll be looking at ...

A most exciting event occurred in our town last weekend.  The Dolgellau recycling centre opened its gates! This may not sound exciting to you, but when your nearest tip is a 40 mile round trip, it really is exciting.

I'm not sure if they are offering a loyalty card, but we will be applying.

So far we have emptied the trailer (where we store bulky rubbish), started on the studio (where we store bulky rubbish), started on the loft (where we store bulky rubbish), started on the children's room (where we store bulky rubbish).

In going through the children's room I came across their car seat blankets (I had a dedicated blanket for the car seat, so that if I couldn't find it in the house, I knew I had left it in the car - do you understand the logic?).  They both had their own blanket.

Now as you may or may not know I have a handcrank Singer Sewing machine which I resurrected from a dusty corner of my neighbours house.  Although I enjoy using it, it is too slow to be my favourite machine.

I was not allowed to use a sewing machine until needlework classes at secondary school.

I was not allowed to touch my mums sewing machine until I was 14.

I found myself shouting at my children for fiddling with tension and pressing buttons on my Pfaff machine.  So I decided that the handcrank machine would be ideal to let them loose on.

So this weekend they both converted their blankets into cushion covers.

I can't claim the design taxed my sewing skills.  I can't claim that they could have done it on their own.  But my 5 year old and 3 year old, turned the handle and watched their very own blanket metamorphose into a cushion cover before their eyes.  And they are very proud of it.