One of the hardest lessons for crafters to learn is to let go of the feelings we have when a gift we made is not received in the way we would like.
You know the experience: a lace scarf you painstakingly knit out of cashmere, having spent your life savings for the yarn and hours knitting and ripping out and knitting some more, is received with a polite thank you, never to be seen again. Or the quilt you spent so many hours quilting and embellishing that you needed several trips to the physical therapist. Then it is given to a loved one and quickly becomes a soft bed for Fido. We have to tell ourselves that our joy in making the gift is what counts, and that we love the recipient no matter what. And the next Christmas we knit ourselves the cashmere lace scarf and give the loved one a Target gift card!
But sometimes the result of our gift giving is wonderfully unexpected. A couple of years ago, I made my granddaughters pillowcases for their beds with matching doll pillowcases. It was fun and I used novelty fabric that reflected their interests. I followed the easy instructions in Oh Sew Easy Pillows by Jean and Valori Wells to make standard size pillowcases. Then I divided all the dimensions in half for the doll pillowcase. The doll pillow itself is half the dimensions of a standard-size bed pillow and made out of muslin stuffed with polyester fiberfill. The girls loved the pillows so the gift was a success.
Then something weird and wonderful happened—no one knows how or why, but my grandson, the baby in the family, latched onto one of the doll pillows as his special security pillow. Now he carries it around, takes it to bed, and can pretty much fall asleep anywhere if he has his pillow.
He looks so sweet with his much-loved pillow, and I am a happy and successful gift-giving grandmother. Now we all hope that he will not be too humiliated when as a teenager he sees photos of himself with his beloved pillow made of fabric covered with hippo ballerinas in pink tutus.
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Oh, that is so sweet!!!
That is so cute!
What a tender tale. What a sweet boy!
As for Theo being humiliated as a teenager, it would be way worse if he was WEARING a pink tutu!!! P.S. What happened to his red hair? :o( Oh, and I know just what you mean about people not giving a second look at something you spent a long time making for them. Aarrgh!
By the way, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing that something you make winds up in “Fido’s” bed. It just shows that the dog has better taste than its owner!
This reminds Me of when My son was a baby (26 years ago!)
He could fall asleep anywhere. Wish we had had one of these
for his little head. What a great creation.
Love it!