My daughter absolutely LOVES this toy. It has been a total lifesaver on car trips and when I need her to be quiet for just a minute. I was making a couple extra ones for friends and family when I thought this could make an awesome Faith In God activity.
These are easy to make, a great use of scrap material and ribbon, and allows the girls to get their hands on a sewing machine. I thought this would be a great service activity where the girls could donate them to the ward's nursery, or even to individual families with littles for them to use as a quiet toy during sacrament. I think it would be fun to make this activity two weeks... let the girls shop and pick out the materials the first week, then make them the second. OR... make them in the first week and for the second week deliver them to homes with little ones so the girls can see them play with the toy :)
To make mine I just used scrap material, I ordered the buckles on Amazon and got ribbon from Hobby Lobby (using the 40% off coupon) and the dollar store. I was actually super surprised at the great selection at the dollar store... they didn't have any polka dot or super cute ribbon, but they had plenty of solid colors... where any solid color roll was 2.99 at Hobby Lobby.
1. Choose your fabric, ribbon and buckles. You'll need two pieces of fabric that are the same size, and two pieces of ribbon for each buckle. It doesn't really matter what shape or size the fabric is, but I made mine long and skinny so that I would use less ribbon (about 3.5*10 inches). You just want to cut your ribbon a bit short of the width of your fabric (about 3.25 inches - accounts for the buckle) so that the two buckles come together nicely when it's done.
2. Sew the ribbon with the buckle onto the front side of the fabric.
3. Thread the second piece of ribbon through the buckle and sew on the other side.
4. Place the second piece of fabric right side down on top of the first piece of fabric with the buckles/ribbon sewn on. Sew the two pieces together on three sides, leaving one side un-sewn so you can turn it inside out.
5. Turn the toy inside out and sew the last side shut, and VOILA!
