Teacher gifts 2013

31 Jul

It was the end of the school year for my girls last week and it has fast become a tradition for me to make a gift for their teachers.

I try to get them to think about what their teacher might actually like and appreciate, something a bit personal and not just a generic item.

Bethan has previously made journal/notebook covers for friends birthdays and thought that Mrs Brook would like one too.  We came up with the idea of making the front cover look like a piece of paper by stitching a pink line down the left hand side and then blue lines across the page:

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Bethan then wrote on it with a fabric pen and I free motion stitched over it to make it stand out a bit more. For the back of the journal I used a ‘school’ themed print:

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Lucky for her I still had this, it was destined for the ugly swap at FQ retreat as I never thought I would use it!

Bethan is fortunate to be having the same teacher next year, so we’ll have to come up with another idea in a years time. Mrs Brook said that she would write her lesson plans in it over the summer and there was I thinking she was going to have a well deserved 6 week holiday especially after taking 25 eight year olds on a residential trip for 3 days!

Leah’s teacher this year is what we call an NQT (newly qualified teacher) so this was her very first proper class. And she has been awesome; very kind, patient, encouraging and firm (sometimes necessary with my wild child). Leah told me that Miss Burrow is always losing her pens and pencils so said that we should make her a case for them. She also wanted to write a note on the case.

Somewhere along the line there was a miscommunication and I got it all wrong, she didn’t want it to look like paper on the pencil case she wanted to write a note to go inside it. I left the pencil case to one side and went off to London for the weekend. On Monday evening I told her that it had to get finished there and then or there would be nothing to give on Wednesday. Nothing like a bit of pressure to focus the mind, by the time I went to bed there was this:

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Leah did the same as Bethan, writing on it with a pen and I stitched over it, keeping the 6 yr old handwriting and spellings!  ‘Miss Burrows penceil and pen case for keeping safe’

Leah chose some Summersville Alphabetti for the back, I used this for her lunch bag so she said it will help Miss Burrow to remember her and she can colour it in if she likes!  Such a thoughtful child.

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Lining is some more Summersville Scandi

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This gift was well received too, I’m really hoping that she will stay with the school as Mathias would love to be in her class in a couple of years time!  So that’s it for another year, I hope inspiration strikes again.

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11 Replies to “Teacher gifts 2013

  1. I love the way you’ve stitched the fabric to look like paper. And using the girls’ own handwriting (and spelling!) just makes it. x

  2. That’s very intricate fm embroidery… I think I would have had to hand stitch it! Hope the teachers love and use them…far better gift than chocolates!

  3. These really caught my eye in your Made in July post. Such a wonderfully practical and personalised gift for a teacher.

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