Caelan had three weeks of school left when I started this project and as you can imagine there are so many end of year activities going on it can become difficult staying on top of things. So with three weeks remaining I have been thinking about what he can give his Year 2 teacher as a end of year/Christmas gift. She is due to have her first child in January so something for the baby was essential. As she's expecting a little girl, I knew that I wanted to make a few of Dana's Circle Skirt's to help form part of the gift that Caelan would present to Mrs Volf during the last week of school.
Having found a few images of finished circle skirt's I knew I wanted to use fabrics that weren't your typical baby prints, that were both pastel and bright colours, and I wanted to refashion at least one of the baby skirt's from clothes that I no longer wore. As the gift was something Caelan was presenting to his teacher I involved him right from the start, he helped pick out all the fabric chosen for the skirt's. I then went off to Lincraft and Kmart to purchase the elastic as I didn't have any in my large sewing box. While at Lincraft I found some more pretty cotton fabric and I grabbed this to add to the pile. I spent a total of $17.00 for the elastic and fabric which allowed me to make at least 6 skirts at a cost of $2.83 per skirt. Now as I'm also giving her a few unused items of clothing that I received when I had my girls I decided to make at least three skirts. So not a bad gift for $8.50, I know of other mother's who will spend at least $20 per teacher.
I haven't provided you with a step by step tutorial because Dana did a really good job and her instructions are easy and the pictures will help you make your skirt. So if you go HERE you'll find the instructions for the circle skirt (adult and girls sizing) and if you want to make the double circle skirt (pattern for the baby size) you'll find it HERE.
Well school finished on Friday 30th November and as you can imagine with everything going on I ran out of time to make the three circle skirts and secondly I didn't take any photo's of the ONE I actually made. I was a little unhappy with the one I did make but I did decide to give it to Mrs Volf especially as we aren't planning on having any more babies. Due to things moving quicker than I planned I had to quickly come up with another idea for Caelan to give his teacher and I knew that he would want something big, baby related and something handmade.
The handmade element was going to be a little tricky as I'd only made the one skirt and to just give that on its own would look a little sad. Five years ago while I'd been pregnant with Mackenna I'd been invited to a baby shower and I'd made a Nappy Cake for the expectation mother. Although it was fun to do, the cost of the gift wasn't cheap, it took hours to do and in the end she was given a heap of newborn baby nappies.
When I'd been de-cluttering the house I had come across a heap of babies and toddlers clothing that we'd been given or that Viveca (Mrs Volf is due around the same time Viveca was born) had worn once or twice. I thought that it would be a good way to give Mrs Volf a mixture of new and used things because lets face it there are only so many things a new born actually needs.
I assembled all the pieces that I was going to give her, making suit to match two piece suits up so that they were together before I folded and rolled everything into small cylinder shapes. I then set about wrapping an elastic band or a bit of curling ribbon around each item so that they would stay secure once assembled. I had two baby wraps that I used to secure everything into place and then I attached a piece of ribbon around each layer.
The bottom layer was the biggest in width and this formed the first tier to my cake. To this I attached a pram toy to jazz up the appearance and to give it a little bit of character. The second tier was filled with onesie, t-shirts and other size 0000 clothing. Again I wrapped a muslin baby wrap around it and then I tired a long piece of grey ribbon (this ribbon had come off one of my wedding presents back in 2004) around its base before securing it with a lovely bow.
The last thing that I did was place my cute little pink circle skirt over a toy crab and attach a ribbon to its claw. I then sat each tier on top of the other and before I knew it I was finished. It only took me an hour to put together which was great considering I only had 95 minutes before I had to drop our gift off at school.
When I arrived at school I handed Caelan his blank Christmas card so that he could write on it for Mrs Volf. I waited for quiet a while to get a photograph that I could share but I was happy with the end result. The children guided Mrs Volf who had her eyes closed over to the present while Caelan and a few other student's stood in front of. Caelan then told the children to move aside and he told Mrs Volf that she could open her eyes. Her reaction was priceless. Caelan felt so special and when I picked him up an hour later he couldn't stop talking about how his present looked like a cake and it was so big.
So what do you think? I think that I did really well considering that my Clothing Cake was a last minute gift. I think I worked well under pressure and I know that Caelan was extremely happy with his mother's efforts and he was proud to present Mrs Volf with such a creative present. I'm glad that she's been the after school art teacher for the last few years because adding the few pieces of ribbon, the crab, card and colours made this gift perfect. I'm hoping that none of the kid's teacher's get pregnant in the future as each one of the kid's might expect something like this Clothing Cake to arrive at school.
Well school finished on Friday 30th November and as you can imagine with everything going on I ran out of time to make the three circle skirts and secondly I didn't take any photo's of the ONE I actually made. I was a little unhappy with the one I did make but I did decide to give it to Mrs Volf especially as we aren't planning on having any more babies. Due to things moving quicker than I planned I had to quickly come up with another idea for Caelan to give his teacher and I knew that he would want something big, baby related and something handmade.
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| My circle shirt was difficult to make while the kid's were running around. |
When I'd been de-cluttering the house I had come across a heap of babies and toddlers clothing that we'd been given or that Viveca (Mrs Volf is due around the same time Viveca was born) had worn once or twice. I thought that it would be a good way to give Mrs Volf a mixture of new and used things because lets face it there are only so many things a new born actually needs.
I assembled all the pieces that I was going to give her, making suit to match two piece suits up so that they were together before I folded and rolled everything into small cylinder shapes. I then set about wrapping an elastic band or a bit of curling ribbon around each item so that they would stay secure once assembled. I had two baby wraps that I used to secure everything into place and then I attached a piece of ribbon around each layer.
The bottom layer was the biggest in width and this formed the first tier to my cake. To this I attached a pram toy to jazz up the appearance and to give it a little bit of character. The second tier was filled with onesie, t-shirts and other size 0000 clothing. Again I wrapped a muslin baby wrap around it and then I tired a long piece of grey ribbon (this ribbon had come off one of my wedding presents back in 2004) around its base before securing it with a lovely bow.
The last thing that I did was place my cute little pink circle skirt over a toy crab and attach a ribbon to its claw. I then sat each tier on top of the other and before I knew it I was finished. It only took me an hour to put together which was great considering I only had 95 minutes before I had to drop our gift off at school.
When I arrived at school I handed Caelan his blank Christmas card so that he could write on it for Mrs Volf. I waited for quiet a while to get a photograph that I could share but I was happy with the end result. The children guided Mrs Volf who had her eyes closed over to the present while Caelan and a few other student's stood in front of. Caelan then told the children to move aside and he told Mrs Volf that she could open her eyes. Her reaction was priceless. Caelan felt so special and when I picked him up an hour later he couldn't stop talking about how his present looked like a cake and it was so big.
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| Mrs Volf's expression was priceless and Caelan's present grabbed the entire classes attention. |
So what do you think? I think that I did really well considering that my Clothing Cake was a last minute gift. I think I worked well under pressure and I know that Caelan was extremely happy with his mother's efforts and he was proud to present Mrs Volf with such a creative present. I'm glad that she's been the after school art teacher for the last few years because adding the few pieces of ribbon, the crab, card and colours made this gift perfect. I'm hoping that none of the kid's teacher's get pregnant in the future as each one of the kid's might expect something like this Clothing Cake to arrive at school.
Megan
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