When my friend Jill had her first child, I saw something that I fell in love with at one of her baby showers. Her husband's grandmother had made these busy books for all the grandkids and so she was making them for the great-grandkids as well. I just had to know where to find the pattern and so after many emails back and forth, and scouring the internet- I finally found it. From a 1959 Vogue pattern called "It's a Zoo Full of Teaching Pets" came this wondrous project.
I had the pattern for almost 2 years and was honestly a little intimidated by how much time and effort it would require of me. You see, there were these 3 little people that I tended to spend most of my waking time with and until then I didn't feel like I had any free time to devote to this project. Boy was I right! This was a labor of love for sure. I enjoyed every bit of it, and I was thrilled to finish it and give it to my little love. She adored it.
There are 9 pages in all (I think. The length of this project has made my mind a little fuzzy.) Each page is an animal that has an activity for little hands to practice- like buttoning, snapping, tying bows, zipping, hooking, etc. It is just the cutest darn thing I've ever seen and I'm so thankful that Jill's grandmother-in-law shared the details of this pattern with me.
It's funny seeing pictures of my hands- they remind me so much of my mom's hands. I remember with fondness watching her sew- she taught me a lot just by letting me watch. I got my first sewing machine around the age of 10 I think. It was bright pink and worked so poorly that my mom just went ahead and taught me how to use her machine. It's the same machine I have now- ancient and full of lovely memories. Though I am sure that a newer machine would blow me away, my old "Elna" is a workhorse and I do believe that my mom had every single attachment, stitch template, and accessory that the company made for it. I love it. And I love to make things for my kids- the grandkids my mom never got to meet- with it. Long live the Elna!
I sewed and I sewed on this project. During naptimes, at night, early in the morning. And when it was finally finished, I quite literally tied a ribbon it. :)