Wet Wednesday - gone fishin'

No craft group today because the big girl is on school holidays, no Wednesday washing either because it was pouring with rain most of the day so we went fishing, well sort of.

'tis my wee nephew's third birthday on Sunday (I still remember anxiously waiting for news of his birth...being a midwife and at least 1000km away was not good for my stress levels over that couple of days - I knew she was in labour but after 30 odd hours and no news the panic set in! Anyway he arrived safe, his mum a little bruised and very tired, his dad much the same).

I've been busy over the past couple of days making him a fishing set. I am really pleased with how it turned out - the big girl has surprised me with how much she loves it; i think mostly it is the magnets. She has been round the house a dozen times finding new metal things in quite odd places and unconsciously learning about polar opposites, forces and magnet strengths. She, her dad and I have also had quite a few games actually catching the fish; the wee girl just tries to eat them!

If you would like to make your own fishing set it is very simple. I adapted templates that I found for aquarium magnets at the purl bee and seahorse and other sea creatures at future girl's blog. I enlarged them all - the purl bee ones about 200% and then got cutting, stitching and stuffing. I inserted a small metal washer inside at the mouth end or top of each fish/creature.

I made fishing rods from bamboo sticks - the kind that often come as stakes for young plants you buy from the nursery - the fishing line is linen thread, knotted and glued at the stick end and double knotted and looped at the magnet end - give it a good tug to make sure it is very secure.

Finally, I made the little pond by cutting two 50cm/20" circles and sewed them into a drawstring bag:

First make two buttonholes - measure about 2" from the edge on the inside piece of fabric and sew the buttonholes directly opposite each other - one each side of  the circle.

Then pin the two circles right sides together and sew 1/2" seam all the way around, leaving a two inch opening. This is so you can turn the two circles of fabric right side out. Trim and clip the seam, then turn the bag inside out through the opening. Iron the circle flat and hand-stitch to close the opening.

To form the drawstring casing, mark 1/4" (1/2" total width) either side of the centre of the button holes and sew a line of stitching around the circumference on each of these lines.  Using one length of cord, pass it through one of the openings and feed it through the casing all the way around the circle and back out of the same opening. Tie the ends. Then, thread the second length of cord through the opening on the opposite end of the bag and again pass it all the way through the circle and back out of the same opening and tie the ends to secure. To close bag, pull both ends of cord.