Northview — Josephine “Jo” Roberts couldn’t take her eyes off the small stuffed animal in her hands.
The West Oakview second-grader traced her fingers over the creature’s pink plush ears and rainbow horn atop its head, down to its elaborate rainbow tail, a huge grin on her face.
“I love it. I love it so much,” Jo said. “I feel like the tail on it is so cute and the ears are just so funny. I was not expecting for it to be so good. I just love it so much.”
The best part about this felted toy? Jo herself imagined and drew what she wanted her unicorn cat to look like, and her brother Malachi, a student at Crossroads Middle School, created a pattern based on her drawing and sewed the fabric together to bring the stuffie to life.
This “Squishmallow” project was a collaboration between the art teachers at Crossroads and all three of Northview’s elementary schools. Second-graders got to learn how to express their ideas and designs on paper, while the middle-schoolers learned the basics of sewing and how to translate another artist’s ideas into something tangible.
“It’s a fun opportunity for kids to connect with other kids who are younger and make a ‘cross-age’ kind of connection,” said teacher September Buys, who led the project at Crossroads along with help from retired teacher Adrienne DeMilner and lots of donated materials from the Northview community.
“And it was really special to see the amount of effort that September’s kids put into it,” added West Oakview teacher Aimee Einfeld. “I think for my kids, Squishmallows are this universal toy that bring so much joy, and it’s amazing to have one of your own designs turned into something you can hold in real life.”
‘With creativity, you can do literally anything’
At West Oakview, Einfeld discussed the basics of toy production and how a design on paper becomes something tangible before turning the young artists loose on their own creations. Each second-grader not only designed and sketched their original stuffie, but also wrote down some of their creature’s personality traits and other characteristics to help the Crossroads students put together the final result.
Most of Buys’ students had never hand-sewn anything before, she said, so they first learned skills like the running stitch and how to cut a pattern before taking on one of the second-graders’ sketches. The middle-schoolers had free reign over the design and construction, as long as they stayed true to the second-graders’ intent.
“It’s kind of a nice life skill to have, to be able to mend or fix something, how to organize the process and how to follow steps,” Buys said. “But with this project there was also this internal motivation to do well because they don’t want to let anybody down … it’s more about completion in the care of someone else’s artistic idea. They were excited to do it and I was really impressed with their new sewing skills.”
Seventh-grader Conner Johnson constructed a toy named “Noodels,” based on the drawing of a North Oakview student named Spencer. Although he’d never sewn before, Conner took great care to construct the felt creature holding a pack of ramen noodles and adorned the stuffie with a ring of yellow yarn, resembling noodles, all around its body.
“It was pretty fun to make these weird animal creations,” Conner said. “I tried to make the pieces look like what (the drawing) looked like and then sewed it together and I think it’s adorable.
“I think that with creativity, you can do literally anything and make whatever you want, and I liked that. I hope they (Spencer) like it.”
At the completion of the project the artists got to meet in person, with the Crossroads students presenting their finished toy to the second-grader who drew it. The Crossroads media center filled with excited chatter as gifts were exchanged and the middle-schoolers complimented young artists on their drawings.
“It was cool to see my kids be leaders and to be able to give a gift that they physically made,” said Buys. “Many of them put a lot of time and effort into it, so I thought it could be hard to give away, but when I asked, they were excited to give it.
“Sewing captures kids differently than other media — it captures a lot of my kids that are typically not ‘art kids.’ The craftsmanship and pride I saw from some of them, honestly, was almost surprising, but really heartwarming; they had such pride in knowing that someone else was going to receive their work.”
Read more from Northview:
• Oral Deaf Program marks 125-year legacy of support & success
• Many hands put fine motor skills to work
