My daughter was over the moon when she was given the opportunity to pick a sewing kit to be sent for review from The Little Toy Boutique.

She had a choice of 10 different Clara Create sewing kits to pick from. There were various animal designs to choose from – owls, dogs, a cat and more besides. I wasn’t quite sure which one she would pick but I thought it might be either the Tilly Toots Owl kit, the Bee-Boo Toots Owlet kit or the Coco Dax Dachshund kit as each of them had pink felt somewhere in the design and my daughter loves pink! 😀

In the end, after a lot of umming and ahhing, she picked the Bee-Boo Toots Owlet sewing kit as she had decided it was her favourite!

This particular kit costs £9.99 (with £3.49 postage on orders under £40) and it contains everything you need to make it. You get the needle, the pins, the thread, the buttons, the felt, the ribbon and even the stuffing. The only thing I needed to provide was a pair of scissors and a bit of ‘mum and daughter’ time. 🙂 Some of the other designs are £14.99.

I love to sew and I have even bought my daughter her own JLMini sewing machine so she can follow in my footsteps. However, up until receiving this kit she hadn’t really done much hand sewing. She had watched me hand sew before but she’d only had a couple of attempts at it herself….until Bee-Boo arrived in our home.

This sewing kit for kids is aimed at children aged 8 years+ but my daughter is younger than this. I am not going to lie…my daughter didn’t sew the whole Bee-Boo Toots toy herself. I did sew the majority of it but, with my guidance, she did sew on the white part for the eyes and some bits of the purple wings. She loved being given the responsibility of sewing and she relished the opportunity to use a ‘proper’ metal needle and not a plastic one like she had used in her other kits.

I found the kit really easy to complete and I would definitely say it is suitable for kids aged 8 years upwards. I am very impressed with the quality of the felt. It was nice and thick but not too firm. It was easy to handle and it was simple to get the needle through the two layers of felt when sewing on the applique and sewing around the edges of the toy. Please note that the kit does not come with polka dot buttons for the eyes. It comes with little blue buttons which are supposed to be used. They were very lovely but my daughter made the executive decision that she wanted Bee-Boo to have spotty eyes. She had a couple of dotty buttons that I had bought her once and she decided to use them on the owl toy. I can’t say I had a problem with that….I think you can see from my blog how much I love polka dots! 🙂

This kit doesn’t take all that long to sew but it is a fun make and a great way to get kids into the enjoyment of sewing. It is fantastic that there are so many different designs to choose from. The sewing kit is made by a brand called Clara Create and these kits are part of a range called ‘Acorn Crescent’.  You can see all of the designs available by looking at the photo collage below. I’d love to know….which is your favourite? Mine is the Coco Dax Dachshund – do you know why….he has a polka dot ribbon around his neck!

This evening I asked my daughter why she decided to pick the Bee-Boo Toots sewing kit and this is what she said :-

She is so beautiful and I thought she would be a great teddy to cuddle at night. I loved Bee-Boo Toots because she has beautiful colours. It was hard to decide which one to have but I liked Bee-Boo’s bow on her head. I wish I had a matching one for my hair! I enjoyed having a go at stitching her but mummy finished it for me so I could cuddle her. I think the lilac thread looks very pretty. I was thinking about picking another kit but in the end I picked my favourite one..Bee Boo Toots. I like the sewing kit because you can do it on holiday or watching tv and you don’t need to have a sewing machine.

These Clara Create sewing kits from The Little Toy Boutique would make fantastic gifts for children. There are lots of designs available and they are suitable for both girls and boys.  They would make wonderful gifts for Birthdays and Christmas.

I home educate my daughter so I place a very high value on the educational element of craft kits. I think sewing is a very important skill to learn and I appreciate the time that has gone into creating a kit like this that has clear, simple instructions and that encourages kids to have a go at a handicraft such as sewing. It was a very enjoyable kit to stitch! When my daughter is a bit older I know she would love to stitch another ‘Clara Create’ kit… all by herself!

Please pop over and say hi to The Little Toy Boutique team on social media. You can find them on Google+, twitter, facebook and Pinterest.  Jo, the founder of the company is so friendly and I know she will go out of her way to help you find just what you are looking for from her site.  She sells all sorts of lovely things, such as wooden toys, educational games, role play tea sets and pocket money toys. They even offer free gift wrapping!

To go and have a browse please visit www.thelittletoyboutique.com