It’s Christmas week!!! We’ve been having so much fun with Alex this year since he really understands that Christmas is something special, but he’s still asking a lot of questions and trying to make sense of what’s going on around him. “When can we open the presents?” “We get to put the tree in our house?!” “It’s Christmas season, but not Christmas day, right?”

In addition to him receiving presents, I’m excited to share with him the joy of thinking about and giving presents to friends and family that are special to him. Today I’m sharing a fun last minute gift idea that we came up with for a few of his little friends.

Two weeks ago Alex started playing with the laces on his shoes – lacing and unlacing them. Once I realized how into it he was, I put together the simplest little sewing project for him : just some burlap in an embroidery hoop with yarn.

We started playing with it one morning and he had a great time threading the needle, sewing through the burlap, taking the yarn out and then doing it all over again. Knowing that a few of his friends are traveling for the holidays, I realized that a little sewing kit would make a fun present that would (hopefully) occupy them while in cars and on planes. This is what we put together.

Each little sewing kit contains one hoop that already has a piece of burlap in it, a few small balls of yarn, and a plastic embroidery needle. I put all of that in the simplest of canvas bags (just a piece of canvas cut along the selvedge edge, folded in half and sewn along the bottom and open side. The selvedge edge serves as the open side of the bag, so there was no need to hem it! Then I sewed on a piece of hemmed twill tape that could be wrapped around the top and tied.

That’s it! It’s a super easy (and cheap) kit to put together and it’s just right for any kid big enough to hold the needle and with an interest in lacing things.  Alex is two and a half, which I think is on the younger side for something like this, but I think kids up through five and even older may like some version of this mini sewing kit.

Now that we put this mini sewing kit together I’m excited to think of similar ideas for future gifts. If you have any favorites, please share them!