Handmade gift

   Jake is always wanting to do a craft.  So, I felt this was the year for crafts as Christmas gifts.  I wasn't sure how this one would go...but it was worth a try. 
   After Grandma Jean passed away, I found a monkey stuffed animal craft in her things.  I kept it and decided this was the year to have Jake try to make one for Joe.
   Jake was very excited with the idea...and we got started right away (literally...and I wasn't quite prepared for that, but had to be!!!)
   I showed him the instructions (which had some pictures). Then, I happened to find a step by step video someone had posted online.  So, he carefully studied that.  And it proved to be very helpful for my little "attention to detail" guy.  It gave him a clear idea of what he was to do!

  So, he got started. 

 Sewing...

 And sewing...

 

Stuffing...

Cutting some more parts...

 And then, mom helped by stitching the tricky part...adding the limbs, mouth, ears, and tail to the main structure Jake had made.

 And Jake hand stitched on the eyes.

Then, we decided the monkey needed a hat.  So, I showed Jake the steps of measuring and using a protractor to come up with a pattern based on measurements.  And he pinned and stitched it based off his pattern he made.

So, we let the boys open a gift this morning (Jake's been asking for a week since we have had to get all the shopping done early this year! He was so excited to give Joe his handmade gift!)

And our little monkey, Joe, loves his new monkey made by Jake!