Teacher Appreciation Gifts

Golly! It's been a long time since I've posted anything. The whole school year has whizzed on by in a blink of an eye!

I told myself I was not making the teachers any gifts this as I had contributed to the class gift card funds. Then that little voice in the back of my head started talking and, of course, I had to listen to it. I started searching the internet and found some really cool ideas. I love the money book here: http://everythingispink.blogspot.com/2007/06/teacher-gift.html, but it would be class project and I certainly did not have time for that. I also found this page of poems (that could really be customized for any occasion) and liked the "mint" one: http://www.imakenews.com/storytimefelts/e_article001426483.cfm?x=bfv57JK,bb9CMG21,w.

So off we went to Wal-Mart on Wednesday after school to see what we could find. I had little plastic jars (afraid the kids would break glass on the bus) filled with mints or bubblegum in mind. No luck there or at DollarTree, so we just came home with 4 pounds of starlight mints and no idea what we would use to hold them.

I had been admiring this Japanese knot bag: http://showyourworkings.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/knotbaginstructions1.pdf and thought it would be great! Afterall, I would only need to make three, one for each of the kids' classroom teachers. Then, I found this similar one with fewer pieces: http://www.marthastewart.com/article/reversible-purse?lnc=13fbf423088. The little voice started talking again--shouldn't the related arts teachers be thanked as well? That's the librarian, and PE, health, music, art, and Spanish teachers. OH, and let's not forget the principal and the bus driver!

So I settled on the Martha Stewart bag and modified the mint poem. Several hours later (and sore fingers later!), we had Teacher Appreciation Gifts!!!!

I used the pattern as printed, no enlargement, and my own method of assembly (of course!) which eliminated all need of topstitching, but required the turning of those little tiny handles what seemed a billion times, thus the sore fingers. I simply closed the hole in the I had left in the bottom of the lining by machine, stitching close to the edge. If I hadn't needed to make so many so quickly, I might have actually slip-stitched it closed by hand. (But probably not!)

The kids were really excited when they found the bounty this morning! They could not wait to hand them out. They are also really excited about the 2+ pounds of leftover mints!