Toddler Jack-O-Hoops

What a cute lil' pumpkin head!

At Toddler Sewing Club, we made these adorable Jack-O-Hoops.  Modeled after the ones we made last year, I just changed up the materials to make them toddler-friendly.

 Materials Needed:
*Embroidery Hoop - about 8 inches (really, any size is fine, but this is what we used)
*Foam sheets (you can also purchase these individually at craft stores)
*Orange burlap
*Plastic needles
*Lacing strings (you could also use yarn here, but I like how the lacings strings make it hard to unthread the needle)
*Green ribbon for "stem"

To prep the project, put the burlap into the embroidery hoop and then trim the excess fabric around the back.  Next, cut out a bunch of fun mouth, eyes, and nose shapes from the foam pieces.  Punch at least 2 holes in each piece.  I used a standard hand hole punch and had no problems with this.  Older kids can make their own face shapes.

Before sewing on the face, I encouraged the kids to make a lot of different funny faces with the shapes. We talked about our ears, eyes, noses, mouth, and hair.  They had fun identifying the parts and making faces.  Once the perfect face was chosen, we started to sew!

 Parents helped by holding the shapes in place while the toddler did the sewing.  Older kids were more independent.  I love the look of concentration on these little sewers!

To finish it up, poke a length of ribbon (about 2 feet) through the metal fixings on the hoop and knot at the top.  A perfect stem!