As I was saying recently, knowing how to sew is a major boon if one hopes to step slightly outside the consumer rat race. Actually, I had no idea how great it could be until my daughter opened her Christmas present from her Aunt Rebekah:
Here we have a book made of fabric, with a hand-stitched cover.
Inside are various activities for tots. This one involves picking fabric tomatoes off plants (they’re stuck with Velcro)…
…then putting them in the fabric basket.
On the next page, you lift up the bottom of the chicken, pull eggs from a pocket, then Velcro them to the corresponding colors in the egg carton.
It goes on from there. You can pick flowers (by unbuttoning them) and slide them into a "vase." The last page states, sweetly, "The plants need sun and rain to grow" and has two fabric puzzles to put together, one a raindrop and one a sun.
It’s amazing, and so much better than anything one could possibly buy. Hooray for the handmade!