The original idea was to make a fabric book with appliques to learn buttoning. A dear friend of mine who's living in NZ told me to make one, years ago. Then, I found it too meticulous for the project. I don't think I have patience enough to make small dress with buttons, an applique of shoes for shoe lacing, and so on.
One idea is to make a useful stuff for kid age between 2 to 3-years-old and another idea is how to make the useful stuff can be a toy to play with at the same time. Thinking, digging, and imagining!
While thinking what to make, I checked a book,
Sew Darn Cute by Jenny Ryan, there's a simple square bear doll she designed. It's very cute and so easy to make, you don't need a pattern to make it for sure ;)
Two ideas collided and here they are... two square bears with clothes that can be opened to learn buttoning. The dark brown, is boy bear. Your kid can learn opening and closing the velcro and sew snap buttons at the front side of the dress. Ask the baby boy bear to turn and your kid can try to put the lace, soon he or she has to do that with their own shoes, right? The light brown, is a baby girl square bear. She's wearing pink cloth with two sew buttons to learn and zipper at her dress' back side.
I did trial and error for this project, since the original square bear's dress supposed to be sewn attached to the body...but I think they ended nicely and cute :) I gave them to a dear friend's daughter for her second birthday. I hope she really enjoys learning while playing with them with an expectation she will able to dress and undress herself by three-years-old ;)
