Buttons, Zips and Press Studs: Learning to Dress Themselves Activity Cushion

Immy has an obsession with buckles, buttons and zippers. Whenever she sees a fastening on a bag or item of clothing she zones in and it keeps her fascinated for ages.

I know that you can buy toys for children that help them to learn to do up and undo fastenings but I decided to make one myself. Crazy really as I cannot even remember the last time I hand sewed anything. Using a store bought cushion cover, felt, embroidery thread and a variety of fastenings, this is the result.

The front features a butterfly with a zip up body and button on spots (the spots are partially attached so they don’t get lost) and a caterpillar who is double sided and attaches to his branch with velcro.

On the back it’s party-time with a lollipop (the stick is again a zip), a cupcake that clips into place with press studs and four lollies which velcro into place.

She loves playing with it but needs help at the moment to open and close the various fastenings which is great as it means she has plenty of time to grow into it and master it. As well as supporting her interest in how things fasten this will also help to develop her problem solving skills (working out how things work) and her fine motor skills (the physical skills of actually completing the fastenings).

I really enjoyed the planning and making process and take great pleasure in seeing her fascination with it. It has really motivated me to look for other ‘homemade’ toy projects which we can make at home. It certainly makes a nice change from the incessant bells, whistles and lights that the majority of commercial toys feature nowadays.

Feel free to share your homemade toy ideas. I would love to see what others are doing.