Half the mites are stuffed – but not seamed up yet

My thumbs ache after stuffing the mites this afternoon. They can wait and be sewn up later on; stuffing them will allow the seams to ease a bit and take a better shape over time.  I used about 25% of the stuffing – and there are another 26-27 to go still that Stef is making. It will be lovely to see more fabric patterns – I am bored with mine already.

The more colours the better!

Stuffing and mite cut outs

Stuffing the mites – its amazing how much stuffing is needed.

I’ve checked out using a sewing machine to closeone of the pale pink ones in the picture, the other is hand closed. Machine stitching with a short stitch and narrow zig zag works fine.

pile of stuffed mites

All done and up to date

 

Designing the games mats

Its been great fun designing the mats.

The format for making the mats is as follows; there are two classes of 26 children each and they will swap half way throught the workshop. So each class will work for approximately 40 minutes on the mats. To make it easier for everyone to contribute, I have decided two mats will be necessary, although thats still 13 making each mat. Each group will have an adult helper.

When they swap, the new class will take over and complete the mats.

There are 53 children who will eventually play the games, albeit in shifts as there is also a free-standing bean bag game to play. When I started to think a bit more about how the mats will be used, I thought 4 mats would be ideal, but I can’t see that we would get 4 mats made in the time, and material costs are an issue here, so its going to be 2!

My son Ben came up with the suggestion that a person shape would be great, so that the bean bags score highest when thrown where it is most likely to find scabies on an elderly person’s body. We thought about just using colours, but felt this might be to complex to play with a large group, so have opted for colours and numbers.

Scabies game mat

The ‘person’ shaped mat

 

Scabies game mat 2

The square mat

The square mat is based on vinyl samples donated by Tapis, a local carpet shop. The 6 squares will be decorated (and transported) separately and put together so that the green, high scores are in the middle.

I just hope PVA glue works on vinyl – must test this out!