Last year it was appropriate that we get a little handicraft action and make the badges for our group. Our group is hosted in Illinois and our state bird is the cardinal. We thought it best to use this bird as our nature club figure.
Each child was given a little piece of muslin and support to draw a head of a cardinal lightly in pencil. Then using different colors of embroidery thread they stitched their bird and the words Sursum Corda. Holding the muslin in an embroidery hoop while sewing helped to keep the stitches straight.
When the embroidery was done, each child was given two little rounds of wool for backing and a 1 inch pin back to sew on. I used pinking shears to create the serrated edge. Need help starting Embroidery?
The children wore these proudly at our meetings and our final showcase in Spring 2019.
At our next Term (Fall 2019), we began to work more systematically through the guidelines and having the mothers check for real knowledge of the skills. At the beginning of the Term, I asked each child to make a commitment to complete a certain guideline and make weekly efforts towards it. They wrote down on a note card their goal. Each time we met groups were organized around each kind of guidelines. The children would review and work towards greater understanding.
The last time we met for the Term I asked each mother to determine which kind of tassel (or if no tassel) should be awarded for the work of the Term.
At our Family Showcase, I offered the tassels to each child (I had sewn them on for them at home) as I announced their completion of guideline.
Need help making tassels? Here is a tutorial. For single colored tassel, use one color. For bi-colored tassel, I used two shades of the same color For tri-colored tassel, I used three shades. Pictured above is for Starcraft-Plain tassel. I used 10 strands for each tassel.
This is a picture of all the badges with tassels attached waiting to be handed out at the Family Showcase night.
Have you tried your hand at badge making? At Embroidery and tassel making?