It seems that Marie Kondo wants us to ask ourselves, “what makes us happy?” and wants to show that having more and more things just doesn’t do the trick. Conscious consumerism talks about the impact of our purchases on the lives of others and on the environment and wants us to make moral choices by rejecting goods that are produced by exploiting workers or by companies who are careless of the damage they are causing our environment.
So, when you next want to sew a project with your kids or students, remember Walter and his ‘take’ on Marie Kondo and conscious consumerism. Remember that you don’t need to go out and buy materials. You can use what you already have. My Walter is made with scrap fabric and an old T-shirt and stuffed with fabric scraps that I cut into thin strips and tiny squares. It’s actually a fun adventure to see what you can use to make your own Walter. A treasure hunt of sorts. He is very easy to sew and is a great way to show kids that you can reuse what you have to make something that will bring many hours of happiness and an awareness that each of us, child and adult, can take our own small steps towards global goals like protecting our precious environment.
How to sew your own Walter with kids
Walter is based on my square Zenki design.
I wanted to make my Cecil pocket-sized so I used two 6″ squares of fabric.
I drew a 4″ square on the fabric I used for Cecil’s front and used that 4″ square line as my sewing line.
I cut arms, legs and hair from the border outside the sewing line as I do in all the Zenki designs.
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