I’m not gonna lie, I had no idea how to title this post.  I don’t have a clue what the correct name should be for this little thingy that I made for my son’s first day in preschool, but what I typed will have to suffice.  Late, the night before his first long day away from us with strangers, I came up with the idea of giving him a family picture to help calm his nerves if he got teary.  Actually, I was not sure if this would calm him or make him cry more, but I figured his teacher is sharp and would put the photo away should it upset him too much.  Just before settling into bed I remembered I had one of those waist clips used for ID badges from my good ol’ days of working in secured office buildings in corporate America.  It’s the kind that clips to a belt, belt loop or the top or your pants….you get it…then it has a retractable line that allows you to pull it a few feet away from your waist (originally for scanning a computerized lock) and then bringing it quickly back to its usual resting place.  I realized too that the 4″ X 6″ photo that I printed off for him to take would not fit in his pocket at all!

So, the next morning I reprinted our pic, along with another in wallet size instead.  I scrounged up some see through vinyl from my fabric and trim stash and went to work making a photo holder.  This was probably one of the most simple projects I have ever completed.  I simply cut two squares of the vinyl, slightly bigger than the photos, leaving a little extra on one short end to slip the clip hanger through.  Before sewing up the little vinyl pocket I ran a line of stitches across the short end of each piece to add stability.  This was also the end where I would add a hole for the waist clip.  Next I stitched both pieces of vinyl together, matching up the ends with the individual lines of stitching and I sewed the other three sides together.  I could not find my hole punch any where, so I just gave the pocket a fold and cut a small wedge out of each side of the vinyl right below the open end.

Then all I had to do was round the corners with a pair of scissors and slide in the pictures before adding the waist clip holder. 

The smaller size fit my Little Guy much better than the bigger photos would have and his teacher told me that a couple of times when he was saying my name and worrying about me, he looked at his pictures and was fine.  I know it may have been dorky, but hearing that made me so glad that I sent him to class with this little lovey.

Do you guys have any ways of helping your kids transition into the new school year?  I have heard of giving lockets with pictures, but with boys you definitely have to take a different approach.  I would love to hear other ideas too!

Happy Stitching!

Erika