Go fish!

I don't think I'm alone in thinking gifts for boys are hard… and even harder when you're trying to come up with something hand made.  So I'm excited to share my latest sewing project with you.  It's a magnetic fishing game I made for one of Minty's little friends who just turned four.  He loves going fishing with his dad and has a boat made out of cardboard boxes permanently set up in their lounge room so I had a feeling this would be perfect for him.  I'm pretty sure I was right!  He seemed genuinely excited with his gift and even stopped mid-party to give it a try.  Minty loved it too and was pretty reluctant to give it away!

The fish are fairly simple, primitive designs.  I just sketched the patterns free-hand but if you wanted to make these yourself and felt nervous I'm sure you'd be able to find some fish templates if you googled around.  I used fabric from my stash - some Heather Ross mendocino, Joelle Hoverson cake rock beach and some other solids and linen I had lying around.  Each fish has a small washer stitched to it's nose.  Originally I was planning on sewing these inside but with all the stuffing and fabric the magnet wasn't strong enough to pick them up.  The rod is made with a dowel and string.  The magnet is glued to the end of the string as the magnet was too hard to drill through.  I also made a simple drawstring bag to store the fish in (don't you just love little drawstring bags for storing little toys?!)