The Tooth Fairy

When I was a child, I was never scared of the tooth-fairy.  I wasn't a fan of losing teeth: the blood and resulting hole freaked me out, but the fairy's visit was magical.  Each time I lost a tooth, I'd wake up in the morning to a fat envelope containing a typed letter from Sparkle, my tooth fairy, telling me all about her latest adventures in the land of Frairie and the journey in the Cloud Car to collect the treasure I'd left for them under my pillow.  Along the hall, my brother was equally excited when his turn came.  Under his pillow, was a fat envelope containing a typed letter from Wizard Whizz: his tooth Wizard.

However, not all children are so lucky.  My cousin, Samuel, loves all things Christmas but this year got rather scared because he didn't like the idea of Father Christmas coming into his room while he was asleep. I was surprised to hear my teenage students discussing what a "creepy" concept Father Christmas was: clearly this fear of someone visiting while you sleep isn't rare.   He got through Christmas but the obvious future struggles with the Tooth Fairy were a concern (the Easter Bunny is fine as he visits the garden).

After a bit of pondering, I was sorting through my knitting basket when I had an idea: to come up with something special, small, cute, and long-lasting that could keep the tooth safe, act as a hiding place for the "gold" and "silver" treasure, and remove the need for a) tense parents gingerly sliding their hands under their child's pillow to find the toilet-roll-wrapped tooth without waking them, and b) for the "fairy" to enter the room at all.

I grabbed some yarn and stuffing and got to work.

Five hours later, I had the first tooth fairy pillow created.

As you can see, the result is a sweet little "pillow", that features a pocket on the front - the perfect size to tuck a tooth, and store some silver in return.  I was concerned about wear and so devised a way to actually knit the pocket without having to attach it afterwards.  

After familiarising myself with graph paper on Excel, I had also managed to design by trial, error, more trial, and a lot more error, a motif to go on the reverse:

This one was a challenge to design, but not to execute, as it's worked in the same yarn just by switching purl for knit stitches.  I would really recommend having a go and persevering with the design process as the results are totally worth it.  I will put up a tutorial for designing motifs on Excel later on so you can give it a go yourself!  Graph paper will work just as well.

I initially showed the tooth-fairy pillow to some mums of young children at work and it was well-received.  They loved the size, the possibilities for personalisation, and the keepsake nature of the pillow.  My aunt saw them, loved them, and promptly asked me to make one for Samuel.  

Once more I got to work and after hours of planning on Excel, I managed to work out a special motif for the back.  This is called the Intarsia method: where you work with two colours of yarn simultaneously, carrying the yarn across the back and weaving the two strands together to prevent holes.  I will be creating a tutorial for working intarsia later in the month, so check back to see that!

The best thing about this process?  Seeing Samuel's smiling face when he got his pillow (which was gift-wrapped of course) and knowing that rather than being scared of the tooth fairy, he was now excited for her first visit.  Unfortunately, being only four, he's probably got a couple of years to wait!

I hadn't planned on doing alphabets in different colours, but it just goes to show what can happen when you get in touch with a crafter:  my aunt asked for Samuel's letter to be worked on the reverse of the pillow in blue and I was able to do just that. If you've got an idea for something particular, why not comment below, or contact me to see what I can do!  

Happy crafting!

Gemma x