Plush and Play-Date
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| With Asher, Yuki, Momma Earth, Phya, and Fabien Courteille - The founder of Plush and Play :) |
There are 8 steps in the Plush and Play-Date Activity and the first one is for you to pick out a design based on the National Symbols of the Philippines; Carabao, Fish, Sun w/ 3 stars, Bahay Kubo, Mango and heart. :) I chose the mango, because it looked so cute and I actually love mangos! ^_^
A little tip I learned from one of the mothers of GK when I was cutting my fabric - leave some space. Don't cut exactly on the marker that you made, so that when they sew it, it would still look as big as the pattern. :)
As soon as I finished cutting out my Mango pattern, I went to Step 4: Sewing!
The GK Mothers are the ones who will do this step for you and boy! Are they fast! Mine took only one minute to finish!:) I'd probably take forever if I had to do it myself. Let's just say H.E.L.E. wasn't my favorite subject in grade school! =P Haha!
After getting my sewn mango, I went to work and stuffed my little Mango until it was fat! ^_^
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| Phya, Yuki and Momma Earth stuffing their plushies :) |
My tiny assistant getting more stuffing from the house next door! ;) BTW, he dove inside the house! >_
And now to the last stage of Plush-making! The hand-stitching!
Some of the things I realized when I was making my Mango Plush was....
1.) This is not easy! Kudos to the Mothers of GK for being such Pros at this! I have more appreciation towards what they do. :)
2.) They have such high quality products and I really hope people notice the effort and love that these women put in every stuffed toy that they make. ♥
3.) I am amazed by Fabien Courteille (founder) and his team for creating Plush & Play! It not only gives the Mothers of GK jobs, but empowers them as well. :)
It was a bit of a struggle to finish my Mango plush, but so thankful I had Ate/Nanay Con to help me earlier. She's the best and so are the other GK mothers who helped us finish our stuffed toys! ^_^ Thank you so much!
Finally, our finished product!
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| L to R: Phya | Yuki | Mine | Momma Earth :) |
BTW, all fruits made by GK have witty names, like Manny Pakwan, Pan Talong, Buko Martin, etc. So, I named mine Manga-rita! Do you think she can join the other GK Enchanted Farms crew now? :) Hihihi! ^_^
Core Values (PLUSH Acronym):
Protect our children
Love our country
Uplift the lives of the poor
Share this wonderful gift to others
Honor locally made products
Plush & Play is a social enterprise that I truly admire. They not only seek to provide incomes for 1,000 families, but they also value education and giving life back to the community.
And no kidding, the quality of Plush & Plays plushies are amazing! I am impressed by how well the craftsmanship is of each stuffed toy. :)
Impact to date of Plush & Play: 22 families, 70,000 toys, over Php 2 Million revenue for the community. ♥
I had so much fun this afternoon at the Plush & Play-Date Activity that I highly recommend that you drop by as well this weekend. It's not only fun, but a great learning experience that you can share with your little ones. They can discover more about Gawad Kalinga and even appreciate locally made toys. :)
If you want to have a glimpse of what we did earlier, I made a VLOG about it on my channel!
You can see my other VLOGS here: https://www.youtube.com/user/anmte21 :)
For updates and more information about PLUSH & PLAY:
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