Alex Happily Ever Crafter KitAs I mentioned in my sewing post, yesterday I got the Alex Toys Happily Ever Crafter kit. I bought it from JoAnne, a fabric and craft store. I paid about $28 (including shipping), but now the lowest price you can find it for is $35 at Amazon. I’m still evaluating whether it’s worth $28 – though probably the answer is yes. I’m not so sure about $35.
The kit comes with enough material to do 9 projects:

  • 1 headband
  • 3 felt bracelets (felt + buttons & felt shapes to sew on it)
  • 1 coin purse (felt + ribbon & buttons to sew on it)
  • 1 bandana (it’s unclear to me what to do with the bandana)
  • 1 stuffed dog (dog-shaped felt + stuffing)
  • 1 room sign (felt rectangle + ribbons/felt letters/buttons)
  • 1 felt broach (simple butterfly wing shaped felt)
  • 1 sewing pouch
  • 1 embroidered cloth & hoop
  • “wool” for crocheting & plastic hook

In addition you get a variety of buttons, a few felt cut-out shapes, some little beads (no idea how you’d saw these ones), some metallic shapes (id.), two needles, a bunch of thread, a bunch of pins, a small pair of scissors, a pin cushion, a threader, a thimble and practice cloth. There is a booklet of instructions for the crocheting and embroidering, but not for the sewing – though there are instructions for each project. As we make the different projects, I’ll write about them. (keep looking!)


First of all, let me speak about the quality of the items: it’s OK to poor. The scissors, for example, are so badly made that they can barely cut the thread and would be easily broken after a few uses. I replaced them with higher-quality scissors from one of those kits you get when you stay at nice hotels. The threader is a joke – they couldn’t have found one made with thinner material, I’m sure it’ll break the first time I use it. I forgot how to use a threader, so it’s no big deal, and I must have a better one from those hotel kits. The pins are also very weak. The felt seems OK, but everything is on the cheapy side. Perhaps it has to be for the price. And finally, the kit is, unfortunately, made in China.
Anyway, as to the projects:
The only one we’ve started so far is the Coin purse – which consists of a rectangle piece of felt on which you sew to buttons to close it, and you can decorate with a ribbon and some of the things mentioned above. It’s fairly simple for a sewing project and Mika (my 7yo) enjoyed sewing the ribbon. BUT, there are no instructions about sewing the sides of the purse to each other and without doing so, the coins would fall – so I’m a little concerned about the instructions.
We also made the felt bracelets, or rather, my 4-year-old Camila made one, and that was quite simple. She (badly) sew a button on one end (there is a slit on the other). The problem was that the bracelet didn’t quite fit, but it may have been because of how she sew the button. As we finish the projects, I’ll take pictures of them.
Something else that I mentioned yesterday is that I find it impossible to thread the 5-strand thread that is included in the kit. It’s just too thick and too prone to coming apart to make it through the eye of a needle – and I’ve been using my own larger needles with larger eyes. So I’ve had to divide the thread into two strands in order to use it. No big deal, but I wish the kit came with instructions of how to use the thread.
On a final note, I appreciated the few pieces of extra felt for “practicing”. Camila really needs to practice and this way she gets to think she’s doing a project without ruining the other ones.