Sewing for “Aspies”

Siddiq’s birthday is tomorrow and as part of his birthday present, I have made him pillow covers that address his sensory “issues”. If you are familiar with Asperger’s, you know that sensory issues are a blessing and a problem. Asperger children’s senses are heightened in many areas – they see, hear and feel more than the average person. I remember Siddiq not being able to tolerate his pants touching his ankles or sock seams that irritated him. He hears cars and other noises much more acutely than the rest of us and gets easily distracted by even minor noises. On the other hand, he responds very well to soothing stimulation of his senses, such as the smell of candles (he has LOVED candles from very early on), the calming sound of classical music, soft blankets and toys, etc. So, I decided to make a couple of pillow covers for him out of minkee type fabric (bought two small minkee blankets at WalMart and cut them up). Inside the pillowcase, I attached a small felt pocket for adding car “deodorizers”. This way he will have not only the softness of the pillows and the fabric, but also the smell of the deodorizer. I hope he will like it.

He has a particular interest in frogs, insects, and most things crawling! 🙂 He loves to catch them, put them in a jar, feed them, and usually after a couple of hours he lets them go because he feels sorry for them. So, I placed a worm and a frog in a jar on his pillows as well. These designs are from www.smartneedle.com and stitch out great. Let me just warn you, before you put the vinyl over the embroidery, make sure all your topping bits and pieces and snips of thread have been removed….. I wasn’t careful and now there are bits of threads and watersoluble stabilizer stuck under the vinyl. Oh, well, hope he’ll like them anyways.