Its been a big week in our house, in fact the build-up to this week rivalled the pre-Christmas anticipation. My increasingly not-so-little girl has grown into a getting-bigger-by-the-day 10 year old, and this week she has gone away. All week. Without us.

She has gone with her classmates for a week long residential at an outdoor activity centre. That’s five whole days of outdoor adventures and challenge. All taking place it turns out in pretty much constant sub-zero temperatures.

She was utterly excited to be going. She couldn’t wait to go kayaking, rock climbing, caving and all the rest of it. We have had daily updates from the teacher with loads of pictures. It seems they are all having an amazing time. However I couldn’t help wondering if, as she got into bed on that first night away, she might miss home at least a little bit.

So before she went I made her a little gift, a lavender pillow. I managed to sneak it into her suitcase as she was leaving, along with a card from us and a handmade card from her little brother.

Sometimes she finds it hard to get to sleep. I worried that lying in a strange bed surrounded by giggly friends that might be even more difficult. I decided that a lavender pillow would be a good little going away present. It was tricky but in the rare moments she wasn’t looking I managed to get it made. It was really quick and easy to make – you can rustle one up yourself if you have a few simple items.

I started by making my own paper patterns. In order to make a heart shape I folded the paper in half and drew one side of a heart. Then I cut it out so it would be symmetrical. I also drew and cut out a simple ‘L’ to add her initial to the front.

Felt is a really easy material to work with so it was perfect for this project. I used two pieces of red felt for the heart itself and a small piece of purple (her favourite colour) for the letter. Make sure the pieces for the heart are approximately 1 inch bigger all the way round than the pattern itself. Start by cutting the letter shape out of the felt. Take one of the heart-shaped felt pieces and pin on the letter. Stitch it on with a simple running stitch. I used my sewing machine to speed up the process but you could just as easily sew it by hand.

Once the letter is attached, pin the heart pattern in place to the top piece of red felt. Make sure the letter sits in the correct place on the heart when finished) then pin the two felt pieces together. Again I used my sewing machine to stitch the two pieces together, using the pattern piece as a guide for my sewing.

Once I had sewn almost the whole heart together I stopped and filled the middle of the heart with a mixture of toy stuffing and lavender, stuffing it through the un-sewn gap until it was full enough. Once it was filled enough I sewed the gap closed.

I trimmed all the way around the heart, leaving a border of around 1cm of felt as evenly as possible. Then I worked all the way around the edge cutting into the felt with small embroidery scissors to make a fringed effect.

And that was it – a little handmade piece of home in the heart-shaped form of a lavender pillow to help her get some well-earned sleep each night.