I originally ordered the food version of this kit and loved it so much I ordered this one. The first kit (foods, i.e. doughnuts, ice cream cones, popsicles, apples, pears, slices of pizza, pineapple etc.) was a huge hit both for the sewer (me) and the recipients (my kids, nephews, nieces, friends of my kids). That kit first stood out to me because my kids have an affinity for stuffed animals and Shopkins and I love to craft. So I thought it was almost like a shopkins meets a stuffed animal. They're mini, stuffed, have customizable faces and just adorable. Like I said, they are mini foods like donuts, fruits, pizza, etc and you sew little faces on them which makes them have a Shopkins feel to me. So much fun to create and so far all of the recipients just fall in love with him. I especially love how you can customize different things like different expressions on the faces or change the color of anything and so forth. I even have adults requesting them to use as say a pin cushion or just to put somewhere like their desk to make them happy. The food kid deserves five stars were as my reasons for only two stores with this kit are as follows: 1. The fabric (felt) is at least half as thick as the other kit ( by the same maker) making them seem "cheaper" in quality and definitely not as strong. Some areas that need to be sewn "come apart" for lack of a better way to put it because the fabric is so thin and not durable. I'm actually concerned that these will not last very long, unlike the foods which feel strong and as though they will last for years to come . The precut eyes and cheeks fall apart when attaching them to the faces because the fabric is so thin if not by poking into them then by completing the stitch they just don't seem to want to hold together more than not. 2. The food kit came with two regular and very nice needles for sewing with very large eyes that very much come in handy since you are frequently switching threads. This kit came with one needle that is so thick and it's not even pointed at the end (it's actually rounded) and even though the fabric is so thin, you cannot push this needle through the fabric! :-( even if you could get the needle to go through the fabric it's not worth it because the needle itself is so thick and in such thin fabric it leaves large holes and kind of makes the fabric come apart. Im not even using it and will most likely throw it away. This is a bit disappointing since my needles tend to grow legs and walk away making them something I'm always searching for. Plus the needles that come with these kits have very large eyes for easy threading as you are (very) frequently threading the needle's to continuously switch colors of thread to work on one project. 3. Speaking of thread or floss in this case. These kits include floss typically used in making "friendship bracelets". The quality seems to be lower here, too. To sew, you are instructed to pull two pieces of thread from a piece of floss and then sew with both of them together. However, the thread/floss in this kit is also of a lower quality making them almost always difficult to pull apart and seem to be twisted in such a way that makes them difficult to thread through the needle as well as frequently tough to pull through the fabric. Also more difficult when creating your knots. 4. The fabric and floss in the food kit were great and the floss typically matched the fabric so well you wouldn't even see the stitch. However, in this kit, the colors are not as good and many of them do not match. For example, the pink fabric and pink thread don't match and they are very dark whereas in the other kit, the pink floss and felt are very light pink which looked good and made sense for its use whereas in this kit they're very dark and don't really make sense in that dark shade for most uses such as the cheeks. Lighter pink looked much better! 5. I feel like some animals have too many pieces and are not user-friendly in their creation. I also feel like some of the directions aren't very user-friendly and in some cases there are no directions for doing some parts of some animals at all. They just leave it to you to guess what to do. Anyway, I digress. I would highly recommend the other kit all day long but not so sure I would with this kit. If I could buy the patterns separately and then purchase floss and felt on my own, I would definitely consider that. But of course since I would only be receiving the patterns I would expect them at a much reduced rate. I will try to update with more pictures as soon as I have some more completed items from this kit. My creations are not coming out at the same rate since I'm not as enthused working with this kit. Which is a shame because I was really excited to create the animals as where the kids excited to receive them. Due to the quality of the fabric, the needle being useless and the flosses not of the best quality - I definitely would not order this kit again. However, I would absolutely order the other kit for myself or as a gift without thinking twice. The food kit recommends ages 10 and up and the animal kit recommends ages eight and up. I'm not sure if those ages are appropriate as it really depends on the crafting skills of the child however I would switch those around for sure putting Aiden up for the fruit and 10 and up for the animals. OH!!! There is one neat "Pro" on this kit... they have a lot of neat accesscerise you can create and add on for the animals such as sunglasses, party hats, top hats, bows and more. I haven't had a chance to create any of them yet, but I'm excited to do so and will probably also create them for the stuffed foods. :-) BTW both kits are by Klutz. I don't know if their budget was lower for the animals or somebody else was behind producing each kit this much different results or they just decided to try to get a larger profit by cutting quality but sadly the kits definitely don't compare in quality. I have included photos of different options from inside of the book as well as showing some of the variations and accessories you can make. Once you get going you will see the customizing that you can easily do on each project that can make it cuter. Something as simple as adding eyelashes on an item that both my daughter and son wanted helps them be able to differentiate between who's is who's. Also note that the cheeks in the pictures of the animals are the light pink that came in the food kit but is not the pink that came with the animal kit. I also included a picture of the needle that came with the animal kit next to a thinner regular needle with a normal point. Not sure the difference really shows in a picture but I can tell you it makes a big difference when sewing. The thicker pointless needle is useless and by the way it was supposed to come with two needles but only came with the one. And I included a few of the treats that I made though I've made dozens and already given them away. One last tip - I would suggest that you keep the card stock after punching out your patterns in case you lose any of them - you can easily create new one by tracing within the holes onto a thin card stock such as a recipe card or greeting card. Make sure you are using a good sharp scissors. One typically used with fabrics for sewing is ideal.
