We met Mimi a while ago. She was walking past our studio with her mum and they popped in to ask what Patchwork was all about. “We’re a website that helps you get the one thing you really want” we said trying to keep it simple for a seven year old. While Mimi’s mum understandably needed a bit more than this weird Willy Wonker-esque explanation, Mimi got it right away. “I want a playhouse please” she said immediately. My birthday’s in September.”
Mimi was very patient. She waited two months for our site to be built and her birthday to come around and then one sunny day in September she came back to our studio to show us exactly what kind of a playhouse she wanted.
She drew her dream home – complete with rainbow roof, bird feeder and flowers – then we photographed it and uploaded it to our site . And once Mimi and her mum had added some words, they published the gift page and invited friends and family to fund it piece by piece.
Friends loved seeing Mimi’s hand-drawn dream and loved how easy it was to help make her birthday wish come true in just a couple of clicks. And Mimi and her mum loved seeing who’d bought which piece of the playhouse and reading all the messages friends left with their gifts.
After collecting all of the contributions, Mimi’s mum went out and bought the playhouse and together with Mimi’s Dad, great uncle and granddad they put it together just in time for Mimi’s birthday party.
Mimi’s mum sent us these photos to say thanks. No rainbow roof yet but some lovely colourful bunting, lots of flowers in pots, the bird feeder and a very happy little girl called Mimi.
You can customise any of our readymade patchworks here. But if, like Mimi, you’d like to draw your own dream gift you can also create your own patchwork from scratch.