A teacher went far beyond the usual end-of-year present after secretly spending months creating 30 personalised crochet dolls for her pupils.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Sara Shabir, a UK-based Year Three teacher, wanted to give every child in her class something that would remind them of their time together.
Her solution was ambitious: crochet a miniature version of every single student.
“I just thought it would be something they could keep forever, something unique to them,” Shabir told PEOPLE. “And it was a bit of a challenge for me as well, which I kind of like.”
Shabir had already been crocheting for around five years, although making dolls was relatively unfamiliar territory.
She began the project in May and spent evenings and weekends working towards a July deadline, eventually completing all 30 just in time for the end of term.
“That last weekend was a mad rush to get it all done, but I managed to get it all done just on time,” she said.
Making sure each doll actually resembled its owner added another layer to the challenge.
“Matching skin tones and getting the right hair colors, especially with curly hairstyles, was difficult,” Shabir explained.
She researched different hairstyles and worked on the dolls while watching television after teaching.
“With crocheting, I could just stick on a TV show in the back as well and multitask,” she said. “So I spent most of my evenings and weekends working on the crocheting.”
Perhaps just as difficult was keeping the whole thing hidden from a classroom of curious seven and eight-year-olds.
When the big reveal finally arrived, Shabir initially showed the class a photograph of the completed collection.
“They all took a few minutes to have it click, and then they were like, hang on, that looks like us,” she recalled.
Then she brought out the box.
“I got out the box and gave them all their dolls, and they were over the moon,” Shabir said.
The children posed for pictures clutching their crochet counterparts, giving their teacher the reaction she had spent months working towards.
“It was so exciting, it was so rewarding, and so incredible,” she added.
The story didn’t stay inside the classroom for long.
A parent shared the project on Twitter, where it went viral, before Shabir’s work spread further across social media.
“One of the parents was the one who originally posted it on Twitter, and then that tweet went viral, and it just escalated from there,” she explained.
Despite the huge online response, Shabir said the real motivation was her relationship with the class.
“I just had so much love and care for them that it’s something that I want them to remember and something that I wanted to remember myself as well.”
And the crochet lessons haven’t only been happening after school.
Shabir also spent the year teaching her pupils the craft themselves, allowing them to start creating their own pieces.
As for whether another class could one day receive the same treatment, she hasn’t completely ruled it out.
“I would love to,” she said.
For 30 pupils, though, this particular school year ended with something difficult to replicate: a handmade reminder of themselves, their teacher and the memories they created together.
Featured image credit: Sara Shabir / TikTok
