Sewing Lessons

I was a little naughty the other night.  Generally Saturdays are a family night with my in-laws but I didn’t want to go, so stayed home by myself.  I also did some research on EBay for vintage children’s sewing machines.  They are so adorable and so many of them still work!  The toy machines now are just horrible.  The last one I saw was controlled by some sort of computer mouse and was plastic and looked like it would break in a few minutes.  I won’t get started on the toy one I had.  The darn thing didn’t sew; it just punched holes in bits of paper.

Anyway, sorry to rant.  I was talking about children’s sewing machines.  Just before Christmas I took my five year old niece, L, out to Spotlight to choose some fabric and then took her home and showed her how to make a dress with it.  We both had a lot of fun and L’s pillowcase dress was adorable when she finished it.  It was the first time L had used a sewing machine, so I took the foot pedal off and let her use the buttons to start and stop.  This also allowed me to set the speed control to slow.  This meant that she only had to worry about keeping the lines of sewing straight and she did a brilliant job.

It took us most of the afternoon to finish the dress and L did most of the work, all of the pinning and all of the sewing.  She even managed to thread the ribbon through the top of the dress herself.  All I really did was the ironing.  L is so proud of that dress and the fabric she chose suits her to a tee.  Now I am way to tempted to set her up with her own little machine.

I am a little hesitant though.  Firstly, I am really torn between something like a vintage kid’s machine or a real one.  Me, I learnt on a real one and I think that is probably the best way to go but they are more expensive.  Also, her mother has a machine and I’m sure she’d let L use it but it makes it hard if they want to sew at the same time.  I also don’t know if L is really all that interested.  Whilst I know she had a ball making her dress and is really proud of it, I haven’t seen or spoken to her enough to know if she wants to do more.  So that should probably be my next step before buying her a machine that may never get used.

I really hope L does want to do more though, as I had as much fun as she did.  Besides, I have a heap of awesome ideas for making paper and felt mazes to learn pedal control with.

If you are looking for a good pillowcase dress pattern, this is the link to the one I use.  It’s by far one of the simplest out there and a really great beginners project!

http://sewlikemymom.com/the-ultimate-pillowcase-dress-post/

Happy sewing

-          Natasha

Introductions

I remember when I was about three years old going to bed at night and waking up to find that Nanny had made my favourite doll, Baby Rose, a brand new dress.  Sometimes it matched a new dress for me, sometimes it was knitted, other times it was a dress that I had specially asked for and one day it was a dressing gown instead.  There is one dress though that was particularly special.

I was very much a Nanny’s girl and of course wanted to be just like her, so when Nanny was sewing I wanted to sew too.   So at the age of three I decided to learn smocking. (A brief explanation for those of you thinking of shirring or in shock that a three year old wanted to smoke, this is a form of embroidery worked over pleated fabric)  Nanny pleated a piece of material with her pleater for me (with help of course), threaded a needle and showed me what to do.  I stitched a couple of brown blobby things, declared myself an expert and then wandered off to do something else.

Nanny carefully put my smocking away and when I was asleep, turned the brown blobs into rabbits, filled in the rest of picture and made Baby Rose a dress.  To this day I remember waking up and finding Baby Rose wearing a dress that I had made and I remember Nanny’s pleasure in my happiness.

I still have that dress and Baby Rose now lives in my sewing room.

Everyone should have something that has been made especially for them.  Which is why I am starting yet another sewing blog.  I can’t promise that it will teach anyone much, although I’ll try, but I do hope that it will inspire someone to give sewing a go.  This is something that has been an integral part of my life for many years and having recently had the pleasure of helping my Sister-in-law, Mother-in-law and five year old niece start to sew and hone their skills I want to share it a little more.

Happy Sewing

      Natasha