Sewing Lessons

DD 9 wanted to take sewing lessons at school. Lessons that I would have to pay for. I figured that's a little like a vegetable farmer buying salad fixings at the store. I sew! I have a sewing machine! I teach kids! So, we took the money, along with a friend who also wanted to learn to sew, to the store instead and bought material. I realized right then and there that maybe handing this job off to someone else wouldn't have been such a bad idea. I love DD and her friend, I really do. They are wonderful big dream sort of girls who don't let reality stand in their way. They were crushed when I had to explain that our first project was not going to be a nineteenth century ball gown with a hoop skirt or an extravagant silk pillow with four layers of fringe. How about a skirt? Elastic waist. We could even put lace around the bottom. Oh no, that's not enough - how about this one with three ruffles and ribbon around the edge? Fine.
The pillow compromise went more smoothly - one fabric for the back and one for the front with fringe on the side.

The good and the challenging is that they want to do everything themselves. They are mostly (but just barely) ready. So the cut isn't quite straight and the pins are a little crooked and the seam wobbles. If they're happy, I should be too!

Then there is the challenge of keeping them interested. If they had done the class, it would have been steady with an assigned time every week. Instead, we are subject to the whim of their emotions. A nice day? Lets stay at the playground longer. Sewing? Nah, lets play Barbies. Sewing now? Snack time.

So it's been going slowly, but we're making progress.