The school holidays have arrived - again!  So time for some sewing at home.   Today we stitched up some art using embroidery floss and buttons.   This was the first time I let my biggest Little One free with a pile of embroidery threads - it took her about two seconds to have most of them in a complete mess - perfect for a nesting bird.  So this evening I made some little cardboard bobbins in an attempt to halt (or perhaps just lessen a little bit??!) the mass of knotted threads in the future.   We will see if it works....fingers crossed!

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Our beautiful mess ended up just being beautiful.    My Little One completed a picture of her little blue play house.  Good enough to frame, and easy enough to complete before getting too complicated.  

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This week at Project Run and Play, the theme was to create something that represented your signature style.  This was all that was needed to motivate me to make something with the fabric we had printed at Spoonflower using a drawing my Little Person created this summer.    

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Take one enthusiastic, five year old, wanna-be sewer.  Add a yard (or metre) of fabric.  Use an iron and sewing machine to mix well.  Thread in some elastic, and hey presto!  A couple of sewing sessions later, you have a delightful skirt (that is even wearable in public!!).    

...and it twirls.   

This weekend my biggest Little One finished her first, life sized, wearable piece of clothing.   She is pretty chuffed, but Mama is even prouder!  This is a great project to gain confidence after only a small amount of practice on the sewing machine.   It is another example of where sewing can be deceiving - in this case the result is a lot more impressive than the skill required to get there.  
 
You can try something similar at your place - here's what we did.   We had a yard/90cm of organic cotton sateen 56inches/142cm wide that we cut in half horizontally, leaving us with two rectangles 45cm x 142cm.  One for the front of the skirt, one for the back.   So we didn't have to worry about finishing seams, I overlocked the edges of both rectangles before going any further.  The rest was up to Little Person hands.  

• Sew side seams: Sew the two rectangles together on the short sides.  
• Make waist casing: Fold 5cm/2inches to the wrong side along top edge of skirt. Pin. Iron. Topstitch - making sure your casing is wide enough to fit your elastic.   Leave an opening about 10cm/4inches to feed elastic.  
• Thread elastic into casing.  It is easier for Little People to thread a longer piece of elastic than needed.  Once threaded - cut elastic to required size (normally a few cms/inches less than wearer's waist measurement)
• Sew elastic.  Sew casing closed.  Spread gathers evenly.
• Hem skirt: Fold 1.5cm or 1/2inch to the wrong side.  Pin. Iron.  Topstitch.
• Your done!

Click images to enlarge

This was a great project for practicing sewing straight  - we focused on lining up the edge of the fabric with a guide - either the edge of the presser foot, or a piece of tape stuck to the sewing machine.  The temptation when starting out is to focus on the needle going up and down (yes, it can be quite mesmerising..), but looking at the needle is a sure way of getting wonky stitching.   

I hope you feel inspired to let your Little One have a go.  It's not as hard as you may imagine.  A little bit of patience and some calm, encouraging and guiding words are all that's needed.  

Enjoy.  

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