Do you like to talk to Tomatoes?

My daughter told me she wanted to sew a Veggie Tales pillow, and I responded that I didn't think we had any printed Veggie Tales fabric.  She said she'd just like to make it from scraps.  Here's what she did, just drawing and cutting free-hand and then sewing it together:

I was impressed!

Oh My Stars

Today we made stars in sewing class, to learn how to trim the seam allowances and push out the corners when you turn them right side out in preparation for making pillow cases and then clothes.

We are using My First Sewing Book and My First Machine Sewing Book by Palmer Pletsch.  It is a fantastic system for teaching sewing, using simple patterns and a series of rhymes to teach the basics.  The kids in the class are ages 7-11.  We started by making stitches with yarn on plastic canvas, then made little felt bookmarks with buttons on them.  After that, we moved on to the little felt stuffed animals, which are handsewn with a whipstitch all the way around.  My house is becoming filled with these little animals!  There are patterns for a ton of them in the Palmer Pletsch kits.  We have gone through about 3 huge bags of stuffing from Wal-mart!  After the children had fully mastered the art of hand-sewing felt animals, we started working with the machine.  First, the kids made all kinds of stitches on paper for practice.  Today we got to move on to making the stuffed shapes with a machine.  We are using the same patterns as before, but we learned how to make a seam allowance, sew the shape inside out, trim the seam allowances, then turn it right side out and stuff and finish it.  The star was good practice because it has five points that need to be pushed out and stuffed.  I am now preparing to expand the zoo for all the animals my children must now make on the machine with scrap fabric.  Good thing I got a bunch of fabric on sale for 50 cents/yard!

If you have seen my previous sewing posts, you can see that the sewing teacher has also given some of the older kids some private lessons so that they have already moved beyond this and made a Jedi robe and a doll dress.  The stuffed star and animal projects still teach them some important basics, though, and are fun projects that they enjoy making.

Happy sewing!

Build-A-Bear-At-Home!

Well, I seem to have a knack for doing projects that have been discontinued - it must be because I'm always looking for sales or extreme clearance items!  I cannot find these Build-A-Bear kits in stock anywhere, so I'm not sure whether or not they are selling them anymore, but we got them half-price at Hancock Fabrics.  They were also sold at Wal-Mart, craft stores, and party supply stores.  Maybe they will be back in stock for Christmas or another holiday.

My kids loved stuffing and sewing the 7-inch, 3-oz bears by themselves at home.  They each came with a heart to put inside, a birth certificate, and an outfit.  It was just like getting a new Build-A-Bear at the store, only smaller.  All 3 of these came with girl outfits, so my son opted to use only the sunglasses and give the rest of his bear's outfit to his sisters.  This was a safe project and good sewing practice for the younger ones, as the holes were already cut in the material, and they sewed them together with the plastic safety needle that was included.

Welcome to the family, little friends!

More Sewing!

Here is another project from the sewing class.  This was HAND-SEWN!  Look at those beautiful, straight stitches.  Even if it is for UNC - ha, ha!  :)

You really don't even need instructions for this one, but in case you are brand-new to sewing like me, this is a fantastic project for beginners.  Choose fleece in your favorite sports-team-pattern or other pattern.  Cut it twice the size you want your pillow to be, plus a few inches for seam allowance.  (About 24" x 36" works well for a bed pillow, or you can make a smaller throw pillow.)  Fold the fabric in half (with the "right side" inside) and sew straight stitches around two of the three open sides.  Turn the pillow cover right-side out, fill it with poly-fil stuffing, and whip-stitch the remaining side closed.

Doll Dresses

Practice, practice, practice.  Practice makes perfect.  Oh, how I remember those long hours of practice doing various activities when I was younger, and how I couldn't wait until I could actually apply what I'd been learning.  You know, when you practice piano scales for hours on end, and how you long to play a real song.  Not "Farmer Tom Plays the Scales" or "Up and Down the Keyboard We Go," but a REAL song, one that will impress your friends.  One they play on the radio.  I remember in junior high school when my friend, Jenny, first broke out of playing classical music for her piano teacher, and learned to play the "Flashdance" theme on the piano.  We were all so inspired!!  (OK, I'm dating myself!)


Well, my kids are the same way with instrument practice and with other activities, like sewing.  So, now the sewing lessons are paying off.  My daughter made her first doll dress for her American Girl doll.  (Actually, I think this one is an "Our Generation" doll from Target, but we like them just as well!)

For this dress, she used a kit from Wal-mart that her brother bought her for Christmas.  They also carry these kits in fabric stores.  The pieces are pre-drawn on the fabric.  You cut them out and follow the instructions to sew them together.  This was supposed to be a nightgown.  It has long sleeves and elastic in the neck, so these were a challenge for a beginning seamstress, but she did a fabulous job.  She decided she wanted to use this as a dress rather than a nightgown, so she added the buttons for interest and designed the hat.  She hasn't hemmed the dress yet.  She explained to me that she tried the dress on the doll to see how it fit, and the doll loved the dress so much that she wouldn't let her take it off to hem it!  Hemming must be boring to my children, because my son also has not hemmed his Jedi robe yet.  They seem to think these projects are "finished" enough, and they just want to use them!

Before sewing these pieces together, I had my daughter trace them onto paper so that she has the pattern for future use.  She has already cut them out of another type of fabric as well, and has another dress just about ready to sew together.

Here are some more patterns we will be working on in the near future:

Some free, not-too-difficult patterns from http://www.susankramer.com/dollclothespatterns.html.

And we just found this TREASURE!!!  The actual American Girl Doll historical outfit patterns that AG used to sell but has discontinued.  Some collectors got together and scanned them in, and now you can download them all for FREE.  These are, of course, more difficult, but my daughter can't wait to try her hand at them!

http://www.agplaythings.com/AG%20Patterns/DollDressPatterns.html.

In the meantime, she is filling our house with throw pillows, which are easy and FUN to sew!  Both of these pink pillow covers and the little stuffed dog, if you can see it there in her hand, came in the kit with the nightgown.  She sewed and stuffed the small pillow and the stuffed dog.  The large pillow was designed to be a blanket for the doll, but she decided to stuff it and make a pillow for herself to match her doll's.

The Heirloom Boutique

For beautiful heirlooms that will be cherished by your family for generations, visit The Heirloom Boutique.  Custom-made children's apparel, gifts, and accessories.

(The owner is also our sewing teacher.  She offers private or group in-home lessons for children or adults!)

Hand-made!

I'm not one of those crafty people who has time to make all my kids' clothes or enter a lot of craft fairs.  In fact, I do not sew.  But my favorite items and my favorite gifts are the hand-made ones.  As the kids get older, they are learning to do more and more of their own projects.

The girls made matching ponchos for themselves and their dolls:

And if you want to get a boy interested in sewing, download a pattern for a Jedi Robe!

For the ponchos, we got a kit to make a knotted blanket at Wal-mart.  They have them at fabric stores, too, I think, or you can use two scrap pieces of fleece.  The kit we got had a large hot pink piece of fleece with a "gymnastics" theme, and a solid, lighter pink piece of fleece for the back.  I cut each piece in half and gave one half of each piece to each of the girls.  They then cut fringe on the two short ends of their rectangles (you may want to pin the pieces together to hold them in place while you cut and tie the pieces).  They tied the fringes from the top piece and bottom piece together, and we cut a hole through both pieces in the center for their heads.  For the doll ponchos, we only used the top (hot pink) piece.  We cut small squares, cut holes in the center for the dolls' heads, and cut small fringes and knotted them on the edges.

If I can find the link for the Jedi robe pattern (which my husband downloaded quite some time ago), I will post it.

Happy crafting!