conference weekend sewing, day 1

daughter #2's sewing box

so around here, we're mormons - yes, we are. that means we're members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a branch of Christianity. (and, yes, i just used capitols because it seemed necessarily respectful.) anywho, this relates to sewing because every 6 months, on the first weekends of april and october, instead of regular sunday worship services, we have general conference. this is a group of meetings where our church leaders give inspirational talks on a variety of subjects, spread out over 4 2-hour sessions on saturday and sunday. these meeting are broadcast from salt lake city all over the world. members can go to salt lake in person, their regular chapel to watch on the big screen, or they can sit at home and watch over the internet. and the sewing?, you say. well, at our house we keep our hands busy (and the children quiet-ish) with crafting projects while we listen.

there.

general conference = sewing time.

a whole weekend of it.

why do i always take so many words to explain something?

 

sometimes i am organized with things for them to do, like the year i got pom pom makers. other times i just tell them to get their boxes out. this was not one of those organized times for me. in fact, i didn't even tell them to sew because i wanted to work on binding quilts, not helping kids sew.

 

however, when i sat down in the family room at conference time with my sewing project in hand, the girls all went and got their boxes, too. they just kinda know conference = sewing time.

 

 i took a peek into daughter #2's box during the break and loved the array of what i saw:

 she's made a number of these felt dolls from the emma hardy book sewing for children. it's a classic around here. that cute and funky yellow softie fella is from softies only a mother could love. this mother definitely does love it and is so proud of her daughter's self initiative.

i was most surprised, however, with daughter #4, who just turned 5 (or "four again" as i call it since i can't bear that she's growing up like the rest of them.) she got her box out and just started going at stuff all on her own.

her box is mainly one mass of embroidery threads she got for Christmas a year or two ago, plus her hoops (one of burlap and one of muslin that she practices on, free-form), a large tapestry needle and some kid safety-scissors. it's a riotous mess of color.

first she added another button to her burlap stitching hoop project,

 then she began cutting up some felt and collecting polyfil "to make a cat." i had no idea what the cat was all about, but let her do her thing.

i soon found out what the cat was. she was serious about sewing her own softie. is this the cutest thing you ever saw, or what?! she just started cutting away and placing pieces together in the form of a cat. more or less.

her normal tapestry needle is great for sewing through burlap, but it was too thick for the felt, so we got her a slightly sharper needle. we needed a place to store her tapestry needle so i halted the cat project for a moment to help her make her own needle book.

getting the first stitches in together

 about this time i had to stop and get lunch set out. i opted for an easy, serve-yourself buffet.

 sugar snap peas, mozzarella caprese, zucchini patties, and a caesar salad with water on the side.

 we spent some time outdoors during the break and i tried again to capture the amazing afternoon light we get through our mesquite tree right now. and failed. it's truly magical. well beyond my photographic abilities.

during saturday afternoon session she snuggled up on her quilt and resumed work on the cat.

 you can tell she has been barefooting it.

 i let her do all her own sewing however she wanted it to be. and then trimmed up some afterwards.
cat is still in the works, but has a head and body already.

as for me, i finished "expecting blossoms" finally.

it was a happy sewing saturday.

church bags

this past Christmas, in an effort to simplify and enrich our gift-giving experience, i decided to try handmade giftgiving. we limited it to the children's gifts for each other so they were assured a non-handmade gift of something "cool" they might really want from their parents and santa. they were all pretty new to sewing, so i was involved to varying degrees with what they made. i think this week i'll share with you their items.

first up are the simple but sweet bags my 6 year old son, bear, and i made for his little sisters.

the girls use them to take a few quiet items, a box of wipes, and a hairbrush to church. bear picked out the materials himself from my stash. he thoroughly enjoyed pressing the fabric. repeatedly. definitely his favorite part. i cut the bags out myself, a matter of a few straight lines. bear's not ready for the sewing machine just yet (or more accurately i wasn't ready to teach him yet as we were strapped for time at the point these were being made) so i had him run the presser foot of the machine and snip all threads for me. in this way, he was involved and i had some control of the outcome.

a closer look at the fabrics and ribbons used:

ribbons from strano, purchased at two peas in a bucket (dot com); fabric is hushabye, tulla pink for moda.

each bag took less than a fat quarter of two fabrics (one for the outside and one for the inside) and a yard of ribbon, which is what i had on hand of each ribbon. next time i'll get a bit more ribbon so i can make a bow for each side of the bag, and make them a little bigger. maybe a yard and a half. if you don't count the time i sewed a fabric on backwards, i probably spent about 30 to 45 minutes per bag.

I'm really happy with the bags. They were super easy to make. The instructions for them came from Emma Hardy's Sewing For Children, which, by the way, is a fabulous book if you want to get kids started sewing. I adore her designs and we've had great success with the projects. My older children have even been able to complete them with out any help from me.