This week I've been blessed to have time to sew with and for some of my grandchildren. I have started a dress for one of the little ones with an old vintage 1/2 size pattern. I wasn't sure of the sizing, but it fit the nine month old pretty well. I finished it today and made some matching shoes. I'm not sure if the shoes will fit, but I hope they do. They are so cute. I made them from a tutorial I found here. I think I bookmarked it 6 grandkids ago. I wish I had tried them earlier they were so much fun to make!
My mom and I started teaching the older children to embroidery a while back. They don't get to work on it often, but when we do they really seem to enjoy it and are catching on surprisingly well. Three of them got a chance to work on their projects this week.
My oldest granddaughter, Angel Eyes, spent the entire day Thursday sewing. She wanted to make a gift for two of her friends. She had big plans of making two dolls in a day, and I wasn't really sure she would stick to it, but she did. We started at around nine in the morning. She wanted to make them similar to the ones I had made for a mission trip a couple of years back. I told her I wasn't sure I could find my pattern, but that didn't faze her at all. "That's okay, Mimi," she said confidently, "we can always make up a pattern." I was not so sure.
I should preface this with the fact that last week she decided she wanted to make her little sister a dress. Being the creative type she ask her mom if she could use an old sheet, drew off a pattern (I think directly onto the material), cut it out and began stitching it by hand. She brought it to show me on the way to her piano lesson. She had the shoulder seams stitched when she arrived and asked if she could get out her machine and sew up the side seams. She did so right away. Now granted this dress didn't have any facings or lining, but it was a very good dress for an eight year old with no pattern and very little experience, and it looked like it would fit her sister. I didn't get a picture of it. I must remind myself to do that next time I'm over there.
Having accomplished this, she really didn't see not having a pattern for the dolls to be a real obstacle.
"Okay, " I said, "we will try." I drew off a very simple pattern and she set out to draw a face on the dolls.
I explained how she needed to put the right sides together and she jumped right in and added, "and I need to leave a space so I can turn them right side out and stuff them." She remembered this from making a simple stuffed owl for her cousin for his birthday last year.
She worked hard all day, only taking two breaks, one for a little snack and one for lunch. She finished the dolls about 4 o'clock. She then asked if she could look through my scraps and get some material to work on accessories. This was after she already made dresses. She did most everything herself. I did finish one of the skirts for her as she was running out of time, and I drew off the pattern, and crocheted the hair for one of the dolls, but other than that she did all of the work herself. I was so proud of her and quite a bit impressed at her determination, creativity and perseverance.
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