She Made It!: a skirt (or two)

Late last year, just before we got inundated with birthdays and weddings and holidays (and an illegal camera placed on our property by the police, but that's a story for another day!), Miss M decided she needed a new skirt. Since the madness hadn't started yet, I let her pick out some fabric and sew herself a skirt!

She picked a pretty paisley baby wale corduroy my mom gave her and a simple gathered-rectangle type of skirt with an elastic waistband.

This was really the first time I let her use my machine on her own. She was very cautious about the needle...so much so that she sometimes forgot to guide the fabric, so focused was she on keeping her hands out of the way. But she soon got the hang of it!

Her favorite part was using the iron to press the elastic casing and lower hem. No pictures of that part 'cause my assistance was much needed.

She cut, pinned, stitched, and pressed all by herself! I was there the whole time to tell her what to do next, but she really did it herself!

Putting the elastic through the waistband gave her some trouble until she got the hang of it, but once she did, she managed to get all the way around!

Ta da! Her very own, one-of-a-kind corduroy skirt! She was SO proud of herself! The first thing she did was text a picture of herself to my mom. Hehe...

Fast forward a few months to January. Miss M got an invitation to her best friend's birthday party! But what to give her? Miss M decided she wanted to make a skirt for her friend too. So she picked out some fabric: a cute cotton print and some cotton-blend eyelet. She also picked some pretty pink fabric for a blouse (and picked the pattern too, Ottobre 2/2005, #11, but without the shirring across the front).

Of course, she had to try it on before she gave it away! I'm told the birthday girl was quite pleased with her handmade gift! And a bit amazed that a little girl just like her made the skirt.

Do you let your kids use your sewing machine? If your kid could make anything they wanted, what would it be?

I'm linking up to:

MFW ECC: What's different this time around?

I am so excited to go through Exploring Countries and Cultures again. The last time my kids were so little -- 3rd grade and Kindergarten. And now they are in 5th and 8th grades! They have grown so much over the past five years. As I began to think about our plan for this year, I realized two things: 1) my gifted eldest child remembers just about everything we covered in ECC the first time, and 2) my younger one hasn't had many of the basics that ECC covers. So I was faced with a dilemma -- how do I adjust ECC to suit the very different needs of both children? How do I shift the focus for my 8th grader to aspects of ECC that she hadn't spent time on before (such as types of governments, imports and exports, etc.) while also taking my younger child through the more foundational information that he missed when he was just a kindergartener? ECC is designed to be parent-led, family learning, with a supplement for 7th and 8th grade. But I came to the conclusion that I need to deco...

Pilcrow pajamas

I finally finished a sewing project...it's been a while, huh? Little Guy has outgrown most of his pajamas and bodysuits. He has several onesies, but they're mostly short sleeved which isn't really appropriate for this time of year without a cardigan. Ottobre to the rescue! I had traced off the "Naava coverall" (Ottobre 6/2009, #3) but it was already a size too small. I "remedied" that by simply cutting it out a little larger all around and keeping my original seam allowance...a bit sloppy perhaps, but time-saving! I actually cut out two at the same time from the same material. I was going for practicality (something for the kid to wear!) rather than fashion. The other one is nearly done - just the leg binding and snaps left to do. Still, I needed to do something fun to spruce 'em up a bit. The other one was voted by hubby to be video game themed, so I decided to make this one reflect my abject nerdiness personality....

Letter posters with memory verses

I have very fond memories of the cursive letter banner that was posted around the top of the walls in my fifth grade classroom. I thought it would be fun to make something similar for our homeschool classroom (a.k.a. our kitchen). I decided to include a Bible verse for each letter. At this point it's mostly for my own benefit since Miss M doesn't read yet. They serve as great reminders to help her memorize these important bits of Scripture while her little mind is still a sponge. (It saddens me that my memorization skills are not what they were when I was a kid!) The fun part is I saved my work in a pdf file for you to use too! Just click the image above to download the file. I laminated mine before sticking them around my kitchen walls with ticky tacky. (The laminator is a new toy!) Enjoy!

CHRISTEPHI

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