She Made It!: the Get to Work Apron

This weekend Miss M decided she wanted to sew something. I was elbow deep in a sewing project of my own, so I told her that if she wanted to sew, she would have to do it all by herself. I set up my old sewing machine on a little table for her and answered her questions, but otherwise she did all the work herself!

First, she picked a project from Sewing School. (affiliate link) She choose the Get to Work Apron. It's a cute tool apron that helps you carry your tools or supplies with you while you work. Then she picked some fabric from my stash. She cut out the paper pattern and traced it onto her fabric with a piece of chalk. (We had to have a little talk about placing your pattern near the edge of the fabric and not smack-dab in the middle!)

Then she cut out her pieces and pinned them together, right sides facing. At that point I gave her a piece of plain white printer paper to practice sewing straight lines on. She hadn't used my old sewing machine before (just my Janome that has a speed setting so she can't go too fast).

Miss M practiced on the paper until she felt confident of her ability to control the speed of the sewing machine and guide her stitching. I nearly had a heart attack a time or two as she was rather lead-footed at first, but we came away unscathed. To be perfectly honest, it was a bit difficult for me not to hover too much, but I managed to pull it off. Whew!

It wasn't long before the entire project was completed! Miss M now has a lovely apron that she made entirely on her own! I didn't sew a single stitch or place a single pin. I didn't even supervise her ironing this time. She can do it all herself!

I made no mention of its imperfections: the crooked stitching or misaligned folds. It isn't necessary at this age to strive for perfection. The fact that she created something on her own with her own two hands without becoming frustrated or giving up is a glorious accomplishment!

I'm proud of her! But more importantly, she's proud of herself and of her work! Way to go, Miss M!

Have you sewn anything with your kids this summer?

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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