Sewing week

Sewing class is going well, I'm happy to report.  The girls started on a bag on Monday; the teacher told them it would take two weeks to finish, but Alison couldn't handle not completing it.  The teacher wouldn't let her jump ahead and she was set on having a bag to carry her script in to play practice this week, so she asked if she could make another bag on her own.  I told her that she could use some scrap material we had, but still had to do her school work.  Tuesday morning, she was at the sewing machine at 7 am to make her own bag before school!

Hello mini Ben.

I started a batch of bread and Eli worked on a piano lesson while Alison worked.

She loves ironing, but is really scared of the heat.

She finished this "level 3" project shortly after lunch and jumped right into her schoolwork.  I was a very proud mama.

School was finished, Alison was deciding what project to do next and Eli was pretending to be a bunny when he sat down at the sewing machine and said "I want to learn!".  He's asked to learn before but this time he was like "I'm not leaving until you teach me how to work this machine."  So I  gave him some scrap fabric and showed him the basics.  He caught on like a second mini Ben and was SO happy.  He just chattered on and on..."I love sewing.  This is so fun!  Now I can sew with Alison!  Maybe I could go to sewing club."

Alison got this fabric for a pillow but has quickly moved past "stage 1", so she passed the baton to Eli.  She taught him the ropes of cutting the fabric, sewing the lines, flipping it inside out and stuffing it.

He was hooked.

Anyone need a mini pillow?  We have 8,000.

Wednesday morning, 7 am, Alison and Eli were up asking to sew.  We were running out of scrapes and they were growing concerned about how are we going to get enough fabric for both of them to make projects...I never thought this would be a conversation at my house!  I let them each pick out a few 1/4 yard squares of fabric at Walmart ($0.97 is a great price for a 6 and 9 year old) and Alison helped Eli find an easy "snack bag" project.  She made a water bottle holder for her new bag.

 A dining room full of sewing materials and an afternoon spent helping my littles sew is not how I planned our time, but in a surprising way, I felt like it relaxed us all.

Thursday morning again, the kids were asking and asking and asking when they could sew.  Any spare moment they had, they were in the dining room planning and working.

Alison is not thrilled that Eli is treading in her territory but has been pretty gracious in teaching him some things.  I'm trying to convince her that it could be a good thing if this sewing thing sticks; he could be her helper in big projects.  Eli is pretty set though.  He said, "When I'm 7, I'm going to do level 2 projects and when I'm 8, I'm going to sew my own costumes."  When I reminded him that he turns 7 in just a few weeks, he said "Well I've been practicing for 2 days."  Alison informed me that I better watch out, because this summer she's going to go sew crazy.  I thought this week was sew crazy, so I am a little nervous.  Apparently we need a fabric line in our budget now.