Sewing Lessons

One of my favorite things is sewing! I started when I was 8 years old and have never stopped! I realize not everyone likes/wants to sew... but I love it.

It is a great pleasure for me to teach this skill to my daughters, granddaughters, and, yes, even a son or two!!

Miss Roxie just turned 9 this month so prior to her birthday I asked her if she would like to do sewing lessons with Grammie! I received a very enthusiastic *YES* from this little sunshine girl. That made choosing a birthday gift a no-brainer!

I took my plethora of JoAnn coupons to Juanita's (you know! JoAnn's in Spanish! Bwahahaha) and put together a little sewing box for her complete with: 2 pairs of scissors, hem gauge, seam ripper (aka un-sewer), tape measure, pins, and then...

I made her a cute flower pincushion to match the happy gerbara daisy sewing box.

I started by telling her how I took 4-H lessons at Mary Greiner's house (where she always had something smelly cooking on the stove!). I'm so glad for all of the advances in sewing paraphernalia in the past 55 years. Instead of  *pulling a thread* to get a cut on the straight of the grain I whipped out my cutting mat and rotary cutter and showed her how to cheat that time-consuming process! Mary's first project was always an apron!

We talked about measurements and how addition and FRACTIONS are so important to the process. She very adeptly added the hem and seam allowance to the finished length, cut (with a learning curve) her apron body and sash with the rotary cutter.

This little cutie shows great aptitude for sewing. It took very little instruction to teach her how to use the sewing machine to run a double row of gathering threads, then pull the threads to make the fabric gather and distribute them evenly.

Today's lesson took us to having the waistband sewn onto the apron and then Mommy arrived. Roxie really wanted to finish her apron TODAY! (I so get that... it took me years to be able to enjoy the process and not just the finished garment!)

We folded the fabric neatly and returned it to her box, along with the extra fabric and some needles in case she feels the need to create before next week's lesson.

THIS! THIS!! is one of the very great pleasures of being a Grammie... Roxie's Grammie,

Lucky Grammie!