Lately, I've been into sewing. It started when I went to a neighborhood 4-H meeting. When I walked in the door to our clubhouse, I honestly wasn't planning to sign Katie up. We're pretty scheduled already and the calendar is starting to fill up, but when I heard how flexible it is and how involved parents can be, I was crossing my fingers KT was interested too. I looked over and she'd already filled out the complete form. And was beaming.
I was involved with 4-H as a girl and loved it. My Mom was my leader and we had a small group of neighbor girls who did mostly sewing, cooking, and fashion-show type projects. Generally, when people hear 4-H, they think agriculture or animals, but for me I think of homemaking. 4-H was a significant part of getting a glimpse at how to make a home and I hope it will motivate KT in the same way. I remember the white and turquoise striped jumper and white shirt I made that I modeled in a 4-H fashion show. I was proud of my sewing and felt cute in the show! These skills helped build my self-esteem and made me feel good about myself.
So, back to 2010. Katie was officially signed up in the local 4-H program that same day and making a plan for what to enter in our local County Fair. 4-H continues to be a very inexpensive and organized program with lots of flexibility. I like that we can work activities around busy times of year and other activities. It's ideal for boring summer days and those dragging winter months. The club that we'll mostly align with meets once a month, but then we can take off from there and do our own mini groups, neighborhood clubs, and activities. In our area, there are horse clubs, archery clubs, and a little of everything.
What appeals to me most is that I can just do things one-on-one with my children. So far, four kids - including Katie - in our neighborhood have joined - three girls and one boy - and they're all great 6th grade kids. I think all four like to cook and we'll be doing that together. There is also a small group of 5-8 year olds called Cloverbuds and I think Daniel might have fun doing a few projects for next year's County Fair with me. Our local school club doesn't have many little ones in 4-H, but he could make cookies and a craft project for next year's fair. It won't be long until he's in Scouts and he'll be plenty busy.
We got right on the ball since the County Fair started this week. Our first projects were tote bags. Katie made the denim/watermelon one on the right and I made the turquoise/floral one on the left. They were harder to make than they looked on the pattern. I wish I had the bag pattern that we made when I was in school. It was an easier pattern and I think created a better bag too. KT entered this bag in the fair. Christina helped me to make my bag, pushing the pedal for 80% of the project. That made it more cumbersome to complete, but she thought she had made it! And she sort of did.
Next on the list was getting together with another neighbor girl in 4-H who has sewn before (how amazing is that, considering she is also 11 and not a Latter-day Saint?). Her Mom and Grandma sew, but her Mom didn't have time to work with her on a sewing project for the fair. She offered to buy the fabric and lend a skirt pattern, if I'd help the girls. Twist my arm. So, Ana Teresa came over for a Friday night of sewing. Ben was a good sport and put the younger two to bed for me that night.
KT brought her Janome Mini machine into our master bedroom and we set up a sewing center. It's days like this that I wish I had a project/craft room, but for now my master bedroom will suffice. After two hours, the girls finished their darling A-line twill skirts. Julia (Ana Teresa's Mom) did well with color selection since aqua is KT's favorite color right now. The girls joked that they looked like Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella in their blue and pink skirts. We cut at least 4-6 inches off the bottom of the pattern and it was still very long on the girls. I've always found that patterns are overly generous in their sizing and run big.
At around 10 pm, they finished up their skirts, had them ironed with seams finished, and modeled the skirts for me and Julia who had just arrived to see how it was going. What wholesome, sweet girls they are! Ana Teresa even has this same polka dot Children's place t-shirt. They were joking that they should coordinate and wear them on the same day to school! Both girls entered them in the fair on Tuesday morning. We're anxiously awaiting the results of their projects.
Julia cut back on purchasing the suggested fabric and still we found there was a ton of leftover fabric. Christina and I made the floral tote bag with some of it. Christina was wanting a skirt too, so I whipped up one for her that is a bit fuller, more gathered, and shorter. It's cute. I surprised her in the morning with it in her room and a heart note. I could tell it made her feel loved.
It was fun to see that "I still got it" and could sew without a pattern. I got very good at this in high school and college, if it was something I had made lots of, like elastic waist skirts and shorts, knit boat-neck shirts, and a particular style of dress pants and skirts. As I look back, I can't believe I made a dressy suit and oxford shirts. Crazy girl!
I was on a roll and found some leftover cowboy fabric from a project long ago. Within about 20 minutes I made Christina this little cowgirl skirt and then one for her doll, Annabelle. She was so thrilled. I did some shortcuts on the hem and waistband with both these skirts since I knew they wouldn't be worn often. I think the doll skirt took 10 minutes to make.
In this photo Christina was trying to get Annabelle balanced on her horsey and was frustrated that she kept falling off.
Yee-Haw!
Now that I think about it, I might have to encourage Christina to be a cowgirl for Halloween. If we put her hair in braids, added some red bows, and freckles, she'd be pretty cute. KT might even lend her old pink cowboy boots, if it was a good day. Now to find a doll cowgirl hat. That might be tricky.
Cowgirl Cuties!
It was "Sew" fun to make these projects and see my girls' sewing skills improve too.
