Passing it on

I used to get together with my little sister, Emilie, once a week – until I had Tuesday. It was too hard for me to get to Emilie's school on time and pick her up with a not so fond of the car baby in the backseat. Plus I never knew what Tuesday would be doing at any one time of the day (hmm I still don't!), so I couldn't plan things. Well I figured it was about time to remedy that and invited her to hang out with Tuesday and I for the day today. Did I mention she got her license so she drove over here? Makes it a lot easier. I'm always doing projects with Emilie, usually of the scrapbooking variety, but I decided the girl has got to learn to sew, and the lady who sold me my machine said it was easy to teach with because it can be set to so very very slow (She was so right, it worked great for this. Plus who doesn't love that scissors button?). 

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I had Emilie do everything: pick any fabric she wanted, iron it, square it up and cut the pieces with a rotary cutter, pin and sew. She did so great! She even had to do a little algebra to figure out how big each back piece should be if we wanted a 12 inch overlap (which I've since learned is a bit too much). X + X + 12 = 24.5 FUN FUN FUN! What? I had to throw a little extra learning in there 🙂 She figured out how much yardage she needed. She was so careful and steady. She chose to do a really big 24 x 24 pillow cover and she kept the speed pretty slow and never really let herself wonder, very straight seams. I was so proud. 
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My first sewing project was not quite so classy. I always wanted to get ahead of myself, and tried to sew barbie clothes, among other things. Children should not sew Barbie clothes, they are tough! Check out the hemming:
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Ah I think I've just made a new little sewing friend, yes! 

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11 Comments

  1. That’s so neat that you shared your love of sewing and taught her the skills. My grandmother taught me to sew and even though I’m still not great at it, I do love it and it’s something we always shared. I used to love to go look through her fabric. I love the piece she used for her pillow!

  2. just wanted to say that i found the fabric!
    totally randomly on etsy while searching for the fabric i wanted to use for the binding on my quilt (found it too!). i also found that yummy fabric you used as the backing in tutu’s bumper! YAY! 🙂
    my cleaned out paypal account is not as happy as i am…
    darn that etsy! 😉

  3. Nice work Emilie! And I (like everyone else) LOVE that fabric!! they dont sell cool fabric like that in Alaska….only that boring stuff they sell at JoAnns.

  4. so awesome, that you are teaching little sis how to sew – and she is GOOD! I just had my Mom (who is visiting for a few weeks) teach ME. Finally. And a lot of it is YOUR fault – I love all your sewing projects so much and wanted to be able to do them too – and sew clothes for Georgia…but I cannot tell you how jealous I am that you are using AMH’s DR Skech fabric for pillows! pillows that are OUTSIDE in Oregon! Seriously green with envy. I have been salivating over that exact fabric for weeks now. I wanted some for a skirt. but I just can’t imagine spending that much on it – especially when I might butcher it once I have it. It’s SUCH beautiful material! Really makes gorgeous pillows. Your sis has exquisite taste, doesn’t she?!

  5. I got the piece at Greenbaum’s, it’s a heaver weight material than regular quilting cotton, but you might be able to mix it in. I love that backing fabric. I think I could have a whole bolt of it.

  6. Amber I have totally embraced muslin. I finally got some 50% off at Jo-Ann’s, so it was 99 cents a yard. I am going to pre make everything with this stuff so that when I go to chop into the real fabric I want to use I do not butcher it, as you say. I have wasted too much good fabric this way. I was cringing a little when she picked one of my favorites, but I figured it would be better for her to really like the project and continue wanting to sew. At least I got it 25% off at my local quilt shop!

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