Beginning Hand Sewing Posted on August 10th, 2010
I have a post over on Raising Homemakers today on beginning hand sewing. It will also explain my odd looking embroidery in the picture.
Handiwork Posted on April 23rd, 2008
One year for Christmas, I wanted to make my mother a cross stitch picture. I found just the right pattern, it was the words of Amazing Grace with a lot of delicate border work and it was going to take quite a bit of time to make.
I gathered all the different colored threads and material that I would need for it, and with much anticipation, I sat down to begin working on it. All of a sudden, both girls were on either side of me leaning over the material watching me work with thread and needle. Now they had seen me do different projects before, but for some reason, this project fascinated them. They were 5 and 3 and wanted to be very involved in it.
The problem was, this was for a Christmas present and I didn’t have a lot of time to do it in. Every time I picked up the cross stitch, the girls were right there wanting to “help” make it. I let them do a couple of stitches, thinking that it would satisfy them, but it did not. They just wanted to do it again. After a few days of this, I realized something had to be done.
I decided I would make them their own little sewing boxes and they could sew every time that I sewed. I found a couple of shoe boxes and rummaged around in my sewing supplies for items to fill them with. Things like buttons, felt, ribbons, embroidery thread, scrap material, burlap, yarn, scissors, sewing needles, straight pins, spool of thread, etc., all went into the boxes.
So the next time I sat down to work on the cross stitch and the girls were leaning over my work, I told them I had a surprise for them. I pulled out the boxes and presented them with their own little work baskets. I wish I had thought to take pictures. It was precious. They were so excited to have their own sewing boxes, they didn’t care that it was a shoe box or that everything I put in there were scraps and leftovers. It was their own and they loved them.
I put my cross stitch away for awhile and we examined their boxes together and talked about all the different things they could do and make. There wasn’t any planned thing for them to make, I just wanted them to play around with the needles and thread and see what they could come up with. I pulled back out my cross stitch and the girls sat on the floor by my feet and we all happily sewed.
They made all sorts of little things. They sewed little pictures onto the felt, sewed buttons all over little pieces of material and made little pouches. It was so fun to see them work on little projects with no set plan, just their imaginations. The stitches were all different sizes and directions, but they were still so proud of the things they made and so was I. There was the usual little dramatic scenes when the thread tangled or got knotted up, but we just stopped what we were doing and tried to fix it the best we could. I showed them when my thread would get tangled or knotted so they would see that it happened to me too. I was able to get the cross stitch done in time for Christmas and the girls started a lifelong love of working with their hands.
When we started to officially homeschool, anytime I read aloud to the girls, I would have them quietly work on something with their hands. They could sew or draw, later adding in crocheting or knitting, whatever they wanted to work on, sometimes they just made things with legos, just as long as they were working on something with their hands while I read. Their skills have improved dramatically with time and they don’t always need to have a pattern to come up with what they have in their minds.
Hopechest Treasures Posted on November 18th, 2007
One of my goals for this year was to make something for the girls’ hopechests and this is what I came up with. Baby blankets made out of the softest yarn. My friend, Natalie, has knitted several of these soft blankets for her wee ones and I just loved holding her boys while they were cuddled in one of these cozy blankets.
I took my girls and my niece to Hobby Lobby and let them pick out the colors. I ended up crocheting mine simply because I can do that quicker. I gave the blankets to them all at the same time. They turned out so nice and I accomplished one of my goals for the year, Yeah!
Here is Emily Rose, Maggie and Breezy with their blankets.
Trash to treasure Posted on September 5th, 2007
You all have heard that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure but in this case it was my own trash that became a treasure.
It starts with a stack of 1968 encyclopedias that was taking up valuable space and an old dresser that wasn’t too pretty.
My youngest daughter, Emily, needed a dresser for her vintage style bedroom and this dresser, while old, didn’t quite fit. So, I decided to vintage it up for her. I whipped out a razor blade and my trusty bottle of Mod Podge and set to work.
Several days later this is what I came up with.
A "vintagey" style dresser. Emily was very happy with the results.