Saturday, October 6, 2012

learning to sew - lesson two

Two weeks ago, three fun gals from my junior high Sunday School class came over to begin learning to sew. We focused on sewing buttons that day. You can read about our first adventure here. Well they must have enjoyed it because they all came back today! They had asked if they could make drawstring backsacks, which I thought would be a terrific first machine sewing project. They each brought 1/2 yard of fabric and 3 yards of cording of their choice. I was so amazed at how quickly they took to the sewing machine!

I let them all use my Janome which has some nice features like a slow down/speed up lever (we stuck with "slow down mode" today) and a needle down...

The girls learned about fabric today, like what a selvage is, how to rotary cut straight edges, what a stash is (no we do not throw  away that extra piece we cut off!) They learned how to box the bottom corners and they did all their own pressing too...

By the end of the morning, there were three completed backsacks! Great job girls.

 We even made time to repair a torn pocket on a hoodie....

The girls want to make pillowcases next time. I'm so glad they are enjoying learning to sew!

8 comments:

Melissa said...

Looks like another successful lesson!

Deb C said...

That's awesome! So many kids don't know how to do ANY sewing. You are doing good things for these girls, Ellyn!

Sally said...

These girls are so lucky to have you! I was going to say what Deb said... that so many girls don't know how to do any sewing! In college, all of my suite mates were amazed when I was able to move the button on one of the girls sleeves (so that the cuff wouldn't keep falling over her hand). It wasn't really anything to me, but none of them knew how to do it.

Lisa said...

What an awesome class you are teaching. Those girls are so lucky and I bet they will be using what you are showing them for the rest of their lives. Good work!

blackenpot said...

How very nice! I have my grand children learning too. I don't know who enjoyed it the most. It's very important to show the young ones.

Thank you for sharing.

blackenpot said...

Hello again, thank you for your kind reply. If you should like to take a peek at my grand children learning. you kan take a look.

http://blackenpot.blogspot.no/2011/09/lynkurs.html

Thanks once again.

Marit said...

Looks like you all had fun!

PunkiePie (Jen) said...

I missed this post. success! Sounds like the girls are having fun with it.