Thursday, December 20, 2007

Stuffed full of Joy

This week I gave my students an invaluable present. I taught them how to sew. I saw this cute pattern for a bird in the book Quick Patchwork Gifts (I'll find the link later) and decided that this is what I would do for our Christmas project/ It was a little more work than I thought it would be, but a lot more rewarding, as well. The kids loved it. Those who caught on quickly were wonderful helpers for the rest of the class, and best of all, no one stuck anyone else with a needle!





























On the home sewing front, I made my first bound buttonholes for my jacket. They're not perfect, but passable. I tried a few different methods in different books, but decided to go with the "organza patch method" found in my old Vogue sewing book. This was the easiest, but would look most perfect if you have organza that is the same color as your fashion fabric. My jacket is lighter weight than I had expected and I'm wondering if I would have liked it better had I fused it with a different interfacing that had a little more body. We'll see when it's finished. I kind of got hung up on the pockets because they were pulling the front, so I am going to baste those on by hand and see what I think before I sew them, which will also be done by hand so that they won't show through on the lining. I'm ready now to do all the finishing (sleeves, lapels, collar, hem,) but have put it aside until I get some Christmas projects finished!

8 comments:

Summerset said...

Cute - what a great little project. Not only did theymake gifts, but they received the gift of realizing that one can use his/her own two hands to make a gift.

Elaray said...

What a cute project and a valuable lesson. I even recognized some of your fabric!

cidell said...

1. Ummm, I now remember when I got my color inspiration for my blog color change. Well, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

2. What a cute project!

3. I have to check out the organza tip. I'm on a bound buttonhole mission in 2008

Kitty Couture said...

Oh! I received this book yesterday and fell in love with the birds. What a wonderful teaching project.

Lori said...

Wonderful project for your students. I bet many students really enjoyed this.

Chicago Sarah said...

I love that book, and that project. I am totally impressed that you got a bunch of school aged kids to sew without any accidents (of the person-kind)! :) Thanks for the organza tip, and keep us posted.

Tany said...

It looks like your sewing project was a huge success! Well done!

007gurl said...

What a cute project idea!!!