Sewing Lessons

I have been super busy sewing, but not so busy posting. It's time to catch up! Last fall I started teaching my friend Sylvia to sew. We were planning a mission trip to Uganda and would teaching the women, so Sylvia needed to become confident in her sewing skills as well. She is a great learning and picked things up quickly. I think we started off by making some simple bags and then moved on to skirts, dresses, and tops. These were all clothes we needed for our trip.
Now she's a sewing maniac like I am, and we have lots of fun working on our sewing projects.

This summer, her daughter Gabby, who is an athlete, tore her meniscus during one of her workouts. She had to have surgery and stay off her leg for awhile. She expressed an interest in wanting to learn to sew and wanted to make a Kimono type cover-up/ jacket. I remembered that there was a cute Kimono pattern in Seamwork magazine, and when I showed it to her, she loved it.
You might notice that she is using my grand daughter's Janome "Hello Kitty" sewing machine, and she loves it!






 She ordered some fabric online, so as we were waiting for that to come in, I taught her how to make an apron. She really adapted quickly and did a great job on her apron.
Look at what a good job she did on all of that double fold bias trim!

Next, we made a trip to JoAnns and she found some black lazar-cut lace that she liked and a floral print. I'm telling you, this girl is the Kimono expert! She eliminated the ties and shortened the length. Super cute!

Gabby's going back to school next week, but thank goodness I still have Sylvia as a sewing buddy!

Aprons

I'm so glad I finally got some sewing done! Actually, I had to take today off work so that I could go to the doctor, so I used some time this afternoon to finish up these aprons. They really are belated Christmas presents for my brother and his girlfriend. First I made the black apron for my brother. He is a big Beatles fan, so when I found this fabric several months ago, I bought some thinking I would make a pillow or something. Then I got the idea for an apron for Christmas.








I had a hard time finding something that I thought Margie would like, but when I was at the fabric store I found this fabric and remembered that she is a "horse person" so thought it would be perfect.

I made both of the aprons this afternoon, so I have not given them to them yet. I hope they will like them.











The pattern is an old OOP Simplicity pattern, but I really like it because it has a variety of apron styles in it. Now I want to make one for myself. But first, I really want to get started sewing for my SWAP.