April Beginner's Sewing Club

I think I am a month or so behind on posting about our sewing club projects.  Anyway, the beginner sewing club met yesterday and I was so please with how their projects turned out.  We made "stuffies" from the book Sewing School, and they turned out GREAT!!

I didn't take step by step photos, but basically, the kids drew something with pencil on paper first, then traced their drawing with a black Sharpie marker.  Then we taped a piece of muslin fabric over the drawing and they traced it onto the fabric using a fabric marker.  Finally, they colored the details with regular old Crayola crayons.  I ironed their drawings with a piece of paper on top to remove the wax and leave the color behind.  Then they chose a background  color of felt and we cut out the shape of their stuffie.  The final step (which did involve sewing!) was to sew the two pieces together and stuff.  I love how they were all really creative and each made a unique stuffie.

Several of the children also made eyeglass cases, also using the patterns from Sewing School.

Leopard

Giraffe

Shark chasing a school of fish

Monkey on a ball

Glasses case and leopard

Glasses case and flower (sorry for the orientation of the next 3 photos)

Alien

Monkey and glasses case

Creighton basketball fan

February Advanced Sewing Club

We had a great time today making fabulous Valentine's-themed projects in Advanced Sewing Club.  Last month's hoop project was such a hit that I decided to do another hoop project this month.  HERE is a link to my inspiration for this project.  I really loved the white flowers on the red background.  So striking for Valentine's Day.  Making the yo-yos and learning the backstitch to make the stems for this project were new skills for the girls and they learned very quickly!  I was so impressed with how well they did with this project.  Their flower hoops turned out great!

We also made little pocket pillows with a heart pocket where they can hide a "love" note to someone.  They used a running stitch to attach a felt heart, then continued with the running stitch to sewing the front and back together, wrong sides together.  I decided to have them sew wrong sides together to ensure a nice round pillow.  I have found that sewing with an internal seam (right sides together), you sometimes end up with a pillow that is a bit misshapen due to the spot where the opening is sewn shut.  Does that make sense?

February Beginner Sewing Club

This is a week late in posting as we met for February Sewing Club one week ago.  OOPS!

We made a couple of really cute projects and I was very happy with how the kids did.  For a Valentine's Day nod, we made little heart pouches.  I provided Starburst candies to tuck inside.  One little sewing clubber accurately observed that the heart "vomits" out the Starburst.  Yep, I have boys in Sewing Club this semester.  Four boys to be exact.........four silly second grade boys.  They are SO much louder than the girls.  It's quite amusing.   HERE is a link to the inspiration for the heart pouches.

We also made pillows.  We sewed them right sides together which baffled the minds of a few of them (my son included) who could not believe that we weren't doing it backwards!  Now they know that sewing right sides together allows the seam to be on the inside!!  To make these, I just traced around a plate to make two circles.  No need for a pattern for a project this simple.  They sure do love using stuffing though!  They were surprised when I kept having them put in more stuffing.  I like a nice plump pillow.  No wimpy pillows for this girl.

Here's a gallery of our creations:

Advanced Sewing Club........Snowmen and Snow Scenes

We had a great time at sewing club this afternoon.  My mom (she's my assistant!) and I worked with 9 veteran seamstresses who have all completed at least one semester of sewing club and/or sewing camp this past summer. 

Although all the snow in our area has melted and it felt like spring today, we made two "snowy" projects......a little stuffed snowman and a snowy scene. 

I'm hoping to teach the girls some embroidery this semester and the snowy scene project was a step in that direction.  They used chalk pencils to draw snowflakes on a blue background fabric.  This piece was then placed into an embroidery hoop (they were very amazed that they got to KEEP the hoops!).  Next, they stitched their snowflakes with white craft thread.  The last step was to sew a "snowdrift" at the bottom (white felt) using a running stitch.  Then the extra fabric was trimmed and hot glued to the back of the hoop.  I think these turned out so cute!!

They also made snowmen out of felt, using felt pieces and/or buttons for the features and embellishments.  Most of the girls didn't finish this at class, but they are going to be SO cute when they are done!!!

Fun times at Beginner Sewing Class

We had our first beginner sewing class of the semester today and it was tons of fun!

First off, each student received a special, handmade, personalized sewing bag with basic sewing supplies inside.  Here's a photo of the bags waiting for students to come and find them!!  I made a needle book and apple pincushion for each student and placed these supplies inside a small plastic box.  They will bring their bags and supplies to each Sewing Club class for the rest of the semester. 

Today we learned the basics such as how long to cut your thread (roughly from fingers to shoulder), how to thread a needle, how long to make the "tail" of the thread (the length of your hand), how to tie a knot, how to do the running stitch and how to sew on a button.  We practiced these skills by sewing a running stitch down a small rectangle of felt.  One student decided these could be used as bookmarks.  GOOD IDEA!!

Our two projects for the day were felt bracelets/cuffs and small felt pouches.  These simple projects allowed the kids to practice sewing on buttons and using the running stitch to make something functional.  Here are some photos of their creations: