First, the outfit she decided to wear this morning is entirely made by me. Dress and sweater. I need to take better pictures of the sweater before it gets too cold to wear it. I crocheted it from a free pattern by Lion Brand yarn. Their site has a lot of free patterns that seem very nice. After investing in a purchased crochet pattern that I can’t seem to finish, free patterns are probably the way to go for me for a while! This little sweater was a fun one – a beginner pattern that looks harder than it actually was.
Taylor has played around with sewing things together before. I provided her with craft foam, scissors, yarn and a hole punch last summer and she made a couple of cute purses. But I’ve never taught her how to stitch in any formal, precise way.
I noticed the needlepoint plastic sheets at Hobby Lobby the other day. You know the kind I’m talking about? Old ladies used to use awful scratchy yarn to make kitschy little things like those angels whose mouths pop open to reveal a Hershey’s Kiss when you squeeze them. Well, as an adult crafter, I wouldn’t have wanted them. But they seemed like the perfect tool to teach sewing to a kindergartner.
Sure, the kids section has kits with pre-colored sheets to help them create pictures. My cheaper and seasonal idea was to buy a set of little round ones and some orange yarn. Pumpkins!
She learned how to create the fill stitch very quickly. I continue to be impressed with what her little brain can learn, when five years old sometimes seems so young to me. By bedtime, she was on her third row.
I sewed a little faster than my darling girl. Here’s a sample of what I plan to do with the finished orange circles, along with a glimpse of how many we have yet to go. I don’t know how many of them she’ll sew with me. And I don’t exactly relish the idea of sewing all of those myself. So we’ll see! But if we do get all 10 of them done, I’m thinking that I could tack them together to make a pretty cute Halloween wreath.
This brought back memories! My mom taught us to make all kinds of things out of plastic canvas when we were little. We had a whole manger scene made from it that became our cat’s favorite napping spot during the holidays. It is such a great idea for kids, and I had forgotten all about it!
I’ve never seen something as detailed as a manger scene made out of it. That’s pretty neat. It is a nice step up in difficulty from those sewing cards for kids to learn with.