More sewing with El.

For pocketbook 2.0, the feature list includes:  a zipper, a curved bottom, and two handle shoulder strap.

She got a blue sewing machine for Christmas.  Now we're figuring out where to set up her sewing table and I'm thinking about what projects will be fun and useful.  We know a couple of babies, so fat quarter quilts.  My folks could use some new placemats and my nephew brings cloth napkins.  Our main things to work on are consistent seam allowances, locking seams, turning corners and remembering to put the presser foot back down.



The machine seems to be pretty good.  I was really missing some of the features of my machine, like a light, the threader, a zipper foot, and seam allowance markings.  But what it does, it seems to do well.


El sewed the tubes for the straps, and then we needed to switch back to my machine once we got home.  And, um, switch sewists.




My first stab at the curved bottom was not curvy enough.  I had her draw a line on the inside with a washable Crayola marker and sewed along those lines and it was finally good.  Also, the inside edges are just pinked together, not hidden.  Should be good enough for this draft.  Also, I need to figure out how to do zippers better this year.

Again, she's happy with this pocketbook and using it regularly.  Also, I let her cut up some Kaffe Fassett stash for the body.  Cause I'm nice and I love her.

Sewing with El.

This fall, E decided that she wanted to sew one afternoon.  She was 7 at the time.  I think everyone else was at a teenager movie, so we had some time and attention available.  She sewed a bunch of pieces of fabric together. Scraps that I had near my machine, left over from something else.

She was having fun.  Then realized she wanted to make a pocketbook.  For a 7 year old whose mother carries her wallet, she has a lot of pocketbooks already.  She decided she wanted one that had a crossover strap, a pocket on the outside, and a flap that folded over and buttoned.  She drew a picture of her idea and then we picked out some fabrics from the stash.  She had a thing in her mind and went for it.

The sewing itself, though required a little more precision and technical skill than she has right now, so she supervised and I sewed a lot of it together.  And she added a sewing machine of her own to her Christmas list.

We ended up with this:

She was really happy with this.  Sometimes, you go through the trouble of making something and then there's something about it that you don't like and you don't use it?  This bag was in heavy rotation.  Until she thought of pocketbook 2.0.  The adventure continues.  Stay tuned.