One of the things I do for my church is run an activity group for girls 8-12. Twice a month, another mom and I take turns hosting them at our house and organizing various activities. This month we're learning to sew!
Only three of the five girls came this week, which ended up being okay because, phew! it was busy! Those little girls were so excited; picking out their skirt fabric, twirling around the room in it, running their hands over the shiny sewing machines. It was all we could do to keep them focused on one step at a time!
But at each step they learned to slow down a bit and focus on the little things; spacing the needles carefully, threading the machine... Sewing was a little harder to slow down about; there's just something about the whirrrrrr of that motor that's just too exciting to go slow! One little girl just could not resist and as soon as I'd gotten it all threaded there was a Stomp! and WHIRRRR! as the machine went wild and sewed a big snarl. So, then we had a lesson on untangling the machine:)
It was really fun to see them so excited about learning to sew, enjoying the beautiful fabrics, planning their skirts, exploring the various sewing tools, bobbins and threads. Sewing brings me so much joy (when it's not bringing on tears of frustration!) that it's a treat to pass along the skill, or at least to plant some seeds...
*We used the Lazy Days Skirt Pattern from Oliver + S (free on their blog). Hopefully we'll have some twirly skirts to show you in two weeks!
