Kali (Learning to Sew)

Today when Krista dropped Kali off in the morning before she went to work I had already decided that today would be Kali’s first sewing lesson. She could whistle, wink and snap her fingers by the age of two, so I figured she would be a champ in the stitching world! I can remember my grandmother and mama teaching me how to embroider when I was about seven years old and figured since Kali is six and a half that we could start teaching her the basics of sewing. For Christmas this year Pop and I gave Kali her very own Brother sewing machine since she has shown such an interest in learning how to sew when she sees me making something on my sewing machine.

Here she is with all of her materials ready to begin.

We decided since a pillow case is a very easy, straight lines beginner project that we would begin with that. So we ironed the fabric, cut out our pieces of fabric that Kali chose from our material box and set out to make the prettiest pillow case she’s ever seen.

I taught Kali how to stand away from the ironing board so that she wouldn’t burn her tummy, I set up the board at a height that she could comfortably move the iron around and watched her very closely so she wouldn’t burn herself.

She was very careful to keep the fabric straight and her stitching evenly spaced away from the edge. She followed the “2” line very neatly. She stopped about a half inch from each pin holding her fabric together to remove the pin and then continued.

She was careful and very neat. She remembered each time to run a few reverse stitches to keep her seams from separating.

After she was finished sewing I taught her how to iron open the seams and finish pressing her completed project. One of the most important things I learned when I was first learning to sew was to iron as I sewed and keep everything neat. It has been a valuable lesson I use today.

Here she is with her finished project, she’s going to be sleeping on it tonight!

What a happy and accomplished girl. Here are a few more shots of her finished pillow case. I have a feeling she’s going to want to learn how to sew lots of things!

It is so very neat and fresh, I know she will enjoy it!