Sewing Lessons

sewing with the littles...






We are new to the Phoenix area, and still not even close to being acclimated to the insane heat. We are full-blooded Northerner's, used to -2 degree winter afternoons, and while it does get up in the 90's in the summer in Michigan, somehow 110+ just does not compare. Much like the way we tuck ourselves away in our warm house during the bitterly cold winter months, here, we hole up in our house during the hottest part of the afternoon with the AC on full blast and try to occupy ourselves with homeschooling, sewing, crafting, popcorn and movies, tidying up the house, and anything else we can think of to avoid the heat.

It was during one of these moments that I decided to teach all of the kids to sew, something they've been asking me to do for quite awhile. To be honest, I totally stole the idea for this project from the Soulemama Blog, but who hasn't gleaned a bit of inspiration from her!? Anyway, daddy and I decided that our little Chihuahua needed a companion, and while we love her to pieces, the boys need a big dog to wrestle around with. So we started looking last month at the shelters for a puppy. We didn't initially have much luck, but next month, Maricopa County Animal Care Center should have several puppies ready to go, so we are going to look for a new friend! In the meantime, I thought it'd be a great starter sewing project to stitch up a quilted/pieced doggie bed.

I hauled out all of my scraps, all the kids dug through, and flung them every which way, and started cutting. They were learning about rectangles and squares last week, so that's what they cut out. I put the machine on slow, helped them wind a new bobbin, thread the machine, and they all went to town. It was literally hilarious to see how amazed they were when they finished stitching and realized that the two pieces had now become one. We got a pretty good start on the top, and more to come this week...