A Fun Day in the Sewing Room

The day started and ended with smiles!

Dawn and I spent a little time together on Saturday. Much of that time was spent downstairs in the coolness of the sewing room. She wanted to finish her skirt we had cut out in the beginning of the summer. I have to brag on her a lot. Her biggest aversion to sewing something is pins. She has been afraid since she has been small of poking herself with a pin. Oh, and the other thing she doesn't like to do is iron, she doesn't want to burn herself! I totally get all of that at her age.

So...the agreement was I will pin and iron everything she needs as long as she does all of the sewing. She was all for that although I told her when we jump into the next projects she has sitting by her sewing machine, she will have to ease herself into these two things and get past the fear that has been holding her back! She thought that sounded reasonable.

Okay, so I said she was going to do all of the sewing. I had forgotten that this skirt has an invisible zipper. I actually just put on my very first invisible zipper last spring when I made Dawn's dress for Easter. I felt silly when I did it because it really wasn't as difficult for me as I expected it to be. But, I have been sewing since I was nine and I am much older than that now! I was doing my best to instruct her in all of the wisdom I gained from my ONE experience and told her we could watch a couple of YouTube videos (I mean, last spring I watched about eight or ten before I jumped in). She told me no, she thought she could do it.

Hmm, well she did sew the waistband on beautifully that had quite a bit of easing to my surprise so, maybe I could let her go on this. See, and that was another thing...I actually was working on my own stuff while she was there. I am pretty sure that is the difference between trying to teach a nine-year-old and an almost 14-year-old. She was definitely up for the challenge. I helped her pin on the first side and she sewed it right up.

I was trying to help her pin the other side of the zipper on and well, lets just say that I am a little direction-ally challenged and finally she just grabbed it from me and said "Mom, I think I know, I will do it." Okay...and you know what? She did. She sewed the invisible zipper on the skirt without one seam ripped out and done over and completed the side seam like a pro! Her machine worked like a charm too.

If you can't tell, I am a little proud of her. She wants to tackle a Princess Zelda costume next. She has the picture and we found a pattern in Grandma's collection that we can use for the dress. Last week we used a bunch of coupons and got a great deal on every color. I told her that with chemo this week we will do our best to get the pattern cut out. She knows we may have to wait until next week. She also knows that her mom's LEAST favorite thing to do in the whole process of sewing is cutting stuff out.

When did I blink that this little girl is sewing invisible zippers all by herself? And walking out the door with heels and a skirt that she sewed herself?