cathyvv

My grand-niece and nephew, Ashleigh and Foster visited me last week. We went to the beach, the pool, movies, aquarium. You'd think that would be enough, right?

No. They wanted to sew. I bought a couple of pillowcase kits and they were excited about that. Then they changed their minds...they wanted to make bags for their sister and mother.

Not a problem, except I've never made a bag...ever. We went shopping in my stash and each one of them picked out a fabric. Since I had no clue what I was doing, I grabbed a lone fat quarter for myself. When they went to bed, I sat down and figured out how to make a bag. After a few false starts, I decided to use the pillowcase concept, folded my fat quarter in half and sewed two of the unfolded sides good side to good side, then turned it inside out. After that, I sewed the open end closed - no batting, no quilting. Then I folded it all in half again and sewed two of the unfolded sides together. At midnight, I decided that I'd done enough and went to bed.

Thank God these kids think I know what I'm doing...they were thrilled with the "design". So I gut each of them a 12 inch strip of their selected fabrics, and two 3" by width of fabric strips for handles.

Both kids did all of their own sewing - they're getting to be pros, after all, this is their second project each! I introduced Ashleigh to the seam ripper (didn't actually let her use it, though) so she could correct some wavy stitching. Fosters' work was straight enough the first time, no seam ripping for him.

Also had them press seams for this project. It's amazing to me that a kid would like to use an iron, but I guess irons are novelty items these days...seldom seen and rarely used. Pressing turned out well, no burns.

When everything else was done I made them straps for the bags. Cut the strips in half, then folded one edge over about 1/4", folded the rest of the strip in thirds, got out my fabric glue and glued them together. Then the kids sewed them on their bags.

At this point, I'm thinking that we're done. Wrong. They found some iron on applique patches, and had to embellish their bags. One thing I learned - they do not think 'less is more'.

Take a look at the results. They're both quite proud of their work, and I'm proud of preserving my reputation as a 'know it all' Auntie! If they only knew...