Wow! I had a great week since my last post! It’s been busy busy, but so much fun and so satisfying. My husband and I went fishing twice over the July 4th weekend and caught a bunch of crappies and bluegills. We now have a few meals worth packed in the freezer. I also managed a day of yard work in between the rain. Two of my flower beds look great now, but my vegetable garden looks like it should be mowed. It looks like we have two good days in a row for today and tomorrow. As soon as my pond yard drains we can mow again. The lawn is a little sketchy this year with all the rain, but I can’t really complain about a little grass when the farmers are pretty much chalking this year up to a loss.
All is well at the boutique, ReChic Unique. I had my Wednesday morning class with A and her skills are coming along nicely. A is a 9 year old girl who is a riot and a half. She is very smart and creative and on a good day will talk your ears off. She seems to be really enjoying learning to sew. I think she likes using the machine better than hand sewing, but who doesn’t. So far she’s made a stitch sampler book, a pot holder, and bandanna skirt. We worked on some applique too, both machine and hand, which is how I know she doesn’t like the hand sewing. It takes a little practice for hand stitches to look nice and I think she was upset by how they looked, but she’s really picking everything up quickly. This week we started on a nightgown for her. We had a couple issues with the sewing machine, but we got them worked out. She’s gotten some practice with sewing, measuring, cutting and pinning. I’m not sure if using an actual pattern is a good idea yet. If anyone has experience with teaching kids to sew, can you give me some insight on tissue paper clothes patterns, please? I have experience teaching kids and sewing, but have never combined the two. I’m sure I’ll figure it out and adapt the lessons to her skill level. I did find some great practice templates for practicing stitching in straight lines, curves, and around corners on the blog So Sew Easy. I had A practice before we got started on the nightgown and then I gave her one to take home and practice on. She also has some applique patches to sew around by hand. I wanted to give her something to do since I won’t see her next week. I told her mom that I would put up some tutorials for A to read and practice with so, hopefully, I will get those up this weekend.
I’ve also been catching up with some sewing on the homefront. It’s actually just a pile of mending that I have been putting off for months….possibly longer. I knocked out a bunch of the easy stuff like buttons and mending pockets yesterday. I also got a strap sewn back on to a doggie coat. I have to get all this mending out of the way so I can find the table in my sewing room and actually start using it again instead of trying to use the dining table. There is so much detritus piled up that I can’t find the strap for another doggie coat that I’m supposed to fix for my cousin. Good thing it’s not winter yet. I also found 5 pairs of my pants that were down there to be hemmed…brand new! Those WILL get done this weekend also.
To round out my week of fun, I also made chocolate chip cookies, apparently not as well as Karen though, ahem, peanut butter cookies, and brownies…….and my dishes are done.
Have a great day everyone and stay tuned for the tutorials A!
Julie