Visiting with a thirteen year old niece…..
\nI had the pleasure of visiting with my youngest niece this week. This is the first time she has spent a week with us alone. Last year she was here with her sister.
\nWe shopped, cooked, layed out blocks so I could put a quilt top together, watched TV, played UNO, ate ice cream, and went to exercise. We had planned a trip to Chicago, but we ended up making a skirt instead.<\/p>\n
\nBB is able to envision a garment and go full speed ahead into it’s creation. I, on the other hand, am totally tied to patterns. So, I decided it was time for me to explain how to use a pattern, and I let her guide me in making changes to the pattern, to get what she wanted. We were working to both our strengths.
\nI insisted that we make a muslin sample before we cut her fabric. I think she was concerned that I was going to too much work to accomplish this, but once we were sure that the sample would fit, we were off and running.
\nEssentially, we took a bias skirt with a zipper, and made it into a bias skirt with a casing for elastic (no zipper). She envisioned the skirt made of bands of color, and we made it so!
\nBB cut the pattern out. We talked about bias and reversing the pattern pieces. I adjusted the pattern for separate bands of color. She pinned the side seams together and got to use my sewing machine. I pinned the bias seams together and sewed them. I did the casing and she did the hem.
\nGramma got into the act when we asked if she would help BB choose decorative patterns on HER sewing machine for top stitching.
\nIt was an interesting week. A bit slow, for both of us, but BB got a brand new skirt out of it, and we altered a dress into a second skirt. We had to hurry to get them done before her mother arrived. She wanted to surprise her with the completed garment.
\nIt will be interesting to see what she wants to do next year! *G*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Visiting with a thirteen year old niece….. I had the pleasure of visiting with my youngest niece this week. This is the first time she has spent a week with us alone. Last year she was here with her sister. … Continue reading