Sewing with Grandma - Part II

Yesterday, the kids were just playing in my sewing room (which seems to be the natural hangout for the kids and I) and E asked to play in the scraps.  There are a lot of scrap baskets, so we limited ourselves to the blue and pink baskets.  She pretends all kinds of things with the scraps, beds for stuffed animals, clothes for dolls, but finally started laying out square pieces and demanding that I stitch them together, with specific instructions:  "Sew here, Grandma."  She definitely knows what she wants. 

I did as I was told, of course, and before long we had this adorable little quilt for Willa.  Very modern and  improv, don't you think?  And also very well balanced both as to color and design.  This little girl is definitely the child of a long line of quilters.

All in all, a morning well-spent.

Sewing with Grandma Part 1

Each year, when the grands come to spend their month at the beach, one of the things I try to do is a sewing project with each of them.  Two years ago, we made tote bags.  Last year, we made pajamas.  This year, my idea was to have them each make a pair of shorts. 

With the demand for fabric so high due to the diy mask making and PPE effort, it has been pretty hard to find suitable fabrics for kid shorts at Joann's.  My oldest granddaughter found fabric early on, but we couldn't find anything suitable for the younger two.  My grandson and I made a second trip, and he found some fabric he really liked, and also managed to find some cute fabric for his younger sister's grandma-and-me project.

Even though I have two complete sewing stations in my sewing room, it seems that everyone always wants to sew at once.  Oldest granddaughter had a super-secret project she wanted to do first, and has been consistently on the 440 (also named Jane,) which is the best machine I have for piecing.  This past weekend, I was finally able to work with B on his shorts using the 750 (whose name is Barbie - because that girl can do everything!,) which he loves because it has so many fun gadgets.  Luckily, I had a pattern I used to make shorts for my son back in the day (shorts styles are remarkably consistent over the decades, it seems.)  We cut them out and he got busy.

You can see from the top photo that sewing clothing takes a lot of concentration. There were a few bumps in the road and miscommunications about what exactly to sew next.  The concept of the waistband casing and legs' hems literally being a circle was difficult to grasp, for example.  But we persevered, and his shorts turned out great!

Here he is modeling his finished shorts.  He is pretty proud of his success.

(And yes, the sewing room is a mess.  There is a lot of creativity going on here.)

A Raincoat for Willa

I took oldest granddaughter to Joann's for fabric for her annual grandma-and-me project, and we ended up picking out a pattern for her American Girl doll that included this adorable dolly raincoat.  When we got home, the littlest granddaughter decided her Willa doll needed a raincoat.  The problem with Willa, who is a Wellie Wishers American Girl doll, is that there aren't many patterns for clothes for her, perhaps because she is fairly new. 

Thank goodness for Pinterest.  I had a fairly long hiatus from Pinterest but reconnected to look for doll clothes.  As I was perusing Pinterest the other day I found a post which led to Rosie's blog where she told how to resize regular American Girl patterns for Wellie Wishers dolls.  I made a quick trip to FedEx and resized the pattern.  I decided to try it first with a scrap of Kona cotton from my stash.  I chose this yummy apple green.

This pattern sews up easily and the pieces fit together nicely, which is a big plus for me when sewing doll clothes.  I was pretty happy with the results.  Resizing 18" American Girl doll clothes at 65% for the 14-1/2" Wellie Wishers doll worked perfectly.  I had to add a bit of extra to the welt pockets and the collar to have an adequate seam allowance, but my first try turned out exactly right. 

E informed me that even though it looked like a raincoat, my first try was "just a jacket, Grandma," and she really wanted Willa to have a real raincoat.  Luckily, I had some scraps of oilcloth left from a previous project that turned out to be just enough to make an adorable "real" raincoat. 

Now oldest granddaughter needs a "real" raincoat for her Mary Ellen doll.  Guess I need to get on that soon.

Sewing for the Dolls

In a previous post I mentioned that I had been doing a lot of sewing for Barbie and Ken, and also a lot of time browsing Pinterest for American Girl patterns.  When my two granddaughters came to visit recently, they brought their American Girl dolls so I would have a model to make clothes for them.  Oldest has a Mary Ellen doll, which is a regular 18" American Girl doll, and youngest has a 14-1/2" Wellie Wishers doll named Willa.  Most of the time, doll clothes are fun and quick to sew, and I am excited to find that there are so many patterns online for these dolls.  Grandson also asked for some more clothes for Ken, so I guess my work is cut out for me. 

The two oldest want to sew doll clothes, and oldest and I worked together to make a new outfit for Mary Ellen over the weekend.  Grandson is anxiously waiting for his turn.  Even with two complete workstations in my sewing room, there seems to be a fair amount of competition for available sewing space, since their mom needs to sew as well.  As entranced as they are by the features on the Bernina 750, Oldest learned quickly that it was perhaps not the best machine to learn on.  She quickly moved to the 440 to finish her outfit after the machine kept swallowing the little pieces. 

The first day of summer vacation, which was also the day after the grands and their parents arrived, I sewed for the dolls while they were at the beach.  It was a lovely, relaxing day.  Normally, I need about a week to decompress after school is out, but I did ok this year with just one day.  The remote teaching from home wasn't nearly as stressful as a month of testing - at least not for me.  First, I made Mary Ellen a dress from an old McCall's pattern I had in my stash, and it ended up too big in the bodice, which was disappointing.  This morning I took it apart and took about an inch out of the bodice - quite a lot for a doll with a 10-1/2" waistline.  It's still a little big, but it's much better.

Youngest chose this fancy fabric for her dress.  I found a cute pattern online for a 14" doll, and after some experimentation (meaning I threw the first bodice away,) I came up with a dress that fits her well.  The first time, I tried the pull-through method for making the bodice, where you sew the armholes and the neckline and then pull the back through the shoulder seam to the front, but these pieces are just too small to pull the bulk of the back pieces through, especially considering the bulk created by two layers of fabric.  I ended up partially sewing the armholes and completing the rest of the seam by hand.  I thought this little dress turned out pretty cute and Youngest was pretty happy with it, which, after all, was the whole point.

Ken also got a new shirt, but he must be off with Barbie right now, because I can't find him, or the shirt, so more Ken clothes in a later post.  Grandson liked Ken's swimsuit, so I had to hurry and make Ken his own pair of shorts.  Every time I turned around, Ken was on the floor naked.

On Saturday afternoon, I made Willa another little outfit.  I used the basic Barbie skirt idea and changed the dimensions to 5" x 13".  This is honestly a 15-minute project.  The fabric is one of the scraps from the hospital gowns I made a few weeks ago.  The top was a nightmare.  The fabric is a quarter yard of knit I bought at Joann's before Christmas.  It did not want to sew.  The machine kept skipping stitches, and I couldn't find a ball point needle, although I know I have several packages of them somewhere.  I finally used a piece of paper in the seam to keep the fabric from getting grabbed by the needle.  It made a 30-minute project into an hour-long one, at least.  The pattern for the top is the Pixie Faire trendy t-shirt pattern for 14-1/2" dolls, but it is honestly a bit too tight.  Next time, I will add maybe 1/2" to front and back in the width to make it fit better.

So, I'm keeping busy.  Lots of other projects on the list while the grands are here.  We'll see how many get accomplished, but we're making good progress so far.  We've been checking things off the list pretty regularly, and as far as I know, no one has been bored or missed any of the activities we can't do because of all the closures due to Covid-19.  So far, so good.

Good Friends/Fun Mail

My online friend and I were talking Barbie clothes and Harry Potter, and just having a great convo on IG.  As part of the conversation, I said I wished I had some Harry Potter fabric.  [I really don't know why I didn't buy some earlier, but I didn't.  I've been going through a phase where I'm trying to not buy more fabric.  (Don't ask how well that is going!)] And I don't remember whether it was the same convo or not, but this same IG friend mentioned the cutest HP social distancing shirt, and I decided that I really needed one to add to my teacher wardrobe. 

Anyway, I came home one afternoon, and there were not one but two wonderful packages on my favorite chair that had come in the mail  The first was an adorable mask made with Harry Potter fabric.  It's a different style than I make, but has the cutest Harrys, Rons and Hermiones on the front. 

Along with the mask was a wonderful selection of HP scraps.  I suddenly remembered that my school bag is nearly 6 years old and I really NEED to make a new one, and that these scraps would be perfect.  That naturally led to the conclusion that I must have more Harry Potter fabric.  Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much HP fabric to be had after the recent mask-making, fabric-buying Covid-19 frenzy, but I did find a few pieces, and my daughter found a few pieces at a Joann's store close to her.  She also apparently had a few pieces in her stash she offered to me but apparently forgot to bring.  But a plan for a new school bag is developing. 

The other package contained my new HP social distancing shirt.  LOOK at this shirt Susie (@crafty.like.a.slytherin) made.  It is so perfectly timely!  I had so much fun wearing this the first teacher day we had to spend actually at school.  Some of the other teachers actually did a true double take, and then laughed. 

Here's the original Educational Decree #31 but we all know that in the Covid era, 8 inches isn't nearly enough.

It came with the cutest note that made me smile. 

She even made me a tote bag from the outtake (or what I call the weeding) of the vinyl.  That was so very thoughtful.  I don't think this tote will hold up to the weight of bringing a million papers home every day, but it will be great for the beach or other outings. 

Then, this past Saturday, I received a most unexpected package of fabric from my friend Leona.  Leona was my very first swap partner, way back in the Flickr heyday.   A few years ago she often made trips to the Florida panhandle and we would meet often and talk sewing and quilting and family and whatever, but unfortunately she hasn't been able to come this way in awhile.  She said that she saw that I had done a lot of charity sewing and she wanted to help out with some fabric.  That was just so kind.

So it's been a great week or so for mail.  Thank you Liiani, Susie, and Leona.  I am very grateful for friends to take the time to think of others and brighten the world a little, especially in these stressful times.  I need to take more time to think of how I can lift others and make someone smile.  Yesterday, in our home church, we sang a Primary song that goes like this:

I want to be kind to everyone

For that is right, you see.

So I say to myself, "remember this:

Kindness begins with me."