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.)