I'm joining Elizabeth and friends for her weekly online sewing circle. It's great fun to see the different projects that everyone is working on - thank you Elizabeth for hosting!
As I mentioned last time, Kateri had a birthday last week and she tells me that her best present was her new sewing machine. I can easily agree with her.
I spotted this vintage toy sewing machine at the thrift shop a few months ago and the cuteness had me swooning on the spot. It's a Singer Sew Handy machine, made in Great Britain, and this model is probably from the 60's (like me). Turning the hand crank makes it work and it sews with a chain stitch and thus has no pesky bobbin to contend with. Though the case is plastic the machine itself and the mechanical parts are heavy duty metal. I borrowed Jonathan's hanky in the store to give it a go and make sure it worked and then I nabbed that thing in a jiffy.
Even the instruction book had me giddy with the charming vintage illustrations-
She was so excited to get started, I helped her to sew a few squares together after her cake and ice cream.
I gave her a collection of charm squares to work with and so the next morning she got started on a blanket for her new donkey (whom she promptly named Puzzle, of course). Half the fun is playing with the fabric and deciding what will go where. (Puzzle really likes ladybugs, she tells me.)
And since then we have been having lots of fun learning the basics. We put our fabrics right sides together, just like a sandwich with peanut butter on one side and jelly on the other.
And then we turn the crank and watch the 'magic' as our pieces are sewn together.
Of course the other half of the fun is seeing your work progress!
Can you tell she's quite pleased with her work? She likes to say, "I'm only six years old and I have my very own sewing machine," as if she can't quite believe it herself.
As for our reading, since this post is about the little ones I'll show you what I'm reading to them: The Complete Brambly Hedge. by Jill Barklem. This was another of Kateri's gifts, and as we have never read these stories before I thought it would be fun to read them aloud together rather than letting Kateri rush through them by herself. So now we have a brief 'little girl tea time' before our regular tea, in which I read a bit about the sweet wee country mice and we sip happily from our steaming cups.
Presently I must be off to get to some serious fast sewing, as we made an unexpected trip out of town earlier in the week and I have a deadline. My four yards of lovely black linen should be just finished with its prewash...bye!
(PS am I the only one who is a bit sqeamish about throwing new fabric into the washing machine? It's really the point of no return, when your yardage is swishing around in there, now isn't it!)
