Summertime Girl's Sewing Group

Mockingbird embroidering a red rose on her tea towel

 

I suggested a Girl's Sewing Group to friends because

1. I wanted my 9y/o dd to learn to sew on a machine

2. I wanted her to learn from better seamstresses than I

3. I'm addicted to starting groups, let's face it.

-andt was just a fun social something for us to go to in the summer.
Three other moms and I organized  a Little Girl (with 6-8y/o's) and Big Girl (with 9-11y/o's) group. We met everyother week in the afternoon this summer, alternating houses and groups--2 moms to a group.  The 6 Big Girls did projects on the sewing machine, planned by the host house while the 3 Little Girls did hand sewing at their other host house. The Little Girl host house also baby-sat the 11 younger siblings and older brothers.

I was totally excited for our first Big Girl project and had the directions for our pennant outlined on a chalkboard.  I started to go through them and at "Step 2-trace around your template" I quietly hear behind me "I'm bleeding."
I thought it was a joke--we weren't doing anything yet.
"Yep, she's bleeding." another girl confirmed.
I turned around to see a 9y/o with a pinking rotary cutter in one hand, and a deep cut in the other. They had to have been in my home less than 10 minutes!

On another day I saw my friend jump back and I heard that 'composed mom voice' as she cleared her throat and told her daughter, "Um, the next time someone is helping you closely, you probably want to tell them when you are going to start the machine..."

...so I would recommend Safety instructions before anything else...

But by the end of the summer the Big Girls Group had made:

bookmark with raw edges

1. Cloth & ribbon bookmarks
2. 18" doll fleece sleeping bags
3. Pendant banners
4. Handmade Pillowcases with (far too many) pockets

pocketed pillowcase in progress

 

The Little Girl Group made:

1. Red-thread embroidered tea towels
2. Crocheted necklaces and bracelets
3. Bean bags/hand warmers
4. Sock-dolls with curly yarn hair and button eyes

Mockingbird's doll made of socks and baked-yarn hair

It worked really well. By the end of the 3rd project 9y/o Bowery Bird would ask to sew. I'd bring out the machine and set it up, and she would be sewing on her own before I realized it.

At the end of the summer we had a simple party and the girls displayed of their our finished projects on a table outside.

  White-tailed Kite, a friend/relative of the girls, generously gave us a full bag of gorgeous scraps for the girl's projects. Then at the party she had gift bags for each girl with more scraps and notions--her mother even made each girl a crocheted pin cushion! It really made the girls feel special to have their own supplies.



Girls going through their loot & trading pin cushions.

In fact, Mockingbird, who dragged her feet to every group meeting and grumped as she finished her projects the day before--promising to "Never sew again in my Whole Life!!" proudly took her bag home, pulled out all the pins, and buttons, and swatches--twice. Then the next morning demaded we cram her entire bag in the stroller to bring with us all the way to the park just in case she wanted to work on her new project more...

Next summer we will start with the basics (safety, sewing tools, stitches, etc. ), focus more on quality than quantity, and perhaps have the Big Girls teach the Little Girls so we are all doing the same projects--Oh, and a service project would be nice.