Kids sewing camp, and my “Mom” job

Kids camp is going well. Today, a young sewist completed her first garment. She made a gathered skirt with a 2 piece waistband with elastic in the back only. Pretty snazzy for a beginner, huh? Here are some pics:

Tomorrow, she moves on to making herself a quick pair of PJ pants before she is finished with the camp. She will complete camp with a drawstring bag, this skirt, and the PJ’s. This skirt is a Kwik Sew pattern, and I really tend to shy away from them because I assumed they would be full of shortcuts and bad techniques. The reality is that though the project was fairly simply, the instructions were much better for a beginner than many of the “easy” patterns from Butterick and McCalls. They also had no expectations as to the sewist’s skill set, so they gave very good directions on how the basics should be done, rather than simply saying to “baste” to gather, the instructions said to change stitch length to a long stitch and to reduce the upper thread tension. Very nice to know when assisting students.

For the past couple of weeks, college kids have been home with us. During that time, I’ve been trying to help my college sophomore build up a wardrobe. We’ve made 2 pairs of leggings for her, a 10 way dress, and today, I’m working on this great knit dress: We’re doing the black dress in a black, knit rayon/spandex fabric. It feels like a tissue T fabric because it’s so soft and drapey. Notice the detail near the hemline. The dress has the main body parts: the front, the side and the back. The side panels are gathered, in 2 places, a band sewn between them, and then a very strange little step sort crisscrosses over the banded “skirting”. I love it, but it’s a little difficult to figure out. Makes me wonder if this is really an “easy” pattern. I certainly wouldn’t recommend it to one of my beginners!  Anyway, life is fun in the sewing studio.

Sew Joyfully!