A Sewing Lesson with Hansel & Gretel

Hard to believe that my previous post was three weeks ago. It was about completing a set of Goldilocks and the Three Bears stuffed toys before a convening of girl cousins. Here the girls are enjoying those dolls, from left to right, ages 5½, 2, and 4.

Now I have my 4 year old granddaughter Vivian staying with me for a few days. I started a set of Hansel and Gretel dolls, also a Stacy Iest Hsu design, a set I had made a few months ago for her now 5½ year old cousin Autumn and blogged about in my 10/11/17 post. The panel it started from is shown in the next photo. The set has two dolls, a skirt with gathering belt for the girl doll, a small stuffed bear, a smaller stuffed bunny, a blanket, and a pillow.

I made the boy and girl doll first since they are the most difficult to stuff. The Clover Hera marker, a tool I found best for coaxing the stuffing down into the arms and legs, is visible on the far left at Gretel's waistline.

I found that sewing a stitching line across where the limbs join the torso is best accomplished by starting in the center of the leg joint and working back and forth toward each edge. With this approach, the side seams are not askew.

There! A closeup reveals that all four legs are bendable at the hip with side seams exactly where they should be. The process is repeated where the arms join the torso.

I made the skirt/belt and two animal pets but only partially completed the pillow and quilt. I would leave those two items to finish with Vivian when she was here; I prepped them before her arrival by sewing right sides together for the pillow and the quilt, and then turning them right side out. With her on my lap, I planned for her to do the straight line quilting on the doll blanket.

Vivian was quite intent and really concentrated.  I kept my hands over hers to keep her fingers shielded from the needle, so she would not be afraid and I managed the foot speed control, keeping it slow enough she could be in charge of the steering.

I gradually raised my hands once she was comfortable and left her on her own to feed the mini-coverlet under the pressure foot.  I kept reminding her, "Hands real soft, like fluffy clouds," and "No bumps before the toes of the pressure foot" going forward. She soon got the knack of it.

Voila! She was on her own! She stayed on the lines very well needing me only to help with the 90° turning at the edges.

Just look at that grin of success! Perhaps we may have another quilter in the family.

Of course we also went through the requisite "Show and Tell" portion of any completed project. Vivian was very proud.

For the pillow of the set, I left the stuffing of it up to her. 

 She got to decide just how "squishy" she wanted it.

When it came time to stitch up the opening I called her over to my collection of threads and asked her to pick a color. I thought this would be a lesson in matching on my part and that I'd wisely guide her toward the closer of a pale pink like the top or an olive green like the bottom. Nope. She wanted bright pink! Matches nothing. But it is pretty and she likes it. I fought back my urge to persuade her to follow my matchy-matchy disposition and allowed her to express her creativity in contrast. It was a struggle for me but I acquiesced to her choice.

I did point out to her on the girl and boy dolls that if she picked a matching thread color, the whip stitches closing the opening would be "almost invisible".

"But I want them to show," she countered. "I like pink." Her she is enjoying the fruit of our labors.

A bear and pillow closeup reveal their cuteness. I think the bunny had hopped off under a chair at the time of this photo.

Let's face it. They are precious toys and it was a fun, memorable experience making them.

Memories come flooding. When Vivian's dad and aunt (my son Dan and daughter Robin ) were little, I would have them help stuff the Christmas ornaments. I even brought ones I had stitched ahead of time with us on summer vacations and we would turn them and put the batting in during the evenings while winding down for bed. Our 2015 Christmas tree displayed about half the collection over the years. Others were hung in doorways and on curtain rods in windows. It was a very social activity much like the quilting link party Let's Bee Social #239.