Sewing with Grandkids

My son Daniel brought his four kids – ages 8, 6, 4, and 2 – up for a four day weekend – Thursday January 26th through Sunday January 29th – giving his wife a well-deserved break. Vivian, the 8-yr-old, did some hand sewing with me the last time I visited in Southern California. This visit coming to my house she wanted to learn to use the sewing machine so we planned that for the first day after her arrival. We dug through my stash and found a pretty, floral cat panel that made two cats and a mouse. It was titled Mr. and Mrs. Fluffybottom and the mouse Mr. Meepers. Vivian carefully and meticulously cut out the white cat that she liked. We pinned the front and back together, right sides facing. She asked why face to face and I told her she would see why in a moment and set her up at my Pfaff to sew. Viv is large enough that she could feed the layered fabric under the pressure foot and still reach the foot pedal to power the machine.

She crept slowly around ¼" inch from the edge, removing the pins at appropriate times, with me by her side encouraging her. When it came time to turn the cat right sides out, I could see the understanding dawn on her face as she smiled big in recognition. We used this turning tool by Dritz, a Point Turner and Seam Creaser, to poke out the ears and smooth the seam along the body. Next step was stuffing it. I told her we had to run out to the store to get some fiber fill because I did not have enough to fill that large a stuffed cat. 

Timing is everything. A few days before the kiddos arrived I had order three bags of stuffing from Amazon. I particularly like this brand because it is silky to use, not scratchy or itchy to handle. I was a bit bummed when I thought it had not arrived yet. I was mistaken. When we left to go to the store, we found a big box on our front stoop. My husband brought it in the house and we let Vivian open it. She was thrilled to realize that I'd planned ahead for this activity.Vivian truly enjoyed the stuffing part.

Vivian's  6-yr-old sister Lillian and 4-yr-old brother William wanted to sew, too. I dug a Meow Cat Panel by Stacy Iest Hsu out of my stash and figured we could make the four kittens of the Mama Cats. They are simple, since there is only one piece that gets folded over and not two pieces needing alignment. Lillian picked the cream colored one and cut hers out by herself. William picked yellow but was perfectly content to have me take over and finish the cutting, part-way through. He was anxious to get to the part where we would run the machine and sew! Vivian and I cut out the remaining two kittens later, after Lillian and William had taken their turn at sewing.

Not quite tall enough to reach the foot pedal, Lillian and William each sat on my lap and guided the fabric under the pressure foot while I controlled the speed.  They learned how to raise and lower the pressure foot and cut off thread with the thread snips, third finger through the loop and thumb on the flat part. Lillian, now an old pro, mentored her younger brother on the third finger and thumb part of the tool.

Their dad took this photo. I was too involved with guiding and helping to photograph the process real time.

Lillian loved stuffing the kittens. William stuffed about two-thirds of one and concluded that this was no where near as exciting as running a machine or using tools. (He is a budding "Tim the Tool Man Taylor" in the making.) Lillian and Vivian each sewed up the bottom of a little kitten with an overcast stitch. Lillian particularly enjoyed picking her thread color from my case of spools. She was remarkable accurate at matching.  I lined the four kittens up for a photo and asked Lillian to pose with them.

Then Lillian proudly packed them up in a gift bag and delivered the four kittens to her three siblings and herself. 

Lillian wanted to sew up the black kitten that came from the panel, too, but we ran out of time. There were other activities that took precedence, like operating Grandpa's trains and playing with the real cat Tee. 

 

I finished the other animals on the panel and will be sending them off. Mrs. Fluffybottom went home with Vivian but Mr. Fluffybottom and Mr. Meepers will travel via US Postal Service instead of Southwest Airlines.