Mum, I want to sew....

5.30pm, dinner was in the oven and I had half an hour to get a bit of my sewing done when Eli came in and said that. Well what could I do but assist.

Although the photo is not too good, on the left is the initial drawing

So I asked him what he wanted. He was very specific.

• I want to have my own pillowcase
• I want my name and a drawing on it
• I only want it to be the stitching (darn - here I was thinking we could just do some iron on applique)

So he drew the picture, we cut a strip of white cotton, he traced the picture on and then.....I taught him how to use the freehand darning foot on my machine to do the black embroidery to create his design.

relaxing with his pillow after dinner.

Once that was done (yes I burnt the carrots to the bottom of the pan because I had forgotten about dinner - thank goodness for frozen veges!!) Eli sewed the structure of the pillowcase, zig zagged all the seams and then ironed it. Viola - One pillowcase.

I am so proud of him. Only 8 and using the freehand sewing feet. But more so that he knew exactly what he wanted and was able to execute it.

I link to these places.

Learning to use the sewing machine

Learning to use the back button

Eli has been working hard on his first ever piece of patchwork.

concentration and excitement

Our School has a really good, optional, homework programme. If you participate then at the end of the year you get a badge. Eli, being the full on- into everything person that he is - decided he wanted to do it this year.

He had to choose 8 things to do through the year. One he chose was to learn something new, a new craft, sport etc. He chose to learn how to patchwork.

Over the summer when camping, I taught him how to do English Paper Piecing hexagons. So he would sit doing his patchwork in the evening in the caravan with me.

Now he wants to put those hexagon flowers onto a square to turn into a pad to put his MP3 player etc on in his room. So over the last few nights I have taught him how to use Vliesofix so that everything is stuck together and he is not using pins.

Last night was onto the sewing machine. Wow was I impressed. He has never used the machine before and his stitching was amazingly accurate, he did not run off but had the presser foot down so that the machine worked slowly but consistently. I have a Bernina with knee control, so he had to learn to use that to raise and lower the foot. He had to follow the line of his hexagons. This was not an easy, sew a straight line, for a first sewing project.

He LOVED it. He was really taken with the machine, made Aaron and Jakob come and watch him. Kept saying "This is an awesome gadget mum, you must love the sewing machine".

Look at that perfect stitching. Amazing for the first time ever

Keeping hands away from the needle

This morning his enthusiasm was obviously still up as now he wants to make more hexagons to put onto his bit of quilting.

I link to these places