Sew cute!

We had a lazy Sunday today - I wasn't feeling much like going anywhere.  We've already visited most of the museums, the zoo, the beach, etc in the past couple weeks.  There wasn't much exciting going on any where and Allie didn't seem to care too much about going any where in particular when I asked her.

I started working on a small sewing project (my goal is to make most of the Christmas presents this year!) hehe, we'll see how this goes.  Allie was bored and hanging around me while I was working so I figured maybe it was time for me to let her try her hand at sewing - something she's actually been asking me to teach her for a while but I was always worried about, you know, kid with a needle.  Anyway, I figure 5 year olds in China make our clothes so she should be able to figure it out.  So I gave her a big embroidery needle (easier to handle and harder to lose or drop on the floor), some felt and sat down and gave her a short lesson and set her on her way.  I cut out the pieces and then just tell her where to stitch them together.  First, she made a Christmas stocking for the kitty!

"Kuromi" was too long to write, so she just wrote "CAT" hehe 

And then she went crazy.  She spent nearly the entire day sewing! I'd tell her to draw something and then working from her drawing I'd cut out the pieces for her. She then sews the pieces together (I usually start the thread for her) and then decorates the end piece.  She loves it - the whole time she kept exclaiming "I LOVE sewing!!"  I think she loves seeing the end product and realizing that she can actually make cool, functional things all by herself. Anyway, I'm thrilled that she loves it so much. And it seems like a really great way to focus her energy and get her to do something that's "quiet."   It's really amazing to watch her - she's actually very careful and you can tell she is very focused on what she is doing.  By the end of the day, she was surprisingly dexterous with a needle (she never once pricked herself), able to thread the needle on her own and able to do several different simple stitches. I was surprised at how quickly she picked it up and how well she understood how to construct things. Each project is more ambitious than the next.

Small pouch, sewn & decorated by Allie

All in all, she made a stocking for kitty, a pouch and a small bag.  I'll have to put up pics of the bag she made, it's really good!