A Little Helper

After seeing me at the sewing machine so often over Christmas, my 6-year-old daughter A started asking me when I was going to let *her* sew a dress. A dress seems like a bit much to start with, but after some cajoling by her - and some critical thinking by me - I came up with an idea for a skirt that she could make.

I designed this skirt for a 1" hem on bottom and an elastic casing on top. Since my daughter has a 22" waist and I have a stash of 45" wide fabric, it was easy to decide on a 2x gather for the skirt. Being me, I added pockets borrowed from the SLPCo Isla because why not, but the design would work just as well without them.

My daughter was given access to my quilting stash (which, I confess is less sacred than it used to be now that I do more knits), and she selected a fun pink leaf print from my LQS. She waited patiently while I cut and ironed the right creases in it. Then she got to work!

I handled all the ironing and cutting, but she helped me put the pins in, and she managed the fabric (with help) as it went through the machine. Her main job was to pull the pins out as we sewed, and by the end it was a job she performed with gusto. We sewed the pockets to the skirt front/back, then we sewed the sides of the skirt together, and finally we hemmed it and made the casing

And once I put the elastic in, she was thrilled with the result! She's still a dress person so this skirt doesn't get *quite* as much action, but she wore it to church the next day to show all her friends, and then *again* to school to show her teacher on Monday.

and now I have a quick-make project to do with her. It seems the next generation of sewists is in the works!