SEWING with Courtney!

On Courtney's last full day here before school started, we decided it was time for her to try a little sewing project... on the REAL sewing machine! She loves bags, so I found a simple example online, and we went with that plan.

She also loves pockets, and she wanted one on the inside. Since we weren't lining the bag (I serged all the fabric edges to prevent fraying), I said we would also need a pocket on the outside to cover up the stitches from the inside pocket. She chose her fabrics that day but we didn't have time to start sewing (much to her disappointment), so we got at it this week Tuesday when she was here after school.

Here she is, her very first time at a real sewing machine, stitching some of Auntie Jess's ribbon onto her outside pocket for trim.

Next the pocket went onto the outside of the bag.

My biggest worry was over little fingers that could slip under the needle, so I was watching like a hawk, but she was very careful (and I was ready to grab the hand crank if she got going too fast)!

After sewing on grosgrain ribbons for straps, she then sewed the back and front of the bag together.

Here she is with her brand new bag, proud as can be (and rightly so, as she did a wonderful job for a first-ever sewing machine project)!

(I thought she happened to be very color-coordinated that day, right down to her shoelaces!)

A closer look at her bag, made out of one of Auntie Jess's earlier fabrics:

She did fabulously! She was very careful about everything. The hardest part was controlling the speed with the foot pedal, but she'll get the hang of that soon enough. I think she's going to be a great seamstress someday... Grandma's little protégée! Grandma is very proud, too [even though it's hard to believe she's actually old enough (8) to be sewing]!

I took a couple of videos with my iPad, not knowing if I could find a way to get them onto the blog or not, but I discovered that I can email them to myself and save them on my computer, then upload them. So here you can see a couple quick clips of her sewing in action (apologies if you're on a tablet... they probably won't work there (?) ). Next time I'll know enough to turn the iPad to landscape, since I know I can use them here. ;)

She started pretty slowly, but she gained speed with her gained confidence.

I have no doubt her brain is already cooking up the next sewing project. Whatever it is, you'll be seeing it here! :)