A BIG New Project

A few weeks ago I was visiting at my Grandmother's house, and because I was also intermittently watching my baby nephew while my brother went to a funeral, I took a couple of sewing projects that needed cutting out to work on while the little guy napped.

My 11-year-old niece, Sadie, was there also and the whole time that I was cutting the fabric out she was right there with a million questions, collecting and pocketing the fabric scraps. I finally asked her "Sadie, do you want to learn to sew?" and she very nearly passed out. So, I set aside the cutting, bundled up the munchkin, and we went to the fabric store to pick out a project.

At Hancock's, the Simplicity patterns were on sale for $1.99, so I handed her the catalog and we talked about what an appropriate pattern to start with would be. She is hard to fit, because she is a tall girl, and developing, so the little girl's patterns are too small. But the big girl's patterns are too skanky!! She eventually selected Simplicity 3887, with the waist tie and puff sleeves.


She selected for her fabric a white quilting cotton with red balls and black jacks on it; which I thought might be a touch young for an 11-year-old. NOT that I was going to point that out to her. With the battles (often resulting in tears on both sides of the dressing room door) that I have waged with her over low-rider pants, tummy-baring shirts, and high heels I wouldn't have said anything if she picked a fabric with pink fluffy teddy bears farting hearts and glitter.

Over the past few weeks, we have been spending Sunday afternoons together learning about the sewing machine, and working on her shirt. Last weekend I gave her her own sewing machine (which will live at my house until she can get through a whole pattern on her own). I found for a good price on Craig's List a Singer 403 in a table. Since she is used to using my Singer 401, it is an easy transition for her. Also, these old Singers are built like little tanks and there is very little that she can do to the machine that I can't fix on my own.

Here she is putting her machine through it's paces, really just playing with all the cams and getting used to the foot control:



She was so excited that the machine was "hers." I taught her how to oil it, and we cleaned all the lint out of it. It was a great deal, just $65.00...much less than even the most basic of machines than I would have been able to get her new; and any machine for that price would have been complete garbage.

Since she has continued to be excited about sewing, this week I took advantage of another pattern sale at Hancock's and some clearance fabric to make her a small "stash," so she would be able to work on a few projects.

For just a few dollars a yard, I got her fabric for a jacket, pants, and a knit shirt:


With the knit with the flowers, she can make either the scoop-neck shirt from Simplicity 4076
or the tee from New Look 6735. Using the gray suiting, she can make either short jacket from Simplicity 3565 or the vest from Vogue 8523. She can use the black to make the pants from the Vogue pattern, New Look 6836, or McCalls 5710. All those patterns are now in her "stash" thanks to the sale at Hancock's. She also has some fancy buttons, a few zippers, thread, bobbins, pins, scissors, chalk, and all the things that she needs to get started. I put everything into a big rubbermaid tub that will be "her" sewing kit.

Hopefully when I see her tomorrow she will be happy with it, even though she didn't get to pick out the patterns and the fabric. I also hope that the sewing will help with other areas of her life. Unfortunately, these lessons are one of the things that she gets to do when her mother doesn't pick her up for visitation. She is supposed to see the children every other weekend, but since she is a crack-head, living in a motel, with no transportation, currently on parole for cooking meth, and in arrears for thousands of dollars in child support I am perfectly happy to fill that Sunday with a sewing lesson so she doesn't mope around about her mother not showing up again.

I also hope that these lessons will help Sadie with some of the other challenges in her life. Namely, building some self-esteem. With a mother on parole, who may or may not be actively working as a prostitute and/or a hustler, I am generally horrified at the items that she will give Sadie to wear. I do what I can to counteract this, when I take Sadie shopping for her school clothes, but it is hard to combat when her mother buys her things like thongs. Thongs! For an 11-year-old! And I'm not talking about flip-flop shoes. But, working on patterns does open the door to talk about things like raising necklines and lowering hems and what is appropriate and what is classy and why no one wants to look at the crack of your butt.

She also struggles with reading and comprehension, and I hope that working through pattern instructions and illustrations will help her with that. If she is able to work through these issues with something she is interested in, perhaps that will spill over into her schoolwork.

I also hope that this opens the door to her understanding the importance of learning useful skills for the future. Because her parents are not setting any useful example for her at all. While I love my brother (mainly because I have to, I think it may be the law or something), he is a terrible example for his children. He can't hold a job, and is constantly dumping them on relatives, mostly his mother. So Sadie doesn't have a strong adult role-model; one who can show her that a good work-ethic is important, and that skills are important in making and maintaining a home. Hopefully this will provide her with an alternative to what she has seen.

Her Uncle Ricky, who is a machinist, also pointed out to her that patterns are just like blueprints, except you cut them apart. And if you can run a sewing machine, you can run a mill at the shop...which started the gears turning in her head....