Sewing with my granddaughters

Aislyn and Alyse wanted to learn how to sew on the sewing machine. They are 9 and 10 years old so it seems the perfect time.  One evening during a sleep over, they sewed sleeping bags and matching pillows for their American Girl dolls.  (Of course the dolls had come along for the sleep over.)  I forgot to take pictures, darn it, but the girls sewed beautifully!  They learned straight seams, clipping corners, turning, stuffing, and hand sewing the pillow opening shut.  They also learned to sew buttons on the corners of their pillows. Quite a bit for their first lesson!

The second sewing lesson came during another sleep over.  This time they wanted to sew clothes for their American Girl dolls.  We started with a trip to the fabric store to pick out fabric for a simple gathered skirt and matching headband.  They learned how to do narrow hems and casings, how to insert elastic, and how to turn a tube inside out.

My new sewing machine helped them this time since it's so much easier to control the speed.  Here Alyse concentrates on the seam for her headband.

Aislyn working at the ironing board pressing the seams.

And ta-da!  The finished skirts and headbands.

But why are there 3 dolls, you may ask?  Aislyn's doll is on the right, Alyse's on the left, and mine is in the middle.  YES!  I have an American Girl doll!  I figured I needed a model for sewing doll clothes, so I found this one on ebay for a great price.  She was a bit dirty and her hair was pretty tangled, but she cleaned up just fine.

Does a girl ever get too old to play with dolls?

Happy stitching!