J's Summer Sewing

There have been numerous times over the summer where the kids have done the "I'm bored" routine.  I always meet this with the reply "well here's a bunch of chores you could be doing" and then also give them a bunch of other options of things to do...things like latch hook, knitting, sewing are always included.

One Day J actually took me up on this and said he wanted to do some sewing.  Of course I said Ok.

He started out with a pair of shorts. Using the basic pants pattern that I created for him.  He chose his fabric - a teal linen that I didn't yet have plan for and pinned his pattern down.  He did all the cutting himself (he's not allowed to use the rotary cutter yet so he has to cut by hand using the scissors), although I did cut out a basic waistband for him using the rotary cutter since I don't have a pattern piece for this and its so much easier to get it straight with a rotary cutter.   

When pinning J had placed the patterns pieces side by side along the side seams and then asked if he needed to cut down between the two pattern pieces.   We decided that since they were already joined together nicely why cut it and then sew it back together so left it and eliminated one seam.

We talked about pockets and he said he definitely wanted them so we decided to just add patch pockets to the front as I figured this would be easiest.

The pockets actually turned out a bit harder than I thought.  To make it easier we cut out a second set of pockets and sewed them together all the way around the outside and then turned it inside out so that all edges were enclosed.  The curved seam to attach the pockets were a bit hard and are a bit wobbly, but it's not a bad first attempt.

He then sewed the front and back crotch seams .  We decided that we wanted to make the insides neat so I helped him run his seams through the overlocker.  I will admit that here I did have hands on the whole time, I'm happy for him to use the sewing machine by himself but the overlocker not quite yet.  Still by helping me he's getting more practice so one day he'll be doing it by himself.

We then did the inseam on first the sewing machine and then the overlocker.  I cut the waistband to length and he then sewed it on leaving a gap to feed through the elastic.  He tried to do the elastic himself but he just could not get it to work so I helped there as well and then helped him finish the waistband on the overlocker.  We neatened up the bottom of the legs with the overlocker whilst we were there and he decided that he liked the way that looked and chose to leave them unhemmed.

And there you go - one pair of shorts as made by 8yo J.  They are a bit big as we didn't remove the hem allowance when we put the side seams together and then didn't hem them, but he likes them like this - and it gives him plenty of room to grow.

The next day he came back and said that he wanted to make a shirt.  He chose some camouflage knit material a while back that he wanted made into a shirt and now he wanted to do it himself.

So we got the material out - and the kids T shirt pattern and again he pinned and cut out all the pieces (except the collar which I cut with the rotary cutter). As we were using a knit fabric we just did the over locker this time so I did help him with most seams.  We sewed together the shoulders first, then put the sleeves in - I pretty much took over for those seams with the different curves.  Then he took control again to do the side seams.  The neckband we again did together and then we moved back to the sewing machine to finish the sleeves and hem. 

By this stage J was getting a bit bored with the process and asked me to finish it off so he could wear it so I just used a basic zig zag stitch to turn under the sleeves and hems and to hold the neckband in place.

Overall I'm very impressed with how well he did - and he's pretty chuffed to be able to say he made these himself.  Great Job!