Hello Friends!

The end of January is here and I’m finally starting sewing classes with my students!  I am thrilled to be back so let the sewing begin!

This week is usually geared toward a review of basic sewing skills.  The review also helps new students get started on their sewing journey.

For the next 3 weeks our projects will have a Valentine theme.  Hearts are perfect for teaching how to sew curves by hand or machine.  Decorating our hearts teaches elementary beading and sewing on sequins.  My older classes will be decorating their hearts on the machine to learn techniques like couching or attaching lace.  Everyone will love stitching projects to give that special person for Valentines Day or just for themselves!  Just go to my website if you need more kits to stitch for gifts!

This week it’s Valentine Handwarmers.  Hearts are filled with rice.  Place them in the microwave for 20-30 seconds and drop them in a coat pocket or between the covers to warm up those fingers and/or toes! Enjoy!!

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I’m so excited! Why? Because last week 32 “Measure Me Dolls” were born in the first-grade classes at Tower Hill School in Wilmington Delaware. And Ms. Bobbi stitched each one of them with lots of love.

The “Measure Me Doll” project was started by a Tower Hill first grade teacher about 3 years ago. Jill had done the project in another school and wanted to try it at Tower Hill. We fine-tuned the project, eliminating adding birth weight to the babies and found a better pattern that looked more like real babies and we were off and running.

Each doll is the height of the student when they were born. Students choose the fabric (skin tone) and then the dolls are cut by parents and sent to me for stitching. When the dolls are returned, each class spends a day stuffing their dolls, making hair, choosing faces, decorating a onesie, putting on a diaper, and making an identifying necklace with their name for the baby.

After the babies are born, the first-grade classes spend a week doing activities relating to their births and taking care of their babies. It’s a great project and I enjoy stitching the babies every year and listening to the kids tell me stories about when they were little!

Scroll down for pictures! You can click each one to view their full size.

Until next time,

Ms. Bobbi

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Hello Friends,

This past few weeks my classes have been working on elementary hand stitches and basic machine techniques. You could say we are getting “in the groove” for sewing our next projects!

Ms Bobbi (that’s me!) purchased some of the cutest Halloween fabric from Riley Blake. Most of the fabric glows in the dark! We had a blast making Halloween pillows, Halloween candy bags, and Kleenex pouches to celebrate the season.

I started to make my own designs for my hand projects and my first kits were all tested and approved by my students. My younger sewers made my Pumpkin Pillow and my older students made my Pumpkin or Spider Pouch. Look for more, both hand and machine, as we continue through the school year!

As the holiday approaches, my focus will be on celebrating Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, and any other holiday that people celebrate during this time. My students enjoy making seasonal projects and they love making gifts for family and friends to show off their new sewing skills! And Ms Bobbi loves seeing their smiles as they finish each project and realize that they made it themselves. Learning to sew and loving it!

Until next time,

Ms Bobbi

Kids just love making pillows! For some of my students I think the best part of making the pillow is stuffing it! So I thought let’s make some Christmas pillows and ornaments and have fun stitching and stuffing them!

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Because I again wanted super easy projects I cut squares from felt and fleece. These fabrics don’t ravel and seams don’t have to be inside! Cut squares to the desired size. Add any appliques with simple hand stitches. Add embellishments like sequins, buttons, and ribbons. Pin the front of the pillow to the back and be sure to leave a hole in the middle of one of the sides to stuff. You could use the machine to sew the sides if you would prefer, but I love these pillow projects from felt to practice hand sewing. Stuff the pillow lightly and stitch up the opening you left for stuffing. Your pillow is done! If you are making an ornament, just slip in a piece of folded ribbon at the top of the ornament and stitch all 3 layers at once (top felt, ribbon in between, and bottom felt).

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For more ideas and creative stitches for your projects check out “The Amazing Stitching Handbook for Kids” by Kristin Nicholas available on my website under Fun Stitch Studio Books by C&T Publishing. Until next time… Bobbi

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, it’s time for my young students to spend the next few weeks leading up to Christmas and Hanukkah making gifts for family and friends. I decided to share a few of these on my blog.   The Fleece Pouch is a project that I use in all my beginning classes. It is simple enough for my kindergarten crowd and all the kids get to practice a straight stitch, running stitch, and sewing on a button. As an extra I add on an applique’ when time permits. The kids love this little cutie!  

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  The pouch was inspired by the Sewing Card from Valori Wells called “Little Wallets”. The pattern was a little too hard for my younger kids so I traced the shape of the pouch and then folded the bottom of the pouch back up on itself about 3 and ¾” and continued to trace the pouch. I now had a simple pattern to cut out for the kids.   While most of the pouches have been from fleece I thought that for Christmas these would be perfect fashioned from Christmas colored felt. I also gathered some embellishments for my pouch like sequins, Christmas buttons, floss, and ribbon.   The first step was cutting out my pouch. Next I decided on an applique for my flap. I pinned the holly in place, stitched around the leaves, and then added beads for holly berries and a ribbon. (You could add any embellishments of your choice). Next I added my button about 2” down from the top and centered in the middle of the pouch.   After sewing on the button I folded up bottom of the pouch about 3 and ¾” and pinned it in place. Using an overcast stitch I sewed each side of the pouch. I added a running stitch to the edges of the flap and finally slit the fabric where the button will go through to close the pouch. Now I could add a gift card or gift, button the flap, and one gift is finished and ready for giving!   Look for the sewing card “Little Wallets” by Valori Wells in my marketplace in the Sew Kool for Kids Shop!   Happy Holidays…

I love using socks to make creatures and other fun creations. You can use old socks that lose a mate in the laundry or socks that have holes that can’t be fixed. Or even better and more enticing, go to any clothing store and be amazed at the array of brightly colored socks in a variety of styles to plan your next sock project One thing for sure is once you get started making sock creatures, you’ll be addicted and I bet you can’t make just one!

Mt first encounter with sock creations was several years ago when my friend purchased several sock creations at a local craft fair near Kutztown, PA. We were absolutely crazy about these creatures and instantly wanted to learn how to make them. I started to research books about making sock creations and came upon the books by Brenna Maloney. Her books were full of wonderful information to make your very own sock creations from start to finish. Brenda categorized them by skill level with plenty of pictures to make her steps easy to follow. Maggie and I were quick to purchase her books and several others to begin our journey into the land of anything goes with socks!

Needless to say, when summertime rolled around and I was looking for wonderful camp projects for my kids, Brenna Maloney’s book “Sock Appeal” came to mind. My campers tend to be 6 years old – 9 years old with little or no sewing experience unless they have been in my classes during the school year. The projects needed to be simple but fun and easy to embellish. I chose the sock snakes and the sock fish and would let them choose which one they would stitch.

The girls loved the fish in all of my classes. So we did a little preparation before we stitched the fish. We talked about knit fabric, how to stitch curves and corners, and how to clip our curves so the fish would be smooth when turned. Depending on the socks I used (the more cotton in the sock the less it curled) we also went over how to deal with the knit fabric curling once it was cut while we were stitching. We were ready to stitch our very own school of fish!

The kids had a blast sewing the fish. Some hand stitched embellishments but others opted for a plain and simple fish. Sock creatures would be a mainstay of my curriculum for future classes!