Sewing Lesson

I've been working on sewing sock monkeys lately as I got some orders for Valentine's Day ones.  I was looking at the dollar store for new socks (I don't look at socks as socks.  I look at them for their potential to be sock monkeys!) and found some really cute infant socks.  I had to start one to see how they worked.  When Emily saw it, she wanted to sew her own...so we made a run to the dollar store after dinner and the kids all picked out a pair they liked.  Back at home, I drew 3 lines on each of 3 papers - 1 straight, 1 wavy, and 1 zig zagged.  The 3 oldest kids got an quick lesson on foot pressure and hand placement and they then "sewed" on the lines (without any thread).  The next day, they moved on to sewing their names onto felt.  I chose all capitals as that would be less curves!  I had to put the foot pedal on a stool (and in William's case, had to put a cushion from the chair under the stool) in order for them to be able to reach ☺  Then they sewed around the edges and made little pillows.  Next, we moved on to the actual socks.  For those, I actually sat behind them and controlled the sock and they pushed the foot pedal.  Andy sat on my lap and helped with the sewing of the pillow, but I did his sock monkey completely myself.  William helped sew his and stuffed it, but had me do all the hand work.  The girls did all the stuffing and hand sewing themselves. We had to stay up a little past bedtime so they could get them completely finished!  (Even though Emily is wearing 3 different outfits in the pictures, it was all one day!!)

Emily's turn

Dan liked how William was so short, he could see under the sewing machine!

I controlled the reverse button

Andy's turn

Yes, Andy has blue inside his ear!  His legs were also "decorated"

Stuffing his pillow

Sarah's turn

All finished

Sarah picked black for her name, so it dosen't show up very well.

Sarah made an elephant and Emi made a bunny