Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Sewing

I LOVE sewing!  I love seeing a finished product and knowing that I made it.  I have said many a time that I want my kids to be able to do the same.  My kids are at perfect ages right now where they are excited to do these projects of mine.

Last year we made THESE.  It was just sewing three lines.  This year I decided to do pajama pants.  It you think about it, it is just four straights of sewing.  Thread the elastic through and hem the bottoms and there you have it!

They are a quick and easy project that you really can't mess up.  We made a trip to Joann's for everyone to choose their fabric.  I made them choose flannel because it is a very forgiving fabric when it comes to sewing because it is just the right thickness.  It was interesting to see the kids' choices.  We had everything from pink elephants to blue guitars.

I KNEW that I would have to be mellow and not freak out at all or else it wouldn't be a good learning experience for my kids.  I also decided to do it with all the kids at the same time.  That way they older could help the younger and we could all finish together.  I LOVED seeing the older boys helping the little girls, reinforcing the steps that they had already done.

I only took a couple of pictures because things were quite busy.
PJs3
PJs7
I let Ashley pin her pattern on her fabric.  It kept her busy for quite some time and looked like this.
PJ's5
I did let Ashley cut her own pants out and then went back and "helped" cut a little more.  We really enjoyed this project.  I think that sewing Pajama pants has to be the easiest clothing project to make.  We finished all six in one afternoon.  My boys even loved it because they enjoy using the sewing machine with the foot pedal.
PJs
By the way ... doesn't a certain someone look cute in her elephant PJ's WITH her NEW haircut!
PJs8
We sure LOVE the new PJ's!  They all turned out super cute and will be fun to wear.  I think I may even make it a summer tradition to do PJ's every year.

5 comments:

tren said...

Oh, Shauna, how cute they are! I wish I knew how to sew, but that's a skill I never learned. Maybe pajama pants are easy enough that even I could figure it out! Our young women did pajama pants for an activity a while back, but it took them two weeks. Jerrica's hair looks cute!

Sarah said...

You make me want 6 kids, thanks for sharing so much on your blog!

TOLIVER FAMILY said...

how cute...you have beautiful beautiful kiddos

Kat said...

Love your blog! I peek at it often. So, science experiments, pajama pants, awesome pictures... will you adopt me? lol. Just kidding! Thanks for sharing all your wonderful ideas and talents. You always inspire me to try harder with my own kiddos.

charity said...

shauna, i thought of you when i had to sit down and figure out a way to make quick bags for chey's tent at girls camp this year...they are "the bomb" so we made bright orange drawstring bags, like they use for sports...it was so easy, i thought you might use it one sewing day...we took a long rectangle, twice as big as you want the bag to be...folded in half, stitched the sides, turned the open end for a finished edge, just like you did for elastic in your pjs...leave the seam open at both edges, because the one trick is that you have to thread the drawstring from both sides...then we punched grommets through at each corner on the bottom (your boys would love that, break out the hammers) so the lace on one side knots at the bottom, threads through the opening at the seam, all the way aroung to come back at same opening, then knots with itself at the bottom again. same thing with another lace from the other side...so when you pull from both sides, it cinches up the bag...they are darling, and took about 30 minutes each from start to finish...of course, you could do it assembly line...cotton quilting fabric is really easy to sew...but we used stretchy stuff of course, since I already had some...such is self reliance! happy summer