Kids' Sewing Project

 One day I did manage to break out our sewing machines (there's 5 in the house now, but one's not working) and I had the Elena, Sebastian, and Isabel sew themselves new music bags for their piano books.

 While these pictures look idylli, don't be fooled.  Sewing with a bunch of kids is a workout.  Wowsers.  I cut all the fabric beforehand and I drew lines where they needed to sew, but I still spent all my time going from kid to kid to kid detangling stuff and rethreading needles and calming Sebastian down when he went off the lines (he probably sewed the straightest of anyone--but Isabel was mad because he was using her much easier machine.)  I serged the inside seams after they sewed them and then I sewed the handles onto the bags, but that's it.  They did everything else themselves.

 Ana, my awesome photographer, was taking pictures.

 Hey, you can kind of see my haircut.

 The kids were bored and whiney near the end, but not so bad that we didn't persevere.

 And they ask for sewing lessons all the time, so I guess they liked it.  And as a note to myself, I should always have the kids sew on a paper following lines first before throwing them into a project when they haven't sewn for a long time.  It would have helped their confidence and also a good way to remind them to stay on the line before it matters.

And of course, it was an excuse to use my embroidery machine a bit.  Yay!