Doll Dressmaking: Sasha Gets Dressed

When I was a child, I gained a lot of my sewing skills by sewing for my Sasha doll and my sister's and cousins' Sasha dolls. So a pattern set that teaches girls to sew sized for a Sasha doll is long overdue. 

Although new Sasha dolls have not been made for nearly two decades, I know there are still a lot of Sasha doll owners out there. Some may want to expand their sewing skills, others may want to teach a child or grandchild.

So for all of you Sasha doll owners, this one's for you. The Sasha Gets Dressed learning to sew dress pattern set is now available in my shop. The tutorials that accompany the patterns can all be found here, and more are coming. 

Some of the many ways to make a Sasha dress

Spoonflower Doll Giveaway

For those of you unfamiliar with Spoonflower, you really should check it out. In a nutshell they print on fabric.

They can print your designs on fabric. Or you can buy others designs on fabric. and there are now so many types of fabric that they print on. Cottons, knits, linens, canvas, satin, faux suede.

I've had a number of things printed there, including Scrappy Phoebe. But I've also been eyeing other people's dolls on Spoonflower. 

I especially love the dolls of Stacy Iest Hsu, a San Francisco based textile designer, whose work includes dolls and textiles on Spoonflower and at Moda fabrics. She also designs for Janie and Jack, GapKids, Target, and Tiny Prints. She recently did this Little Red Riding Hood line for Moda, which includes a doll, clothes and a wolf.

I fell in love with a set of dolls she designed on Spoonflower that are perfect for teaching a child to sew. They are just two pieces, many with a simple pet that is even easier to sew. 

All of them are adorable.

The Spoonflower Doll Giveaway

I will be giving away three fat quarters, each with the unmade doll and kitten on them, ready to be sewn and stuffed. 

How to enter?

Comment on this blog post, but be sure I have your email. The comment form has a place for you to fill out your email, but if you want to be sure include your email in the actual comment. I have set comments to be moderated/approved due to recent spam, so if you don't see your comment up there, it is for one of two reasons. either it didn't have an email, or it is awaiting approval. If it isn't up there after a few days, you can contact  me with the contact form.

Giveaway ends March 17, 2016. I will pick the three with a random number generator

Gift Idea: Scrappy Phoebe Learn To Sew Kits

It is a little over a month until the holidays. I am not going to suggest a Phoebe doll, because any orders received at this point, I cannot guarantee an Xmas delivery. I have a number of dolls in the works that will make it to their new homes, so if you've already ordered, you don't need to worry.

However... it is not to late to order the perfect gift for teaching your child or grandchild to sew: The Scrappy Phoebe Learn to Sew Kit. 

The kits comes with a 12 inch Scrappy Phoebe doll,  an instruction booklet detailing how to sew and embellish the basic dress and everything you need to make at least eight dresses, including practice fabric, 8 fabrics, 8 trims, velcro closings, Wonderclips and pattern pieces to be traced onto fabric and cut.

Everything is packaged in a cute box for storing when your little one is not sewing. 

I just cut some fun fresh new fabrics for the kits. The dresses and instructions are simple and a great starting point for sewing.

From a customer last Xmas:

"I wanted to thank you for the amazing learn-to-sew kit I purchased for Christmas. Both of my girls (ages 7 and 12) have been making fashions for Phoebe - adapting the pattern for a long sleeve dress, a flannel nightgown and a felt coat "

Kits available in my Etsy shop.

New stack of fabrics for the kits!

The trim packet.

I Can Make Dolls Clothes Book Giveaway

Yesterday I reveiewed this adorable  I Can Make Doll Clothes book.

And today I'm giving away one copy along with 6 fabrics and trims to make some of the patterns in the book. 

Leave a comment under this post, please include your email address either in the comment form or the comment. In two weeks, I will use a random number picker to pick a winner. I will only count people who I can contact through email.

Book Review: I Can Make Dolls' Clothes

I love Instagram. Through Instagram I have stumbled upon a lot of cool makers, including the authors: Georgia Vaux and Louise Scott-Smith.  Their book, aptly named, "I CAN MAKE DOLLS" CLOTHES" is adorable.

The pair have worked on other projects togther in the past and said this book was the perfect combination of all of their interests: fashion, design, craft, and a shared aesthetic and love of the handmade.

I have always thought of sewing for a Barbie sized doll challenging, but this book makes it easy...for even a six year old. The graphics are so fun and simple, if your child can read, they can follow the instructions. But the book isn't just designed for kinds, adults can use it too.

The clothes are better than the bought Barbie clothes. The book helps a child make simple patterns that they can alter, enhance and easily sew. 

And two doll clothing sewing tips from the authors:

1. Don't worry about wobbly stitches, that's part of the charm.
2. If you can't hem the cut edges, or get a grown up to do it, nail varnishing will keep them from fraying.

Tommorrw's post I will be giving away one copy of this book and fabric, trim and velcro to make five dresses.

A New Sewing Book Giveaway

Wool felt is one of my favorite fabrics to work with. It is soft, yet crisp. Comes in many beautiful colors and it isn't hard to find. 

So a few years back when the book "Big, Little Felt Universe" by Jeannette Lim came out I bought it for my 10 year old. It had about 50 projects, all everyday items made with felt. A felt lap top, a little felt lipstick. A felt campfire complete with s'mores. All things she made that first year and all things that adorned her room... until this past year when she was officially a teenager.

The felt campfire set and lipstick are gone. However the book and her felt scraps are here to stay. This past week, we entered a new felt phase. Felt veggies (all of the photos here were made by my 14 year old).

This book is perfect for the child that sews. The projects, ability and age range are broad. The directions are great. And as we head into the second month of summer vacation, who doesn't want a project your child can happily work on mostly on their own.

The book recommends using a felt wool/ acrylic blend. This type of felt can be found easily on Etsy and in fabric stores.

I am giving away one copy of "Big, Little Felt Universe" by Jeannette Lim.

Here are the rules of the giveaway:

1. Leave a comment on this post. You must fill out your email in the comment form or in the comment. Without an email, you are not entered..

2. I will select a winner using a random number site in two weeks.

3. If the selected winner does not respond in five days, I will reselect.

4. I will not pay postage to send the book outside of the lower 48 states. So sorry. 

A Sewing Book Giveaway

"Sew Fun" by Deborah Fisher (interviewed in my last blog post) is a great book for sewing for and with children.

I've posted the Table of Contents so you can see the amazing range of projects, that are not only fun for kids to help make, but to play with after. The book includes two doll patterns and a quilted doll house. 

I will pick a winner in a week from the comments. Please enter your email when you enter a comment. If there isn't an email I won't enter that name.

Five Things to Think About When Teaching your Child to Sew by hand, A Guest Post

One night scrolling through Instagram, I noticed the cute projects that Trixi Symonds uses to teach children to sew. I had spent the week teaching two girls to sew on the machine and had struggled with the hand sewing aspect. This was her specialty. So, I reached out to Trixi, who blogs at Colouredbuttons.com.  Both her blog and her book "Sew Together, Grow Together" have great hand sewing projects for kids.

We thought a collaborative post would be a great way to bring our different skills together. Today is the first in a series. On her blog I discuss five things to think about before letting a child sew on the machine. 

And Trixi has written five things to think about when teaching a child to hand sew:

My youngest daughter’s name is Yiscah. She first started sewing when she was  three. I vividly remember how she used to peek into the room whenever I was teaching a class so she could watch the older girls sew. After every class she’d ask me why she couldn’t join in. Being the wise parent, I told her that she was too little just yet but she always insisted she wasn’t. One day I decided to let her sew something simple and to my surprise, she did a pretty good job… and she altered forever my ideas about when a child can begin to start sewing. 

I still find people who believe, as I once did, that children have to be a bit older before they start sewing. Not true. So here are some tips to help you maximize enjoyment and minimize problems when your child begins sewing at a young age.

1. Getting Them Excited

There are lots of ways to get your child excited about sewing. Showing them a book of projects and letting them choose what they wish to make is always a good idea … as is letting them choose their fabrics and the colors of their embroidery floss. The basic rule here is simple: the more they do by themselves, the more they’ll enjoy it. 

Even if they can’t manage the sewing on a project they’ve chosen, just watching Mum involves them more deeply than we might suspect and is a sure way to ignite their desire to sew something all by themselves. 

          Museum of Contemporary Art Workshop 2014

2. Using good quality materials 
Good materials are essential for a good experience. Sewing supplies are not expensive, so make sure you choose good quality felts, fabrics and embroidery floss. 

Acrylic felts are the least expensive but they can feel a bit hard and scratchy to 
sew with. I personally love using wool blend felts as they’re soft, easy to sew with 
and reasonably priced. Also, instead of using sewing cotton, I prefer to use embroidery floss, and I recommend using a brand like DMC or Anchor as cheaper products tend to break.

Use an embroidery needle with a large eye that makes it easy to thread. Make sure your needle isn’t blunt. Sewing with a blunt needle can be difficult and frustrating. And it’s a good idea to first sew a few stitches yourself in order to check that everything works as it should.

Museum of Contemporary Art Workshop 2014

3. Stressing safety 
Explain to your child that scissors and needles are sharp and can be dangerous if  not used sensibly. In classes I stress that needles have to be put back in containers and we always do a floor search to check for needles that may have dropped. Scissors are always closed and put point down in a jar after sewing. 

It doesn’t really matter what safety behaviors you decide on, what matters is that your child sees that you treat these things with caution and knows that this is what you must do when you sew. I’ve found that when children really want to do something that requires responsibility, they have no difficulty behaving as they 
should.

 Museum of Contemporary Art Workshop 2014

4. Accepting that wonky is ok 
Young children begin to sew with large, wonky stitches and their sewing lines are often crooked. With a little practice, however, their stitches rapidly improve. Don’t do the  work for them. Let them sew their own stitches and they will be proud of what they have accomplished. 

Sometimes young children’s work becomes messy simply because they forget to look at 
what they are doing. A gentle reminder to look at their work while sewing can bring 
about a miraculous improvement. Hand sewing doesn’t require excessive concentration and the modest demands it does make will actually help to improve your child’s ability to concentrate.

           Museum of Contemporary Art Workshop 2014

 Museum of Contemporary Art Workshop 2014

5. Making the projects your own 
There’s nothing wrong with copying a project exactly as it’s given but this never really 
compares with the feeling you get when you make a project your own. So don’t be afraid 
to adapt things, to change them, and to make them to suit your own and your child’s 
interests and wishes. 

You can also drop in to Mollymoo Crafts where Michelle has adapted Baby in a Pouch. The original project is small enough to fit into the palm of a child’s hand but Michelle and her daughter wanted something that could be hugged, so they made the baby and her pouch much larger giving the project a very different feel.

Museum of Contemporary Art Workshop 2014

The New Learn to Sew Kits

My new Learn-to-Sew Kits are now on Etsy. The star of the kit is a little Phoebe doll, called Scrappy Phoebe. There are five different Scrappy Phoebes. She comes dressed in her "underwear", but hopefully once she arrives, she will soon have many dresses. 

The Scrappy Phoebe Learn to Sew Kits come with everything a girl needs to make at least 8 dresses. The kit includes

• Scrappy Phoebe (obviously)
• An instruction Booklet
• Pattern for the basic dress, to make and embellish
• 8 Fabrics (your "scraps")
• 10 Trims
• 8 Velcro closures
• Wonderclips
• Practice Fabric

The kit is perfect for kids 7-10 with little or no sewing machine experience. The dress is easy to make and the focus is on the fun of designing and embellishing. After all that is the fun of learning to sew, adding your own ideas. This kit allows for lots of ideas.

And Scrappy Phoebe herself is pretty cute. She is small, but not so small that it makes sewing tricky.

Later this week I will have a guest post about hand sewing with kids. The dresses can also be made with hand sewing. 

Later I will introduce two intermediate kits: Princess Scrappy Phoebe and Winter Clothes for Scrappy Phoebe. Not sure if I will have those ready before the holidays though. 

Click through here for the kit on Etsy.

Scrappy Phoebe models a handmade dress

The back of Scrappy Phoebe and the back of the dress. yes the kit includes velcro.

Five Scrappy Phoebes wondering what to wear.

Scrappy Phoebe Learn To sew Kit

The pattern, for tracing

What is in a Scrappy Phoebe Kit

Your bling

Teaching a Child to Sew: Cutting and Scissor Choice

This past week, I worked with two adorable second grade graduates who wanted to make American girl Doll dresses for their dolls. We started with the wrap dress. Watching them helped me better understand what makes cutting fabric difficult for them.

The first is cutting. Since small people have small hands, the obvious choice seems to be small scissors. But that is not the best choice. Small scissors make it difficult to cut a long smooth even line. They end up leaving choppy crooked lines. So try to have your child work with the larger scissors...

Which might bring you to your second problem, larger scissors tend be used around the house more often and can be dull. It is difficult cutting fabric with dull scissors and adult sized hands,and it is even harder with small hands. Dull scissors require greater strength. Dull scissors leave very messy edges.

1. Too short, will create choppy edges.

2. Bigger and sharper is better.

3. Old household scissors can be dull.

So sharper larger scissors, with supervision, may be better. 

My favorite sewing scissors are Ginghers. They are $21 from Amazon, but in the long run, a very worthwhile investment. 

See examples below.

Small scissors leave small choppy cutting lines.

Dull household scissors are the worst and hardest for kids to cut with.

Sharper larger scissors makes cutting easier and more accurate.