New Sewing Students start week 3 off with a BANG!!

Audrey and I  were so excited to teach another week at All Saints in Carmel Valley.

 On Friday, we had three students signed up for our class..."Sew Much Fun" and a bit sad at the low number but we thought "hey, this is fun so who cares". Well good thing we were feeling flexible because over the weekend the numbers creeped up and we had a whopping NINE girls in our first class today. Between the ages of 6 to 12 with varying skill levels, each one of them excited to be there and ready to create.

 First project was the yo-yo flowers. One student was back from the first class so she helped the others learn to do the stitching correctly and zipped ahead to make the first headband as a wonderful example and inspiration to the other girls.

Working on threading the needles is a job that requires great concentration. I was so proud of Audrey for taking charge of teaching this project today. The girls really like her and listen to her so nicely. Her confidence in teaching has grown so much in a week's time.

 Audrey worked on the machines with one of the students, helping her understand how to use the presser foot lever correctly. The darling girl kept forgetting to put it down before starting to sew and got all kinds of wonkey results on her first few tries. Luckily she could laugh about it. Notice her darling Yo-yo flower headband that she made herself.

 Plenty of time for making friends or in this case, bringing a friend to class. Even while taking their "test" today on the Sewing machine parts, they were all giggles.

Yes, in this photo, one student is cut off! I am sorry! But I did say "two rows" because my camera does not have a wide angle lens!! I will do better next time. The girls are wearing their hair creations and hopefully taking home the notes to their parents today. Everyone that brings it back will get a surprise from our Etsy shop. Hopefully that motivates them. Last time, one student took her note home on the first day!

Crazy pillows are next up on the agenda along with the plushies from socks.

Anyone interested in attending in the future, we will be adding a class next week focusing on "American Girl Doll Sewing" with a Picnic theme. We hope to get a few takers once again. We love it at All Saint's!

Summer Fun in the Sun Day Camp!! Audrey and I have had so much fun teaching at All Saint's School in Carmel Valley, California.The campus is amazing and the staff is so welcoming but best of all are the adorable students. Each and every girl is just a bundle of energy, fun and enthusiasm for sewing. This was Audrey's first real job, work permit and all so she has been really happy about the opportunity to teach.

Our class is called "Sew Much Fun" and we are focused on Eco-Friendly and Up-Cycled projects. Reuse is the the theme and each project was made from the left over scraps from a previous project or an old clothing item that needed an update. 

The girls are pictured here in their t-shirt hats. We created them from up-cycled t-shirts. Every girl chose to add some type of animal ears to her hat. This student brought in a shirt with a girls face on the front. It made up into a really cute hat with eyes.

 I could not resist a picture of this cute little face, as it was the first time she had held still in several days. This little pixie is such a tiny girl that I had to have her sit on my lap to sew on a machine because she could not reach the petals. Notice her flower bracelet on her wrist. This is a Yo-Yo flower that she made herself. The girls really enjoyed making the flowers and adding them to purses, bracelets, hair clips and headbands. This was an open project that could be worked on at any time.

 Three of the girls working on their own with the Yo-Yo flowers. They were all very motivated to continue to learn all week. The flowers taught them to do a basic running stitch, gathering and also sewing on a button. At ages 6-9, they were a very young group but did amazing work on all their projects.

 Another sweet face, and happy camper. She is also wearing her creation in her hair. This little seamstress was very methodical and careful with each stitch. I think I could hire her!

 Working on the machines could be a scary prospect but when teach, Audrey and I approach it like driving a car. You hit the gas petal to make the machine go and control it with a wheel. Drive straight, follow the rules and you wont' have an "accident" and need that seam ripper. And PLEASE don't drop the pins on the floor!

 We start out with paper to practice and move to felt shapes on the first day. It was readily apparent that each of these girls was more than ready to move on to bigger projects after just 3 hours of class.

 A bunny ear hat from a plain white T!

 Audrey is a great teacher and she never realized it until this past week. Here she patiently teaches a student to put her pattern pieces onto the fabric to cut out her project. I was so proud of her skills with the young girls. She was so responsible and mature.

 I told the girls to cut their length of thread the size of their arm to waist, here a student concentrates hard to get a long enough thread for her needle.
A little time for socializing at the machines made me smile to myself so I had to snap a picture. I loved how the girls made friends quickly even though they were from four different schools.

 The students small hands working the sewing machines always amazes me. I know I was sewing by age 8 but I never saw myself so it seems like these girls are just so small. Its such a great age to expose them to this wonderful creative art because they will be able to use these skills the rest of their life. I have adults ask me all the time to do the simplest tasks such as a hem or sewing on some buttons. They pay me to so something that is a Life skill in my opinion as much as learning to swim or cook.

                                        The "Face" hat made for some fun in class.

 I really loved how these two cousins worked with each other in class. One of them had already had some sewing experience and she was so sweet about helping her younger cousin master the pivots and curves.

 Here our darling little cousins model their hats with cute floppy puppy dog ears, completely made from up-cycled shirts. What a great way to learn a new skill, get a fun beanie had and be Eco Friendly all at the same time.

Our week continues to be full of fun with more new projects coming up later. Audrey and I can't wait for each day and are already collecting ideas for classes next summer. American Girl doll creations is the top request so far. Anyone have any other great ideas?

Its been way too long!!! But after some huge events have finally ended, I am back to blogging again.
Its summer now so Audrey and I are thinking about her wardrobe for school next year. That means lots of Thrift Store shopping so we can create some new Altered Couture.

 This being the fancy new term for buying stuff from Goodwill and making it into something wearable. Apparently this is a new art form and we just thought it was a way to make due with what we could afford...who knew? But I stumbled on this wonderful magazine, also titled Altered Couture full of wonderful projects by other seamstresses and creative talents, just like me.


Here are a few of the items we created for Audrey's wardrobe. First up is her jeans jacket. This started as a basic jeans jacket for $6. I added some metal grommets down the back for a lace-up corset look and some silk ribbon. Audrey drew the little fox picture with fabric markers on a scrap of white bed sheet and we added that as an applique patch.

 This moon applique was done with a piece of vintage Flower Fairy Fabric and some glue on sequins were added with a fabric glue.

 I put some silk ribbon embroidery around the collar, fox patch, and above the pockets. The grommets along the bottom band serves as a place to run a ribbon for a pretty belt.

Another fun project is to treat skirts with some bleach, dyes and fabric paints. This skirt is currently for sale in our Etsy shop, Seamstressbythesea.

 This fun Fall Leaves skirt was sold to a customer in Australia last year. It was our first of many buyers from outside the USA and very exciting. She wrote back about how much she loved it. This was bleaches and painted with some metallic based fabric paints by Jaquard. A piece of vintage lace from a tatted doile was used for the pocket treatment.

 A length of copper chain with a charm was added at the waistline by the pocket for added interest.

 This skirt has a Pirate Theme. Because it was a Hilfinger brand, it kind of sold itself but we paid only $3 for it and found a great starting point to be the hole that was already torn on one side in the shape of a square. How sad that the original owner probably gave it up because of this rip. A patch from a Skull print brocade used in a Pirate costume provided the perfect starting point for my theme.

 Adding another patch to a round applique of the same skull print brocade along with a sew on skull applique made the front of the skirt come together in the theme. A bit of hand embroidery and some metal studs went around the pockets.

The back of the skirt got some bling with a few sequins and another applique of a skull. These are super easy to sew or iron on to a pair of jeans or skirt for an instant change. We got these in a grab bag assortment for a great price.

The next time you are thinking of getting rid of any of your denim favorites, first consider fixing them up with some fun fabrics, paints, embroidery and patches. You could add years of life to your garment.

Audrey and I will be teaching this next week at a Summer Day Camp for children and plan to teach some of these wonderful ideas to our young students. We will be posting the results here in our blog later in the week.

Zoe's Day Out!

Our first little child model for our shop is Miss Zoe. She is five years old and ready to have some fun. Zoe and I first met at Story Time in the Marina Library where she impressed me with her dance moves and I impressed her with my funny voices. We've been admiring each other ever since.

Audrey got right to work taking the pictures of Zoe in two different leopard print skirt sets with tiny matching arm warmers. Audrey has a knack for taking pictures and seems to enjoy it most of the time. This was a trial run for us to see how Zoe did with Audrey, and figure out what works or doesn't work before we go someplace besides the front yard for photos.

 Zoe followed instructions perfectly, even putting on the sunglasses and striking a pose. She was just so adorable.

Zoe was even cry-free while I brushed her hair up into a ponytail. I have had the urge for two weeks now to call her mom up and ask if she wants to come over to watch Hello Kitty DVD's and let me brush her hair some more into fun styles. I miss fixing a little girls hair every morning.

Zoe next modeled her adorable tiny hands in some of the fingerless gloves, arm warmers or as the younger set calls them "fashion sleeves".

 Isn't that grin precious? I think she thought the little light stands were Walkers from Star Wars at first, but she laughed at them. Zoe did such a great job making this pair look cute that it was the first one that sold in our Etsy shop! All from sock scraps. I love Up-cycling into something fun.

 Barrett helped Aud get the lights set up and took the photos of the girls together for the sister sets.

 Some of the shots were with Audrey for Big and Little Sister Arm warmers.
I think Zoe enjoyed that as she confessed to me later that she thought Audrey was "beautiful".

 Zoe picked this outfit to keep for her "pay". I had to make the skirt smaller for her around the waist though, she is a tiny little thing. I love her grin in these glasses, kind of like a Cheshire Cat.

Speaking of cats...here is what Lizzy thought of the day. He was on top of the ironing board. Bored.

For those looking at the photos and wondering about what Aud is wearing for this photo shoot,  Audrey's "photographer" outfit in black and white is from Goodwill in Marina. I found the top and skirt, both on Sale days and she put them together for a super cute outfit.

 

Zoe's Mom and brother Ian joined us. Ian was not feeling his best but managed to model a few boy items for the shop. I paid Zoe and Ian in products from the shop. Now Zoe wears the stuff to school, thus blatantly advertising for me by looking so cute all the time!

 These little gloves have been featured on Etsylush.com now, and they are really picky about what they choose to list. I just know it was because her little hands look so sweet. I love lace gloves on little girls.

Some of the finished products turned out really well for the photos and we can't wait to have Zoe back again for more pictures.