Mommy/Daughter Sew Camp

Hello everyone!

We are almost halfway through June, and our summer has been in full swing!  I get to see these lovely faces every day, and my heart is glad:

My youngest son has been elated to have his brother and sister home each and every day, and has "turned up" to another level of busyness, lol!  It is a lot to manage each day, but I wouldn't have it any other way because I know summer vacation isn't long enough.

So a couple of weeks ago, I got a mailer from Joanns sent to me.  It was super cute, as always, with projects, sales, and coupons inside.  I browsed it, and smiled, thinking I would take the flyer with me the next time I headed to the store.  And then I saw the blurb about their sewing camp for kids.  It immediately caught my attention because there were all of these adorable projects, as well as a list of skills that your child would learn by attending.  I knew my daughter would love to go, but I caught myself saying these words aloud "This would be great, but why would I pay for something I could do myself?"

The wheels began turning, and a few days later, I came up with a perfectly comparable sew camp for my daughter--from our home!  We are going to take about six weeks, do a few projects, and have some one-on-one time together.  My daughter loves fashion and design, so this will be a great place to continue where she last left off with sewing.

Anyhow, we ended up going to Joanns to pick up some patterns and happened upon another mother and daughter duo while perusing the sewing catalogs.  We began some light conversation, and it turned out that this mom and daughter were doing the same exact thing for their summer!!!  Apparently, great sewing minds tend to think alike. This mom had been sewing for a while, learned through Youtube, and wanted to pass along things she had learned to her teen daughter, who had just finished sewing scrunchies.  You all, I love sewists! So here we were in Joanns, sharing our excitement and passion for this wonderful craft of sewing, and the ability to impact the next generation. For every person that thinks sewing is dying out, I have a story that sewing is very much alive!

So, for the first project, we are working on skirts.  Here are the chosen patterns:

M7345 has lots of cute versions!  To add an element of fun, we decided that she will choose my skirt, and I will choose hers.  So, you will have to see the reveal to find out which skirt I thought would be perfect for her.  They are all so cute I had a hard time choosing.

Here is the pattern she picked out for me (from my stash):

Again, I am not spilling the beans on the one she chose for me, but you can always guess!!!

I pulled some fabric from my stash to go with the patterns we picked out:

This could go either way!  Both fabrics are vibrant and colorful!  The one on the left is a cotton spandex while the one on the right is a poly knit.  Let the summer fun begin!

As an aside, if you have been keeping up with me on Instagram, you already know that I started my S8056 denim shorts.  I have them mostly assembled, and am in the process of fitting them now.  Whew!  Everytime I get to fitting, the real work begins!

This was just before I basted the side seams to begin the work of fitting them.  I pulled out some topstitching thread and used it for the first time.  I REALLY like the way the results came out!  I usually use regular thread to topstitch, but the topstitching thread looked much more professional.  I can't wait to add more colors to my collection.  Oh, and next time I will match the garment so I can get a little better at this skill first, lol! It still looks good, though.

Here is the installed fly zipper!  This is only my second time doing this.  Years ago I made a pair of pants for my son where I installed a fly zipper, and I THINK I did it right.  This time I know I did it right! I have been using a sewalong class on Creativebug to help me construct these shorts, and I don't know how on earth I would have completed this part without some hand-holding.  I HIGHLY recommend this class (or any class) with instructor Deborah Kreiling.

Here is a look at the shorts on me.  I always seem to have the same front issue--too much fabric!  Particularly around the inner leg seam, though I can't remove too much or it becomes too tight for my hip and thighs.

You can see the gaping in the center back.  I decided to remove 1", and that part fits nicely now:

I am definitely impressed at this Amazing Fit pattern.  According to the process they walk you through in determining your size, it fits pretty good.  I just need a few more tweaks and then I can finish these.  I will be using a RTW pair of shorts as a guide for those tweaks.  The denim I used has little to no stretch in it, so I am keeping that in mind also.  I hope to finish these shorts soon.

I hope your summer is going WELL!  

Stay sew-filled!