Here’s the very first sewing project my 8 year old student ever attempted.  You should see the megawatt smile she’s sporting!  Project is from The Best of Machine Sewing Fun for Kids.

Allow 3 hours start-to-finish.  Great project for learning how to trace a pattern, follow directions and practice some hand stitching.  Due to the numerous curved parts, I would not recommend this as first project.  Do a pillowcase, drawstring bag or potholders first.   A sewing machine with a speed controller will also be a great help for new sewers who can’t quite maintain a steady speed with a traditional machine.  I brought in my old Elna Carina for her to sew on.  She asked if I was bringing “her” machine to our next class. 🙂

Don’t know about you, but every so often I have to force myself to unplug from all of my technology gadgets.

That’s what today’s going to be.  Except for my phone streaming Pandora in the studio while I stitch – that’s about as techie as I’m going to get.

It’s way too easy to get sucked into hours spent mindlessly surfing the web reading blogs.  I normally set a timer for 1 hour when I sit down to check in on some of my favorite blogs.  One of them has a weekly link up with over 100 different bloggers participating. I didn’t set the timer last night….and next thing I knew it was 3 hours later.

Not good when you have laundry and several sewing projects calling your name.

Hope everyone has a peaceful, serene Sunday.  I’m going for a walk to enjoy the cool weather and listen to the birds sing.

Week 2 is in the books.  Thank goodness.  I had a nagging feeling that perhaps this week’s project was a little too ambitious for them to complete in the allotted class time.  I was right.  My current students don’t have a working sewing machine at home, so they weren’t able to practice between classes.  They spent almost 30 minutes winding bobbins and “practicing” their stitching before we even began.  My Nascar and Indy driver wannabes went full throttle on their machines (despite constant reminders to slow down from me, the shop owner and their mom) until they had to rip out some stitches and redo the really bad stitching.  The shop owner graciously agreed we could use the classroom space on Monday to finish our project, so I’m thankful for that.

Both of my students liked the mechanical machine available in the quilt shop the best, so I stopped by the “donor” sewing machine shop to inquire about obtaining a second machine to use for my classes.  The model in the quilt shop is the Jem Gold 3, which is okay, except I wanted the ability to do a true satin stitch, which the Jem Gold 3 does not.  Enter the MyStyle 100.  It met all of my requirements – top load bobbin, adjustable stitch width and length and is easy to use.  The only thing it didn’t have was a needle threader…which is easily remedied by purchasing the Janome accessory needle threader (and it works better, too!).  The price point is $199 for the machine, which makes it budget friendly and you’re supporting a local business.   The machine sews a nice stitch, is quiet and fairly lightweight.  I would consider this one for a travel machine to take to class or as a student machine in my mobile sewing classroom – if my business expands to offer an after-school stitching club.

Now mind you, I have a 15 year old Kenmore mechanical that I bring to class for their use (made by Janome) and neither one wants to us it.  Don’t know why…they sure like to use the accessory feet I have for my machine.