Spring Break Sewing Camp
Three girls between 10 and 12–a full day and two sleep-overs–an ironing board, sewing machine, and boxes of scraps = sewing camp here at Ridgeway Studios. We started out with drawings of animals. I always enjoy quilting on my drawings, so it seemed logical to start the girls with their own designs. For the first round of projects, I traced the drawings onto fabric of their choice, sewed it to a backing, pillow-case style. The girls turned them right-side out, and stuffed the forms. They chose button eyes and used fabric paints for beaks, hooves, and other features. They used simple embroidery with black pearl cotton for the horse’s main, and for highlighting the little square patches they put on several of the animals. As we developed more animals with a lot of points, I began to stitch the front and back together on the right sides. Before long, I found all three of them sewing on the machine with this construction style. On their own initiative, they also began to try some of the fancy stitches available on the Bernina. After we completed nine different animals, they began to make sleeping bags and pillows for them, as well as clothes for two horses and a small elephant.
Photo: The Dancing Cow 10″ tall