A Sewing Mother's Dream Come True

A long time ago, as a new mother of 2 daughters, I had daydreams and wondrous plans of sitting down to the sewing machine to teach my Barbie playing, dolly dressing, girls to sew baby blankets, clothes and the odd pretty pencil pouch.  While my oldest girl dabbled only a tiny bit in sewing, my youngest daughter - who just turned 20 - has never touched a sewing machine.

I, long ago, gave up these sewing dreams and pursued my own craft.  More time for me?!  I love to quilt, sew handbags and clothes.  I also know how to knit, crochet and do embroidery.  "Handiwork", as my Grandma called it, will always be a part of me and I love knowing that my Mom taught me and I wouldn't have these wonderful hobbies without her.  Why can't these girls let me pass some cool and not so nerdy hobbies onto them?  What's wrong with them?? Whatever.  I gave up.



And then from my younger daughter, came the shocking text messages of Dec 20, 2012.

She wanted to sew!  I almost squandered the opportunity though.  With only a few days left before Christmas, my daughter decides it's time to make homemade gifts and learn to sew.  "I think it's doable in a couple hours", she says.  She has never touched a sewing machine.  I panicked and sent her a text with a photo of one of those ty beanie giraffes with the big eyes.  But no go, she was set on sewing because she said it would mean more.  Mean more... to me!  And just like that... a plan was set in motion to realize a dream.

The next day I found and printed this giraffe pattern.  My husband called from the city and I told him how we were going to bond, and since he was by Fabricland, he popped in quickly and came out 45 minutes later with some giraffe print polar fleece.  Perfect.  Sorry honey.  With the addition of some brown felt, and some buttons from my stash, we had everything we needed.

We enlarged the pattern 200%, and made a couple of changes to the pattern.  The width of the mane needed to be doubled.  The instructions had you sew on the ears before sewing the body pieces together, but I could tell it would make too much bulk in the seam so we hand sewed them on after stuffing.  Also, the giraffe had no horns so we added them in felt along either side of the mane.  Other than that, it was a well written pattern and might take an experienced sewer an hour or so, and a few hours for a beginner.  Sewing the gusset in was a bit tricky.

Manda Sews!

It took two sewing sessions, and she did an amazing job.  After, her comments were, "see that wasn't so hard, Mom!"  I asked if she liked it enough to do it again and she said, "we'll see."  So there's a chance!?

Isn't he cute!

2013 is going to be a great year.  My oldest daughter Steph, wants to knit while we watch Anne of Green Gables.  I can't wait.