Sewing with Little Miss

Little Miss today got to learn how to free motion quilt! At nearly 4, I know rather young but then are they really too young to start sewing?

Little Miss wanted to make something for her room and loves the colour pink and purple so I thought we would make a hanger with hearts on it.

This is a really great project that you can do with the kids. I first ironed some Steam a Seam 2 onto some white fabric and cut out heart shapes. You need to use Steam a Seam 2 as when you pull off the paper side it is still sticky - for the next step I let the Little Miss "stick" pieces of fabric onto the heart (steam a seam side up).

Once this was all done, I took a piece of baking paper, placed it on top of the fabric and ironed. The uncovered steam a seam will still be a bit sticky but I did notice that it becomes less sticky as you handle it.

We then took two pieces of batting and a backing fabric and quilted the layers together. This is when Little Miss got to use the sewing machine for the first time. I sat her on my lap, had her hands on mine and we moved the fabric together. After a while I let her put her hands straight onto the fabric and let her move it, just be careful of the needle - tell them to keep well away from it.

Once that was done, we placed the hearts onto the quilted batting and pinned them into place. Back to the machine to sew around the edges, I did this myself with a walking foot, Little Miss of course sitting on my lap. Little Miss did assist this this step helping take out the pins, and then using pinking shears I cut around the edges so that they will not fray any further.

Using some Razzle Dazzle Thread from Superior Threads we threaded the hearts to place onto ribbon.

To add another aspect to this hanger I let Little Miss thread buttons onto ribbon and these went in between the hearts. The hanger was made up with several lengths of ribbon - in pink and purple of course!

Simple to make but lots of fun.