I can sew!

the past weeks have flown by without much sewing going on around my home. although it is a true love of mine and a great creative outlet, it has been nice to not clean up tiny fabric scraps, rip out seams that i can't seem to get right (seam/seem- get it?), or have the pressure to make what i see in my mind. my creativity is being funneled into a different place... these kids. i wish the school day was full of extra time to fit in all of ideas that are swimming around in my head.

luckily, i am with a teacher that values childhood and the creativity and imagination that comes with it. she makes time for her students to draw what they are thinking, to represent their community with Popsicle sticks and felt, and gives them "fun friday"

fun friday is 30 minutes of pure excitement for a bunch of second graders. it is a time of freedom- no academic pressure, no test to take, no math problem to write... just a time to enjoy each other. they are allowed to play with anything other than a textbook...they choose from things like board games, legos, books and a reading tent, and play dough .... it is a glorious room full of rambunctious, friday loving kids ...

during one of the "get to know you" activities we had at the beginning of the year the kids asked about my interests... so naturally sewing came up... to listen to the gasps in the room was great... "you can sew? i wish i could sew" "i sewed one time" "my mom can't even sew" ... so began the thought of teaching a little about the needle and thread...

this fun friday sewing was officially added to the list of things to do... it was a success! i only had six needles and luckily only six girls wanted to come and hang out with me ... funny how things work out. so we set out with the intentions of learning how to cross-stitch... as you can tell by the pictures, we gave up on the whole follow my pattern thing and began to create individual patterns and techniques... it was incredible to watch them get so giddy over putting a needle and yarn in a plastic grid... dreams of making a dress or a pillow for a sister were born. over and over i heard six little girls well up with pride as they repeated ....
i can sew!

my little bunch of girls learned so much in those thirty minutes.