Last Saturday, souricette 1 came to me and said she wanted to make a pajama for souricette 2. And me. And herself. And her American Girl. I told her I didn’t have enough material for all that (she wanted cozy, i.e. flannel). Just enough for her doll. Honestly, my first impulse was to say no. I have so much going on right now and working on a project with souricette 1 can be frustrating. But I said yes to a pajama for her doll and told her we would do it Sunday.
A quick search brought up this pattern. I printed it and we set to work. Souricette 1 cut out the pattern (we skipped the slippers) while I ironed the flannel. I showed her how to pin it to the flannel. She pinned one while I pinned all the others. We cut them out. I let her do one but somehow, my shears got dull and weren’t cutting right. I tried to sharpen them with the knife sharpener and they got worse. A moment of silence for my shears please….
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I got out the rotary cutter and mat to finish up the work. Souricette 1 managed to use it a little bit to cut off a dangling scrap but she had a hard time guiding it around a pattern piece while applying enough pressure to cut. And then we sewed, her sitting on me. I controlled the pedal and most of the sewing but had her place her hands on the material and attempted to teach her how to guide it without pushing it or holding it back.
Honestly, this isn’t the best pattern for a child just starting out with sewing. I printed the pattern out properly and used a 1/4″ seam allowance and the pants are a tight fit over Caroline’s behind (that’s the doll’s name). We did all the seams together but I added the elastic and did the sleeve and leg hems alone. I chose not to do a casing for the elastic. I just sewed it into a circle. Then I stretched it to fit the waistband and sewed it on with a zigzag. We also didn’t bother finishing the seam allowances. It isn’t like I’m going to wash it that often anyway…
I also did snaps instead of velcro. Both girls watched me hammer them in (no, I do not have snap pliers) and were very impressed. They’re a little crooked but Caroline doesn’t care…
I think souricette 1 would like to do more sewing. And I think she’d like to do it on her own. A small sewing machine may be making its way into our house in the not too distant future… There’s a Tiny Sewists series over on A Jennuine Life and I’m thinking of using it to teach souricette 1.
Creative mommy at home to two wonderful little girls, trying to juggle family, sewing, exercise, family, knitting, photography, and did I mention family?
Deux souriceaux 
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