When a friend asked me if I’d do a sewing lesson with her daughter I initially thought she wasn’t being serious. When she asked again, I started giving the request some real consideration.
The young lady in question is so delightful that I had no doubts about it being fun, but would I be able show her anything useful?
We set a date and I was informed that her elder brother was also interested in doing the sewing “workshop”. I instantly thought about my cramped very creatively messy workroom and decided there had to be a better place to work in No 19.
I decided on the upstairs hall as it’s large, bright, has a table, and also a sofa where their mother could sit and watch the whole creative process.
I have a tendency to overthink when it comes to things other people want or need and once I’d exhausted all possible options, I decided that asking them what they wanted would be the best course of action.
It was a fresh and beautifully sunny morning. They arrived at 10am and we went straight upstairs to get started. I was also aware that making a bag takes time and we only had a couple of hours.
I gave them the choice of three styles of bag, and they could choose from an endless selection of fabrics I have. Serafina chose a classic and cool yellow and stone fern print linen, while Karel went for a black and green monkey print canvas. They both settled on making drawstring backpacks.
It’s amazing that when you do something yourself you take a lot of the process for granted, when explaining it to someone else you suddenly realize what goes into it and just how complex it is.
We made great progress and before it even really sunk in, these two fantastic children were sewing, pressing, pinning and so much more. It was lovely to watch and it’s funny how their characters come out in their work.
Serafina was very spontaneous and creative, and Karel was very precise and accurate in his approach sewing exactly 1.5cm away from the edges.
By the end of the morning they’d both created lovely backpacks in their own choice of fabrics, made with their own hands, using their own energy and time.
Just as we were finishing their father and some friends arrived and it was time to go. I put the final hand stitches onto the bags, gave them a last pressing, and I’ll give them to the children when I see them next week.
What a lovely morning!! It was a real treat to watch two delightful children learning to make something pretty difficult during our first ever sewing workshop. I think they should both be very proud of their work 💚
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