So, over the past few weeks, N and I have been talking about leftover fabrics from the quilt that I made for her. She has been sneaking into my stash and repurposing the scraps to create blankets for her dolls and other stuffed toys. This morning we decided it may be a good idea to put the scraps to better use.

After much discussion, N picked out a doll she wanted with the leftover fabric. The inspiration was from her Pinterest board. I thought this was an excellent time to introduce her to some basic concepts of sewing like holding the needle and piercing the fabric.

So, out came our drawing pads and I asked N to draw how she sees the doll in the picture, and we will try to recreate it. After looking at the picture, I helped her to understand the building blocks by deconstructing the picture and breaking it down into simple shapes.

Now it was time to select the fabric and start building and cutting the pattern.

Once that was done, it was now a matter of putting everything together. What we had now was a structure of what the final outcome would look like. And now came the exciting part, sewing! N got to try her hand at the sewing needle during making of the small hair clips with the buttons. Buttons are a great way to dip your toes into hand sewing. The stitches are uncomplicated and you already have guides to insert the needle (i.e the small holes).

For the bigger pieces, I went to my trusty sewing machine. This also gave me an opportunity to try some of the decorative stitches! Yay!

Once all the pieces were sewn, it was time to stuff them up! We only stuffed the head and the body but let the arms and legs hang to give it a more “rag doll” feeling.

Finally, with some help from N, I was able to put it all together and our cute little doll was ready!

But here’s what I am really proud of. I got N eventually to be able to make a stitch by herself. I believe that this helps build motor skills for the tiny hands and focus for these curious minds. Also, a lot of times, we parents are concerned about safety of kids when they’re using sharp objects. What I learned from this experience was that N was actually pretty mindful of the sharpness of the needle. Also, giving her the “adult” tools made her feel that she has grown up responsibilities and that she can learn real life skills too.

With that, I hope you enjoy the short video of N making her first stitch!

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