Sew Together Grow Together by trixi symonds

Sew Together Grow Together Sewing Projects for Parents and Children

Trixi Symonds

Sew Together Grow Together Sewing Projects for Parents and Children

Trixi Symonds Photography by Nicola Bailey

To all the young sewers who came to my classes over the years and inspired me with their creations.

Contents First Things First �� 9

First Things

Materials ��10 Techniques ��12 Stitches ��14

Chapter 1

Funny Families

Chapter 2

Cozy Corners

Chapter 3

Take Me with You

Chapter 4

Friends Forever

100

104

108

About the Author & Photographer ��120

112

Final Things

116

Getting in Touch www.colouredbuttons.com http://www.flickr.com/groups/2385418@N23/ trixi@colouredbuttons.com

First Things First Sew Together Grow Together is a selection of hand-sewing projects developed over two decades in classes and workshops for children. The idea for this book was planted by parents who “can’t even sew on a button” but wished they could play a more active role in their child’s hand-sewing adventures and feel for themselves the excitement their children so clearly felt when they created something they loved and were proud to have made. All the projects involve adults and children working together and are suitable even for adults with absolutely no sewing experience and for children as young as five years old. These projects can easily be made in a single afternoon and because they are wholly handsewn no expensive machines are required. These projects allow parents and children to learn the techniques of hand-sewing together but they also provide them with an opportunity to nurture their creativity. It’s fairly common to believe that one’s work must reproduce every detail of what an author has done in their sample. There is nothing wrong with copying exactly what is presented in a book but my own experience suggests that this cannot compare with the feeling you get when you make a project your own, that is, when you adapt it and change it, even if only in small ways, to suit your own and your child’s interests and wishes. I have included comments with the projects that touch on various facets of the creative process, sometimes talking about design or perhaps what lay behind my own design choices, sometimes pointing out alternative ways that something might be done or how different effects might be generated, and always trying to provide you with a foundation

to understand what you are doing so that you and your child can make your own creative decisions together. Sew Together Grow Together is divided into four chapters. In order to assist first-time sewers the projects within each chapter have been ordered so that the easiest projects come first. In addition, the projects contained in the final chapter of the book are generally more complex and challenging than the earlier projects. I‘m very excited to see your work and the way you and your children create or adapt these projects. Your are all invited to post your creations on the Sew Together Grow Together flickr pool and I’d love to feature some of these on my blog Coloured Buttons. If you’ve gone through the book and want more sewing projects I’m always adding ideas and tutorials to my blog. And if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me. I hope that these projects are just a beginning. I hope that having learnt the skills and techniques they involve, you come to realize that you can adapt any existing design to your own ends. Finally, I hope that what’s in this book kindles in you a wish and resolve to start to create your own hand-sewing projects.

12 | Sew Together Grow Together

Techniques Making templates

Threading a needle

There are different ways of getting a design onto fabric but I recommend making a cardboard template that can be placed on the fabric and traced around.

Some ways of threading a needle have advantages that other methods lack. The method I’m describing here is great for first-time sewers of all ages as it secures the thread so it can’t slip from the needle while sewing.

To make a cardboard template: 1. Photocopy the template given in the book and cut out the shape. 2. Place the shape on a piece of cardboard and trace around. 3. Cut the shape out of cardboard. Suitable cardboard is obtainable from everyday items. I use the cardboard covers of large notebooks as it’s not too thick to cut with scissors and is thick enough to trace around without the pressure of the pencil pushing it out of shape. The plastic covers of notebooks also offer a strong, stiff, easy-to-cut material that can be used to make templates. In some projects the line you draw around the cardboard template onto the fabric will represent a sewing line. In others, it will indicate a cutting line. When the line that you draw is your cutting line, it’s a good idea for young sewers to draw a sewing line ¼" in from the cutting line as a helpful way to mark where they should place their stitches.

Photocopying templates The templates needed for a project have been placed directly after the written instructions for that project. Where the templates you are photocopying need to be enlarged, the percentage that you need to enlarge them by is clearly indicated at the top of the template page.

To thread your needle cut 30" of embroidery floss. Embroidery floss is made up of six separate strands but we only want to use one of these strands. To separate one strand for threading, take the end of the 30" length of floss, tease the strands apart with your fingers, take hold of one strand and pull it out. Push this strand through the eye of the needle, bring the two ends of the strand together and tie them in a knot. In some projects you may be asked to use two strands of embroidery floss. Make sure you separate one strand at a time. Pulling two strands out together can cause the embroidery floss to bunch up into a tangled mess. A useful tip you might like to know: the oldfashioned way of measuring a length of thread is to hold the end of the thread in one hand, measure a length that reaches down to your elbow, then double this length. This gives roughly 30" of thread.

Leaving and sewing a turning gap Some of the templates in this book have a segment on their outline marked as a turning gap. This indicates that you should not sew across this part of the outline but should leave it open as a gap through which the project can be turned right side out. When making these

90 | Sew Together Grow Together

Baby in a Pouch Baby in a pouch is really a project for small children to play with, just something simple and small and soft, easy to carry and easy to hold. Having said that, it’s not a project for new or inexperienced sewers. As size gets smaller, projects become harder for children to sew. The baby in a pouch is something a parent or adult could make as a gift for a child. You can get your child to choose the fabrics and decide where to place them. It’s surprising how making these decisions can make a child feel that the project is really their own, really something that they played an important role in bringing to life.

Materials 6” × 4½” piece of fabric for outside of pouch 6” × 2¼” piece of the same fabric for pouch pocket 6” × 4½” piece of different fabric for inside of pouch 6” × 4½” thin batting 26” length of ribbon Two 4” × 2” pieces of muslin 16” length of wool yarn 5” × 3½” piece of flannel Needle Pins Embroidery floss

Instructions 1. Photocopy the templates. 2. Make the shapes into cardboard templates. 3. Place the fabrics for your pouch in the following order: (i) place the batting on a table; (ii) place the fabric for the inside of the pouch with its pattern facing up on top of the batting; (iii) place the fabric for the pouch pocket with its pattern facing up on top of the fabric for the inside of the pouch; (iv) place the fabric for the outside of the pouch with its pattern facing down on top of this. 4. Place the cardboard template for the pouch on top of the fabrics and trace around. The line you are tracing is your sewing line.

Safety pin (optional)

5. Pin and sew the fabrics together.

Polyester fiberfill

6. Cut around the pouch shape ¼” in from your sewing line and clip the points off the bottom two corners.

Cardboard for templates

7. Turn the pouch right side out by taking the top layer of fabric, which is the fabric for the outside of your pouch, and turning it over the other three layers. 8. Overstitch the turning gap closed.

120 | Sew Together Grow Together

About the Author and Photographer Trixi Symonds is a teacher who lives in Sydney, Australia. I have spent more than two decades exploring the excitement and endless creative fun of hand-sewing with students. Through my blog, www.colouredbuttons.com, I share a love of buttons and other beautiful old things, as well as my ideas, projects and tutorials.

Nicola Bailey is an award-winning freelance photographer from Sydney, Australia. While traditionally I tend to specialise in photographing people, when given the opportunity to shoot for this book, I jumped at the chance to bring Trixiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s crafts to life. To view more of my work visit www.nicolabailey.com.

Floyd | 121

After more than two decades of teaching kids to sew, Australian designer Trixi Symonds knows just what kinds of projects appeal to children. Funny, huggable monsters? Check. Mama and baby animals? Absolutely. Bags to carry all your treasures? Say no more. With 20 adorably fun projects to create, Sew Together Grow Together guides you and your child clearly through each step, even if you have never picked up a sewing needle in your life.