Sewing with Islay - making the cat bag from Sewing for Children

On Saturday Islay and I had a precious, and very rare, couple of hours with just the two of us at home.  We finished off a little sewing project that we had started some time ago.

 Last autumn I was in John Lewis with all the children and Islay saw their little sewing machines* (because, of course, we visited the sewing department) and she immediately asked if she could have one for her birthday or Christmas.  I thought it might wear off but she carried on showing interest so my parents gave her one for her birthday. She was delighted.  I had also seen good reviews of Sewing for Children by Emma Hardy** and they gave her a copy too (and mum has promised her a Grannie sewing session some time this summer).

Islay picked out the cat bag to make and she has made it nearly all herself over a couple of sessions.  She is quite scared of the sewing machine and worried that she'll sew her fingers (I'm now wishing I hadn't been quite so serious when  I told her to be careful, oh well) and this has made the machine sewn bits a little tense (and, yes, I know am the grown up but I do struggle to maintain my patience at times).  Consequently I was quite nervous about tackling the hand sewing which is what we had left to do on Saturday. But she did really well and picked it up quickly.  You can see though that her stitch length did increase and become less neat as she made her way round the bag.  But she is only six and she was also desperate to finish it in time for a friend's party that afternoon.  Thanks to some super speedy button sewing by me she was able to take her bag to the party - she couldn't have been happier or more proud of herself.  Success.

The book is great and I'd be happy to for the kids to have a go at most of the projects. They can all be completed with hand sewing but I'm keen to show them how to use a machine as well - but I'm also, after Saturday, now more confident that we can do a fair bit of hand sewing too.  Angus is part way through making the wee owl.  Finn hasn't asked to make anything yet but I think the projects may be a bit young for him. I'll have to think of something else for him - or maybe he could make something for Katie, I think he'd love to do that.

 Our house has been the land of horrible colds recently.  I'm only just getting my voice back after a few very croaky days.  Katie is recovering and back to sleeping all night but waking up faaaaar too early.  And Islay had a day off school yesterday, not so much for illness but more because she was very tired after coughing all night.  We made some brownies together and, for the first time, I let Katie help too.  I think from her face in these photos you can tell how much she enjoyed herself!

 * I like the sewing machine, it is fully functioning with backstitch and a few different stitch settings.  It isn't very fast and it is noisy but I would recommend it as a good starting point
 ** I can't help thinking that the title would be better as Sewing with Children, Sewing for Children seems to me like things to make for them rather than with them