Stitching with Elli

Bonnie wants to make a Christmas present for her cousin that lives in another state. As with most things, it is hard for one doll to do things by themselves…so she enlisted Lanie’s help. They decided the best thing to make would be a dress. Lanie had been wanting to learn how to sew anyway. Lanie did observe that Bonnie had an awful lot of cousins…but she was happy to help.

The first step was to pick out the fabrics…

Bonnie told me later that I really needed to do something about that fabric closet.  I heartily agree with her…but as I told Bonnie, there was a little thing called “time” which was necessary for most things. Currently I had a bazillion other things to do. Lanie piped up and asked how many a bazillion was. After THAT got explained, Bonnie said maybe she could get the other dolls to help me organise that closest.

They found several fabrics they liked. Bonnie couldn’t quite decide if she needed one patterned  fabric and one solid…or maybe two patterned fabrics….

Lanie helped talk her into using both the dotted fabric and the stripes. The next step was to pull out the pattern pieces.

Bonnie showed Lanie how the pattern pieces were numbered and how to know which numbers they needed.

“Do we need the child size? or the doll size? how big is your cousin?” asked Lanie.

“Doll size. She is about my size…maybe a little taller…but not by much….we aren’t a very tall family.” Bonnie replied.

Soon they were  pinning the pattern pieces on to the fabric.

“Pass me a pin, please?” Bonnie asked Lanie.

“I would be pleased  to pleasantly pass you a perfectly picked pin so that you may precisely pin pattern pieces into place.” giggled Lanie… as she tried to think of more words with”p” that she could  add to the sentence.

They laughed about that for a while….and I think there was something said about “proper porcupines pilfering precious pickles…” Soon Bonnie got back on track with the project and started cutting out the pieces.

Lanie tried to guess what each piece was without reading the name.

“I think this must be the top…” Lanie guessed as she examined some pieces.

“I really need some smaller scissors…These are too big for me.” Bonnie said to herself as she tried to manage the big sewing scissors.

Off to the sewing machine!! There were certain obstacles in using the big sewing machine. Bonnie managed to figure it out.

“Lanie! Can you iron this for me after I stitch this seam? It has a big wrinkle in it. I need it to lay flat.” Bonnie called down to Lanie who was working the sewing machine foot pedal on the floor.

“Just pass it down…I shall be delighted too.”

Bonnie handed her the piece and Lanie industriously and carefully ironed it out smoothly.

Bonnie is making good progress! I think she is sewing on the skirt now! It should be ready for Christmas! She said I couldn’t take a picture of the finished dress, because she doesn’t want to take the chance her cousin might get on the internet and see the picture.  😉

Are any of you making any handmade gifts for someone for Christmas?