Sewing With Kids!!

 Every Summer, my 2 cousins, my sister and I would be sitting on my grandmothers screened in porch taking sewing lessons with the other neighborhood kids. Do you remember your Summers of youth? We would all be dropped off every morning before our parents would go to work and our days would begin. I loved every minute of it! There was no television, video games or computers, there was a small cassette player and the rosary playing on deck. We would all have our own tiny plastic chairs that we chose ourselves at the market at the beginning of the season. Our embroidery hoops were colorful and our threads all the colors that we chose! We would sketch out own designs and my grandmother would have us all working quietly for hours! We would pray, chat and joke around, we would break for the paleta man and stop for homemade gorditas and frijoles!  These are the summers that memories are made up of! I was lucky enough to have 2 sets of grandparents, but only my grandmother on my mothers side was retired at the moment, so we would stay there. I was lucky enough that my cousins were our age too! (I was 8, cousin 7, Sister 5, cousin 4)

 As Summer approaches and I plan our curriculum, I begin to think of those days! Planting and eating strawberries, searching the basement in hopes of finding old treasures belonging to our mothers, racing each other in the backyard and sometimes just spraying each other with the hose! I know I want similar memories for my children and right away thought that this was the perfect time for them to learn the basics of sewing! (Which is all I know, I own 3 sewing machines and even an antique Singer, but they do NOTHING, since I don't know how to operate them!LOL)

I rummaged around and put together a box from supplies I had around the house and a vintage Wil-hold sewing box. I love that the lid is removable, so that works as an easy access basket when they are working!
A small container holds safety pins, another holds spools of thick yarn and plastic needles and then thicker plastic cording that can be used without the needle (3 year old). Large Buttons, Spool of thick plastic cording,  measuring tape, scissors and plastic jar grips.

I use the plastic jar grips (pack of 4 1.00 at dollar store!) instead of fabric, because the holes are larger and make it easier for little fingers to figure out the ease of sewing. My 2 big kids dove right in when I pulled out this box a few weeks ago. The large buttons, help kids in learning the basics of sewing on a button! My oldest took to it right away and then my oldest son kind of gave up after awhile :)

Snuggled on the couch next to Mommy, my daughter loves to work on her sewing all the time! Every time I see her, I'm taken back to those hot Summers and before I know it, the air smells like home cooking and I have a crazy urge to pray the rosary!

What are you Summer memories???