Casting about this week for a project to start has been fun. Saturday our church quilt group actually sewed shorts for a mission project using tee shirts. One of our members owns an embroidery business and also does screen printed tee shirts. Someone didn't pay for an order of blue shirts and he donated them to us for materials.
We had a handful of extra ladies and two tweens helping. We set up stations and went to town. The shorts were pre-assembled by another member with a serger. We were cutting the discarded bottoms of the tees for waistbands and hemming the legs. If you're interested in the pattern, it's at Nancy Zieman's website, and it's called Britches for Boys, to go along with the Little Dresses for Africa.
I had my serger and was using it to attach the waistbands to the shorts bodies. This prompted lots of interest from the tweens, one of whom is a future sewist I am certain! We discussed the functions of the various threads, and how fast the machine goes. And of course how with a serger you never, never, NEVER sew over pins!
On of the ladies wanted to see how the blades worked. She has no serger herself and the idea that the machine was cutting was fascinating, so we pulled the front case off the machine and watched the slivers roll out onto the table.
This was SO much fun for me, I love teaching people things I know and it's more fun when they are truly interested. We decided that we're going to set up a youth sewing day and make pillow cases, using the burrito method. If you're interested in that, google Pillow Cases Burrito Method and you'll find dozens of sites and tutorials. My favorite is the one put out by the 1 Million Pillowcases project.
What with dusting off the serger for this project and the interest in pillow cases, I'm inspired. I need to get sewing, and get some finishes in for 2014!!
I hope to make this my first finish this year. It's a Christmas family quilt project we did a couple of years ago, and I'm among the last of the family members who contributed blocks to get mine done! And I have TWO to do!! Wish me luck...
Sew on!
