Sew a girl a dress, she looks great for one party.....

Teach a girl to sew and all the American Girl Dolls in the neighborhood will have little pillows for their heads.  These two beautiful girls are my best friends daughters.  Lulu 9 and Cece 11.  They had an old crusty sewing machine that was given to them and alas it didn't work.  

Lulu sewing away

So for Christmas I gave them my cheapo brother from Target- works great but I just upgraded for more gizmos. 

Lulu pressing her seams open

I took scraps from their gumdrop pillows and cut out squares to make a pillow so I could show them how the machines works.  We also learned the value of pressing.

Cece at the machine sewing her pillow, Lulu pressing

On the table is Nate's pill with the baseballs.  He actually also sewed a bit of his.  What he did was push the pedal and I guided the fabric but he hung in there for most of it.  The hardest part is guiding the fabric straight and pressing the pedal evenly- admittedly the pedal is not easy to control.

Cece finishing up.

All three pillows unstuffed

Three happy new sewists with their little pillows

I'm told that they are working on piecing a quilt.  Our next project is pajama pants.  Part of their gift was a pattern and a trip to Jo Anne's to pick out fabric. Then cutting and sewing the PJs.  I should have take advantage of that warm up sale last weekend but I didn't think of it.  Darnit.