4-H Sewing: Competition, and success!

After nearly three months - and a "push" before we took a family vacation to Disney - Anna finished her structured blouse! She loved sewing the buttonholes and adding the buttons, and was very proud of her finished product. But the test of her sewing would be the two competitions just days after we returned from vacation - the 4-H Fashion Revue, and the garment construction/sewing judging.

To our amazement, Anna won the Fashion Revue in her division. She was so excited. The original judging was held on a Monday before the fair started, and on Friday evening the sewists had their public show at the fairgrounds grandstand.

The day after the fashion revue judging, the sewists were judged on their construction techniques in an open judging, where they were told what they did well and what they could improve upon. The judge said Anna did an excellent job, but suggested she sew the buttons on differently by creating a thread shank. To create a thread shank, Anna will need to place a toothpick under the button to give space, sew the button several times, then remove the toothpick and wrap the thread around the thread under the button. The judge said this would make the buttons easier to use, and they wouldn't come off as easily.

But in the end, Anna won the garment construction portion of the contest as well, receiving a champion ribbon AND a state fair entry! "I'm glad I worked hard," she said, and is looking forward to seeing her blouse displayed at the Indiana State Fair in August!

4-H sewing: Sleeves and front button band

Anna is progressing well on her 4-H sewing project! We've had to kick things up a notch - sewing just one day a weekend for 90 minutes and one short session during the week after school just isn't cutting it as we approach the time to get this done. I'd like her to have this completed by the second week of June, to prepare for the junior fashion review and judging the following week.

Wow, set-in sleeves. It's a bit ambitious for an 11-year-old, and I did help her pin the sleeves into the holes after she gathered them. And since she didn't have a 4-H sewing teacher to guide her this year, she's stuck with ol' me, and I don't know how much helping is *too* much helping. I don't think I've crossed the line, but I knew those sleeves would be pretty rough and felt the need to jump in with the pinning. Still, it took two sessions - one 2-hour session and one 90-minute session - to get those sleeves hemmed and sewn in. There were some accidental tucks to be torn out/restitched, and the sewing was just slow. But after the first 2-hour session, Anna was already talking about how she wants to make the blouse again, because she figures the second time will be faster, lol!

The instructions on the button band were a bit confusing, so I sought help first from Becky of Erica's Craft & Sewing Center and Brenna of The Quilting Loft. Anna has taken a couple of sewing camps from Becky, and Brenna was her 4-H instructor from last year, and both offered to help. Thankfully they were able to clear up the instructions (yes, sometimes it DOES take a village!), so I taught Anna how to put the the button band on smoothly today.

Next is some hand-stitching - the button band needs to be slip-stitched onto the back of the garment, and Anna spent about 20 minutes on that today. I hope she can finish it tomorrow; she seemed to catch on quickly. Then it's onto the collar, button holes and buttons!

Her shirt is looking like it fits well; almost TOO well...like, don't grow-before-the-fashion-review-well. I think the next blouse should be made a size larger to accommodate growth. But for now it looks very much like the photo on the McCall's page for the pattern:

4-H Sewing: Front and back sewn!

Anna, with my help, has been working slowly on her 4-H sewing project - one 90-minute session each weekend, plus a short session mid-week (to do simple things like zigzagging the edges of seam allowances). This pattern (she's sewing View A) is marked as "Easy" by McCall's, but it's challenging for Anna! So far she's learned how to do curved seams (with clipping and notching included) and gathering.

The ruffled detail on the front, along with the two princess seams, are done. This weekend she created decorative ties for the back, and finished the two curved seams on the back of the garment.

On tap next week: Sewing the shoulders and side seams to connect the front and back, and gathering the sleeves/finishing sleeve edges to prepare for sewing them onto the blouse. There's plenty of "trickiness" ahead with the collar and the front band...and her first buttonholes. The project needs to be completed by the end of the third week in June.

4-H Sewing: Pinning and cutting the pattern

I spent the weekend on sewing projects! First, I enjoyed a "quilt retreat" and invited a friend to sew with me on Saturday - we were both happy to have completed several blocks. I'll post my quilt progress here soon. I continued working on my quilt blocks through Sunday afternoon, when I stopped to help my daughter with her 4-H project.

Now, who really likes pinning and cutting? It's soooo not my favorite part, and I expected she would dislike it (as much as she did last year, when she sewed a pair of shorts). But she was in a good mood the whole time, evening admitting that she had fun. Fun? With mom? Now, I can't "make" her do anything she doesn't want to do, and sewing - even sewing a structured blouse - was always her decision. But I didn't expect her to have fun with what I consider the "non-fun" part.

Next is marking the notches, and then I'm going to cut out the pattern again on the piece of fabric she chose for me to use. As I mentioned last week, I plan to make her a blouse as well, to go through the pattern so I can help her construct her own. For the past two years she went to a 4-H sewing instructor, but that's fallen through this year...so it's just me and my hopes that I can teach her the proper way the 4-H judges want her to do everything. I briefly considered making a muslin before she started, but the sizes on the envelope are pretty much "true" to her body, so I figured we'd wing it. Fingers crossed!

4-H sewing: Choosing the pattern and fabrics

It's 4-H time again, and my daughter Anna wants to continue learning how to sew. Her Level III project has several requirements, including either adding buttons or a zipper to a garment. Since she's always wanted to make a structured shirt, we chose this pattern together:


Anna likes her fabrics WILD. I'm going to make a shirt for her first, to see what the pitfalls and difficult parts of the pattern are (there always seems to be a minor stumbling block here or there). She chose the black print on the left, so I wanted to sew a shirt with a totally different-looking small print. However, she chose the batik on the upper right for me to sew with. I thought the two fabrics looked too similar, but it's what she wanted (and she's the one who will wear these shirts, ha). Anna is planning to sew Pattern A, with short sleeves and the ruffle:


I'll post some photos as she goes along!