A worthy project that little hands can contribute to:

My sister-in-law posted this on her facebook feed recently and I wanted to pass it along.  It is great for children to…

• practice their sewing skills
• make something useful.
• make use of scraps that would otherwise go into the trash.

all you have to do is use the pattern linked here to make a heart out of fabric scraps, then mail them in a ziplock bag to this address

The Preemie Project 
2607 Flagstone Court 
Coralville, IA 52241

The hearts will be donated to NICU's for parents to wear, then placed in their infants incubator to help the baby learn the parent's smell.  But even more than that, it helps parents who are going through an emotional roller coaster over their baby's health concerns feel that they are still connected to their baby even when if they can't be at the hospital all day and night.

Here is the information copied from Facebook if you want more information:

The Preemie Project is an Iowa based nonprofit. Our mission: The Preemie Project seeks to provide comfort and support to critically ill infants and their families in Newborn Intensive Care Units in Iowa.

One of the TPP projects that is in ever increasing demand is "Developmental Hearts" The pattern forDevelopmental Hearts is on our website.

Here is the pattern:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzJowaAm_F2xazVmbWdzR0FwTUU/view?usp=sharing

TPP donates the Developmental hearts to Iowa NICUs. The hearts are given to moms and dads when their baby is admitted to the NICU. The heart is worn against the parent's skin so that it absorbs their scent. The heart is then placed in the infant's bed.

The pattern includes a template for an 8 inch heart. That is the largest size needed. You can use your smaller scraps and make hearts as small as 5 inches for the tiniest babies.

Two heart shaped layers of cotton, flannel, fleece or minky are serged or sewn together. There is NO batting between the layers. St. Luke's in Cedar Rapids LOVES the hearts that have minky fabric on one side. They request, "Many more please!" So SOFT!

Please wash all fabric before sewing the hearts. Special detergent is NOT needed. Do NOT use fabric softener. If you have pets in your home please wash your items before sending. You might need to iron the hearts. Place in a plastic bag immediately.

We need many hundreds of these hearts every year. The demand keeps growing as more hospitals request the hearts from us.

Please use sweet baby and kid prints for the hearts. Right now our supply is low. We could use several hundred in the next couple of months. Mail the hearts anytime to

The Preemie Project
2607 Flagstone Court
Coralville, IA 52241

As always, we cannot donate items to any hospital if it comes from a smoking household due to contamination with "third-hand smoke".http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/expert-answers/third-hand-smoke/faq-20057791

What questions can we answer?

Pillowcase dresses for My dolly and me
-adapted tutorial from other website

We recently found a doll dress pattern here at skiptomylou.org and thought it was a great 'sew with me mommy' type project.  Great work skip to my lou!  We love finding projects that are just right for young seamstresses/beginners.

To make it easier for us, Mom did all the prep work of cutting, hemming and making the casing.  Leaving the work of sewing the side seams and threading the ribbon through the casing.  That required a small change to the original pattern.  Here is what she did



1.) cut out the pattern

2.) mark the side seam lines with a washable marker

3.) Iron the hem line and casing into place

4.) unfold the edge she pressed for the casing and folded the raw side seems down at an angle until they cleared the starting point of the side seem.

5.) zig zag stitch the folded side seems down.

6.) sew the casing and hem into place

7.) Pin the 2 pieces with right sides together.

She thought it would make a really great gift.  So she created a sewing kit to give out as a gift.  Here is what you will need to create a doll dress kit:

SEWING KIT GIFT

1. Zip lock bag to store all the pieces
2. 2 prepared fabric pieces.  (pinned together and prepared as described in directions 1-7 above) 
3. a bobbin with thread that matches the fabric
4. A sewing needle
5. a ribbon about 30" long that has a safety pin in the end of it,
6. Printed directions from this link here to include in your kit so the recipient knows what to do.  (these are directions Mom has written out specifically for this gift.  They begin with the fabric already hemmed and pinned together.)

The fun thing about the pattern from skiptomylou.org is that you can keep it simple for beginners, or if you have time and lots of creativity that you want to get out, add fun details like ruffles, lace, appliqué, rick rack, pockets… Whatever you can dream up.

Mom makes pillowcase dresses as nightgowns for us (get the nightgown pattern here at a dress donation site called dress a girl around the world.)  We love that we have matching nighties for our dolls now.

Hospital Infant Hats
Our church recently started making infant hats for a local hospital and we decided to make some too.  It has proved to be a just-right-project or a group of 8 and 9 year olds to do with the help of a grown up.  Here is what you would need to make one too:

• A measuring tape (most sewing measuring tapes are 3/4" wide, you will want to make sure yours is too.)
• Some ribbon that is not very wide
• A piece of cotton knit fabric (stretchy T-shirt fabric.  You can buy something new at the store, or cut a scrap out of some old clothes.)
• a washable marker
• a needle with a VERY large eye
• a normal size needle
• thread to match your fabric
• Scissors

 Directions

1.) Cut your fabric to be 8" by 14.5" (I used the bottom of some yoga pants, so you can see the old hem and the side seem in these photos.  If you are starting with a new piece of fabric, don't worry about hemming it.)

2.)  With your measuring tape as a guide, mark a line along one of the short sides at the edge of the fabric.

3.) cut the ribbon to be as long as the long side (14.5")

 4.) Fold your fabric in half, bringing the short sides together.  If there is a pattern on your fabric, make sure the pattern is inside the fold so you can't see it.  If there is an old hem or seem on the fabric, make sure that ugly part is facing you and the nice looking side is hidden up inside your fold.)

5.) Thread your regular sides needle.  (If using a sewing machine instead of hand sewing, adapt steps 5 & 6.)

6.) Sew by hand, using a back stitch to sew along the marked line, joining the 2 edges of fabric together.  Don't forget to begin and end with a knot.

7.) Turn your project right-side-out so you can see the pattern/hide the ugly edges.

8.) Thread your ribbon into your large eyed needle.

9.) Use a running stitch to weave the ribbon in and out along the top edge of the hat.  Try to keep your ditches about 3/4" away from the edge.  Go through only 1 layer of fabric at a time.  Continue your stitch until you reach the beginning again.  (for some this step can be tricky because it is difficult to pull through and the ribbon may slip out if you are not mindful of what is happening with your previous stitches.  For that I suggest safety pining the end of the ribbon to the fabric, preventing it from pulling through as you work.)

-don't worry about the ribbon twisting or flipping between stitches, that won't be noticed after the next step.

 10.) Match up the ends of the ribbon and pull tight against the hat.

 11.) Now tie the ribbon like you would if you were double knotting your shoelaces.

12.) Fold up the bottom 2 times and you are done.  DON'T sew the bottom edge in place, new babies need this to be adjustable depending on their head size.

Great job.  I would guess that this project would take 1-3 hours of work depending on the abilities of your young seamstresses.  An experienced gown up may complete it on a machine in 30 minutes.

Getting started

I've been wanting to create a video blog for a while now.  But I have been having a hard time deciding what my posts should be about, how to post for an audience and care for my family at the same time.  I am hoping that this will fulfill those goals.
My plan:

• Do a sewing project with my kids once a month.
• supplies will be scraps of fabric and found objects in my craft area.
• All projects will be done with my kids so that we can have special time together while I am still doing what I love.
• I don't want them to be things that will just get tossed out a week later because we didn't need them.  I want the stuff to be functional items that have a purpose above and beyond the simple fact that it is fun to make stuff.
• None of the projects will be long.  I know I hate doing a project that lasts forever, kids are probably the same way.