It was pillow day at Bishop Maginn. With some of the donations I received from a few of you, I got some polyfill stuffing for the lunchtime sewing class in Sue Silverstein’s art room.
Hser Nay, Paris, and Jayla were there as usual. They picked up where they left off last class.
But it was the first time sewing for Natalia. She had to be talked into it. Sue, who knows each of her kids well, was able to convince Natalia to try by appealing to her desire to make her own clothes, because she doesn’t like dressing like everyone else.
Natalia is shy and was afraid, to even press down on the foot pedal. She surprised me and herself by having great control over the machine and sewing an almost perfectly straight line the first time she tried. She would hardly look at me when we first began, giggling nervously. But by the end of the class she posed with her pillow, looking straight into the camera.
When it was time to hand sew the pillow closed, Natalia was more confident about it because she’s seen her grandmother sew by hand.
Hser nay was ready to stuff her pillow when she got to class. She was the first one I showed how to finish it off by sewing the opening closed by hand. Thanks to Elizabeth we had lots of different colors of thread, so Hser Nay was able to find a green that matched her pillow. Her long nails made it hard for her to thread her needle but were perfect for pushing the polyfill into the corners of the pillow.
Jayla found the patchwork piece she put together two weeks ago. She chose a plaid for the backing and sewed them together with a little help. She was just finishing her pillow up as I was leaving for the day.
Paris got to the class late, so I didn’t get to spend too much time with her. But she figured out how to sew the front of her pillow to the back and cut it to size without my help. She’s been working on this patchwork piece outside of our lunchtime class. I asked Paris and Hser Nay to show her how to sew the opening closed since I had to leave before she got to it.
Everyone was able to thread their needles when it came time to do the hand sewing. But the tricky part was tying the knot. I showed them two different ways of doing it. I also showed them how to tie off the thread when they were done. I’m not sure they’ll remember that, but I imagine we’ll have a chance to do some more hand sewing again soon.
