Will you teach me to sew, Mommy?

I sew, a lot. Claire and Emmett are usually playing in my sewing room any time I am in there working on something. I have special "sewing room" toys that are only to be played with in there, that way the little ones have fun things to do that keep them occupied while I am busy working on some little project of my own. Lately however, Claire has more and more often ignored the toys and climbed onto my lap, or pulled up a chair next to me to watch me sew. She has asked when I'll teach her to sew using my sewing machine. The thought of those tiny fingers and that rapidly moving needle really scare me so I told her that she had to wait until she was at least six, she is just 3 and a half now. (Hopefully, she'll be ready by the time she is six, because I doubt she'll forget what I've said! And a promise is a promise after all...)

A couple of days ago she asked me again, "Will you teach me to sew, Mommy?" And I said "Yes!" I pulled out a nice piece of wool felt from my stash and we traced her little hand onto the fabric. Then I let her choose what color thread she wanted to use. Why, PINK, of course! I taught her how to thread the needle and how to carefully push it through the fabric, following the line we had drawn. She was thrilled! 

She sat next to me in the sewing room and worked on her sewing for over an hour. I thought she might get bored and wander off to play with something else for a while, but she didn't. She sat there working so carefully, chattering the entire time about all of the wonderful things she was going to make now. She has great plans to make a whole new wardrobe for her "Claire Baby" (Claire Baby is the very first Waldorf doll I ever made. It was a Christmas gift for her for her very first Christmas. Last year at some point she named the doll "Claire Baby" She has other dolls now as well, but that is the only doll she has ever named!) I was working on some doll clothes at the time, so that probably helped inspire the notion. 

She finished her sewing in one sitting and the minute she got done, I took her outside to get a few pictures of her with her first sewing project in front of our flowers. She is quite proud of her accomplishment, and reasonable so! We are in the process of fixing up the bedroom she and Emmett share and it is getting framed and hung on her wall, as per her request. :-)