I posted yesterday’s ‘goals for 2011’ and in the list I had mentioned Julia wanting to learn how to sew on her own.

I realized afterwards that I probably should have specified that her goal was not actually currently business related, as in, she’s not learning RIGHT NOW, to sew for the business.

I don’t have 11 year olds sewing your pads.

Ha!

I’m actually the only one that sews & serges the pads.

However, that IS Julia’s longterm goal with her sewing skills, sooo… her goal this year is to make another step towards that long term goal.

I have no doubt she may just be running Homestead Emporium one day.

That’s another goal of hers!

With this in mind, I thought some of you might like a better introduction to the “future” of Homestead Emporium!

While on the subject of no doubts, I have no doubts that some of you will still be ordering from Homestead Emporium by the time Julia masters her sewing skills and that she will be sewing not just YOUR pads, but your daughter’s pads as well.

Julia is off to a VERY good start. The main thing she has going for her?

Her tenacity.

Her ‘stick-to-it-ness’.

She doesn’t give up, and the sewing machine doesn’t frustrate her. She has a lot of patience.

Julia has been wanting me to teach her to sew, on her own, for quite some time now. I’ve taught all our girls “how” to sew, but so far for the most part it was just kind of willy-nilly, hap-hazard, sewing whenever they felt like sewing. Usually a simple teddy, or simple dress for their dolls, etc.. I’d help them along the way, or they’d go with it themselves, and be fairly happy with how it ended up, knowing full well that it wasn’t “professional” but great for a child’s first sewing.

Julia wants to get past that ‘phase’ now. She wants to sew like a ‘professional’.

So yesterday I helped her get a personal sewing space set up in the studio with one of my extra sewing machines. Then I pulled out the sewing machine instruction manual and showed her that it’s as important to know how the machine works, as it is to know how to sew. So she spent almost two hours reading over the manual, asking questions along the way as I continued to work on my own sewing projects.

Today, she came out to the studio with me again, and this time she put to practice what she had read about yesterday. She filled her own bobbin. Learned how to thread the machine with only minimal help from me, AND, the next time she threaded it all by herself!

If you’ve ever taught a child to sew, you KNOW how great that is! Saves LOTS of time when a sewing child can thread the machine on their own.

Then, I had her practice the different stitch lengths on some scrap fleece.

From there, I had her try out different stitches, including the zig zag. Then I had her learn to start and stop, neatly.

And then, I had her change her bobbin thread, and  her spool thread, from green, to purple, and stitch as carefully as she could over each straight line she had sewn before. I told her to see just how close she could come to sewing directly over top of the previous lines.

I think she did pretty darn well!

Once again, I have no doubt Julia will indeed be sewing for Homestead Emporium one day. If I know her, it will be sooner, rather then later.

One step at a time dear child of mine.

One wonderful step at a time…