All By Himself

So, this is Cowboy... he really and truly LOVES to sew. Thinking it would be a short phase, I never thought about actually buying him his own little Singer SewHandy (yes, it's vintage, people... from the 1940s and REALLY SEWS!). But, after the other day - I will definitely be keeping a 2nd one I had originally intended to sell on eBay. It's a brown one ~ a cowboy color, of course. Anyway, until that one is serviced - he got to use SweetPea's black one. (She definitely knows it's hers and loves to show it off even if she's only two - she knows when she's a "big girl" {age 4} she'll get to use it.)

Sooooo - this is how it went. I had bought this retro-styled "Popeye" fabric with the original intent of making him some flannel pyjama pants, but when Cowboy decided he was going to make 'himself' a pillowcase like he's made for his cowboy men (see photo of him at that link) - he begged to use it. It's soft, it was originally for him, so I thought "why not!?"

The Singer SewHandy clamps to a table and is most certainly made with quality in mind. It's not one of those "new", cheapy, plastic child sewing machines, that's for sure. It's all metal and has a hand crank on the side. The presser foot is designed in such a way that little fingers are impossible to to get underneath the needle. There is no bobbin to mess with, only the top thread. The stitches stay together by making a chain stitch. (The way the hook works underneath.)

Cowboy cut the fabric by himself, he picked out the thread by himself, he hemmed it by himself, he stitched all the sides by himself, he cut the threads by himself, he turned it right side out by himself (check out the slow-working smile as he does this), he pushed out the corner seams by himself, he put the pillow in it by himself and he put it on his bed to "try out" by himself.

He was VERY proud of himself.

(Mama was VERY proud, too!)