discovering her talents

Last week my oldest daughter wanted to make an apron. I had other things that I had to get done and wasn’t able to work with her on an apron at that very moment. I told her I could help her later sometime or she could just make it by herself. The sewing machine was already out. She picked out fabric, grabbed my good sewing scissors and started cutting. She was giddy with excitement. She looked over at my apron and noticed it has a pocket. She added a pocket to her apron. I gave her a couple pointers on how to attach the neck strap and the ties, but other than that she made her apron on her own.

She is so proud of it.

I hung it in the kitchen on a hook next to my Anthropologie apron. Her wonky, imperfect, frayed edges apron is the most beautiful apron I’ve ever seen. It is perfect.

She’s been making lots of crepe paper ruffles for friends. Lots. I think I’ll be seeing more aprons now too.

I don’t really know how to sew, so I’m not passing on great wisdom to her. If anything I am teaching her to sew like MacGuyver, which is practical and gets the job done. We use a few different sewing books for ideas and tips, though I am not the best at following directions. The book we’ve been using lately is Let’s Sew Together by Rubyellen Bratcher. It is full of simple ideas that we can do together. There are couple projects beyond what I can do, so I send her to my mom for those. And it has pretty pictures….I need pretty picture tutorials!

Sidenote: Rubyellen is the author of the blog Cakies – it is one of my favorite blogs. As it gets cold and you find yourself inside more…make a cup of something hot and pin all her DIYS and recipes…and then try them!

So my girl wanted to make a puppet and puppet theater. I helped her with the puppet and then she took her book over to my mom’s house to make the theater. I actually had to borrow the book back from my mom so I could take a picture to show it to you in this post. I’ll return it to my mom…she and my girl will enjoy making more projects together. And she actually knows how to sew like a seamstress, not like MacGuyver.

I found this old picture of her. She was two and pretending to use my machine.

At church on Sunday her teacher talked with the kids about how they are all created with different talents and gifts. She’s been asking me about her gifts and talents ever since. I told her our gifts and talents are often the things we do that make us really happy. She declared she is talented at sewing, crafting and spray painting. I smiled and confidently agreed.