My daughter's sewing

I haven't been around quite as much recently due to the Easter break, but my sewing machine hasn't been entirely neglected. My daughter and I had a day to ourselves and she decided she'd like to sew. She chose some Liberty Tana lawn and I showed her how to insert a zip. She did everything from cutting the fabrics with the rotary cutter (eep!), ironing on the interfacing (double eep!) and sewing the zip in place...the only thing I refused to let her do was use a match to singe the end of the velvet ribbon zip pull. Not because of any incompetence on her part, but more because of my own inability to deal with a potential fire near her (if you follow me on Instagram then you'll know that I had 'an incident' recently where my handmade Liberty oven gloves caught fire and I suffered a total memory blank as to how useful water can be in such a situation).

She took such care over every detail. When I looked at her little zipper purse afterward I realised that there was no part of the machining that I thought I could have done better myself - such a lovely feeling.

She seemed to really enjoy the process: the aha! moment (not of the Morten Harket variety) when you discover that the counter-intuitive order that the lining and outer fabrics are placed in when you're inserting the zip really does work; seeing how the different sewing machine feet helped her to do the things she wanted; the satisfaction of seeing the lining sewn neatly in place so that it can never be caught in the zip. Her innate neatness and perfectionism seem so well-suited to sewing.

We also had a day to ourselves in London. I took her to Liberty - she fell in love with every part of it and wanted to stay so long that we had to briefly go and revive her aching back in Le Pain Quotidien with a pastry before she could return to complete her third tour of the stationary department.

We also went up The Monument which marks the Great Fire of London. The top was 311 steps up a spiral staircase. As everyone else (including toddlers and the elderly) happily raced up and down, I seemed paralysed by vertigo and was nearly violently ill. But at the top there were amazing views and even buildings that seemed to show quilt patterns within their walls.

During the holidays we were also sent a review copy of Ruby Loves, a craft magazine aimed at 8 - 12 year olds. It contains a mixture of baking, paper craft and sewing. It's the perfect thing for a rainy afternoon, especially if (unlike us) you don't have cupboards already bulging with craft supplies, as nearly everything you'll need is included, from pastry cutters to buttons and fabric. 

Our verdict was that we both thought it was a really lovely magazine, but that it would appeal to a slightly younger girl (my daughter is 11) . However, when I was out with my son one afternoon I came back to find that she'd used some of the fabric and ribbons included with the magazine for her own purposes: hand sewing a toy mouse for Honey.

The holidays are now over and the slight rise in temperature has turned my thoughts to dressmaking. I've bought the Colette Laurel pattern from Backstitch and am looking forward to eventually wearing something that isn't woollen or made of heat-tech fabric. It may require a few more degrees of warmth to enable that though.

Florence x