Sewing Badge Research

K has expressed interest in learning to sew more and in potentially sharing that knowledge with others in her troop and maybe even younger girl scouts. As a result I have been looking into various sewing badge requirements, patch programs and project ideas to find things she might want to try. I could't find any official "sewing" badge at the Junior Level in the new post-2011 badge structure. I'm sure I'll rant about how much I dislike the marketing and branding of this new badge structure but not now. I know there are several ways to incorporate sewing projects into the badge requirements of other badges and especially into the Journeys but since her troop is working on those I'm going to stick to independent projects. Who know's, maybe when she feels more confident in her sewing skills she can help introduce the idea of a sewing related project into her troop.

There are several patch programs and some info on the retired badges like sew simple. There are also service focused programs and many great tutorials focus on beginner learning machine and/or hand sewing. Here are a few I've found:

Cupcakes and Lace. One of the local girl scout partner organizations, they offers workshops that individual girls can register for that teach sewing and crafting skills and some also meet badge requirements. This fall they are offering Junior Jeweler and Sew Simple programs. I'll be keeping an eye on the workshop list to see what's coming up.

Juliette Sews. GSNCA has a Council Own patch that helps girls learn more about sewing by hand and by machine. The link has a list of 29 requirements. Each level has to do items 1-4 and Juniors have to complete an additional 7 steps of their choosing. The patch is listed at $1.50 on the their Council Own Shop page.

Sew Simple Badge. I found a copy of the retired Sew Simple badge requirements along with other retired badges here. If I can't get her into a workshop I can always work on it at home but I'd have to track down a badge myself.

Dress a Girl Around the World offers a patch for those who take pillow cases and turn them into dresses. I stumbled across this patch on Pinterest and after some research decided that this could be a great way to combine service with the sewing. It is a program of Hope 4 Women International, an Arizona based ministry organization. "Dress a Girl Around the World provides patterns, ways to be involved and opportunities for you to deliver or to help fund the delivery of dresses to girls around the world. People from all over are forming" They sell patches on their site for $3.50.

Pinterest inspiration:

A hand stitch, cross stitch card idea

This pin is a collection of 7 simple pillowcase dress variations

Link to a Martha Stewart hand stitch felt tissue cover. I'd make changes to the size, embellishments and order of steps.

A cable keeper-A simple stitched band with button hole and button work

Sock Bunnies-up-cycle some socks and practice softie hand sewing

More advanced, a up-cycled t shirt braided rug

Fiber and Needlework Update

After repeatedly blowing off a number of fiber and needle work projects that have gotten nowhere I have found that over the last few weeks I got my motivation and inspiration back. First I finally finished the scarf for my mom that was intended as last years X-mas gift but was only just started by that fateful day. Gives a new meaning to X-mas in July.

Next I finally gave in and washed, sorted and organized my stash of fabric and notions. I made plans for what fabrics needed to be made into what garments and by the time I was done I was overwhelmed so I decided to start with the simplest 2 projects first. That lead me to printing out the Lazy Days Skirt from Oliver+S and quickly whipping it up. The hardest part was deciding which ribbon to use.

As you can see I went with the solid purple. It looks vary cute and K loves it. I see more of them in our future.
Next project was created out of desperation. If I was going to get more motivated to complete/start other knitting projects and get ready for this X-mas I was going to need to make it easier to see at a glance what needles and notion I have and make it easy to take them with me. I already had a very large needle case that came with a set my grandmother gave me so what I really needed was something that could hold my double pointed needles, my crochet hooks and have plenty of room for future needles. After browsing some online patters and ready-mades I dove in to some miscellaneous fat quarter I had and came up with this. Not made particularly precise but I will do for now. Things I would have done differently would be to remember to attach the ties before sewing the whole thing, adding extra fabric to re-enforce the bottom, making a few smaller rows, adding a pocket for small notions, and making the whole thing in 2 pieces, the pockets and a separate cover to keep the stitches from showing on the outside. Here is another view of it with the flap down to prevent things from slipping out and partially rolled. The ties are a little awkward but I really like it and it works well.

Lastly, I have decided that I want to learn sock and this time I will keep at it until I do. My strategy for success includes leveraging the fact that i finally signed up for Ravelry, using the correct yarn, having the right dpns, and, most importantly, starting with kids socks (they are smaller and quicker to make progress on). In fact, in the time it took me to finishing composing this post, I have already done one. I don't want to put pictures up yet as they are a gift, but soon I'll show you all of them.

Yarn and Rhubarb

It was a rather blah looking, too hot, too humid day so I scraped my plans for a second day of hiking with the wee one and we cooked and relaxed instead. This gave me some time to put in some serious mileage on several long outstanding needlecraft projects, ironically they were all winter or cold-weather projects.

First, I got as far as I am going to until it gets cooler on a pair of fleece pants and matching jumper dress for K. The elastic is in the the waistband but I'll hold of on sewing it until the fall so that I can size it properly; no need to sew it in now and then rip it out and fix it later if she grew over the summer. The dress is also on hold needing only bias tape in the armholes and potentially a button up the back to get it over her big head, again if she keeps growing. Next, I got one step away from finished sewing new liners for some of my lined baskets...with X-mas prints on the accent band. Yeah, I know, but now I'm ahead of the game for next year. These are to replace the current fall liners that they came with. If I start now I should be able to finish spring themed ones in time for 2010. I'm also trying to pickup cross stitching again, but I only have the yarns that came with my little how to book so I'm pretty limited in what I can make right now. I'm hoping to add some detail to K's cloths and also lettering on the basket liners.

Then I got in a few more rows of my crochet sampler stitch scarf in a variegated 'fiesta jewel' Red Heart yarn, that is turning out to be much better than I anticipated. I think that I might actually want to keep this one for me instead of donating it to the K dress up bin. That's pretty good considering that I only taught myself crochet a few weeks ago and this is my first crochet project. Last, but not least, I finally knit over the one third mark on Mom's X-mas scarf. I turned on Batman Begins and just dug in while K was napping and got another 6 inches which pushed me up over 1/3 of my intended final length. This is a nice washable wool in a deep heather blue with creamy white stripes at the tip. If I can figure out how, I'm also still considering adding pockets on the end but that depends on if I can get this done before next X-mas.

This evening K was a great helper in the kitchen. She rolled out her own pizza dough and picked the orange cheese while I formed the rest and topped them with feta, zucchini and pizza sauce with sweet peppers and onions. She washed strawberries while I cut the rhubarb. She mixed dry ingredients for muffins while I mixed them for cobbler biscuits. She dumped flour on the floor and all over her front while I chopped the strawberries and mixed them with the rhubarb and sugar. She cleaned up while I melted butter and poured the wet stuff for the muffins. She stirred the wet stuff while I mixed and kneaded the biscuit dough. She put muffin papers in the tin while I mixed up rhubarb into the batter and she held the tray as I spooned it in. She generously piled the tops with the cinnamon sugar and I put them in the oven. As I cut the biscuits and assembled the strawberry-rhubarb cobbler, she washed up and took her pizza to the table. She refused to eat said pizza but was nice about it and asked for a muffin instead. We both enjoyed the muffins, though she ate mostly just the tops, and are looking forward to cobbler with ice cream for dessert.