Every once in awhile I hear the question, “how do you entertain your child while you sew?” Truth be told, I don’t. I sew during nap time so she is happily entertained by her dreams. That being said, she does spend some quality time in the sewing room with me when I’m doing things that don’t involve my sewing machine. Cutting, pressing, designing, etc.
In fact, here she in my sewing room on Tuesday. (She asked me to take this picture and I just snapped – guess I should have cleaned up a bit first – my room looks like a hot mess!) When she is in my sewing room, naturally she wants to play with everything and that just isn’t possible as some sewing tools are just not safe for little hands, so what I have done is create a space in my sewing room that belongs solely to Anne and I have let her fill it with some of her favorite sewing related things.
The contents of the basket change rather frequently but these are her staples. She also occasionally brings in other things from around the house.
As you can see there is fabric, a quilt, a measuring tape, a pin cushion, and even a pressing ham! She loves to draw so she has her very own set of colored pencils. I use color pencils when I am drawing out new designs and she wanted her own set so she could get in on the action.
These are Anne’s jars, they are probably her favorite things in the sewing room. She fills them with buttons, pencils, and little odds and ends. They have entertained her ceaselessly for hours and hours on end.
The best part about having her in my sewing room and letting her use certain tools now, is that I hope she will be comfortable in there with me in a few years when she is old enough to get behind the machine with me.
Happy Sewing and Entertaining!
What a cutie! I love that she has her own stuff to keep her happy
That’s so fun, I will have to remember this when I have kids.
Such fun and great idea to expose her to the fun! 🙂 I know my little man enjoyed it when we were visiting!
This is such a good idea! Maybe someday when I have grands I can do that too…
Good thinking with the familiarisation! Although saying that, I loved playing with my mum and gran’s button boxes, sewing, not so much ;o)
that is a great idea and I can see her wanting to learn to sew like mom on day.
Wonderful to have a space with her own things.
I remember being little an obsessively trolling my mom’s button boxes while she sewed or ironed.
My fondest memories are playing with my Mom’s buttons in the old fruit cake tins. That is why I love them so much–I think I have passed that love on to Anne! Gave her a tin filled with buttons!
Every once in awhile children should entertain themselves. If they are little they should be in the same room with us so we can see what they are doing, but we don’t need to entertain them all the time. It is blessing if they have interest in what we are do so they can do it with us.
This is sew wonderful! I think you are teaching your daughter great things by letting her be creative with you. (in a safe way, of course) When my boys were little I used nap time as my crafting time too. When they outgrew naps they had “quiet time” in their room with a book so mommy could have some quiet time too. 🙂
Oh how nice! I have memories from very little of playing with select things in my mothers swing room or fabric scraps under the table. There were definite things we were not allowed to touch which I think was good also as it helped us learn to care for things and have respect for others and their things.
Or SEWING room!