Sewing Student Wins Second Place Red Ribbon at the Kentucky State Fair!

In June, I started teaching private sewing lessons at Austin's Sewing Center in Fern Creek, KY.  I have such a love of sewing and now I can share that with many more sewing students.  I am loving it!

Two weeks ago, I had an interesting experience with a lovely 10 year old girl.  She had committed to enter into the Kentucky State Fair an outfit for her American Girl doll, but had only cut out the pattern for the tunic, leggings and shoes.  Time was running out to get it made before the deadline to submit the entries.  I got the call on Monday that her lesson needed to take place right away so she'd be ready for the deadline on Saturday.

We got the two-hour lesson scheduled and got to work at the designated time.  The young lady was already familiar with her sewing machine.  She had taken lessons at another sewing dealership, having made two projects there, so that was a huge plus.

At the end of two hours, there was still more to do.  I was asked if I could work with her for another hour.  I said, yes, so we continued to work.  After another hour and 45 minutes, my young student had all of the machine work finished.  All she had left to do was to hand-stitch the trim on the hem of the tunic, sew on buttons for trim and glue some hook and loop tape on the opening in the back of the tunic.  We decided the leggings could be finished with a drawstring instead of elastic in the waistline casing, which made the finish work on them quicker and easier for her.  She had already planned to sew the shoes by hand.

At the State Fair last night, Lee and I made a special effort to find out where the junior sewing department was located.  Well, as we were walking toward it, I spotted the lime green tunic top on a doll in the top row of the display case from far away.

As we got closer, we could see that the American Girl doll had a red ribbon pinned on it.  My student had been awarded second place on her creation (pictured here)! 

Instead of hemming the bottom of the tunic and putting in a neckline facing, we decided to use pinking shears to finish the edges.  The doll's tunic was made from polar fleece, so a hem and a facing would have created way too much bulk in those areas.  I think it was a good decision!  It not only made the finish work easier, but quicker!

Here is a back view:

I'm really proud of my budding, designer 10 year old sewing student and can't wait to call her and let her know what great work she did!  Her doll looked fabulous, dressed in her lime green tunic and printed leggings outfit!  I can see that she has a love of sewing even at her young age.