Summer sewing with Parker

 One of the things I wanted to start teaching Caleb and Parker this summer was some basics of sewing, so when Parker announced he wanted to make a Nerf vest I was thrilled.  I made one for Caleb's birthday, and I guess Parker thought it was cool.  So we went to JoAnn's to choose fabric, which we found in a remnant bin, plenty of black elastic, and black bias tape.  We used a camouflage vest he already owns for a pattern, although in hindsight I wish we would have made it a bit bigger.  Parker did most of the actual sewing, and I was impressed he was able to handle the sewing machine so well.  As he was sewing the loops of elastic to hold darts, one of them was too tight to fit a dart in and the one next to it was too loose to hold a dart.  So I introduced Parker to the seam ripper, which he was not very excited about using.  He sewed bias tape around the front, neck, and bottom of the vest for a clean edge.  We were going to also sew bias tape around the armholes, but he just wanted to be done by that point.  I think the frayed edges look good, though! 

The top two strips of elastic hold darts, on his left side he has two strips of elastic to hold a clip, and on his right he has a pocket.  It was really fun to work on this with Parker, and I was so impressed at his hard work and how well he did with sewing.