Working in the Wonder Studio: Sewing up Some New Friends

This week in Wonder Studio the 3^rd graders worked on finishing their various projects.  Over the years, I’ve noticed how different groups of children are often attracted by different types of crafting and building ideas.  Some come to the studio searching for canvases and paint.  Some come to the studio diving into our cardboard box bin and start constructing all different types of things: buildings, machines, and models.  This spring, a small group of 3^rd graders were fascinated by sewing.  They went through my material baskets like tornadoes and were enticed by jars of buttons, pincushions, and vast colors of floss.  This group had started early in the fall making small pillows.  They learned to sew straight and blanket stitches.  They learned to thread a needle and make knots.  Some were more proficient than others, but the ones who mastered these skills, now have become teachers for the ones who are still learning.  I have come to enjoy our sewing circle times.  As the chaos of making buzzes all around us in the Wonder Studio, we sit around a table in my adjoining office to sew, chat, and laugh.  This is a time of deep learning.  The girls learn about sewing, making mistakes, and perseverance.  I learn about how these students approach a task:  how they plan, how they organize, and how they problem  solve. I also learn how to help them when they are stuck and what motivates them.  I have come to understand how important this half-hour is for them as students and for me as a teacher.

The sewing circle girls wanted to make stuffed animals.  Darsha had made a bear in the fall, and everyone wanted to make a stuffed animal like Darsha.  Darsha has superb fine motor control and made small, even stitches from the start.  She didn’t know what she wanted to work on in the spring, but she joined the circle again to help others thread needles and knot floss.  Hailey wanted to make a blue dinosaur.  Then Elise wanted to make a blue pineapple.  Lisa found black felt and wanted to make a new panda to add to her panda collection. Allie wanted to make something but didn’t know what to make.  She kept watching the others, decided to make a brown bear and then abandoned it, and kept on thinking.  I try not to interfere and let the girls take the lead.  I will help make patterns, cut fabric,  and thread needles.  I will show how to make a particular stitch, but I leave the design up to the girls’ imaginations.  It has been such a treat to watch them grow as sewers.  They are more confident and want to continue to sew, asking their moms to get them sewing kits and the like. This is so rewarding for me because my mom taught me to sew.  She was a seamstress during the Great Depression.  She worked in a dress shop and put her younger brothers and her husband through college by sewing.  Finally, when she was a young mother, she went back to school and became a teacher.  However, the sewing was always a part of her creativity.  She could make a dress or skirt or blouse without using a pattern.  She’d look at a piece of fabric, hold it in her hands, fold it, and start cutting.  Soon that piece of fabric was a beautiful, intricately smocked dress.  It was like magic to me, so  I took up sewing.  However, I wanted to be a little different from my mom, so I excelled in embroidery.  I loved designing pillows, t-shirts, and jeans. When I had my first apartment, I made all the curtains, tablecloths, and pillows.  Straight stitches with no curves were easy for me.  When I sew with the girls, I feel like my mom is sitting with us, guiding us, cheering us on.

As the girls fabricated their new friends, they chatted effortlessly, often breaking into song.  I smiled at the way working with your hands often frees your mind and releases tension.  Whatever problem from the morning in class, was often processed while stitching in the afternoon.  Since I’m a learning support coordinator, I found this time I provided to these students invaluable.  They were able to practice organizational skills, learn from mistakes, and persevere.  One case in point was when Hailey’s blue dinosaur, named Derp, went missing.  There were moments of searching, scouring every familiar place, and recognition that Derp was indeed lost.  Then there were tears.  Lots of tears.  I bent down to meet Hailey’s blue eyes.  I told her to take a deep breath.  I vowed to search every nook and cranny until I found Derp.  He had to be in my office.  There were more tears.  I bent down again and asked Hailey to look into my eyes and said,  “I promise to find him. Do you trust me?”  Hailey nodded her head, hugged me, and went back to class. I had no idea if I was going to find Derp, but I was determined to ransack my office until I found him. I went back to my office and found my colleague, Marie,  waiting for me.  I told her that Hailey was really upset because Derp was lost.  As we spoke, I looked in every place I had looked before.  As I reached my hand into a bag of fabric and stuffing, I told Marie whole lost Derp story.  I picked up Allie’s abandoned brown bear fabric and waved it in the air.  All of a sudden, I saw a flash of blue, Derp blue! Ah, I unfolded the brown fabric, which revealed the peaceful Derp just waiting to be found!  I screamed, and Marie laughed.  I ran over to Hailey’s classroom.  They were deep in schoolwork.  I couldn’t contain myself.  I held up Derp to door window!  Hailey smiled.  The class cheered.  The teacher admonished me!  I apologized, turned to go, and smiled, satisfied.

When Hailey returned to Wonder Studio the next week, her first words to me were, “Thank you!  I trusted you, and you found him.”  I smiled and added, “Yes. But if I hadn’t found him, we would have started again.  Everything can be fixed, if you keep your head about you, and try another way.”  The member of the sewing circle nodded their heads and kept on stitching.  I added more times to work the last few weeks of school, so they could finish.  Most girls finished their new stuffed friends.  Darsha, who started late, created a green dinosaur, which she named Pickle.  Pickle was not complete, but Darsha is determined to finish him in the summer.  Allie finally decided on making a penguin, but she didn’t like the face she made for him, so she started again.  I created a penguin kit for her so her penguin will also come to life this summer.

I vowed to offer sewing circle in the fall as an afterschool activity so the girls will have a lot more time to work on more complex projects.  This desire to learn, to fail, and try again was stitched together by the students, and I couldn’t be prouder of them.