Crayons' Grade Two: Gingham Embroidery

Crayons likes to make craft projects on her own, and sometimes even sews something for her dolls all on her own--usually with a big needle and yarn, and usually something that's done the same day. But recently we've been trying something more longwinded--the gingham-embroidery tea cloth from Hope Chest Legacy's Lucie's Snowflakes. (The gingham embroidery link there shows both the snowflake and lace stitches; Lucie's project uses only the snowflakes and then a hemming stitch around the edges.)

This was partly inspired by the fact that we had the book here (it was bought for our homeschool support group, and I was waiting to get it stickered and take it to the next meeting), and partly by the fact that we had bought a big piece of yellow gingham, with the right-size squares, at a rummage sale. Yellow may not be the preferred colour for a beginner to work with--I think red or blue might be easier to see--but Crayons has done really well with it so far.

The book is very much goof-proof. There are photos of EVERYTHING. It's the second book in the series, and we didn't do the running-stitch project from the first book, but that didn't seem to matter. There are one or two little discrepancies between the photos and the drawings, but nothing we couldn't figure out. (Specifically, how much space or how many squares you fold over for the hem.)

One slightly unrealistic thing about the story is that Lucie--sick in bed with a cold--manages to finish all the embroidery and hem one side of the cloth all in one day, while her grandmother reads to her. Lucie must have an incredible amount of perseverance, because Crayons has been working on this for quite a few days now (while Mama Squirrel reads) and she's still not even done the snowflakes. Just saying...

But overall I'm delighted with this approach to handwork, and I can't wait to be able to post a photo. UPDATE: here's the photo.