Matilda Sews: Shine Bright!

I’m so proud of my sweet Matilda. This year she really wanted to make handmade gifts for all the special people in her life. She got together with my mother-in-law and worked on creating some really pretty gifts for our entire family. While they were out shopping for supplies, Matilda found this piece of ‘flip’ or ‘mermaid’ fabric in the remnant bin at Hobby Lobby. She’s always loved this type of fabric, so my mother-in-law got it for her to just play with at home.

Well, being the sweet girl that Matilda is…..she decided she wanted to make something for her 3 best girlfriends for Christmas. We decided that a pillow would probably be best since I really wasn’t sure how difficult it would be to sew through this sequined fabric and Matilda has really only sewn straight lines. When she decided on the pillows, I knew I had the perfect fabric to compliment the flip fabric (remember, we only had a remnant, so not a ton of flip fabric yardage!).

I had just received a fat quarter bundle of the fabric collection, Shine Bright by Simple Simon and Co. for Riley Blake Designs. This collection was perfect for Matilda to use for her girlfriends. The fabric line was designed by Elizabeth and Liz Evans and was designed for their daughters. The sayings on the fabrics are just perfect for young girls. Plus, Shine Bright has some gold and it tied in perfectly with the gold flip fabric. Yay!

I did some google searching to see about how to sew with this fabric and there really wasn’t a whole lot of information. Just mostly information about sewing with sequins, so I just went with that and said a little prayer before we started sewing that we wouldn’t jam up my machine. I used a super-sharp needle instead of my normal universal needle and I have to tell you that it sewed up like a dream! The only thing I will comment on is that I will be finding gold sequins around my house until the day I die. It was certainly not a tidy activity, but it was SO worth it!

I cut out the pillows because I wanted to use the rotary cutter and the sequins were tough to cut through. But after the pieces were cut out, Matilda handled the rest. She pinned the pillows together, sewed them on my machine (Baby Lock Destiny II), clipped the corners and turned them right side out. She and I worked on stuffing them together and then I taught her how to hand-sew each of the openings shut.

Matilda was SO proud of herself and she couldn’t wait to deliver these pillows to her friends. We packaged them up and delivered them that day, but she made sure her girlfriends waited to open them until Christmas day. One of my favorite things about Matilda is that she sees a project through until the end. While sometimes her older sister will get bored of something and stop, not Matilda, when she starts……she finishes. Watch the video below to see Miss Matilda’s sewing in action……

We had a great time working on this project together. I can’t wait to see what Matilda Sews next!

Until next time……

Happy Sewing!