Working with kids

Many people have asked me how I do it. How I get so much sewing done during the day when I have two kids. It's tricky and it's hard for me to maintain a balance of time for them and time for me. But my key is to involve them in what I'm doing. Involving them helps them feel a part of my work, gives us additional time spent together and makes it easier on me (they are working with me rather than against me).

So, I thought I'd share a few of my secrets in the hopes that maybe they can help others.

Sorting - I use this a lot and it might be unique to my situation as I have TONS of different things that can be sorted from buttons to tshirt strips, sleeves to yo-yos, and fabric scraps to yarn. The kids love this because they get to touch and feel all the different textures and they get to work with the same materials I do. Not only that, but my daughter has learned matching and colors by doing this with my son. He's the best teacher ever!

Play - I allow them to play in my sewing area - with limits. I allow them to play with the sleeves of the tshirts I've cut. I keep them all in a bag and the kids love to just throw them up and let them land all other them. I let them play in the bin of unsorted buttons. They love the feel of running their fingers through the buttons (so do I!). And allowing this play in my work area also inspires me. My daughter wearing a sleeve on her head produced the Mohawk.

Involvement - Whenever I can, I allow the kids to help me. Sometimes it's having Robbie help me pin patterns to fabric. Sometimes it's my daughter sitting on my lap removing pins as I sew. Sometimes it's asking their opinion on what color combination they like best, or where they think things should be placed. They are involved in 50% of my projects and it gives them a sense of ownership over the things we sell... which later helps when I need their help modeling them.

Treasure Hunt - when all else fails and the top three things don't work - we do a treasure hunt. I list three items that are somewhere in the house and they go searching for them - so a dinosaur, something red and something that starts with the letter G (for my son only). I sew while they are searching. When they come back, we go over what they've found... then they race to put everything back. It's fun and I still get work done while they are running around the house.

It's not to say that these things always work. And it isn't to say that they haven't backfired every once in a while. My kids definitely feel comfortable in my work area. Currently, we have an ongoing mystery of the missing pin cushion. It seems that my daughter took it upon herself to hide it somewhere. I'm not proud - and I'm a bit worried about where all those pins are located... but at least she knows how to handle pins. A few hours before they went missing, she was scolding me for having the pins hanging out of my mouth when I was trying to adjust something. Perhaps she did what I do when they are using something incorrectly - I take them away.

You can bet that I'm using all these tricks this week while I'm preparing for Showcase Tacoma. I hope they can help others as well.