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Friday, July 27, 2012

Madelyn's Fair Project

Last year when we moved to our new town we heard our family, friends and neighbors getting ready for the Kane County Fair. Having never participated in a fair before I had no idea what that entailed.
Oh boy....
This year we decided to jump in with both feet!
Each of the kids have been "raising" their very own pig, Hunter will also be submitting his rooster's and each of our kids will submit a project. Each project will be judged and given a ribbon, some projects judged will earn a small cash prize!
Of course each of my kids are hoping that their project will be one of the ones given the small cash prize. For months now we have been searching for something "different". Something that we didn't see at the fair last year or other fairs we've been to. We want something that will catch the eyes of the judge to hopefully earn that cash prize. At the same time it needs to be something the kids can do completely by themselves or with very minimal amount of help from mom and dad. I want their projects to be there's not ours!

After much debating Madelyn chose to make a recycled Kool-Aid bag with a coin purse. Several weeks ago we bought a few boxes of Kool-Aid and the kids have slowly been drinking them and saving the bags for this project.

Earlier this week Madelyn rinsed all the bags and got them clean for us to start her project. This afternoon we pulled out the sewing machine, had a quick reminder of sewing machine safety, and began. Not being able to pin the bags together because it would show the holes I taped the bags to help keep them straight for her to sew on.

I sat right next to her as she sewed each bag together, one by one. 
She was so happy to see it coming together.  She's a bit of a perfectionist as she was getting mad at herself when her stiches weren't straight. I kept reminding her that practice makes perfect!
After a few hours we were finally done!
 Ta da....
 The finished project!
I made a mistake. I should have had her sew the handles on to the bag before sewing both sides of the bag together but.... I forgot! After a bit of struggling I ended up sewing the handles to the bag but other than that she pretty much made this by herself! I'm proud of her. I've let her help me sew a bit here and there and Grandma did a sewing project with her last year and now this year at Grandma's Cousin Camp but that's been it. This was definetly her 1st real sewing project that she's had with mom just sitting by her side! Good job, Madlelyn!


We've got about 3 weeks now before the fair. It's great to know we've got one project down, now just 3 more to go.

2 comments:

Camille said...

Maddie is so cute! I love how grown up she is. Carlaya is jealous because she is very interested in learning to sew. I can't believe maddie did that all.....wow maddie! Good job! I hope you win 1st prize!

Every Star Is Different said...

I stumbled across your blog as I was looking for learning time ideas. (We home school our three children.) As I was reading one of your posts about a George Washington activity, I noticed you mentioned one of your children kept calling him the first prophet, not president. My husband and I are also LDS. Intrigued I started with your most recent post and read for quite a while. I must say, I LOVE your blog and if you don't mind, would love to follow. I do have a family blog as well, but keep it private as we are foster parents and have one adopted daughter through foster care, however I also keep a learning time blog that is public-everystarisdifferent.blogspot.com. I hope it's okay if I continue to read and follow your blog. We sound very much alike in our planning, tasks, etc., except that I can't sew. If you would like access to our family blog, just leave a message with your e-mail on the learning time blog and I'll send you an invite! Thanks so much for blogging and sharing all the wonderful events and activities of your family.