I’m Learning So Much in Kindergarten!
I sewed. Yes, you heard it correctly. I sewed. A project. A big one for me. By hand, with a needle and thread. Me.
Lucas’s kindergarten has what they call Little Ones: small (6″ tall) dolls in the traditional Waldorf style (plain, soft, no facial features). Each child in the class has a doll of his or her own. The dolls come to the classroom from Fairy Land after they finish helping Mother Nature with the harvest.
In August, before school began, I was presented with a bare doll body with curly, golden brown hair that matches Lucas’s own hair color. My assignment: sew doll clothes for and onto the doll so that they cannot be removed and name the doll. All of this was to be accomplished in absolute secrecy—Lucas was not to find out about the Little One, or see it being worked on. The doll will be Lucas’s playmate and charge throughout the school year (and next).
It took me quite a while and required lots of help from Ian to figure out the pants and shirt pattern I was provided. (Construction of garments is a huge mystery to me.) I worked on the clothes several evenings after Lucas was in bed. The shirt is maroon with little sprout-type shapes. It ended up with a sort of mandarin-looking collar when I sewed it onto the doll’s body. I decided to go with that. The blue pants were really baggy with wide cuffs. I sort of liked the way they looked together. The combo looks vaguely like a samurai’s clothes might look, so I sewed a wide obi around his middle. Rather than gather the pant cuffs and sew them to the doll’s ankle like I was instructed to do, I sewed the inseam to the doll’s inner thigh, all the way down to the ankle. I don’t think the pants are ever coming off the doll, which was the point. The teachers may feel differently and decide the cuffs have to be gathered and stitched to the ankles.
I named this little doll Sparrow. (It was supposed to be a nature-oriented name.) The teachers may change it if they don’t approve: they have the ultimate veto power of Mother Nature.
Anyway, all of this sewing was secretive because the Little Ones will start joining the children in their classroom after today, when the Fairy Land harvest is all in. I think I managed to keep the whole production hidden from Lucas.
Ian was very supportive of my pathetic sewing skills, although he did tease me a little by saying the shirt was too long and dresslike. I’m pretty certain that tunics are all the rage this season in Fairy Land.
Anyway, don’t mention to Lucas that his mom is responsible for Sparrow’s clothes!
October 6, 2006 at 2:41 pm
The doll is awesome. Very cute and I am sure Lucas is going to love it.
October 6, 2006 at 4:37 pm
That sounds like a fun project (to me anyway.) I think it’s great when people (i.e. you) try something new that might be a little intimidating. I have a doll that my mom made me when I was little, that I treasure because she made it herself. Lucas may not appreciate what a feat this is now, but he may look back on it later and feel very loved because his mom sewed something herself. Much better than a store-bought gift, although I know kids don’t always think so.
October 7, 2006 at 1:16 am
Can’t wait to hear about Lucus’ reaction!!!!
October 10, 2006 at 11:55 am
I’ll let ya know what he says when Sparrow arrives in school.