I’m super excited to announce the dates for this fall’s Kid’s Clothes Week! Hop on over to the KCW blog for more…

It’s hard to let summer go, but it really is over now. School’s in full swing and the weatherman assures me the heat wave is over. I wanted to do one last summer journal entry, because there were so many little bits of our summer I missed sharing with you.

We picked our fair share of berries (including this enormous blackberry from our backyard).

We went to the farmer’s market almost every week.

We built ferris wheels and rode on some too.

We built forts…that were much, much harder than they looked.

We did silly thing too like coloring our hair with chalk…

…and making cakes out of watermelon.

Mostly we played: inside and outside and wherever we could. How was your summer? Messy? Busy? Too hot? Too long? I want to hear about it!

If you are anything like me you have finally let out that breath you’ve been holding all summer. The first week of school get-togethers and half days and general first week freak-outs is behind you. Things are slowly settling down into a routine and you are breathing again. Actually starting–and possibly even finishing!–a project is in the realm of possibility.

If that project were, say, a pattern by Zonen 09. And if you sewed it up by next Sunday and added it to their flickr group (all totally possible). Well, you could win heaps of amazing prizes.

What, what? You haven’t heard of Zonen 09? They are a small Belgian pattern company that makes sewing patterns for boys (and only boys!) clothes. How amazing is that? And the patterns are so stinkin’ cute! I read a few Dutch blogs and I see the Jacob pants pop up again and again on them. The pants are always awesome. I mean just look:

1. yellow jacob pants by Griet 2.plaid jacob pants by Ik ben Vink 3. stamped jacob pants by huisje boompje boefjes 4. pink jacob pants by Enid Vandecan

I’m happy to say that the Jacob pants pattern is now available in English! The Charlie shirt is too. I have a few pairs of Jacob pants on my to do list this weekend, but sadly I cannot enter them in the contest because I am a judge. But you can!

Is this the first you’ve heard of Zonen 09? Have I convinced you of their awesomeness? Are you already eyeing your sewing machine?

I haven’t taught my children to sew. It’s horrible I know. I cook with my kids and make art with my kids all the time, but sewing I’ve always kept for myself. When sew mama sew sent me the book, A Kid’s Guide to Sewing, I figured it was high time I started  sewing with my kids too.

My daughter picked the backpack charm project in the book. You could choose between making a flower or an ice cream cone. Even though I tried to get her to think of something else (kitty? donut? bike?) she was dead set on the ice cream cone.

All the templates in the book are very sweet and hand drawn, but I urged my daughter to create her own pattern.  The book is actually written by an 11-year old (well, her parents helped a lot), which makes all the projects feel much more approachable for a kid–and doable!

Then she cut the pattern out, traced it on felt, and cut out all the felt pieces.

To make the cone look more like a cone, I showed her how to do a simple running stitch. She immediately ran off and came back with a piece of chalk. She wanted to draw lines on the cone to guide her stitching.  Turns out that I have been teaching her to sew, if only by sewing when she is around. They pay attention to us much more than we think.

Sitting next to my daughter, watching her embroider an ice cream cone, I realized sewing isn’t all that hard. A running stitch is up, down, up, down. A whip stitch is around and around, around and around. The thing I was teaching her was patience. Sewing takes time. It took me a long time to learn that, but when I did–when I really started to love taking my time–then my sewing got better, much better.

I noticed another thing about sewing while we were working on this project together: sewing is quiet. Cooking with kids can be frantic (the cookies are burning!!!), making art can be messy (who poured glitter on the baby’s head?!), but sewing is slow and contained and practically silent.

We sat at the dining room table, my daughter and I, talking about the day, stopping now and then so I could tie a knot or show her a stitch, and just having a quietly wonderful time.  Thanks to sew mama sew, and their fantastic FunStitch Studio Summer Camp, I taught my daughter a bit about sewing and learned a lot myself!

I posted over at the Kid’s Clothes Week blog, but in case you didn’t see it I wanted to tell all of you that we have fall sponsorship opportunities on the KCW site and blog. Sponsorship runs for 3 months at a time and there are 3 sizes to choose from as well (please see this post for more info).  They are filling up fast, but there are plenty of small spots available–and I know there are lots of amazing small shops and blogs out there! Sponsorship isn’t scary :) Drop us a line at kidsclothesweek@gmail.com !

I’m also excited to announce a new option for sponsorship on elsie marley: the little spot! It’s a small 125 pixel square spot that is just right for your growing business. It’s a super affordable way for elsie marley readers to discover your shop or blog. Please check out my sponsorship page to purchase the little sponsor spot or any other option. Now go have a lovely weekend!