It was time to plan the next Girl Scout Daisy meeting. I enjoy sewing and was looking for a simple project for the girls. After looking around for a while, I wasn't finding much geared for six year olds. Finally I thought about a simple pillowcase, that is pretty easy. You just need to know how to sew in a straight line.
That is when I discovered
ConKerr Cancer. This charity provides nice directions for sewing pillowcases, collects donated pillowcases and then distributes them to children who are being hospitalized. The children are able to choose a pillowcase and then it is theirs to keep. The website encourages sewers to use bright, fun fabrics and even coordinate different fabrics for the main part of the pillowcase and the border.
I also learned a neat trick for sewing the border to the main part. It feels like you are doing magic. It is dubbed
the hotdog method.
I still wasn't sure the girls could make the pillowcases start to finish in an hour. Prepping the pillowcases seemed to make the most sense. I cut the parts out and even attached the borders. Now all the girls would need to do would be to sew one long side and one short side. I was able to have three sewing machines available and four adults to help.
For the girls who weren't sewing, I wanted to make sure they had activities to keep them busy. I made some signs and had a few different stations. One station was for card making. The girls could make a simple get well card or I hope you like the pillowcase card. The other stations were hula hooping, practicing some "Minute to Win it" games, and a bean bag toss.
While all the preparations were a bit time consuming, I just felt this was a great project and I wanted to make it happen.
The girls loved sewing. It was very exciting for them. They also seemed to understand what the project was all about. I felt really pleased with the whole thing.
