I Need A Beginner-friendly Kid’s Skirt Project, Stat!

This romper from BurdaStyle is adorable, but my skills need to do some catching up.

This year, I started volunteering with Big Sister Association of Boston. I got matched with my Little Sister in January, and ever since then, the days I spend with her are by far the best days of my week. She’s 10 years old and full of imagination and creativity, and she loves arts and crafts of any kind. Drawing, painting, music, theater–heck, she’s already into doing hair and makeup. She just wants to create things that are beautiful and make the world a more beautiful place.

All together now: awwwww.

Last week, she announced that she wanted to learn how to a sew, and she wanted to sew a romper. Whoa now.

Easy, right?

My Little Sister knows I work for magazines about sewing and that I’m learning to sew, but when she said the words, “let’s sew a romper,” I almost had a heart attack. I have definitely avoided garment sewing in my sewing adventures so far. It’s one thing to sew pieces of fabric together, but it’s a whole other thing to sew pieces of fabric together and then expect them to fit a person’s body. My body is definitely on the curvier side (read: bootylicious to the max), so sadly, garment sewing really intimidates me. Sewing a romper, even for a little kid, is way beyond my current skill and confidence levels.

I don’t want to disappoint her, and I definitely want to teach her to not shy away from a challenge. So, I told her we could try sewing skirts first before we graduate to rompers…which means I need a kid’s skirt project that I can A) not only sew, but B) show someone else how to sew. Yikes!

I’m thinking my best bet is to do some kind of elastic-waist, one-seam skirt. I’m also thinking pattern-less would be best, and, I think wovens would be better for us to work with instead of knits for sure. (Note to manufacturers: send us a serger please!)

The Stitch Summer 2015 patterns are in the Sew Daily shop now, and we had an adorable mother-daughter skirt project by Khristal Jouett (which goes on sale tomorrow for our Christmas in July sale). That would be fun to do with her just to get the matching skirts photograph together. That might be one of the steps we take after our first skirt and before rompers.

Would my Little Sister be totally embarrassed if we made coordinating skirts and took a picture together? Probably. Does that stop me? Nope!

Do y’all have any easy kid’s skirt projects you would recommend? Or just tips for teaching children how to sew in general? I want to make sure the experience is fun and upbeat and doesn’t turn her off to sewing like I was growing up.

Help!

Veronica