One of the things we’ve been working on this year in Ariel’s schooling is learning to sew.  We’ve worked a bit on hand sewing, ‘though she still needs some practice, but I wanted to introduce her to commercial patterns.  So I pulled out this one: It’s an 18″ doll pattern that includes a pillow.  A pillow is simple.  Lack of precision will not cause the project to fail.  And when Ariel is finished with it, she can actually use it, rather than its just being a piece of random “stuff” taking up space.  (The pillow in this one has lace, but we’re not adding the lace — this time.)

This allows us to examine what information is on a pattern envelope and its instruction sheets, to practice selecting the pattern pieces we need and cutting the fabric out from a pattern, etc. along with the actual sewing. This particular pattern is apparently out of print, but I’m sure there are similar ones currently in print.  Keep your eyes out for pattern sales at JoAnn and grab one then.