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Living with Autism – sewing for American girl dolls

in Blog on April 11, 2014

It’s Spring break at Eliana’s school for autistic children and she has been with me during the day. We have had fun. Yesterday she wanted to learn how to sew a little dress for her American girl doll. I still wanted to get my daily 2 mile walk in and suggested that she look at links to AG doll free sewing patterns on Pinterest while I would do my quick walk. (Grandpa was home watching her, don’t worry!! 🙂 ) Did you know just HOW many free AG doll patterns are available online???? Oh, my goodness. There must be a LOT of girls with AG dolls and an even greater number of Moms and Grandmas eager to sew for them.

Here are just a couple of links, in case you are interested:

http://www.pinterest.com/shamrocknanna/american-girl-doll-patterns-access-free-tut/

Well, back to my story about Eliana. So, I sat her in front of the computer (she is extremely computer savvy), put in the first link and told her that once she had chosen the pattern, she could start selecting fabrics. What was I thinking??? When I came back 30 min later, there she was in a total state of panic. Too many patterns, too many fabrics to choose from. She was actually experiencing an anxiety attack. I helped her narrow down her choices, then left it between two outfits and she picked one. What relief – a pattern had been decided on. She did so well cutting out the pattern. I was surprised to see how much her fine motor muscle coordination had improved even from last year. Then it came to selecting trims.Granted, this grandma has a messy few drawers full of them – she finally asked me to just choose the trims and I did. I showed her what seams needed to be serged/finished and she did all of that beautifully. She did a couple of seams, but then her attention span was gone and off she went into her own little world, playing with My Little Ponies.

I finished the dress and she was so pleased but concerned that dolly didn’t have “Unmentionables”. There is a link on Pinterest just dedicated to that!! Here it is in case you have a similar “problem”. 🙂

So, this morning, hubby goes to get a piece of bread from the bread box and guess what he found?

 

 

 

 

IMG_1289

Eliana has a great sense of humor and likes to leave little reminders of herself all over our house. But this one topped it. She probably thought that the breadbox was the perfect size for her doll? Too funny.

I never know what I will find after Eliana has gone home. All reminders of her sense of humor and need to remind us that she loves us.

Hope you are having a great day and that it includes some stitching today!

 

 

 

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