The Characters:

Caitlyn, our budding seamstress
Her friend Alison (who is handy with a scissors).

One afternoon Alison was reading the latest Dolly Monthly and trying to work on her scrapbook at the same time, but she kept on being disturbed by strange noises and couldn't work out what it was, so she went to investigate.

It sounded a lot like a sewing machine to her, but who could be sewing at this time of the day? She found Caitlyn sitting by the sewing machine, a length of blue fleece under the foot, and a look of frustration on her face. "Hiya Caitlyn, whatchadoin'?"

"Hullo Alison, I am trying to make myself a pair of sweat pants." "Gee Cait, I never knew you could sew." "That's the problem Alie, I can't sew, and neither can I reach the pedal of the machine. My legs are just too short." Caitlyn was already standing on a box to work the machine and the pedal was way out of her reach. "Oh, I see what you mean. Maybe I can help." Alison jumped down onto the floor and looked at the pedal, "I will stand down here and push the pedal when you say so. " "Thats a great idea Alie, why didn't I think of that? Let me just get my thread sorted out and I will give you the word when I am ready." Alison waited while Caitlyn fiddled and rethreaded the needle, then she fed the start of the material into the machine, put on a determined frown and shouted down to Alison. "Ok Alison, full speed ahead."

Alison put her foot down! "Whhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!" went the machine "Too faaaaaaaaasssssssssssssssssttttttt!!!!" went Caitlyn. "Sooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyy!!!" went Alison. Alison climbed back up to the table, "What happened Caitlyn?" "I think I overdid the seam somewhat, the legs are all sewn together now" "Oh, that's easy to remedy, you hold the pants and I will use the scissors to seperate the legs again." "Be careful with the scissors Alison, I wouldnt wan't you to hurt yourself." "Nah, I am good at using the scissors, I use it to cut pics out of magazines for my scrapbook." "AHA! so it was you who cut out all the pics from my "Dolly Monthly!" Alison blushed, "Sorry Caitlyn, I just love collecting pictures of Dollys." Then she carefully snip, snip, snipped away until she had seperated the legs. "Ok Cait, why don't you do the pedal pushing and I will guide the material."

Caitlyn hopped down onto the floor and put her foot on the pedal. "Give me a shout when you are ready Alie." "Will do Cait, I just want to tack this bit here, and I think....." There was an ominous silence. "Alison? what's going on? why are you so quiet?" "Caitlyn? these sweat pants, did you actually measure yourself before you starting sewing away on them?" "Well, I didn't measure exactly, I sort of made a guestimate. Is it a problem?" "We-ell, I think they may be a bit too big for you." "Oh phooey, too late, lets finish them off and see what they look like anyway." "OK Caitlyn, slowly on the pedal please." Caitlyn gently depressed the pedal and Alison started to sew. A while later she called for Caitlyn to take her foot off the pedal.

"All done Cait, let me come down and you can try them on. But don't say I didn't warn you...."

Maybe a bit too big. There's room for both of us.

Caitlyn and Alison's experiment was a bit of a failure but they didn't mind because they had had a fun afternoon. They decided to donate the extra large sweat pants to the local fete when next it came around. Caitlyn was intrigued by the idea of a scrapbook and she decided that she would make one herself. However, she had to hide her Dolly Monthly magazines away from Alison first! She also realised that she had a whole winter to perfect her sewing technique and she may even be in time to make some nice summery clothing instead of sweat pants. Maybe even next time she would attempt a swimming costume. © DR Walker 2003/2004/revised 2006