a belt by Charlie

This afternoon Charlie and I set to work on a project he's been wanting to make for a while now... a belt.

After selecting the material from some of my larger scraps and watching me cut it to size and iron it out, Charlie set to work sewing it together. We set the machine speed to "low" and he chose a to use a zig-zag stitch and black thread.

I set the foot pedal on top of a storage box so that he could reach it. He really enjoyed using the foot pedal - in previous sewing adventures, Charlie has always just used the automatic button feature on the machine to sew.

I sewed the velcro tab onto the belt, but Charlie did the rest.

He had a hard time guiding the material without tugging on it, but I think his crooked stitch lines are adorable.

The reason why Charlie was so excited to make himself a belt was because he needed something to hold up his pirate sword and scabbard. I never thought I'd be *that* mom who buys her kid pretend weapons, but I've come to realize that pretty much anything can be turned into a sword by an imaginative 4.5 year-old (recently a roll of contact paper - seriously!). The truth is, this fascination with pirates is really fun for Charlie and for me! I love watching Charlie turn the couch into a pirate ship using cushions (walls), wicker baskets (seats, hatches), coasters (portholes, ship wheel), and a hairdryer (anchor). We've made some safety/respect rules about sword play which Charlie follows pretty well. He invites his friends and brother into his pretend world that he's made up from his creative young brain. What can be better than that?

So, I say, "Go Charlie with your big imagination!"

And Charlie says, "Aye, aye, Captain Mom!"

:) Shelly