Zadie the Sewing Fairy

by Daisy Meadows

  I’m a wonderful painter — have you heard of me?

  Behold my artistic ability!

  With palette, brush, and paints in hand,

  I’ll be the most famous artist in all the land!

  The Magical Crafts Fairies can’t stop me!

  I’ll steal their magic, and then you’ll see

  That everyone, no matter what the cost,

  Will want a painting done by Jack Frost!

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Map

  Poem

  All Thumbs

  Not Sew Easy!

  No Green to be Seen!

  Goblin Tailor

  Thimble Fumble

  Sewing Superstars!

  Teaser

  Copyright

  “It looks like another magical morning, Kirsty,” Rachel Walker said, gazing out the window of Daffodil Cottage. Even though it was still early, the sun was already shining. Rainspell Island looked green and beautiful with the morning light glimmering on the sea.

  “Are you talking about the weather or our adventures with the Magical Crafts Fairies?” Kirsty Tate asked, her eyes twinkling. They’d arrived on Rainspell Island two days earlier and the girls were spending every other night in Kirsty’s little attic bedroom at the b and b with the Tates, and alternate nights with Rachel’s parents at a nearby campsite. The girls loved going to Rainspell Island for vacation because it was where they’d first met and become friends with the fairies.

  “Both!” Rachel replied. Then she sighed. “Wasn’t it mean of Jack Frost to steal the Magical Craft Fairies’ objects?”

  Kirsty nodded. “It was terrible,” she agreed, “especially with Crafts Week here on Rainspell and Magical Crafts Week happening at the same time in Fairyland. No one will have fun doing arts and crafts if Jack Frost has his way!”

  While eagerly checking out the Crafts Week activities a few days before, Rachel and Kirsty had been thrilled to meet Kayla the Pottery Fairy, one of the seven Magical Crafts Fairies. Kayla had invited them to Fairyland to see King Oberon and Queen Titania announce the opening of Magical Crafts Week. The best and most beautiful crafts produced by the fairies would decorate the Fairyland Palace! Everyone, including the girls, had been very excited.

  But the opening ceremony had turned into a disaster when Jack Frost and his goblins showed up, tossing balloons filled with bright green paint at the crowd. Queen Titania, Kayla, and the other Magical Crafts Fairies had been splattered with paint! In all the confusion, Jack Frost and the goblins had stolen the Magical Crafts Fairies’ special objects.

  Jack Frost had declared that he was the best at every kind of craft, and that no one else was allowed to be better than him. Then, with a wave of his ice wand, he and his goblins had disappeared to the human world — taking the magic objects with them. Rachel and Kirsty knew that the Crafts Week on Rainspell Island and in Fairyland would be a complete disaster while the fairies’ magic items were missing. They’d immediately offered to help the Magical Crafts Fairies find the goblins and get their magic back!

  “The pottery and drawing classes were so much fun,” Kirsty remarked as she buttoned her favorite pink shirt. “But only because we found Kayla’s magic vase and Annabelle’s magic pencil sharpener just in time.”

  “And we’ll do our best to find the other magic objects, too,” Rachel said firmly. “We can’t let Jack Frost ruin the whole week!”

  At that moment, Mrs. Tate opened the door. “Girls, are you ready for breakfast?” she asked. Right away, Rachel noticed the pretty, full-skirted floral dress that Mrs. Tate was wearing.

  “Wow, what a beautiful dress!” Rachel gasped.

  Mrs. Tate looked pleased. “Thank you, Rachel,” she said.

  “My mom made that dress herself!” Kirsty explained proudly. “She even added those tiny little buttons down the front, and sewed in all those pleats.”

  Mrs. Tate laughed. “I’ve been taking sewing classes,” she told Rachel.

  “Oh, Mom,” Kirsty said with a frown, “I think I need your sewing skills right now!” She’d just noticed that one of the pearly buttons on her shirt had come loose and was hanging by a thread.

  “I have my sewing kit with me — I can fix that easily,” said Mrs. Tate.

  The girls followed her into the bedroom next door where she opened her sewing kit. She took out a spool of pink thread, a needle, and a small, silver object.

  “I know that’s called a thimble,” Rachel said, “But I don’t know what it’s for!”

  “It protects my finger when I push the needle through the cloth,” Mrs. Tate explained. “I’ll thread the needle first, and then I’ll show you.”

  Kirsty’s mom held up the needle and attempted to insert the end of the thread through the eye. It wouldn’t go through! She tried again and again, even moving over to the window for extra light. But it was no use — she couldn’t do it.

  “Let me try,” Kirsty offered. She took the needle and thread and tried to push the thread through the eye. But somehow, the thread kept missing, even though Kirsty held the needle very still. Rachel also tried, but this time the thread got tangled into a big ball.

  “Oh, don’t worry, Mom,” Kirsty said. “I’ll just change my shirt, and you can fix this one later.”

  “Well, making my dress was easy compared to sewing on that button!” Mrs. Tate said, shaking her head. “I seem to be all thumbs today.”

  Kirsty glanced at Rachel. They both knew exactly why Mrs. Tate was having so much trouble.

  “It’s because the goblins have Zadie the Sewing Fairy’s magic thimble!” Rachel whispered as they headed back to Kirsty’s bedroom.

  “We have to find it fast,” Kirsty said anxiously. “I wonder if we’ll see one of the Magical Crafts Fairies today?”

  She opened the closet doors and gave a little yelp of surprise as Zadie the Sewing Fairy fluttered out!

  Zadie hovered in front of Rachel and Kirsty with a big smile on her face. She was dressed in stylish shorts and purple leggings, with a sparkly pink vest over a white T-shirt.

  “I bet you’ve been expecting me, girls,” Zadie said. “You already know I need your help to find my magic thimble. Otherwise, no one will be able to sew anything anywhere!” She sighed. “I hate to even think about it!”

  “Where should we start looking?” asked Kirsty.

  Rachel grabbed the Crafts Week pamphlet from her nightstand and flipped through it. “It says here that Artemis Johnson is offering a sewing workshop in the market square,” Rachel pointed out. “Maybe we should start there?”

  “Artie Johnson is the Crafts Week organizer,” Kirsty explained to Zadie.

  “I think that would be a great place to start!” Zadie said eagerly. “Let’s head out after breakfast.”

  “Oops, I almost forgot!” Kirsty said with a grin as Zadie tucked herself into Rachel’s pocket, folding her wings away. “I have to change my shirt.”

  As soon as Kirsty had swapped her pink shirt for a white one, the girls ran downstairs. They quickly ate some cereal, and then asked to be excused.

  “I bet you’re excited to get to your next activity,” Mr. Tate said, looking at them over his newspaper. “What is it today?”

  “Sewing,” Kirsty and Rachel said together.

  “Oh, I’m sew happy for you!” Kirsty’s dad grinned. “Get it?”

  The girls laughed and waved good-bye. Then they left Daffodil Cottage and headed straight toward the town.

  “I can almost feel an invisible thread pulling me toward my ma
gic thimble!” Zadie whispered as they approached the square. “I’m more sure than ever that we’ll find it here somewhere.”

  The market square was full of booths selling fabric, thread, and other sewing accessories like buttons, zippers, and ribbons. Kirsty and Rachel were fascinated by the heaps of shimmering fabric in every color under the sun, and the big spools of shiny, colored ribbon.

  One booth had trays of antique buttons made of wood, porcelain, and green jade. The girls kept a sharp eye out for Zadie’s thimble, but they didn’t see it — and they didn’t see any goblins, either!

  In the middle of the square was a long, wooden table where the sewing workshop was being held. There was a large group of kids seated at the table piled with fabric and thread.

  Artie was moving around from one to another, checking on the progress of their projects. As Rachel and Kirsty headed over, Artie spotted them and waved.

  “Good to see you girls again!” she said happily. “Come and join us.” She pointed to two empty chairs. “Sewing is my favorite craft, you know,” Artie went on. “I’m hoping a sewing project will win a prize at the end of Crafts Week.” She handed the girls some patterns. “Take a look through these projects and let me know which one you’d like to try.”

  Rachel chose a pattern for a shoulder bag with a big velvet flower attached to the front, and Kirsty decided to make a teddy bear. Then Artie helped them pick out their materials — green and purple velvet for Rachel, and some gold fur fabric for Kirsty’s teddy.

  “No sign of goblins yet,” Zadie murmured from inside Rachel’s pocket as the girls cut out their pattern pieces. “Keep looking, girls!”

  Rachel and Kirsty began to sew, but soon it became clear that things were going wrong all around them! There were cries from the other kids as fabric ripped, threads snapped, zippers got stuck, and buttons fell off. Artie ran around, trying to help everyone, but she was looking very stressed-out.

  Kirsty began stuffing her teddy bear — but to her horror, the seams she’d just sewn so carefully came apart. All the stuffing fell right out!

  Rachel finished attaching the strap of her shoulder bag, but as soon as she put the bag down on the table, the strap fell off again.

  Artie groaned. “This sewing workshop is a total disaster!”

  Rachel and Kirsty exchanged worried glances. They knew exactly why everything was going wrong!

  Rachel could feel Zadie shifting around uneasily in her pocket and guessed that the little fairy was upset about what was happening. Then a boy sitting across from them suddenly gave a squeal of surprise.

  “Where did my green fabric go?” the boy cried, hunting around on the table. “It was just here a minute ago!”

  “It probably got buried under the other material,” Artie told him.

  Rachel reached for some green velvet to make a new strap for her shoulder bag. To her amazement, it was snatched from right under her nose!

  “Where did that green velvet go?” Rachel exclaimed, bewildered.

  Kirsty was choosing some buttons to use as decoration for her teddy bear. But when she leaned over to pick up two green buttons, she found herself grabbing at empty air.

  “All the green things seem to keep disappearing!” Rachel murmured. “There’s no green fabric, thread, buttons, ribbons, or zippers left.”

  “It must have something to do with the goblins,” said Kirsty. “After all, green is their favorite color! But why didn’t we see them?”

  The girls looked around for goblins. They couldn’t see any, but Rachel did spot a trail of green fabric, ribbons, zippers, and buttons leading across the market square.

  “They went that way!” she whispered to Kirsty, pointing out the trail.

  Both girls jumped up from their chairs.

  “We’re just going to look around the booths for a few things we need for our projects,” Rachel told Artie. “We’ll be back soon.”

  “That’s fine,” said Artie.

  The girls rushed off. As soon as they were out of sight behind a booth, Zadie zoomed out of Rachel’s pocket.

  “Nice job spotting that trail of green, girls!” she cried. “Let’s fly around and look for goblins.”

  Zadie waved her wand and surrounded Rachel and Kirsty with sparkling fairy magic. The girls felt themselves becoming smaller and smaller until they were the same size as Zadie, with their own shiny fairy wings.

  Zadie quickly fluttered out from behind the booth with Rachel and Kirsty close behind. Together, the three friends flew through the market, keeping out of sight while they searched for goblins. They darted over, under, and between colorful fabrics that hung above the booths, billowing in the breeze. The whole time, they were looking for any signs of goblin activity.

  Suddenly, Kirsty spotted a huge bundle of green fabric. It seemed to be moving quickly through the market square all by itself.

  “How strange!” Kirsty exclaimed, pointing it out to Rachel and Zadie. “We should take a closer look.”

  Zadie and the girls swooped down near the bundle of fabric. As they did, Rachel noticed a pair of enormous, shiny green shoes almost hidden beneath the pieces of fabric.

  “There’s a goblin under there!” Rachel whispered.

  “That must be how he managed to steal all the green things from our sewing workshop,” Kirsty murmured. “He hid under piles of fabric!”

  “He’s heading to that quiet corner over there,” Zadie said, pointing with her wand.

  The goblin was hurrying to the outskirts of the market, toward a booth half hidden behind a few flower arrangements in big pots. Rachel, Kirsty, and Zadie followed him, being careful to stay out of sight. The booth was already piled high with green fabric, buttons, zippers, ribbons, and thread, but the goblin began adding the things he’d been carrying to the teetering pile.

  “Look, there are more of them!” Kirsty whispered as she noticed three other goblins close by.

  The goblins were having fun with fabric. One was making a tent out of shiny green satin, while the other two were playing tug-of-war with a long strip of emerald green silk.

  Very quietly, Zadie, Rachel, and Kirsty flew over to perch on the awning above the booth.

  “I wonder which one of these goblins has my thimble,” Zadie said. “We’re very close now, girls. I can feel my thimble’s magic!”

  Just then, Kirsty noticed someone else strutting around below them.

  “Who’s that?” Kirsty murmured, raising her eyebrows as she stared at his garish green pin-striped suit and enormous green felt hat. But the brim of the hat was pulled down very low, so Kirsty couldn’t see the face underneath it.

  “Look at his shoes!” Zadie whispered. The girls noticed the same large, shiny green shoes that the goblins were wearing. “He’s a goblin, too!”

  “I sewed this outfit all by myself!” the goblin in the suit bragged to the others. “I made everything, even this little green handkerchief in my jacket pocket. I’m so talented! I can sew anything.”

  Rachel, Kirsty, and Zadie exchanged knowing glances.

  “That goblin has my magic thimble — that’s why he can sew so well!” Zadie declared. “But how do we get it back?”

  Rachel and Kirstty were silent, thinking hard. They needed a plan — and fast!

  “That goblin’s awfully proud of his sewing skills,” Kirsty said thoughtfully. “Maybe we can use that to get the thimble from him?” She whispered a plan to Rachel and Zadie.

  “Good thinking, Kirsty!” Zadie said with a bright smile. “Let’s give it a try.”

  The three of them flew swiftly down behind the booth and out of sight. There, Zadie returned the girls to their normal size, then hid in Rachel’s pocket. Kirsty and Rachel strolled casually out from behind the booth and headed toward the goblin in the suit.

  “Oh!” Rachel exclaimed loudly. All of the goblins turned to
stare suspiciously at the girls. “What a wonderful suit! I love it!”

  A big, smug grin spread across the goblin’s green face. “Isn’t it?” he said proudly. “I made it myself, you know. Every single stitch!”

  “That’s amazing,” Kirsty joined in. “You must be an incredible tailor!”

  “I am!” the goblin bragged. “I’m a sewing genius!”

  “Oh, could you please teach me and my friend to sew just like you?” Rachel pleaded breathlessly. “Please?”

  The goblin looked flattered. “Well, you’ll never be as good as me,” he said, “but I guess I could give you some lessons.”

  The goblin grabbed some needles, thread, and fabric from the booth, then sat down on the rim of one of the big planters. The girls followed his lead. Meanwhile, the other goblins went back to their games.

  “Here, thread your needles,” the goblin told the girls, handing them each a spool of thread and a needle. As Kirsty took the needle from him, she gave a little yelp, pretending that she’d pricked herself with the sharp point.

  “Ow, that hurt!” Kirsty gasped. “I’m so clumsy!” She glanced innocently at the goblin. “Do you have a thimble I can borrow to protect my finger?”

  “No, I don’t,” the goblin snapped. “Now hurry up and thread your needles — I don’t have all day, you know!”

  Kirsty glanced at Rachel in dismay as the goblin began stroking his jacket. “Look at this intricate embroidery on the lapels!” The goblin sighed with delight. “And see how perfectly straight all the hems are? This is the most beautiful suit in the whole world!” But then he frowned. “It just needs one little finishing touch . . .”