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First Sewing Lesson

emmasewEmma found a sewn card craft while perusing this French craft book from my childhood, and asked to make it. I was a little dubious about her ability to sew at all, but she really wanted to try the craft and Johnny was asleep (allowing for close supervision), so I stuck a sheet of paper in an embroidery hoop, poked some holes in the paper, and threaded a (blunt) needle for her to use. She had no trouble identifying and putting the needle through the holes, although she did get quite upset halfway through when she accidentally ripped the paper (hence no photo of the completed project). Maybe I should let her try embroidering on proper fabric since that won’t rip…

MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.

15 thoughts on “First Sewing Lesson”

  1. I let my daughter use a sharp needle at a ridiculously young age I guess, before she was walking, but as long as you're supervising them I think it's fine. They might prick themselves, but they aren't going to poke their eye out, and as long as you're using doubled over and knotted thread, they aren't even going to pull the needle off and swallow it, which is the only way I can see a needle being actually dangerous.

  2. I should try things like this with my kids. I already know that they can surprise me. I wonder if they still make that material that we used to do embroidery on at school? It's similar to what you do cross stitch on, but it has bigger holes.

  3. C "sewed" a sit-upon at VBS this week – and LOVED it. He even told the teacher (a friend of mine) that his mommy sews, but "she never lets me sew". (not in the way he wants to I guess!) So I'm thinking it may be time to try some other sewing activities with him that maybe seem more like real sewing to him? Thanks for the inspiration.

  4. @Kitten Muffin – your idea of putting one of her t-shirts in the hoop to embroider is brilliant, thanks for the fantastic idea!

  5. Valerie @ Frugal Family Fun Blog

    Oh, I love teaching the little ones how to sew! How great that she was so interested! This could lead to all kinds of other projects! :-)

  6. Awesome! If you're going to have a go with fabric, then it might be really cool for her to have the front of a tshirt of hers put in the embroidery hoop, then she can wear her embroidery when she's finished. Like you, I'll have to wait until I only have one of my kids to keep an eye on whilst trying this! I bet they would be so proud.

  7. @teachingyoungchildren – I add the watermarks to my photos using Windows Live Writer, which is a free download and very easy to use. It's a nice blog editor that makes uploading photos much faster also.

  8. Great idea — she looks like she is enjoying it. My little girl loves all kinds of crafts.

  9. teachingyoungchildren

    Wow – awesome. I am holding out on this until Anna is at least 3, but I think embroidering would be a great activity to help her develop fine motor skills.

    On an unrelated note – what software do you use to watermark your images? In the light of the latest events on the net, I am thinking of going back to my images and branding them.

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