What could be better than teaching your child your own hobby, especially when she shows an interest in it. My daughters are currently 5 and 9 years old and definitely have an interest in sewing. Part of this comes from me making them so much clothing and also from them watching me sew several days a week. My oldest has been sewing by hand for about a year and now it is time to teach her to use a machine. We have been waiting for a desk upon which to put my old sewing machine. Call me selfish, but, at 46 years of age, I have never had as nice a gift as my Janome MD5200, which was my Christmas present last year. I kinda want to keep it to myself, at least until she gets to be better at sewing. So, for now, she is using my old Singer machine. It is not a great machine but it is definitely good enough for a 9 year old!
So, how do you teach a child to use a sewing machine? I hemmed and hawed about this for the week that I was sick and decided that she needed to have some basic stitching lessons first and then a basic rectangular project to begin.
First off, I drew geometrical shapes on squares of muslin and had her sew along those lines. If you click and enlarge, you can see she did pretty well!
Next up, she hand sewn a rectangle of muslin into a pillow and wanted to make a standard-style pillow case for it. I did the cutting and ironing and she sewed it up.
So cute!
Here is the in finished product.
She was very proud of herself!
These are her reading glasses, if you are family. You may not have seen a pic of her in them yet! She can wear them for sewing, too.
Next weekend, new project!!
Thanks for sharing your ideas about teaching a child to sew. My 5 year old daughter is very keen to sew and her grandma has just passed on her old sewing machine - a clunky old but reliable Husqvarna - so now I have to work out how to teach her safely and step by step :-).
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