How to Teach A Child to Sew: The First Lesson
Happy New Year everybody!
Well, I have been dying to show my little girl ( who has just turned seven) to sew. She has keenly watched me sew around Australia more than a few times (I mean in mileage). So, I took my enthusiasm and a LOT of time (used my teaching skills to write a lesson plan) and finally gave Milly her first sewing lesson. It was so fun! She loved it. All you mums, aunts and grandmas with sons, don’t worry, I’m sure that little boys will be just as keen to learn!
I hope you enjoy this as much as we did… Let’s learn to sew..
You will need:
- A sewing machine
- Thread (that contrasts with the fabric you use). I used metallic embroidery thread because little girls love shining things.
- Colourful felt square or two
- Ruler
- Texta/felt-tipped pen in contrasting colour to the felt
- Ribbon/ decorative rick-rack (this is for lesson two)
Preparation
- Take your child shopping for the supplies. Tell her what you are going to be making and get her interested. Once at the shop be very patient about her choices and the time she takes. I set aside a good half hour to buy such a few supplies. But it was fun.
- When you arrive home set aside between half an hour to an hour to do the activity. Make sure that there are no major distractions.
- Set up the child at the machine so that her arms are at a right angle (I put her on the chair and placed a thick phone directory underneath her bottom).
- Make sure that the foot pedal is at a comfortable height for her. I have a wooden stool which was perfect for this (see photo above).
How To Teach Your Child to Sew: Lesson Number One
Remove the needle and bobbin from the machine.- Show the child all the different parts of the machine, one by one. Show her the foot pedal, the place where the thread goes at the top, the needle. Explain in simple language how these different parts work.
- You sit down and demonstrate for her how to feed the fabric with your hands, while pushing down on the foot pedal. Turn on the machine, press down the foot pedal and guide the felt from the top to the bottom, in a straight line. When you get to the bottom, switch the machine off.
Set the child up at the machine. Make sure that she is comfortable before she begins. Now, show her how to use the lever to lift the foot up and put it back down. Let her play with it a few times. Now give her the piece of felt, ask her to lift the lever and then place the felt under the lever, with the foot in the middle of the fabric. Ask her to place her hands on either side of the foot and explain that she will be guiding the fabric through with her hands. Now tell her to push the foot pedal down softly and move the fabric from the top to the bottom in a line. When she gets to the bottom, a little cheer for her.- Now we start THE SEWING GAME. Tell her to put felt in the top again. Tell her that you will be giving her the instructions ’start’, ’stop’, ’slow’, ‘faster’ and she must do them (for goodness’ sake, don’t bark them at the poor child). Let her go from the top to the bottom of the felt a number of times, playing this game. Keep going until she has a feel for how hard to press on the foot pedal to move at a medium pace. Turn the machine off again.
Take the piece of felt out of the machine. With a texta and a ruler draw some straight lines on the felt. In our first lesson we didn’t use the lines on the edge, they will be for lesson two.
Put the felt with the lines back onto the sewing machine. Show her where to feed the fabric through so that she sews exactly on the line. Let her do this a few times (note: still no thread or needle in the machine).- Now is time for real sewing. Thread up the machine and put the bobbin in. Sit down at the machine with the felt and slowly demonstrate. Sew a straight line parallell to the line down the middle of the felt. Point out exactly where your hands and feet her and talk her through it. Turn the machine off before you get up.
Now comes the fun part!!!! Sit her down at the machine and get her comfy again. Tell her to do exactly what she did before and follow the line. Tell her to sew slowly, from the top to the bottom. Watch her sew her first line of stitching (absolutely priceless! This, for me, was like watching her walk for the first time).- When she has finished give her some praise and watch her beaming smile. Teach her how to snip the thread with little scissors and let her examine it.
Give her the texta and ask her to draw some more straight lines on the felt.
We ended up with a cross pattern.
Watch and guide her as she sews on these lines.
And the finished product….
Remember it is not about the finished product – just yet! You are teaching your chiild a life long skill. You have no idea how happy Milly is with her sewing! I got a big, fat kiss and she has gone out with grandad today and taken it with her.
Lesson Two I will teach her to sew edges and Lesson Three, we will be making a simple bag for her to keep.
And of course, I will be posting the tutorials here.
PLEASE TAKE NOTE:
- I would not recommend this tutorial for children under the age of six or seven. I know that Milly would not have been ready for it even last year.
- Remember to be patient and calm. If you get tense, she will pick up on this and get tense herself. It is supposed to be fun!
- If your child has had enough at a certain point, don’t push it. In the middle of this tutorial, Milly went and jumped on her trampoline for a few minutes.
- Enjoy! If she doesn’t get it perfect, who cares? Not me!
- PLEASE DON’T LEAVE THE ROOM OR TAKE YOUR EYES OFF YOUR CHILD FOR A SECOND. A SEWING MACHINE CAN BE A VERY DANGEROUS TOOL!
Enjoy!
Mia
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January 3rd, 2007 at 11:48 am
Very, very cool! Thanks for this one.
God bless!
Terri
January 3rd, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Thank you so much for this tutorial. How brilliant to start with no needle. I will be using it with both my 7 year old and 5 year old.
January 3rd, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Perfect! My homeschooling goal for 2007 is to incorporate more crafts and sewing skills into our curriculum. My children will love this!
January 4th, 2007 at 6:36 am
Thank you for such a wonderful tutorial. I would have probably started with actual seams, your method makes far more sense and is a great way to get your child used to the machine. I am going to see if my eight year old is interested in a lesson.
January 4th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
This is fantastic, I’m sure your girls will be sewing anything in no time!
January 4th, 2007 at 11:21 pm
This is great- thank you! My 7yo son is very eager to get on the machine, and I know I probably would have started off with something too difficult.
January 5th, 2007 at 8:21 am
So glad you are all making good use of it. Will be posting the next one in the next few days,
Mia
January 5th, 2007 at 8:22 am
Jennifer – would love to know how your son goes!
Mia
January 6th, 2007 at 4:18 am
Thank you! I was planning to teach my 9yo niece how to sew soon, but wasn’t sure how to go about it. This will be a great help.
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January 7th, 2007 at 2:27 am
My 9 yo daughter has been wanting to learn to sew, but I’m quite rusty myself so have felt a bit intimidated by the idea (I sewed all the time while growing up.) This is wonderful! I know I can do this with her.
January 7th, 2007 at 2:53 am
I posted a link to this on my blog http://www.praiseworthythings.blogspot.com. I’m so excited to do this with my daughter. Thank you!
January 8th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
This looks great. I have just taught my daughter (6.5yrs) to sew this summer too. I wasnt quite as thorough about the basics as you, very typical of my “just rush in and do it style”. But I might go back and do this. We made a headband from Heather Baileys site http://www.heatherbaileydesign.com. It’s very simple and she loves wearing it – always a plus. She managed the pivoting really well. We decided to make it a little wider. I would attach a photo if I knew how.
All the best
Tamara
January 12th, 2007 at 3:54 am
hi-
What a perfect starting point!! My almost 9yo daughter has been begging for a sewing machine since Christmas ‘05, I finally picked her up a cheap one at the store (when I say cheap – I paid $12) and it was a piece of junk. So, when I set up my dear Grandma’s old Singer 1940 machine, she was begging to give it a whirl. I didn’t know where to begin – and I’m sure would have never been so clever as you have been! Thank you so much!!
January 12th, 2007 at 9:37 am
That is great. We have the next tutorial coming either tomorrow or the next day! We had so much fun and Milly has actually made her own little bag. How Cute!
Mia
January 13th, 2007 at 3:37 am
I’m having a problem viewing this. Some of the pictures seem to be covering the first lines of text on the steps that follow them. (6, 7, 9, 13) I hope that I’m not missing too much, because I’ve got at least two kids who will be thrilled.
January 13th, 2007 at 5:36 am
Umm, I don’t really know. No-one else has reported it as being a problem. Try to open it in Mozilla Firefox if you can. Hope you can figure it out1
Mia
January 13th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
Thank you! We’re all on the edge of our seats for lesson 2!!
January 16th, 2007 at 3:07 am
[...] One Hour Craft has great tutorials on teaching your child to sew with a sewing machine. Here is the first lesson and the second lesson was just posted. And here is lesson 3 How to Sew a [...]
January 31st, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Thanks so much for this. I was directed by *Kiddly* and am so glad Claire found this. My 7yo son always asks to ‘have a turn’ when I’m sewing and I was floundering about how to introduce him to sewing as a skill and craft.
January 31st, 2007 at 10:03 pm
Fabulous stuff! My son was asking to sew last year and I was pretty sure he wasn’t quite ready for the sewing machine yet(5 and half years old). So, I asked him to design a bag for himself with colours and fabrics. I made it while he helped me with things like pinning the pattern, snipping thread etc. He was totally thrilled with the results (an orange bag lined in red with a purple star on the front and a long strap) and carries his lego pieces, tamagotchi or gameboy around in it.
The sewing machine is next on the list – I’ll be buying a small easy one for the 7th birthday!
February 7th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Brilliant tutorial thank you .
: )
February 15th, 2007 at 9:06 am
[...] My girls have had sewing lessons from her aunt Betty and a local sewing store. However, I found “How to Teach Your Children to Sew: The First lesson” informative and fun to look at – great pics. [...]
February 24th, 2007 at 11:09 am
This reminds me of the paper sewing practice sheets that my grandfather had kept from back when he managed Singer stores in the 1960s! But getting to draw your own pattern to trace onto felt is *much* cooler than following the spirals and squared-off spirals that he had. Although I did like the perforated paper effect that I got after; the round spirals reminded me of spirograph designs.
I’m here from “Oh My Stinkin Heck” and will be back for the rest of the lessons! Just because my son is 20 months old and my daughter won’t be born until April is no reason for me not to go over this stuff myself.
April 17th, 2007 at 3:34 am
Hello
Thank you for such a simple and uncomplicated lesson in starting off on the ‘How to use a sewing machine’ journey. The photos make it so much easier. Great work BOTH of you!
Best wishes
Tara
May 12th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
thanks for your nifty tutorial. I was reading through the comments – I’m an experienced sewer looking to teach my 9 year old & 2 friends this summer- I’d like to offer this up when considering buying a machine: every yard sale I pass has a sewing machine & many of them are wonderful. Look for a good name: Singer, pfaff… Old is ok – often better.Make sure it has a manual so you’ll know how to thread it & stuff.Turn the wheel on the top right side $ see that the needle enters through the hole in the plate on the bed of the machine smoothly. Expect to pay no more than $40 ( I have bought some wonderful machine for less than $25. These are what you’d spend $100-200 if new & the new ones aren’t as sturdy.When you get it home, check the manual, then clean (with a q-tip) $ oil it. Steer clear of those cute little mini machine they sell on the home shopping network or anything with computer gizmos – complicated & repairs are expensive factory affairs. Happy hunting & sewing. Best of luck to all.
May 22nd, 2007 at 3:30 pm
I am planning our 1st lesson tomorrow, and already I am looking forward to the 2nd lesson, when will you be posting that?
May 28th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Great lesson when will the second lesson be posted?
November 23rd, 2007 at 9:53 am
Thanks for this wonderful tutorial! I had a difficult time finding lessons 2 and 3, could you put in links to them from lesson 1? Also, the link from lesson 2 to lesson 1 doesn’t work. Again, thanks so much!! I can’t wait to teach my daughter in another year or so.
December 29th, 2007 at 11:08 am
Thank you for posting. I’m about to have a sewing lesson with my granddaughter, and this sounds like a wonderful way to begin.
November 20th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
I just came across this today. My 7 year old daughter Harriett has been begging me to teach her to sew. She had so much fun doing this today. She just ran to her best friends house to show off her sewing skills. Thank you.
February 1st, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Mia,
This is great! Thank you so much, I’ve been wondering how to teachmy granddaughter how to sew but the needle bothered me so and you make it so simple. I’m wondering, where can I find lesson 2? I plan to create a scrapbook for her of her learning to sew and keep instructions in it w/pix of her finished projects.
Again, thank you so much.
Theresa
February 19th, 2009 at 9:56 am
THANK YOU! My 7 year old has been asking for a while but I didn’t know where to start- this is very helpful, I think I can do it!
July 13th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Thank you for this intro and start. I have been asked so many times to teach sewing and didn’t know where to start. I have over 20 people wanting to learn.
April 21st, 2010 at 12:24 pm
I run a kids club and would like to introduce something different we have boys and girls aged between 5yrs-to 10yrs,as i’ve only found your page today, the next time our group meet I shall throw the invitation open to anybody who wishes to start sewing, it sounds great and hope the older kids especially will take up the offer as we lose them to the youth club next term so dont think they’ll get the chance then, and I think like everything else in life if you’re never given a chance to try different things how will you ever know your vocation.