My third child (second daughter, Bella) has been begging me to learn how to sew. I've been waiting, possibly stalling, trying to find just the right time and the just the right project that is doable. My oldest daughter begged me to teach her how to knit at this age (6, almost 7) and though she picked it up, it was more like a groundhog day experience than anything else. She would learn quickly, and forget just as fast. Nevertheless, Bella has been begging to learn to sew.
Our house was very small at the time. Getting out a sewing machine or two pretty much took over the dining room, and once you factor in the mess of fabric scraps, an ironing board, possibly the embroidery arm, all the thread, scissors, and any other notions needed, you might see how this chaos may add a little madness to the already frenetic pace of our large-ish family. I absolutely LOVE to sew. But I feel bad when I take over the dining room. So I may have been delaying teaching Bella to sew, just a bit.
In the end, I looked at her sweet face this week, and saw a little bit of sadness there in her eyes. Eyes that watch her older sister get a TON of our time and resources for gymnastics, eyes that see her older brother get lots of our time and attention for karate, eyes that see the littlest sister get attention for being a stinker of a preschooler. And that's all it took. It's time to teach this sweet, patient daughter how to sew.
I started by teaching her how to "steer". A straight line at first, then turning corners, and curved lines. That's where to begin. No thread in the machine until she can "steer" without it. Then we will move on to something else. And since I love to share, here's my suggestions when teaching a little one (or anyone really) how to sew.
Use a general purpose needle. Whatever is on your machine will do, as long as it isn't a double needle.
Take the thread off the machine completely. No upper thread and no bobbin thread either.
Get my "Learn to Sew" guides, or draw all sorts of lines on unlined paper (my oldest daughter learned to sew by following my crayon drawn lines on white paper).
Start with straight lines. As you push the pedal down for your machine, your needle will punch holes in the paper as it goes along. This is what you want it to do. Once you reach the end of the line you are trying to "sew" on- take the paper out and see how close you stayed to punching holes only on the straight line. Keep practicing until this feels comfortable. Next comes learning to turn corners, and then stitching on curved lines.
Remember that teaching a child takes a lot of patience. Pull up a chair, bring a snack with you, keep it lighthearted and fun. They say they want to give up? That's ok- take a break. Even if you need to wait a few days, weeks or months, don't give up. Bring them back to try again when they are ready and enjoy the time together.
Remember that learning to sew as an adult may be maddening! It's ok, give yourself permission to stink at this as you begin. One day you'll be sewing as fast as your machine can go and you won't mind at all that it took you however long it took to learn how to do it.
Finally, enjoy! And practice, practice, practice! Once your kiddo (or you) are comfortable stitching on paper, you're both ready for a whole new world of sewing to begin.