Teaching
Children How to Sew
In the "9 Secrets to
Successfully Teach Your Child to Sew", I
discussed knowing your child's personality. The
4 questions were:
1. Is your child a
perfectionist?
2. Do they get frustrated
easily?
3. Do they like following
specific directions, or do they like to invent
things on their own?
4. Are they able to
stay on task for a block of time, or do they
learn in spurts?
Before we delve into the
answers to these questions, it is important to
remind you of the crucial point of our
teaching. We are wanting to instill a desire
for sewing, not just another thing that our
child needs to learn how to do. So many times
before we start something we think we need to
know everything there is to know about it.
Think about how our children learn the most
important things in life.
Did you sit your child down
and explain to them the mechanics of crawling
and walking prior to them doing it?
If you do not know how to
sew, the best way to give your children a
desire to learn is for them to see you learning
to sew. Another way, is for your child to see
things that other kids have made. We have many
friends who have expressed an interest in
learning how to sew after they have seen
something that our girls have made. So, no more
saying "I just don't know how, or I don't think
I can teach them myself".
JUST GO FOR IT! NOW, back to the questions.
Maturity level is an essential ingredient when
considering how to work with the answers to
these questions. I will use my own children,
and a few other kids from families I have
worked with, to show how the answers to these
questions determine your initial approach to
teaching.
I will use different colors
to represent the different girls. All of these
girls had never sewn before. A. 3 yr. old
B.
6 yr. old C. 8 yr.old D. 9 yr. old E. 14 yr.
old
1. Is your child a
perfectionist?
A. Absolutely not
B. No, but could lean that way
C. Yes
D. Absolutely
not
E. Not extreme, but wanted her work to look
professional from the start
2. Do they get frustrated
easily?
A. No, enjoyed a challenge, and would conquer
whether done correctly or not
B. She enjoyed trying new things but if it got
too difficult she would choose to stop instead
of conquer
C. Yes, if something is too difficult
D. Not when working on own creation. Yes, when
what she was doing was not her choice.
E. No, would follow through until correctly
resolved
3. Do they like following
specific directions, or do they like to invent
things on their own?
A. Always liked to create her own things
B. She preferred following an example if she
knew that one was available. If specific
directions were on hand she would follow these.
Always found great satisfaction in
accomplishing the steps to instructions.
C. Very diligent to follow specific
directions
D. Extremely creative. Preferred to invent her
own creations.
E. Wanted to sew clothes with a goal of
creating her own patterns.
4. Are they able to stay on
task for a block of time, or do they learn in
spurts?
A. If creating own thing, could stay on task
for long periods of time. If following specific
pattern, only in spurts.
B. Could stay on task C. Could stay on task
D. Only worked in spurts E. Could stay on
task
Based on each of these
precious personalities, and their maturity
level, this is how they started their journey
of sewing.
A. Was given a box of fabric
and some stuffing. Was taught the basics of how
to make the machine sew straight lines, putting
the foot up and down, and pressure on the
pedal. She was allowed to create whatever she
wanted for 3 months before I asked her to
follow a pattern.
Her first pattern was for a
quilt. She only worked on this project once or
twice a month. All other times in the month
were spent on her own creations. Because of the
freedom given to her, she mastered straight
lines and foot pressure very quickly.
When creating on her own,
she would spend blocks of time working
diligently. During the times that we worked on
specific patterns, she would sew and then would
play or draw while I pinned the next step. Some
days she worked for 15 minutes, other days she
would last a couple of hours.
Time was based on her
interest. *Reminder: due to her age she was
never allowed to use the sewing machine without
me in the room with her. By age 5 she made her
first dress. She continued to sew her own
creations but at this time they actually looked
like quilts and pillows. She just completed her
first dress on her own (a little help from me
with cutting and following the pattern), at the
age of 8.
B. Started with practicing
straight lines and foot pressure on the pedal.
She decided that she wanted to sew a teddy bear
first. I was concerned about this because of
all the curves and the fact that I had no idea
how to make one. I drew the outline on some
fabric, cut out the bear and she sewed around
it.
I told her repeatedly how
difficult of a project this was which gave her
a lot of confidence when we were done. After
this I gave suggestions on some easier
projects. She devoured them. Because of her
desire to sew clothes, we literally learned to
understand patterns together.
The amazing thing was how
easily we understood them due to the projects
we did prior. (More about this in the next
article: How To Choose Patterns) She would
spend a minimum of 1 hour working on her
projects. By the time she was 8, she was making
her own dresses and sewing costumes.
At 9, she was branching out into creating her
own doll clothes without patterns. We practiced
cutting off and on, but it was very difficult
for her to get a good straight line. By age 10,
she was doing all of it: cutting, marking,
pinning, reading the patterns, and sewing.
C. Started with practicing
straight lines and foot pressure on the pedal.
She wanted to follow whatever pattern I thought
would be best for her.
I picked something that was
very simple and wouldn't be easy to mess up. We
spent a lot of time encouraging her, and the
lines had to be really really bad in order to
rip them out. After several completed projects,
her lines corrected themselves.
She continued to follow a
progression of patterns that built skills one
at a time. Now she has the confidence to try
harder patterns and isn't as concerned with
perfection. She has also created some of her
own designs.
D. Started with teaching the
basics: straight lines and foot pressure. Then
gave her a box of fabric and let her go. She
needed quite a bit of supervision, with gentle
reminders about not sewing when there was
nothing under the foot.
She had no desire to follow
a pattern; instead she made her own. She spent
approximately 1 1/2 years sewing her own
things. Her skills naturally improved and
progressed in difficulty. Afterwards, she
decided she wanted to try store bought
patterns.
Once she learned some of the
basics for constructing these patterns, she was
on her own again however, her projects became
more involved and had a more finished look.
E. Started with all of the
steps. She wanted to learn everything in order,
from laying out the pattern, cutting it out,
marking, pinning, and sewing. She wanted to
start with clothes, so I gave her several
choices for easy dress patterns that would
build skills one at a time.
As you can see, each girl
started with the basics of learning to sew
straight lines and work the foot pedal but how
they progressed in their learning was based on
their unique personality. After they mastered
these steps and were confident in their
ability, the projects increased in difficulty
in order to introduce new skills. This reduces
the pressure to learn everything at once.
Kristi learned to sew right
along with her daughters. The girls were age 3
and 6, at the time! Because it was such an
enjoyable experience she wants to encourage
others to pursue this endeavor.
Kristi experienced the woes
of feeling very ignorant just trying to read a
pattern and was discouraged from trying to
teach her girls on her own. After receiving a
new sewing machine from her husband for her
birthday, she became bound and determined to
fulfill her desire to learn to sew.
Kristi's plan was to learn
everything before she tried to teach her kids.
But as she was learning, her girls caught her
enthusiasm and in amazement she watched them
flourish in learning to sew right along with
her. Kristi says that, "quite honestly, because
we knew nothing I experienced a real freedom in
my own education".
Now, at age 8 yrs. old, her
daughter can sew her own dresses, and the 11
yr. old has a passion for sewing, and is a
better seamstress than Kristi.
What Kristi wants to do, is
share her journey in sewing; to help others
know (with hind sight being 20/20) that the
best way to learn is by doing. She has spent
the last 3 years sharing with friends and
family their way of learning to sew, as well
as, the projects and patterns that built their
skills. She has seen it not only work for
others, but truly bring a delight into the
sewing experience.
To learn MORE from the "9
Secrets to Successfully Teach Your Child to
Sew", go to http://www.sewingwithkids.com
About the author:
Kristi has a passion for teaching people how to
sew, and for encouraging them to pass it on to
the children in their life. To learn MORE from
the "9 Secrets to Successfully Teach Your Child
to Sew", go to http://www.sewingwithkids.com
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