How to make sewing together fun and not frustrating:
Sewing is so fun – and not just for adults! Kids love the magic of creating things with their hands, as much as we do; and with a few tips you can share your favorite hobby with your little ones with minimum frustration and maximum joy. Here are my ten tips, based on trying to share my love for sewing with my two boys over the last years.
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The right age:No one knows better than you, what your kids are ready for. But beware of getting into sewing with them too early – as you want the first experience to be a success! A minimum of 30 concentrated minutes at a time is necessary, and good coordination. Generally I would recommend starting around age 8 or 9. And remember – it’s up to you to make a safe setting (fingers away from the needle!).
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The right machine, the right stitches:
I’m not advocating getting a new sewing machine just for kids – but rather want to advocate for keeping things simple. Kids are going to mostly use the straight stitch and zigzag stitch for their projects – these are available on all machines. Take a look at the settings – slow things down, and set the machine up, so they can easily navigate the fabric around. - Keep a steady hand: A big part of sewing is just keeping a steady hand, and steady pressure : this is something you can practice with your kid on paper. When you’re ready to move to the sewing machine, try the same exercise before starting on your actual project – just getting your child to sew straight lines, curves and shapes on a scrap of fabric, to get them used to moving the fabric around under the needle, to practice different stitches and get the right amount of pressure on the foot pedal.
Remember that when you move to the machine – cotton fabrics are a lot easier to navigate than jersey or knits.
- Age appropriate projects:
As for adults, so for children – we want an Aha moment – and a successful end to our sewing project. Kids too! And they love it even more, when it is a project that they can use or wear on their own, like a small pillow for their bedroom or a little bag – like this own. Beware of projects that are too complicated – take a look at all the steps and instructions ahead of time and filter out things which look too complicated for first projects and kids hands. You’ll thank yourself later on.
- Patience, patience, patience:
So as parents we all know, this is not just a tip related to sewing – patience is required at all times with kids. But what I mean here, is patience and slowness with the sewing machine. Set the speed and other settings on the sewing machine to so as slow as possible, work with your kid to press softly on the pedal, and remember it’s not a race!
- The right conditions:
So you’ve got your kid set up at the table by the sewing machine. Next step? Make sure that little guy or gal can reach the pedal comfortably in order to properly control the speed at which she or he sews. We’ve got some toy elephants at home from Bobbles that are perfect for helping my kids to get their feet to the right height for them.
- Seasonal projects are double the fun!Use sewing and crafting to get kids involved in seasonal decorating. Not only is the sewing fun, but these are beautiful and cute things that your family will see around the house on special and memorable occasions for years to come. I still have Christmas Tree ornaments in my storage box in the cellar that I made with my mom when I was a kid :: Use the time crafting together to make memories.
- Mini tools for mini hands:Check out what’s on the market in mini sizes – having stuff made for small hands is another factor for fun and success. Kids should be able to properly wield their own fabric scissors, and be able to navigate the iron. I love the mini iron from PRYM (seen below) and use it myself on my sewing projects, just because the size is so convinient.
- Clips not pins:
It’s a small thing, but if your kid keeps getting his fingers pricked with pins, the fun factor will definitely go down. My tip – switch out the fabric pins for clips. These hold just as well, don’t poke little fingers and also don’t make any holes in the fabric. A win for everyone!
- Practice makes perfect :
Obviously not just with sewing, but generally – taking time to practice things can be so rewarding – especially with kids – because they are then so proud when they can do new things on their own. In this case a great and fun thing to practice is sewing by hand. While it’s not as fast or as flashy as sewing with a sewing machine, it can also be magical. And the things you learn when sewing by hand, are of course totally valuable and applicable to all sorts of projects: learning to thread the needle, how far apart and evenly placed the stitches should be, and how to keep the fabric lined up at the edges. Time well invested!
