Recently I was asked at what age should I teach my child to sew? Well, I guess this really depends on the child and their ability to learn fine motor skills and the time you have available to teach them. You can have your child hand sewing with wool on a piece of craft hessian at quite a young age. I have a piece that Alyssa worked on at Kindergarten when she was 4 years old (check out the photo to the right) and this is a great place to start as it teaches the very basics of pushing and pulling a needle and thread through fabric. When my son was about 5 years old, I took a piece of felt and cut it into the shape of a shirt. Brodie then stitched a pocket, collar and buttons onto the felt. This piece of art work is still on display on his bookshelf today (see photo below).
If your child is at the stage where they can use a sewing machine but you are not sure how to go about teaching them (or simply don’t have the time), my ‘How to Make Doll Clothes’ video course is perfect. It covers everything from the basic stitches, working with different types of fabric, through to attaching frills and collars. The course is split over 6 weeks and the videos are super easy to follow. They can work at their own pace and Mom is there to offer support and encouragement along the way. So find out more about my How to Make Doll Clothes video course today.
Happy Sewing
I have taught a course called “Kids Can Sew” for many years. This course is essentially putting children or non sewers on the machine from the very first class. My experience is that children age 8 – 10 years have better control over their fine motor skills and are able to read a pattern/directions better than the 6 – 7 year old. I also found that the fabric for new sewers should be woven and a bottom weight (such as slightly heavier fabrics that one would use for pants, however, not denim). It takes additional skill to use knits and woven soft, slinky of very thin fabrics.
However, all this said, a success depends greatly on the interest of the individual new sewer and their fine motor skills. Boys and girls learn equally well as long as the sewing project and fabric is something that interests them.
Thanks for that input Tove. I agree, children learn things much better if they have an interest in what they are learning and this is why I felt teaching how to sew doll clothes would be ideal for most young girls wanting to learn how to sew. The doll clothes can be made from small pieces of fabric that they can select, the projects are not over complicated and they get to play with the end result. I love seeing how proud they are when they make their very first piece.
Happy sewing 🙂