Sewing with Kids: Tips on How to Teach Kids Hand Sew
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Sewing with kids is so rewarding! But it might get busy and stressful without the right preparation and mindset. Therefore, I share some basic tips that you can use when teaching kids to hand sew. The advice that comes above all when hand sewing with kids is patience and letting go. If you decide to invite your kids' friends to sew, you can use the tips on how to run a hand sewing class with kids. From experience, it helps a ton to follow these tips.
Happy sewing with kids!
This post is the first part of the series on how to teach kids to sew. In the following parts, learn what materials and tools to use when sewing with kids and a hand sewing class plan.
How do you teach kids to hand sew?
I did several sewing projects with my kids and their friends. I have also recently started to run hand sewing with felt class at my kids' school. In my experience, kids like to sew, and they feel satisfied when their project is ready.
For a sewing start, it's important to help them with threading and a knot. So that kids can focus solely on the stitches. Later on, you can also teach them how to thread the needle, make a knot, do different stitches, or sew a button.
If you can, I would also let them choose a project they like to sew to make them more enthusiastic. I would offer two or three choices. For free kids sewing projects visit felt craft for kids section of this blog.
The sewing project that your kids will make should be chosen based on their age and available time.
You can sew with kids as young as five years old though the easiest age is between 7 to 10 years old.
Let them use "real" and good quality tools - proper needles, sharp scissors (especially for felt), pins.
Let their creativity flourish. I prefer that kids make their own choices when making the sewing project. This could be choosing the color of felt (if possible), using as much filling as they want (if the felt project should be filled), making their own decoration.
Encourage them that there is nothing like an ugly/bad stitch or sewing.
Any sewing speed is a good speed. It's not important who finishes their sewing project first.
Don't forget to have fun!
Sewing with Kids - Felt Unicorn (Click for the free pattern)
2. What is the easiest thing to hand sew?
I believe the choice of material is essential in determining how easy it will be to sew with. I love to use felt for its variety of colors and simple to sew structure. It's a perfect material for many kids' sewing projects. You can find many free patterns for kids' felt crafts on the Internet (find lots of free patterns at Sew a Softie), including Fun Cloth Craft ones. I would start with a simple project that doesn't require too many stitches and can be finished in one session, for example, a finger puppet or a needle book from Sew a Softie. Later you can continue with felt patterns with more stitching. If the sewing project for kids is more complicated, you can split it into various sewing sessions.
Needle Book (free pattern from Sew a Softie)
3. How to run a hand sewing class with kids?
Let's say you want to invite friends of your kids to sew together. This is how I started as I thought it was going to be more fun for my kids. I could see how happy the friends were to complete their first sewing project. Then, they would ask when they could come again. Definitely, the first session wasn't perfect, and I took my learnings. Said that I enjoyed sewing with kids and seeing their happiness when the felt unicorn was finished.
Four months later, I ran my first kids' hand sewing class. I have 11 more sewing classes to go. I have 6 kids in the sewing class (2 boys), and one class takes 50 minutes. I bring all the materials and supplies to the class. I planned out the first lesson carefully. It ran smooth, but there were learnings to take away even then. Thus, I wrote these tips to help others who want to teach kids to sew. Teachers, as well as parents, can use these sewing tips.
Preparation for hand sewing class with kids
Choose a pattern to use - there are many free felt patterns available (check free patterns from Sew a Softie and Fun Cloth Crafts free kids patterns)
Cut all your material beforehand
Thread needles and make knots
Prepare scissors, pins, and additional needles
Have a sample ready to showcase what kids will make
Have fabric or a sample ready to show the stitches to use
2. Recommendations for running hand sewing class with kids
4-5 kids in the first class (I had 6)
Let kids be creative
Stitches don't need to be perfect
Use felt as it is easy to sew with
Start with running stitch (for the guide on embroidery stitches visit 9 basic hand embroidery stitches)
Choose one color for the project so you know what color of thread to use and you can prepare the needle with thread and knot beforehand
Use standard thread with smaller needle or embroidery floss with bigger needle (I separate 2-strands)
3. Learnings from the first sewing with kids class
Even with preparing for my first sewing with kids class, I still got some surprises that I didn't anticipate. I'm sharing them with you to note that there might be challenges that pop up. These were the learnings I took from my first hand sewing with kids class:
I didn't mention to kids that they need to keep some thread to make a knot when finishing. Two of my kids used up all the thread.
I had the thread double, and then I couldn't find an easy way to correct it if the stitch was made over the edge. (I decided not to do double anymore)
I didn't insist that one felt shape to sew is enough, so some were disappointed not to finish sewing all their chosen felt shapes.
Cut Felt Shapes for the First Kids Hand Sewing with Felt Class
To Wrap Up
I hope you’ve found these tips on how to teach kids hand sew helpful. It's a concise summary of what I learned and experienced while sewing with kids. In the following posts from the sewing with kids series, you learn what materials and tools to use for hand sewing. I will also share my sewing with kids lesson plan.
Enjoy the crafting time with kids :)
Be sure to visit more on this website for free embroidery and sewing tips & tricks to help you out as you stitch my patterns. For free felt patterns, visit my Freebies page.
Let’s hand sew together!
XO, Anna
