How To Teach Your Kids To Sew
Always loved sewing but your child isn’t showing any interest? Well, you can instill an interest in your child if you know the right way. Here are some tried and tested ways to teach your child the lovely craft of sewing.
Few days of the week
If you do not have the time to spend teaching your child sewing everyday, you can set aside certain days of the week for this purpose. All it takes is a few hours in a day.
Start with basics
Start by teaching your child with the basics like how to thread a needle, how to perform tacking etc. Then slowly graduate to more things like the different kinds of stitches. The most basic stitch is the running stitch, which your child can easily master. However, you need to lay emphasis on neatness, equal spacing between stitches and a good finish. If the foundation is good, you can build on advanced stitches without worrying about these aspects. Once your child has mastered the basic running stitch you can move onto stitches like the hem stitch, chain stitch, machine stitch etc.
Use old cloths for practice
When starting out, your child is bound to make many mistakes. Hence, for practice purposes, you should use old pieces of cloth to get your child learn these stitches. Start by showing them each stitch slowly and make a straight line of a particular stitch. Then ask your child to make the same stitch on another parallel straight line. This way, your child will gradually master different stitches.
Safety precautions
Make sure your child uses a thimble to protect the thumb while holding the needle. Also ensure that sharp objects like scissors etc. are away from the child or that your child knows how to use them properly and safely. Make sure that your child never gets into the habit of holding the needle between the lips while getting another supply. This can be dangerous as the needle can get stuck in the throat.
Cutting and seam allowance
You should make it a practice to teach your child how to cut the cloth neatly and in straight lines. This requires a bit of patience but the results are worth the effort. You should also teach your child how to measure seam allowances while taking measurements so that the result fit of a garment is perfect. There should always be extra cloth kept inside the garment in the seam. This helps in future for increasing garment size.
Taking measurements
It requires skill and practice to take measurements properly. Therefore, spend time with your child teaching them how to take a proper fitting according to the garment. Depending on whether the person is large, small, petite, fat or thin, the garment measurements will differ significantly. Therefore, the proportions also need to be modified to result in a properly fitted garment.
Small projects to big
When starting out with your child it is better to make them work on small and easy projects. When your child masters these then move on to bigger projects. This way, your child will gain confidence and will be eager to learn more.