dd

As a 4H sewing teacher, I say teach them to hand sew first. Neat hand sewing is very important when constructing garments. I have a very hard time getting the girls to do any hand sewing because they think everything can be done on the machine. My mother started me out about age 5 with embroidery. That's more fun than just hand sewing but you will use kinda the same stitches when sewing by hand. I still love hand sewing to this day, embroidery, quilting and the such. I also like the idea of sewing on paper without any thread. It makes the holes so you can sew where you've sewn but not the thread to get jammed. Just sew along the lines of notebook paper to encourage straight lines. There was just a thread not too long ago where she said she couldn't sew a straight line. Practice, Practice, Practice.
And a good machine helps.

the casual quilter

I taught a Girl Scout group to piece to help them earn a patch for their uniforms and I started them with a rail fence. They got to pick their colors, got a little experience with trying quarter inch seams, used (with a lot of supervision) a rotary cutter, and put the quilt together. We did it one evening a week for 4 weeks. The most important thing was to help them understand tha the tools aren't toys and that they can be dangerous if not used properly.

susie-susie-susie

I have 3 DGD. They all wanted to learn and I told them when they were 8 we would start working on it. I was afraid they would hurt themselves before that. I signed 2 of them up at JoAnn's for a class to make a pillowcase. At times the classes are 50% off, so it was pretty cheap. They were very proud of their pillowcases and it gave them something to use right away. Then I bought a book that has 100 1 yard projects and they have all picked out about 80 of them. I guess I will be busy for a long time.
Sue

sue z q

Would like to know the name of the book.

susie-susie-susie

The name of the book is "One-Yard Wonders" by Rebecca Yoker and Patricia Hoskins. I got it at my LQS. The instructions are pretty simple, and it's got quite a variety of projects. Good luck finding it.
Sue

VickyS

You may want to try "The Giving Quilt: Fast Quilts for Comfort and Healing" Edited by Kathy Cueva and Susan Ziegler available at Joann's. I've used the patterns in it to make charity quilts. One of their patterns I sent to my niece (a first time quilter) who managed to finish a quilt in one weekend for her English class project. I gave her the info to add to her quilt label for copyright purposes.

Her teacher, her mom and I are delighted she could do it. If she can do it, your granddaughters can do it. Kristen didn't know how to sew before starting this project, but she's seen mom, grandma and I work on quilts for many years.

749janet

Sounds like a good idea.