last year my kids made stuffed bears. They just took a basic bear pattern(blown up from a wood working magazine) and they got to sew around the edges leaving an opening to stuff with fiber-fill. They got to hand sew it closed. I gave my (at the time)13 yr old some felt that I wasn't going to use and she designed clothes for her bear and hand sewed all them. She got to enter it in the fair we have here and she won 1st prize.
I think it's great to get her going on sewing. Even if she don't do it all the time, it's great hobby. I would just give her some thread for hand sewing, scissors, some needles, and make her a pin cushion(all depending on how she is at her age. I know my first daughter would be ok with that stuff, but my second, I'm not sure if I'd still give her anything sharp...she might try to carve her name in the furniture or something stupid like that).