If she has never used a machine before......let her practice making straight lines on lined paper. Take all the thread out of course. I just did this with my 8 year old grand daughter and she was so excited. Each row she got better and the line was straighter. Just a thought. We laughed because we had Hanna Montana on the TV and one line was way off. I told her she got distracted by the tv on that one. :lol: