I teach Home & Careers skills to 8th graders at a local public school. In my sewing section, I start by teaching them how to thread a needle and do hand sewing stitches like running or gathering stitches, hem stitches, small quilting type stitches, etc. Then I teach them how to sew on buttons, both types, with and without a shank. (This will come in handy for the rest of their lives). From there we go on to make a hand sewn quilted potholder -- this takes about 8 days of 40 minute class periods to complete. After that we move to machines. We start first by stitching on paper. There are mazes, curves, angles, etc that you can probably find online to use for practicing stitching (needle only, no thread). This will gain them control with electric foot pedal, etc. Next we move on to learning how to thread a machine and then we practice different size stitches on a scrap piece of muslin. After they learn some of these basics a small pillow or apron or bag they can carry stuff in is good. We make a fleece hat using a pattern and it fringes up on top of head when we tie a scrap piece of fleece around it. I think girls would like a bag to carry to the beach! Since I teach almost 400 kids a year over a course that runs 10 weeks, including boys, the process is challenging. I think if you find something they will use they will have more fun making it.