My daughter got her machine on her 8th birthday, so that's when she learned on a machine. Before that she did hand sewing. Actually I had one of those craft machines that were so bad (not the sew mini but the sew crafty? I bought it for scrapbooking) and she tried it but decided hand sewing was better. lol. That machine went right into the goodwill pile. Luckily it only cost me about $10.