My daughter started to sew on the machine when she was 7. I started her on sweatshirts and helped her with the appliques. She started hand sewing about the same time. When she was 9, she made an apple core doll quilt all on her own. I was very busy with a move that summer, and she saw the pattern, worked with scraps from my scrap box, and made the top herself! Shortly after that, she began to crochet, learning from a lady at church. At 12, she started doing English smocking. I got her a lower-end Bernina (tired of sharing my machine with her!) and she started making her clothes, etc. I really don't remember doing much teaching. I think she mostly watched me and went from there.
The neat part of the story is that she grew up to be a neonatal nurse practitioner. She is very, very good at threading lines on micro-preemies and attributes her sense of "touch" to years and years of hand sewing. I like to think God was preparing her.
