hand sewing for kids
 

My DGD's teacher has asked me to teach her class how to hand sew. I am not sure what I have to bring to class for equipment or fabric (I have enough scraps), but she said not to bring a sewing machine. I will bring some quilts I made and I have some blocks in progress so the kids will have some idea of what sewing can do - and the teacher asked me to integrate math into the presentation. The school is Montessori so the class consists of 4, 5 and 6 graders, boys and girls.

Does anyone have an hints on how to teach hand sewing? I do have quilt I am finishing and hand sewing the binding, which could be an idea of what hand sewing can do.

simple things like fixing a hem, sewing on buttons would be a good lesson. You could start with a square of fabric and have them sew a drawstring bag for pencils etc.

I learned to sew in school in 7th grade. I would discuss more with the teacher inquiring exactly what she wants you to do. I always found it interesting on how quilts played a large role in assisting slaves escaping from slavery.

I would say teach them the proper names for items that we use in sewing. Tell them it is like all the flavors of Ice cream ! Kids relate to food especially sweets. Hugs to all, Cookie

maybe have them all make a four patch. Then you can put them together for a wall hanging or small lap quilt. If she would let you return, you could do a demo on how the quilt sandwich is put together and/or hand quilting.

One way to work math into the lesson is talk about stitch length. From experience with high and middle schoolers I know they tend to make their stitches pretty big. Maybe have some demo seams with different size stitches and have the kids measure the stitches to see how long works best. Another way to work with that would be to have them stitch on gingham and use the blocks on the fabric to control the length of their stitches. They could also figure out how much fabric to make a quilt if they know how much to make a nine patch. Give them the size of one square in the nine patch and how many blocks across and down for the finished quilt. Or ask how many blocks to make a quilt a given size. They could also figure the cost of the fabric. Lots of good math stuff you can do around quilting. Enjoy!

A friend of mine taught math and science and home ec. She said the home ec helped her math students improve. Science made them understand the science of the combination of different fibers and how different chemicals cause different reactions to the fabric fibers. Sadly she is in progressive stages of alzheimers an remembers very little but does have bouts of memory of different students and how they performed. bjchad has very good ideas since much gingham check is 1/8-1/4" squares.

I wouldn't put too much effort on the math part. The teacher can go into that on their level. I would bring different size and bright color four hole buttons and let each child sew a few on a 10 inch square. Have each child a thimble that fits. There are petite sizes that my grand used that fit her finger and didn't fall off. Show them which finger a thimble goes on and how to use it. Learning how to thread a needle and make the quilter's knot will give them a skill they will use. This will be more then enough for one class. Keep it simple and fun.

Does she want you to teach them or show them? If she wants them to do some hands on sewing - then you have to do something so very basic. Fabric, needle, thread and scissors. Working math into that is telling them they need to determine what it is they want to make and knowing the proper measurements gets the desired results.

Remembering they are young children and use the very basic, like by how many pieces of squares of fabric will be required if you are using 10 inch squares for a quilt that will be 40" x 60". Don't go into all the 1/4 inch measurements - most kids haven't been taught about anything but whole numbers until 5th grade. So you will lose them if you get that detailed.

One of the shows of Simply Quilts a lady was showing how to hand quilt - she used a piece of vinyl so you could see what she did above and below at the same time.

If you are being asked to teach them how to use a needle and thread - that is something else altogether. I taught a 5th grade troop of Girl Scouts how to sew a straight line. We made a pencil pouch out of plain white broad cloth. I had prepared the pieces for the girls, by hemming both ends leaving open the ends so they could thread thru a ribbon as a draw string - they just sewed up the sides on a line I drew. We had them decorate the one side of the fabric and then sewed the 2 sides. I believe we had them use fairly large sewing needles so they could learn to thread the needle - knot the ends - sew - and then knot at the end. Each side was about 6 - 7 inches.