My children, 5 and 2, always want to "help" when I am sewing/piecing. My 2 year old wants to sit on my lap when I'm sewing. He's fascinated with pins too, so much so that he once put a bunch in my machine! I let him take pins out as I sew along and we practice the names of colors with the pin heads. My 5 year old wants to learn to sew. I've started her out with hand-stitching. Does anybody else sew with a child on your lap or have any tips for sewing with kids, or how to involve very young kids in the process? Oh, and the 2 year old loves my scrap bags.

I sew everyday with 6-10 year olds at work. I just put the machine on slow seed and stand over them until I think they can handle it, then I walk away (not far and still have my eyes on them) and some seam are not straight (but then they learn to use the seam ripper. I let them hand sew first to get the hang of keeping their material lined up. They want to learn and I think the younger the better.

I would let the two year old pick colors and let him sit on your lap while you sew him a small pillow the 5 year old is the same age as my granddaughter when I taught her she for to push the foot petal wile I helped her guide the fabric she is 9 now and can do very well by herself. She made a doll quilt for her barbies and chose the fabrics then made a baby size lap quilt with charm squares her daddy taught her to tie it. Here is her barbie quilt oops she was 6 but had just turned 6
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-7752-1.htm

Parris--how do you set the speed? I can't think of a way to do that on my manual Bernina.

Donna--Your GD do a good job. My daughter is almost 6, sew maybe I'll sit with her and let her start.

Do you ladies recommend any certain machine for a little one, or just the one I have? She certainly would have a hard time hurting my machine since there is no programing, etc.

My grands love to sit on my lap while I sewed too. The older two are getting to the point of sewing on their own now :D:D:D

When my son was barely 3 I would turn down the speed on my machine. Then I would guide the fabric and he held the foot pedal in his hand and he got to push it. We talked every time about listening and stopping when mommy said stop. He did really good.
He is 4.5 now and is now using my machine (with close supervision of course). He loves to guide the fabric through and work the foot pedal. I have it set on the lowest speed. I did an eye spy swap and I let him have all the squares to sew together and play with.
He also loves to get to sit with my thread when I use my embroidery machine. I tell him what color to get next and he looks for the right one. And then he gets to put the old color back. LOL he is an only child and I am a stay at home mom so he wants to help mommy A LOT!

Sounds fun -- but how do you set the speed?

I have a Bernina 180E and the button I push on the display to change the speed is "M" for motor. Since yours is manual, you may not have a display and I don't know how to change the speed on them.

I think it's wonderful that you are working with future quilters! :thumbup:

I looked at my manual, only the foot pedal controls the speed.

im interested is this to since i have a 2 year old who always whants to sew and an 8 month old who loves to tast fabric.