I always found that when teaching kids to sew during 4-H, scouts, or parks & rec after school programs, that boys loved to sew and were quicker to pick it up and enjoy it than girls were. Girls were always stuck on who had the pretty fabric!
I taught a hand piecing class to 5th grade class as part of a math project and the boys all had theirs done the first day..the girls..took 2 days...