sewing with babes

In my free sewing with kids e-course I suggest teaching kids ages 8 . So these past few weeks, as Lenna has been begging me to teach her to sew, I diverted her attention elsewhere, assuming she wasn’t ready. She is only three, afterall.

But she persisted. And I gave it a go. You should have seen the process, trying to set her up at a sewing machine. She’s a very small three-year-old, so I had to set up several books on her chair, and prop the foot pedal on her stool books, as well. It was awesome.

I took out the needle and explained the presser foot feed dogs to her (using the concepts from this lesson) and she understood it so well. I just watched, as she’d try to sew with the presser foot up, and quickly realize why it wasn’t working, and then would lower the presser foot before trying again. Before I knew it she was exploring the machine. She was using the reverse stitch, and telling me how it goes backwards, and adjusting the speed on the machine. I watched her concentrate. I watched her learn. It was such a new experience for both of us. A very good one.

While I didn’t think she was ready at first, I wasn’t surprised that Lenna loved sewing (can you call it sewing if we didn’t use a needle and thread?) But what I didn’t expect was that Bev would wind down from her usual turbo mode and sit to listen and learn, as well. Bev wasn’t strong enough to operate the foot pedal, so I had to help her with that, but I’ve never seen her so focused on anything. Ever.

I think this has opened us up to a whole new world. What else are they capable of? What else can I be teaching them?!