My little niece Ailin is 10 years old. This summer I am teaching her how to sew. It's a great reason to pull out my Singer Featherweight to give it a workout. A great and simple machine to learn on as it only does straight stitch -- and it does it very well. It's not a fussy machine.
Ailin wanted to make a dress as her first project, but I convinced her that this little origami bag to hold her new sewing kit would be a better beginner project. It's all straight lines, and gives her a chance to get used to the machine, the foot pedal, gives her a chance to develop hand-eye coordination, sewing speed, keeping the sewing line where you want it ... remembering to back-stitch at the start and end of a line.
Skills Ailin worked on with this project :
* Pinning edges together
* Not running over pins while sewing
* Sewing in a straight line
* Top stitching
* Starting and stopping - securing the start and end of a line of sewing
* Hand-eye coordination
* Controlling the foot pedal and sewing speed
* Ironing Fabric
* Pressing Seams / Setting Seams
* Sewing on a Button
* Feeding ribbon through for a draw string
Since this won't be her regular machine, I did not make her learn to thread the machine, or fill a bobbin. We've got to save something for next time!
She's a quick learner! She picked out the coordinating fat quarters, learned about pressing / ironing fabric.
Auntis Michele (me) with AIlin and her finished Origami Bag
Later on Gramma Pickles and my mom helped me learn to sew ... This is the only picture I have of sewing with my Gramma. Wish I had more ...
Now it's my turn to teach the young ones.
It was a productive afternoon!
