Su has been asking for a while if I would teach her to sew. S and I talked about it and decided to get her a few things for Christmas: some plastic needlepoint canvasses, four different colors of yarn, and a couple of those blunt needles used for needlepoint. I had an old decorated basket floating around the house, so that is her sewing basket.
Su's Sewing Basket
On Mondays F is at art class for two hours and Su and I have some special Mama and Daughter time. We usually have a cup of tea together and then we work on a project. Since Christmas we have used that time to make two coasters with her needlepoint kit.
She sits on my lap and I help her figure out where to put the needle in and out. I try to let her do most of the work, although when we get close to the end it can be hard to pull the needle through. I also give her some guidance on where to sew to make a nice pattern. She chooses what color to sew with and we change colors every time we cut a new piece of yarn just to keep things interesting.
The pieces aren’t really complicated, and they are a mess on the back, with lots of loose ends. I sew a little piece of flannel on the back to cover all that up and figure she’ll improve with time.
Look what I did!
I’m really pleased with these projects, they fill several of the requirements for successful preschooler projects:
- They can be completed in two or three sessions at most. Su will work on one for about twenty minutes and then she’s done.
- It’s easy to see that progress is being made.
- They make nice gifts for grandparents, friends etc. otherwise they’d become clutter.
- They are creative and related to something that grownups do. Su was especially pleased when I told her that her great-grandmother did needlepoint. She feels a connection to her larger family through this project.
Completed Projects
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Tell her Kendra saw her sewing project and thinks it’s beautiful and that she did a really good job