Lately, we’ve been thinking a lot about how to teach kids to sew (and you’ll see some of the fruits of those brain labors in our May-June 2014 issue due on newsstands 4-22, woot!). And we started talking amongst ourselves:
- How old were we when we learned to sew?
- Who taught us?
- Did we have sewing in school as a class?
- Any memorable kid-sewing stories?
- Have we/are we teaching our own kids to sew?
Of course, we have to share the answers with you:
Melissa Thompson Maher, editor-in-chief–
How old? I learned to hand-embroider at age 5, sitting in my grandmother’s un-air conditioned farmhouse kitchen. She probably set me the task so I would be quiet. I still have the dish towel I embroidered way back then with a simple outline design.
I learned how to use the sewing machine at age 7 or 8, and probably made a simple (somewhat icky) lined vest, which was one of the 4-H projects I could choose from as a beginner. I was a 4-H member for at least 10 years, and sewed many garments throughout that time.
Who taught? My mom. Four girls, all learning to sew. Patience of a saint, I tell you!
Sewing in school? Yes, in high school. I remember being the only one who really did not need basic instruction, so the teacher basically just left me alone. (Yay!) I could even do zippers, collars and linings (although time has probably dimmed my recollection of how well done those actually were.
Tried to teach your kids to sew? My girls have each done some sewing. Both can use a machine and do basic things. One has even made a quilt. And the other–the happy recipient of her great-aunt’s Featherweight– has since started working on her own to improve her sewing skills.
Michelle Freedman, advertising manager–
How old? 7
Who taught? My mom and also my neighbor Christin, who was one year older, taught me to sew. We sewed together and she was already a year into it.
Sewing in school? Yes, it was supposed to be one semester but, I had surgery and couldn’t do PE so I took it all year. My teacher was evil (a.k.a. Old School) and made most people afraid of sewing. However, she had those Butterick and McCalls pattern books and I stayed on her good side because I was obsessed with those and got to look at them every day, planning what I was going to sew next.
Memorable kid-sewing story: There are a few. My favorite was at a friend’s quinceñera. (A celebration of a Hispanic girl’s 15th birthday.) She had a fortune teller who told me that I was going to write sewing and cooking books. I thought she was crazy and I was disappointed. All the other kids were getting more “worthy” information: They would have families, careers, marry doctors, be rich – what the heck?! – I was going to grow up to sew and cook? I wrote it down in my diary, reading it years later when I was home from college. (I was in New York City studying Fashion Design.)
In high school I made prom dresses for all my friends. I would remake stuff from Goodwill or copy vintage dresses I saw in magazines (loved those 1920′s dresses). When the movie Pretty in Pink came out I was so mad! They stole my story (thought it was kinda cool) I would have made that pink dress so much prettier!
Tried to teach your kids to sew? I’ve taught more than 100 kids how to sew, including my own. It’s one of my most favorite things to do. I started teaching kids summer sewing camps in 2008. I read about another gal in town who was doing that and though it would be fun. I invited my daughter’s friends and we had a blast. I have done this every summer since, expanding into something I do professionally.
Teri Lucas, associate editor – online/special projects–
How old? I seriously do not remember.
Who taught? I think my mom taught some and I do remember having home ec in 7th & 8th grades.
Memorable kid-sewing story: I have a crochet moment, kinda related. My mom showed me how to crochet, a basic chain stitch. I went to my room and made a little purse.
Tried to teach your kids to sew? No. Ain’t got none. However, I have given my nieces lessons on how to use their sewing machine.
Variation on the theme: Would I teach kids to sew? I’m pretty patient with kids and enjoy helping them choose fabrics for their projects. Teaching, no. Why? I enjoy kids and I love their enthusiasm, however, at the ripe old age of 40-something I know my limits. I can help the kids, but spending several hours? Mmm, no.
Megan Dougherty, associate editor–
How old? My mom decided to try to teach me to sew when I was about 15. For some reason, she chose a pattern for a terry cloth, one-piece romper that I seriously doubt I ever would have worn. My mom was a wonderful seamstress, but not even her skill and her workhorse Singer 301 could handle the approximately 700 layers of terry cloth that came together in the crotch of that thing. “Crotch-rock” was a private joke between us for years: “How did those new pants fit? Any crotch-rocks?” But years before that, when I was 8 or 9, she taught me cross stitch and needlepoint.
Who taught? I really taught myself how to use a sewing machine and all the sewing I know how to do today has been self-taught.
Did you have sewing in school? No.
Have you tried to teach your kids to sew? Yes. Both girls have used the sewing machine to piece quilts and make pillow covers and pillowcases. Devon has also done straight-line quilting on a doll quilt.
What happened? No crotch-rocks, that’s for sure. Both seem to find the process a little tedious at this point, mainly because they are too scared of everything to sew faster than one stitch every two or three seconds.
Joan Phelps, Creative Director (now retired)–
How old? 7
Who taught? Mom, of course.
Did you have sewing in school? Yep, in middle school and high school
Memorable kid-sewing story? One summer I was spending a week with my grandmother (my dad’s mom) and she was always sewing something, often quilts. I was about 7, I made my first and only quilt, but for my doll house. It was about 3″ x 5″ and the blocks were all squares and about 1/2 inch each, all hand sewn, made from scraps from old clothes. I also learned to use my great-grandmother’s treadle sewing machine that summer.
Tried to teach your kids to sew? My mom taught our youngest daughter to sewm it was a great experience for both of them. :)
Now, how about you? Tell us your learn-to-sew stories!
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I remember sitting on the floor playing in my moms button box from a very young age. She sewed clothes for me and my five siblings. I sewed scraps. Once she made matching skirts for me and my younger sister. I would wear my sisters smaller shorter skirt as a mini when that was the fashion many years ago when I was in sixth grade. I was always nearby watching her when she sewed or crafted. I inherited her abilities, old Phaff machine and that button box. I do every sort of craft. Never took any classes except home ec in school. I love learning on my own or by reading books. Maybe I am just really bad at following direction and behaving in class. Quickly off on my own creative adventure. I have sewn clothing and other things like bags but quilting is my main pursuit at present. I taught both my sons how to do basic sewing and how to maintain a machine. I love sharing a love for sewing with others and have given lessons to more than a few friends. I recently gave my 8 yr old grand daughter instruction on how to use a machine and we are in the middle of sewing her first quilt. She is already planning the next one. Cindy
My Mom was not a sewer so I learned through 4-H in grade school and from a neighbor who helped me make the ugliest dress EVER! After that I was pretty self taught. Best memory was from Jr High when my good friend and I came to school on a Monday both having made jumpers over the weekend from the very same fabric and nearly same pattern. We looked like twins and it was pretty embarrassing at the time.
I’d don’t actually remember learning to sew but some of my earliest memories are sewing related. I would have been two or three and I remember playing in the shady grass under the quilt frame my mother and great-grandmother had set up in the backyard- they always quilted during the summer and made quilt tops in the winter. It was my very own fort and I loved tracing the already done quilting that made my “ceiling” seem scattered with stars.
I learned to sew in 7th grade home ec. My mom could hardly thread a sewing machine! I made most of my clothes in junior high and high school. Made dresses for my first daughter. Started hand piecing a lone star quilt when I was pregnant with my second daughter…got to the last point and found I had 2 diamonds when I needed three and now I can’t even find that beautiful blue lone star. I taught all three of my daughters to sew when they were adults and one of them has even made a quilt! Wish my granddaughters lived close enough for me to teach them to sew.
My Mom taught me to sew at age 10. That’s when our 4-H club started sewing classes, and Mom was the leader. Every week we had six or eight girls in our kitchen after school, learning sewing. The first year students learned how to hem a dish towel, and to make an apron. The dish towel, we turned under 1/2 inch, then turned it again, and stitched it on the sewing machine. The apron had a gathered waist, the ties were double, and the waist band was put on, very much like I now do binding on a quilt, sewn on the sewing machine on one side, then turned over the raw edges of the gathered waist, and hand stitched down. The hem was turned under 1/2 inch, then pressed to a two inch hem, and blind stitched (by hand) to complete. I did take a home economics class in high school. The teacher was into short cuts, like only pinning seams and not basting (my Mom was big on basting), and machine stitching hems to finish them. I did it, but only because that’s what the teacher said to do. And I broke needles, because of landing on pins. I am better at that now. I don’t baste seams any more. But I do remember to remove the pins before stitching.
I learned to sew around 7 on Barbie clothes because my mom refused to spend money on fabric that would end up piled in my room (clearly, she could see into the future….). So I sewed Barbie clothes for about 2 years before I ‘graduated’ to regular clothes. Holy cow!!! If you can sew Barbie clothes, you can sew anything. I was a maniac on the sewing machine and because I used it so much, I learned to strip it nearly down to the gears to clean and oil it. You can’t do that with the new machines, and I miss my old Kenmore cam machine. We did Home Ec in high school and had to sew. I had many friends in the class who had no interest, so I organized them so one would cut everything, one would pin, one would iron and I sat there and sewed. By the time the teacher realized what was going on, I had all but one of the vests done. Fortunately, I was good friends with her daughter so she knew me and realized that I was just trying to get more machine time in. The last time I saw her she remembered that and we laughed. She said she had never seen such a thing! And now I’m a process engineer who sews everything and has an entire room of fabric – who knew?!?
I’m psyched that you’ll be doing an article on teaching kids to sew! I just finished helping my 10 year old son make his first quilt. I tried using the beginning project in Harriet Hargrave’s Quilter’s Academy series, but that kind of train-wrecked. He didn’t have the patience to go so deep into each step in pursuit of perfection like Harriet teaches. He was getting discouraged so I had to modify and simplify the project and do more “helping” than I had originally planned. Then of course he insisted on Minky backing and satin binding… Not very beginner friendly!
Funny sewing story from my childhood: My older sister was big into figure skating, and my mom sewed her costumes. I’d abcond with little scaps of brightly colored, glittered, and sequined lycra fabrics and try to make them into Barbie clothing with no sewing machine, just a hand needle, thread, and some well placed knots. The resulting Barbie outfits were pretty risqué, which irritated my mother — but not enough for her to teach me to sew decent doll clothes! I finally bought a machine and taught myself to sew as an adult, when I bought my first home and wanted to make window treatments.