Because I love to sew, and because I have children, I long to share sewing with my kids in a way that leads them to love it, too. After spending most of a decade teaching school, I have some pretty definite ideas about how to best capture a moment when children are most receptive to instruction–and I want to use those ideas to power a movement where we take the things that matter most to us and offer them to our children as a gift, as a legacy. I genuinely believe that sewing can be so much more than just a hobby: I think it can change you, change your relationships, and given enough time, change the world.
This series is about sewing WITH our kids, and at the same time, making a moment, for want of a better term. I want my kids to remember playing with buttons and sorting through scraps and working with a needle the way I do–the way so many women our age have memories of being in their mother’s or grandmother’s sewing room and how that felt, in hands and in hearts. Not to be super hokey or anything, but I think we pull our kids a little closer when we show them how to stitch.
Each of the projects is designed to teach a new sewing skill–from simple hand work all the way to sewing on a machine–and to introduce an idea or a thought or a character trait or a value that we want our kids to embrace. Like persistence, or focus, or forgiveness. Like patience, or caution, or sharing. All of those are things that I learned by sewing, and things I want my kids to internalize and have forever.
I’ve designed these projects primarily for children aged 3-8, but I’d totally do them with a bunch of my lady friends over a glass of wine, so I think they have a pretty universal appeal. Follow the links below to see each lesson in order–new lessons will be added as they’re posted each Thursday this spring!
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Weekend Links-2-12-11 « Mothers of Boys
February 12, 2011 at 12:22 pm[…] Whipstitch is posting a series on Sewing WITH Kids. She is up to Lesson 4, Thoughtfulness. The posts share a simple sewing task of increasing difficulty to do with your kids as well as ideas on character traits these tasks help build. This is really unique in that it isn’t sewing projects to do for your kids, but ones to create together. […]
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August 26, 2014 at 1:59 pm[…] For the skirt, I’m thinking my 20-minute skirt, with just a dirndl shape and an elastic waist. We have a mess of these that she’s handed down to her younger sister, and she keeps trying to wear the too-small versions, so some larger ones might be in order. (On a side note, this is HER, in this photo! Man, it all goes so fast…) These skirts are the PERFECT place to use novelty and seasonal prints–they look great with solid or striped tees plus a cardigan, and allow me to indulge my long-standing passion for silly prints. Plus, our kids really, really groove on the almost-but-yes-ok-totally-tacky seasonal prints from the big box stores: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Fourth of July. They looooove that there is fabric that’s specific to a special day, and a quickie skirt that uses just a half-ish yard is the perfect place to let them choose their own fabric and wear it with pride (and for tweens, they can even make the skirt themselves!). […]
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October 16, 2014 at 7:01 am[…] her blog is a treasure trove of sewing advice, inspiration, and guidance. She has a series on Sewing with Kids, which has projects that help the teacher and the student with the focus, patience, and persistence […]
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April 15, 2015 at 1:34 pm[…] since my Sewing With Kids series yeeeaaars ago, I’m always on the lookout for sewing projects I can do along with my children. […]