Teaching kids to sew

My daughters are interested in learning how to hand sew and use a sewing machine, since I am still a newbie myself I was wondering if anyone had some suggestions of some books that would be useful? 

I'm fairly new to sewing as well. However, my mother was an avid quilter when I was growing up. All of us wanted to try sewing at one point or another. So, I have a few suggestions. Although, someone with children and strong sewing skills might have better suggestions.

First, she let us use her scraps, so when it didn't work out quiet right she didn't care. My mother would help us pick out how the scraps could go together in a quilt pattern, iron the sides down so we could easily see where to sew pieces together and then let us go from there and we could come back whenever we had a question. Also, she gave us pretty large needles with a large eye so they were easy to use.

After you show the basics (how to thread the needle, how to tie a knot so the thread doesn't go through the fabric, ect.) you're ready to show a few simple hand stitches. My mom showed us the simple cross stitch (little Xs), the over-lap (you sew along the edge on a diagonal and loop over the edge) and felling (the really tight stitch you use to sew edges together but you don't want anyone to see the stitching). After that my mom just let us go to town stitching whatever we wanted. We started with small quilts and worked our way up to bigger ones and my sister was very into making clothes for her Barbie.

As for the machine, my mom showed us the basics (threading the machine, putting in the bobbin, the lines on the bobbin plate that you follow to sew straight, and stopping when the machine makes a terrible noise lol) and then supervised us. I wouldn't leave a new sewer unsupervised since it is easy to forget to take out a pin, forget to back stitch, etc.

If your daughter gets comfortable with sewing and wants to move to real projects do simple ones like bags, teddy bears, or PJ pants. There are some greats step-by-step videos on youtube that you can follow if you're not sure how to sew the project she wants to try.

Good luck! 

Oh - I also forgot to mention to pick up very cheap fabric or use old sheets for her first few projects. In fact, I still go to good will and purchase sheets the first time I'm trying something new. At $6-$15 a yard fabric is too expensive for me to waste on mistakes in size, darts, or figuring out how I want a pattern to line up.

thanks for the great advice. We will start practising this weekend.  Cheers

Allison-those are great tips.

My mom did a lot of those things to help me to learn how to sew!

My mom had her mother's old Singer treadle machine, and she let me sew on it so I had a chance to practice skills like hand-eye coordination as well as learning how to coordinate my feet. After I got the hang of it, my parents decided to buy an electric sewing machine and we BOTH learned how to use it at the same time.

If there was ever a way that you could get your hands on an old treadle machine, I think that would be fun! It helps you to start out slowly and to learn how a machine functions.

I know you will have fun sewing with your daughters and making so many wonderful memories.

God bless,
Elaine