Sewing kit and ideas for 6 year old

[rhianna813]

My son is interested in sewing. He is age 6.5 and I am getting him started with handsewing to learn the basics. He’s been using scrap fabric to make pouches, by folding the fabric and sewing up one side and the bottom. He’s been using a regular sewing needle, thread and just stitching in long 1 inch stitches to the outside of the fabric.

I know there must more kid friendly supplies I can get him. Maybe a larger needle or something less tangly than thread? I have some felt that might be easier for him too, instead of cotton fabric.

He is already asking for his own sewing basket and supplies. What would you put in a kit for a younger child? Also any websites with easy projects for hand sewing would be helpful too!

Thanks,

Rhianna

[ms.shell]

I think felt is a great idea. There is a free ball pattern at Grand Revival http://grandrevivaldesign.typepad.co...attern1000.pdf
and I am sure ya'll could think of other cool things to make from felt- felt foods, christmas ornaments, etc.

This isn't the same kind of sewing, but maybe he would have fun with a tapestry needle (they are rounded and blunt), some embroidery floss, and a piece of plastic needlepoint canvas. He could make up designs to fill in the grid. You could cut the needlepoint canvas into rectangles and he could design bookmarks.

He could make himself a pillowcase from a cool novelty fabric in the same way he has been doing pouches, too.

or help him cut squares and get him started patchworking....

good luck!

[almama]

I made my boys embroidery kits and taught them a few basic stitches (one at a time), and they made bookmarks with them. They really liked it. They love to cut fabric and *maybe* sew it into something, so felt and fleece work really well.

I got a lot of ideas from this site: http://www.needlenthread.com/2008/06...class-and.html

They helped cut out the fabric and do some of the sewing for PJ bottoms - that was a lot of fun.

[LaughingHyena]

DD has been enjoying making a wall hanging by sewing felt shapes into a square of fabric. I hemmed the edges of the fabric by machine. For patterns we used cookie cutters or googled for simple colouring pages. Yo could add thier name and use it as a "my room" sign.

She found it much easier when I put the section of fabric she was working on into an embriodery hoop. We used a large needle and embriodery thread.

She's also done a couple of felt sachets, which she decorated with buttons. We looked at a few kits in the craft shop then came home and made similar items with stuff we already had.

I've done beanbags with kids, just seal the filling in a plastic bag first so it doesn't fall out of the large stitching. For extra fun we like to add ribbon tails, just sew 3 or 4 lengths of ribbon into the centre of one of your sides as you sew.

We like to keep around lots of scraps of fabric (parts of old clothes, felt etc), buttons (again from old clothes), yarn, embriodery thread, water soluble pens (for drawing on designs).