Sewing with Kids- where to start?

[mollipop]

Hi ladies,

I will be teaching a homeschool sewing class soon and am self-taught myself. The kids ages range from 6-17- about 8 so far, I think. The first meeting will just be a "Get to Know Your Machine/Tools" type of thing but I'd like a little project that they can start working on so that the practice has a purpose. I'm a quilter so I have tons of fabric that they can use for practice but I need some ideas for a fairly quick, easy project. I'm going to do some searching online but you all are so talented and informed that I thought I'd ask here too.

TIA!

[sunnysandiegan]

My friend is sending her DD to a Kids Club at a sewing machine store. For first timer sewers, they high recommend pillow cases. They also restrict the class size to 8 and prefer to have no more than 4 brand new sewers.

In my first sewing lesson as an adult, the instructor had me use a med-dark solid piece of fabric and white thread to sew up a sampler square with every stitch my machine does (in order). I recall using that for a year or more, as it was rather handy. She also had me use various pieces of different materials to see the differences (100% cotton, poly-cotton, knit, satin, flannel, corduroy, upholstery, denim, etc). You could do a version of this with color-coordinated and nicely shaped squares and then have them create a small patchwork wall-hanging type item. I'd leave the back exposed in this particular exercise and have them write on the squares in permanent fine point marker for future reference (such as "loose tension", "too tight tension", "proper tension", "basting stitch", "regular stitch", "stretch stitch", etc). You could teach them to use pinking shears around the entire outside edge or have them zigzag stitch all the way around to prevent too much fraying.

Otherwise, I think a bean bag toss toy would be fun and easy and teaches some basic sewing skills.

Have fun!

[boheime]

Dd1 is turning 6 next week. She is planning to make pillowcases (with a bit of help) as holiday gifts for her siblings.