Should Sewing Be Taught to Children? Guest blogger Sally Perkins

I learned to sew in 4-H in the 1950s (my teacher /group leader was Mrs. Bechtold and of course, Mom helped), and my children learned the basics in a required home economics class in middle school in the early 1980s.  And now?  Let's have Sally, my guest blogger, tell us.

https://www.stitchandsew.net/category/blog/

The teaching of sewing was absolutely essential for previous generations who were clothed by their own handiwork. But in today’s consumer society, where clothes are throw-away items, the art of sewing has dropped off the ‘life skills’ list. However, the last few years has seen the image of sewing transformed in the US. No longer the domain of apron-clad grandmothers, the revived craft is being taken up by younger women seeking a form of creative self-expression. And as adults are taking up the hobby, so are their children, resulting in a surge in sewing classes and boom in sewing machine sales.

What are the benefits of learning to sew?

Sewing is an expensive hobby, considering the outlay on fabric and equipment. So is it really worth it? There are obvious practical benefits of teaching a child to sew. The life-long skill will save them from costly clothing repairs and alterations in the future if they are able to hem a new pair of pants and darn a favorite sweater. But there are many more developmental benefits to be gained:

• Help improve physical dexterity - Introducing hand sewing at an early age will help develop and mature finger dexterity and fine motor skills.
• Teach discipline and patience - Learning to sew demands listening and following instructions. And once the basics are taught, a child will need to follow through a project in a careful and disciplined manner. Threading a machine, reading a pattern and cutting out fabric are all tasks that demand precision, order and patience.
• Enhance math skills - The tasks of measuring, together with the addition and subtraction skills required when piecing fabric together, all help with the development of math skills.
• Encourage creative expression - Once a child has mastered the basics, sewing offers a valuable creative outlet. Your child can select their own fabric and thread, and create their own designs be it clothing, accessories or toys. This may be of particular value to children who find it difficult to express themselves through writing and speech.
• Build self-confidence and promote self-esteem - The satisfaction of completing a sewing project from start to finish will boost your child’s self-confidence and morale.

How do you teach your child to sew?

If you are a stitcher, share your skills with your child. Start with hand-sewing using non-fray fabric such as felt, then let them explore cottons and other materials. Introduce a sewing machine when you and they are ready and eager. Consider investing in a sewing machine with child-friendly features including large dials, good speed control and automatic needle threading. You’ll also find useful books on the market outlining simple first projects.

If you aren't a stitcher, don’t despair as many craft stores offer sewing classes for children. Usually lasting an hour a week, they should provide enough direction for your child to engage in a craft that will grow their self-confidence, inspire their creativity and, at the same time, give them a practical skill for life.

So, should sewing be taught to children? The answer is a resounding ‘yes’!

Saying Good-bye is painful

What made saying good-bye to this dress so difficult is that my mother made it. She was only 43 and I was probably 15 when I checked on her progress each day after school.  I still have an apron she made for me 50 years ago from a skirt she made for me in high school!  I still have the formal she made for me for the Christmas Dance of 1955. I still have the cloth doll she made for me in elementary school and the doll clothes she sewed and gave me at Christmas in the 1940s. I have pillows at our cottage she made in 1990.  So giving up this dress which I watched her cut out on our dining room table with trembling hands (she was a self taught seamstress) was BIG.  But yesterday it went to the Discovery Shop, which sells clothes and household items to raise funds for cancer. There are no women in the family to pass it to. I had heard that Vineyard Church had a bridal ministry, but when I called, I was told there was someone who had a ministry in Brazil that would take it.

Ready to take it to Discovery

Hanging in the sorting room

One last time

Our wedding day, September 1960

At our 50th party in Columbus in September 2010

Sounds like my mom

My mother (1912-2000) had this attitude about all housekeeping skills, and particularly was careful to look nice when Dad came home from work. When I think back to some of the complex outfits she made for her four children, I think this must have been part of the routine. Her mother had used a dressmaker or shopped in Chicago, so Mom didn’t learn sewing as a child, but it was necessary when the children came along during the Depression.  We even had little dresses made from feed sack fabric. I never had a holiday or prom dress bought from a store—Mom made them all, a pale green organdy, the pink crystalline below (from my sister’s wedding) and a two piece with green linen top and white flocked skirt with pink flowers.  She made my blue silk going away dress for my wedding (I had started it, but didn’t use the advice from Singer, and she had to finish it).

1955 bridesmaid dress, also prom 1956; my sister Carol had the same dress in yellow, and Mom made the wedding dress (which I then wore in 1960)

Dolls from the 1940s which I still have.

My brother Stan in cover-alls made from my father’s military clothes

Pattern of one of my favorite aprons I wore for 40 years made by Mom

My high school graduation dress which included a jacket

Good advice for most projects

The original copyright for my Singer Sewing Book is 1953. It has similar pithy words of wisdom.

• "The psychiatrists say that ugly dresses have caused more complexes than have "prettier sisters" or "scolding mothers." Every child has the right to becoming, yes, pretty, clothes." p. 165 [What would we do without the advice of psychiatrists?]
• "There is real advantage in teaching children to sew--boys and girls. No matter what they do with their hands later, whether they become artists or sculptors or electricians or radio or television repairmen--technicians of any kind--if the muscles of the fingers and the hands are trained to sew, this training can be beneficial." p. 166 [Now we have video games for eye-hand coordination.]
• "Boys require only slightly less fabric than girls." p. 164 [Even in the days of poodle skirts?]
• "When sewing for children, study color in relation to their skin color, eyes and hair." p. 163 [Years before Color me Beautiful!]
• "Use both hands when you sew." p. 153 [I'd never thought of doing it any other way, did you?]
• "Look your prettiest for this try-on [basted garment]. A dress in its fitting stage is no doubt passing through its one ugly hour." p. 50
• "An itinerant tailor, Ebenezer Butterick, through the urging of his wife, Ellen, was the first to make patterns available in the United States to women who sew. He made patterns and rented them to customers. . ." p. 35 [Behind every good man . . .]
• "There is no reason for anyone's not making a beautiful seam, because it takes so little time to learn to stitch straight and to "power" evenly." p. 5 [Is that possessive pronoun necessary in this sentence?]

Monday Memories--The Chemise

The clothing and hair shapes and styles of the late fifties were harbingers of the changes we would see in the early 60s--blousy and bouffant. Especially after the beautiful, young Jackie Kennedy led the way. My mother was a good seamstress, so I wanted something I’d seen in Mademoiselle magazine, and although I don’t have the pattern, the above photo from the April 1958 issue is similar. Also similar is that teenagers regardless of the era are pretty bossy and careless about other’s time commitments, especially their mothers!

April 8, 1958

Dear Family,

[other stuff about my sister Carol and me visiting at Easter]

Mother: If you look on page 102 of the April Mademoiselle I think you'll find a good idea for the chemise pattern. I still need an outfit I can wear for school, but that combination would be darling for good.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

April 17, 1958

Dear Ones,

I'm still waiting for my new sheath and chemise.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

April 21, 1958

Dear Ones,

I received my package and really went wild. I love the yellow chemise. That material is wonderful for spring skirts. Mom, could you get some more for 2 or 3 straight skirts--brown or green?

In less than 2 weeks, Mom found the magazine, the style, the fabric, made it and shipped it to my college in Indiana. And before she could catch her breath, I was asking for more!

This was excerpted from my sewing blog, Memory Patterns, with stories of crafts, quilts, doll clothes, formals, housecoats, aprons, etc. And I wasn't even a good seamstress!

Sew Homemade

When I was a little girl, my mother made a lot of my clothes--the rest were "hand-me-downs" from my two older sisters. With the left over fabric she made clothes for our dollies. She even made our underwear! But it never looked like this.

She also made clothing for my brother--these coveralls were sewn from my dad's WWII camouflage.


Today I upgraded my Memory Patterns blog, which was completed several years ago but has a lot of old photos of sewing projects. In checking some of the old links, I found the above pattern.

2957 High tech, high touch

That's an old 80s expression for people who worked on computers all day then went home to eat tofu and quilt by the light of homemade candles. While I was on the road in California and Illinois, two new stores opened, side by side, near my home. Stitching Post Super Store and a Sunflower Market. Sunflower was very pleasant and had many nice items, but I think it is higher priced than Trader Joe's, but I'll definitely run in there from time to time just because it is so close. Stitching Post is amazing, but I think it is basically a store to sell robotic sewing machines with tiny human brains. There was one doing some fancy embroidery all by itself as I walked by. The store also has huge classroom all set up with cutting tables, machines, pressing stations, etc., and a large floor area devoted to cutting and sewing tables. I used to sew. . .

Story of this dress is at my pattern blog.

sewing machines, Crafts, organic produce, high tech high touch, Trader Joe's

204 Handicrafts some of us didn't do

We had such a good time in writing class today at the Public Library "Writing family memories." The instructor asked each of us to bring in something that either we had made or something crafted by a family member.

Some of the women had knitted, crocheted, decoupaged, painted ceramics, embroidered, cross stitched, and sewn for themselves and their children. One woman's great grandfather had been a tailor and his wife was a seamstress. She brought in a maroon velvet suit he'd made for her great uncle, and she had a photo of him wearing it when he was 10.

Another member of the class had written about her project of decoupaging wedding invitations for about 25 years, and brought along her box of supplies, including the stained gloves. After not knitting in years, another has taken it up recently and is loving it and showed us a lovely wrap she is working on. She told of sewing her children's clothes in a bandana fabric that matched her maternity top and then taking them on adventures to get them out of the house. "I never lost them," she said. The youngest member of the group--the only one who still has children at home--showed us a lovely fabric hand bag she had just finished when her husband took the children for an outing.

I was never very crafty--don't like to measure or do detail, and that seems to be essential. But like a lot of women my age I did learn to sew, learning both from my mother and from 4-H projects. A month before I got married, I bought a sewing machine for $50 and I still have it--it goes forwards and backwards, but nothing else and I probably haven't used it in 15 years.

So I brought along and passed around a selection of my old Simplicity and McCalls patterns--my 1960 wedding going away dress (blue silk), a ruffled red wool for a New Year's Eve party in 1964, the dress I made of flocked white organdy to match my daughter's baptismal dress in 1968, bell bottom pants and tunic I made in bright lime green in 1969. a midi in brown wool tweed and vest made in 1970, a school dress for my daughter made in 1973, and a denim wrap around jumper made in the early 80s.

Next week we have to write a story about the items we brought in.