I’m not finished teaching Arden to sew, so Tiny Sewists will continue. Â However, I won’t be posting them with the same frequency as I have now covered the core skills I wanted to address as part the course. Â From here on out I’ll share tips and projects as Arden learns them. Â I have plans for at least one project with an accompanying free pattern and maybe a video, so be on the lookout for that!
Below, I’ve created an image map so you can click on any of the images below to take you to the corresponding lesson. Â Pretty fancy, right? Â I’m quite pleased with myself – maybe I can catch onto all this technical stuff? Â ** … and it doesn’t work – back to the drawing board! **
I have clicked on the beginning tutorial and it does not go anywhere. Is there something wrong with the site?
The image map doesn’t work, but the page is Working. Click on the summary page for Tiny Sewists just below the header.
What age do think is a good age to start with a child?
I wish I could give a single answer, but so much depends on the individual child. Their attention span, manual dexterity, and ability to follow verbal directions are all factors.
My daughter was four, nearly five when I started teaching her, but she has really agile hands and has always been able to focus on tasks for long periods.
By starting without the needle in the machine, you can safely evaluate how they’re doing, and decide if they’re ready to continue or not.
I too am wondering what a good age is to start teaching? My daughter is interested but I am not sure about using the machine yet. She is 5.
I can’t get to any of the lessons. Help!
If you click on the tab for Tiny Sewists, there will be images for each of the lessons listed.
I enjoyed your series, “Tiny Sewists.” I have five granddaughters, all 5 years old or younger, who I want to teach how to sew. For the past three years, I have been collecting and restoring vintage sewing machines and teaching myself to sew (mainly granddaughter apparel). I thought I would start them out on one of the five hand crank Singer vibrating shuttle machines that I have found. My thought was to get them sewing safely (hand crank) and completing projects to keep their interest up. Later, I would switch them over to one of the vintage Singer 99’s (3/4 size, side bobbin loader) I have or maybe a vintage Singer zigzag machine (401A or 500A).
Is this a reasonable approach in your opinion?
John Thomas in NC
I’ve never operated a hand-crank machine, but it seems like a good approach.