Inspiring Our Daughters to Sew

I have to start this by saying that I did everything wrong when I decided to teach my daughter to sew. I had started sewing when I was six. So when my daughter was about seven or eight, I thought it was time she should learn how to sew. I bought her a pattern and some fabric that I thought she would like and told her to read the directions and get started. I thought she would really enjoy it. I wanted her to love to sew like I had when I was a girl and had plenty of time to sew. Well, let's just say that was a disaster. (She is starting to sew now, at age 13, and enjoying it very much.)

Our kids won't do the things that we don't do. Even though I remembered enjoying sewing when I was a young lady, my daughter hadn't seen me enjoy sewing. This is why we are talking about inspiring our daughters to sew not just teaching them. The teaching is the easy part. When they want to learn, they can learn easy enough by reading a simple pattern or a book about learning to sew. When we inspire our daughters, we give them a reason to learn.

This is why we as moms need to be sewing. Unless your daughter has another roll model in her life that sews regularly and inspires her to sew, you are going to have to be it. Don't worry if you aren't a great seamstress. Even if you have never sewn before, you stepping out and starting to learn will inspire your daughter. If you don't have hours and hours to sew, that is OK too. 15-30 minutes most days is enough for your daughter to see what you can create with fabric.

While you are sewing, keep a scrap bag. Some scraps are big enough to use for another project, you can keep those separately if you want. But keep a bag of your fabric scraps that your daughter can play with. Even my 1 1/2 year old daughter loves playing in the scrap bag. She is already developing a love for fabrics.

When your daughter is old enough let her have a needle and some thread to start designing her own creations out of the scrap bag. Depending on maturity level a child of 4-6 can probably handle this. We talk about needle safety. The rules at our house are that you can only sew in the sewing area, and to please be careful to keep up with your needle because a needle is not fun to find with a bare foot.

This will easily move into your daughter asking for larger pieces of fabric and more instruction or patterns. There are many simple projects that you can find on line. Also many of the older children's patterns at your local fabric store are going to be easy to sew. Most of them will have a rating on them to say that they are 'easy' or 'advanced' or similar. A child that can read can follow much of a pattern with only a little help from mom. Once your daughter can read a pattern and follow the directions, the sky is really the limit. She has opened up a world of sewing possibilities.