After lots of practice sewing on plastic canvas, the girls have been begging to do some “real” sewing. I think I was procrastinating a bit, worried about Natalie getting too frustrated and Delaney needing oodles of help. I was wrong. Not only did they learn the backstitch in 2 seconds, they whipped out their first embroideries with excitement and ease.
They both wanted a specific design drawn on their fabric to trace with stitches. I used some simple clip art and traced their chosen designs onto muslin with a pencil. I think one of their favorite parts was choosing the floss colors! Once they got going, my only job was to help them start and tie-off each color. Delaney was having some trouble keeping her needle threaded, so I just tied the floss right to the needle.
They are already planning their next projects – Natalie wants to transfer one of her cake drawings to the fabric, and Delaney wants to make either a rainbow dolphin or a cat. One of my secret projects is to surprise them each with their own sewing basket of some sort.
Even if you are not a sewer, I highly recommend you give this a try with your kiddos. My girls are SO proud of their creations!
Embroidery supplies:
- Embroidery hoop – we are using colored plastic ones; wood ones are great, too
- Embroidery floss – very inexpensive and comes in tons and tons of colors
- Needles – we used metal tapestry needles (blunt tip)
- Fabric – We used unbleached muslin, which is very inexpensive and has a loose weave that is easy to sew through with a large needle.
Happy Sewing!
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They did a great job!! Just lovely
my dd (now 13, yikes) has really enjoyed embroidery. See her pretties here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/53064581@N00/sets/72157621134802292 and at our mother/daughter blog here: http://happyheartsmom.typepad.com/threads_of_love/
Happy summer!
these are so cute. i need to get my stuff out for my kids. nice summer afternoon project.
So fun! 1i ought some small hoops to do this with my 6 year old this summer!
So sweet that they wanted to sew for real! I introduced my 2 year old to the plastic canvas, but she was not quite ready. I also tried using big buttons and that was more successful ~ can’t wait until she is old enough for this!
wonderful !
thanks so much for this post. I want to learn how to do embroidery myself and know my girls (4 and 6 yo) would love it to – i think i will plan to get together all the supplies and learn together. your girls did a great job!
I’ve let my five year old sew but I never thought of drawing a picture for her first. We’ll try this!
You could also use one of those thin dishtowels that you could then actually use in the kitchen. I bet it would be fun to make an apron with their projects too.
i had to post this link on my blog, http://ciderandfaun.blogspot.com/2009/07/nice-things-and-bit-of-reading-too.html
clever! i’ve tried to do sewing with my dd a couple of times, but it’s always been a failure! i wonder if the hoop will make a difference–not being a sewer myself, i didn’t think of using one!
I always loved embroidery. We will be out looking for plastic canvas today to get my Bird started on it. Thanks for the push!
Aranzi Cute Stuff (book) has a project for embroidering napkins. A great project for my 9yo and it would give the fabric a “useful life” in the house; otherwise, I can imagine the bits of embroidery disappearing.
Lovely! I think my girls may just be ready for this – thanks for the inspiration
I’ve been wanting to try this for a while with my five year old. I even made a list of summer activities on my blog and linked here to remind myself. Yours turned out so cute!
How old are your girls? Is 4.5 too early to begin a project like this? I think they turned out LOVELY.
How wonderful!!! I can’t wait until O is old enough to start embroidering with me
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