Age Appropriate Sewing Lessons

      Preschool and Kindergarten sewing activities that will improve eye-hand motor skills are a must. Below, I have listed the most common supplies that even a homeroom teacher may adapt for quiet time use with her small charges. Teachers should only supply large, plastic, round-tipped needles to children this young!

• Lacing Cards
• Stringing Giant Beads
• Sew’n Sew (wooden sewing block)
• Stringing cereal

      Sewing activities for first through third graders may be similar to the above suggestions only slightly more complicated in nature.

• Two-sided felt animals with pre-cut holes. Teachers can also craft projects like these using paper.
• Stringing small beads
• Stringing dried fruit or candy as a gift for a parent
• Sewing decorative threads to pre-printed holiday cards

      Sewing for fourth graders and up! Although there are many children younger than nine or ten who can sew, we suggest that teachers wait until fourth or fifth grade to introduce kids to sewing projects in the classroom. This is because sewing with sharp needles requires some mature accountability on the part of a student. Teachers need to be in charge of any artistic activities that involve this kind of risk taking. A sewing needle can seem harmless enough, but, there are many health risks involved when open wounds are probable, even when the wound is the size of a pin prick. So proceed with caution and write a note home or send an e-mail to your student’s parents explaining that their child will be expected to conduct themselves appropriately with sewing materials in your classroom.

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What should be included in a young student’s first sewing kit?

• A needle threader – Small fingers and inexperienced eyes can not always keep a needle threaded properly so, keeping a needle threader on hand is a very good idea.
• A pincushion is sometimes included in a fancy little sewing basket. But, no matter what type of kit your student chooses, he or she should have a small pincushion included in it. Many teachers choose to assign a pincushion first before all other projects are considered. This is a traditional introductory lesson for any person learning to sew.
• I prefer tiny scissors to a seam riper for children. A seam riper in a beginning sewing class or workshop for young children, is an accident waiting to happen!
• A small variety of threads – Threads come in very small quantities at sewing shops. It is easy to find tiny spools of thread even in the grocery store. Black, white, navy, red, yellow, pink and pale blue cotton thread are all quite common in these small packs.
• Sampling of buttons – Students will use odd buttons for decorative purposes or for practice in a beginning sewing class.
• Her own needles – Students should never share their needles with each other under any conditions what-so-ever! Make this a class rule. The teacher may keep extra needles at her own desk for those students who forget their own. Students should not return the needle to the teacher after using it. In order to prevent the transfer of illness this rule must be reinforced in the classroom.
• A white piece of chalk is needed for marking fabric. There are also fancy marking pens that older students may wish to purchase.
• A small tape measure – This is a must even for little kids because it incorporates basic math skills into their sewing projects. Teachers may wish to print and cut these out to help save money on the kit supplies.
• Band-aids are a must for a kit.
• Antiseptic spray or an anti-biotic cream is also very important as well inside of any sewing kit. Those needle pricks will occur and they heal up fast with medicine on the spot.
• A thimble

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What should a “beginners” sewing kit look like?

 A student’s first sewing kit could be a simple basket, preferably with a lid or a small plastic container. Sometimes teachers prefer to purchase plastic containers all at once for a discount. This also guarantees that the kits will be of uniform size and appearance. Teachers may choose to stack kits neatly on a shelf during the school day. Some students are too forgetful to be trusted with bringing a sewing kit to class when it is needed. Boys can also be a bit self-conscious about packing a sewing kit into their backpacks as well. Personally, I prefer to give the task to the student of “scouting out” their own sewing kit. I believe that individuality and personal choice should be rewarded to a child’s artistic pursuits whenever possible. Encourage the girl who wishes to purchase a small attractive basket or an unusual box for her first sewing kit. Have examples of many small kits on hand to show your students the possibilities. Make sure that several of these samples are not too feminine in appearance or very expensive to collect.

      Here is a linking list to several versions of sewing kits that parents may acquire for their children to use. These kits make wonderful birthday gifts for a young girls. I’ve also included a few links to historical versions of sewing kits as well.

• A Child’s Sewing Box
• Antique child’s sewing box with tiny celluloid doll
• Antique child’s sewing basket – silk drawstring top
• Turn a ordinary basket into a sewing basket for your child
• A sampling of store bought sewing boxes
• A template for a cardboard sewing box creation
• Cover a ordinary box with fabrics to create a new and interesting sewing box
• Embroidered waist pockets and purses by Sherri Jones
• A good workwoman praises her tools
• A Smartek Foldaway for the serious sewer
• Beautiful new Cath Kidson Sewing Box
• An extraordinary marquetry sewing box
• English Papier Mache Sewing Box
• A sewing box covered with felted wool applique

      If you are a parent homeschooling your children and wish to teach sewing skills, you may consider gifting a child with a kit designed for sewing fishing lures. A bait and tackle box is an excellent alternative for a child who prefers this form of entertainment. Sewing skills need not be about clothing. This would also be an excellent winterim course for middle school students after Christmas break in a private school. These brief courses are usually taught for fun and faculty members are always on the look out for new ideas. Girls frequently gravitate to small needlework or quilting classes. However, for those students less inclined to sewing garments or fancy work, bait and tackle boxes have fun possibilities. These make great gifts for a dad if sons or daughters don’t fish. If you intend to teach this type of course make sure that you acquire a good quantity of feathers and specialty products along with a basic manual before starting. There are actually films available that give instructions for crafting lures as well. Make sure that you have some “fish stories” and other fun activities to mix in with the threading or your student(s) may take a nap, well, it is fishing.

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Quilt Maps

Basic Checkerboard

Circle/Square Design, Quilters often include needlework in the circles

Trellis Pattern, applique designs often go in the larger squares

Narrow Diamonds, include a large applique’ for the center

Add and subtract blocks to size the quilt according to your needs. Jpg. Is copyrighted by Kathy Grimm 2012. For private use, map should not be resold. Shopkeepers and/or teachers may post these for students or recopy for educational purposes or note taking inside of an actual classroom or store, but not online.

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How Artists Make Portrait Dolls

Dewees Cochran painting eyebrows on a doll head modeled
from a real child. Reproducing features, expression,
complexion, and even freckles, the doll’s face presents a
remarkable likeness.

      Portrait doll artists capture similar facial features, hair and skin color of an individual who hires them to craft a doll modeled after herself or a loved one. Typically portrait artists are hired to craft wedding dolls, child dolls or dolls of a deceased loved one. Ordinarily portrait dolls are made from porcelain and may cost as much as $800 dollars, or as little as $125 dollars, depending upon the demands of the client.

      Portrait dolls have been constructed by many fine doll makers over the years. In the 1938  edition of Modern Mechanix an article called “Your Child’s Portrait in a Doll,” describes in detail, the elaborate process used in the making of a portrait doll by a composition doll artist:

      “PORTRAIT DOLLS, modeled after children or adults by Dewees Cochran, New York painter and sculptress, reproduce all the details of features, hair, and complexion found in the original. Supplementing conventional sculptor’s tools with dental instruments for fine work, Miss Cochran models the amazingly lifelike figures from real life, or from written descriptions and photographs, one full face and one profile. The doll head is first shaped in a clay-like material. From this a plaster mold is made in which the head is cast in a virtually unbreakable substance that simulates actual skin texture.

The young mistress poses with her likeness.

      Hair closely matching the original is used to fashion a realistic wig, and the face is tinted to the correct flesh tones. Bodies are fashioned from another unbreakable composition material, while the hands are made of hard rubber. A skilled seamstress turns out diminutive clothes that are perfect miniature reproductions of the costumes worn by the actual model. The portrait dolls, which require about five weeks to complete, are made in proportion to the size of the child or adult, running from fourteen to twenty-four inches in height. When a photograph of the child is compared with a similarly lighted photograph of the portrait doll, it is almost impossible to distinguish between the two.”

      Just above, the young subject and her finished doll are pose for the camera man. Note how the artist has captured the personality of the child in a tiny figure less than two feet tall!

      Below we see the artist dressing the doll. Every detail of the sitter’s costume is copied in the diminutive garments, which are specially made for Miss Cochran by a skilled seamstress.

The artist fits the custom made clothing to the doll before shipping.

 Working from photographs, the artist first models the head in clay. In this process she uses several dental tools, in addition to scalpels and regular sculptor’s aids. This old article included also a diagram depicting the process of making a mold from the sculpted clay head.

  1. When the clay model is completed, it is used in making a plaster-of-Paris mold as seen in the illustration below.

  2. The mold is being filled with the special composition material from which the head is to be cast. This produces a virtually unbreakable head.

  3. Fresh from the mold, the head is sandpapered to a skin-like texture and painted to match the natural complexion of the subject before hair is added.

The process for making a mold from a sculpted, clay head.

Here we see the artist is working from photographs.

The body is formed of unbreakable composition material and the hands of hard
rubber. This artist makes dolls from fifteen to twenty-four inches high,
depending on the size of the child. The finished doll is seen below.

The doll is finally finished!

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