About 15 years ago I taught children's sewing classes at home. The girls would ride the bus to my house after school. The first lesson was always getting used to the sewing machine. We practiced on paper first, sewing along the lines of notebook paper. After learning to keep a straight line we then learned to pivot. Then, we moved on to zig zags and curved lines. Finally, we progressed to dot to dot pages sewing from one number to the next. The girls I taught then were 8-12 years old and used electric machines.I have three Singer Featherweights that I used for the classes. They are great for teaching because they all thread the same way and use the same bobbins. They only sew the basic straight stitch and have no extra bells and whistles to distract the girls from what they were learning.P has been wanting to do some sewing projects so we got out her machine again today. I thought she should learn to be a bit more independent in her sewing. We worked with no thread and I started her on paper too. Paper is easier to learn on because it is not as wiggly as fabric.
I tried to teach her the proper way to guide fabric through the machine.
It seems she learned the first step. She also learned to draw her own guidelines with a ruler when I was in the kitchen. I am sure she will practice straight line sewing a lot. Now we can sew together as her desk is conveniently positioned next to my sewing table.One day P will be able to sew on one of the featherweights and perhaps even have a couple of friends over to sew too. Oh, what fun that will be!
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