Fabric Mart Fabricistas

With summer here and the kids out of school, you might already be hearing the dreaded words, “I’m bored!” Turn that around by giving them the chance to learn a new skill – sewing! Sewing can be taught to most any age, but the project type will vary depending the age and skill level of the child. We’ve rounded up a few great projects and ideas that can help jumpstart your child’s interest in sewing! A Good Place to Start with the Youngest: Hand Sewing As a parent of a 5-year-old, my son has really enjoyed sewing little felt stuffed toys that have pre-cut holes around the edges of the shapes. Michaels Craft Store carries a nice selection of different kits for various interests. What I like about these is that it is an easy way to start learning the hand sewing motion. The kits also come with sticker embellishments to finish off the project. Once they get the idea of hand sewing, let them create their own felt projects. The blog, Meraki Lane has a great list of 16 Felt Sewing Projects t...

Sharing my love for sewing is something that I am passionate about. For the last 5 years, I’ve organized an afterschool sewing club for 5th graders at a local elementary school. This has been so much fun and so rewarding that I thought I would share with you some of the things that I did to get it started, and some of the things that I’ve learned along the way.  Getting a club of any kind started in the schools requires both finding students that are interested and finding supportive people in the administration. Here are some tips for finding both of these things:   Pick a school that you think might be interested and call to speak with someone at that school in the administration, such as a principal or community involvement coordinator, to see if after-school clubs are possible. This may seem intimidating, but from my experience, school administrators are devoted to providing their students with enriching experiences, and will jump at the chance to expose the...