Learning to sew with hearts and buttons

Cakey has been interested in sewing for quite sometime. When she first asked to sew I was a bit stumped as I don't sew. Thankfully, I came across a sewing post from Childhood 101 that suggested using a stiff plastic mesh for young ones. I was lucky enough to come across just such a mesh as part of a cheap sewing kit in a $2 shop. The mesh came with a big plastic needle and coloured wool. I threaded the needle with wool for her and she was away. I was so surprised how quickly she picked it up and loved it.

Since our mesh experiment we have dabbled with a little bit of hand sewing here and there but generally sewing is not at the forefront of my mind. With Valentines Day looming I made her up a heart sewing kit consisting of:

• some spare buttons,
• felt hearts,
• a large needle, and 
• different coloured cotton doubled over so that the needle can't slip off.

I did give her a real needle, the benefits of using the real thing outweighed the potential for hurting herself... and you know what, no blood was shed in this project! When Cakey started on the first heart she found it frustrating. She wouldn't pull the cotton all the way through and would quickly get the excess cotton knotted and have to hand it over to me. By the third heart she had it figured out. I didn't worry about proper sewing technique which is why some of the edges are folded over. After she finished each heart (ie. ran out of cotton) I would tie it off for her.

For more Valentines inspiration have a look at my Valentines Pinterest Board.

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