My youngest needed something to do the other day while I was sewing so I decided to see what she would do with some hand stitching. I gathered up a few supplies – 10″ embroidery hoops I found the day before, some spare rectangles of canvas and some embroidery floss I bought for my fabric tray tutorial. Those plus a needle and a water soluble marker and we were good to go!

I got her busy colouring her hoop with markers while I drew a few straight dashed lines and tied a knot in the end of the floss – no point in teaching her how to do it without a knot yet. I was happy to find out that she actually enjoyed finishing up her “sewing work”! Of course, she took breaks in between, but by the end of the afternoon she had managed to finish her three lines one at a time.

I have to admit it was a bit scary giving my almost-4 year old a sharp needle. But she did very well with it and only pricked her finger (very lightly) once. It was good that the canvas has such a loose weave, because we were able to easily back out of a stitch the few times she forgot to go “up” on the same side she went “down” into with the needle. I used very technical terms to describe everything to her (hee hee)!

The next day my oldest was looking for something to do and spotted her sister’s canvas – so she had to start one of course! Since she’s a bit older, she decided to draw something herself and then proceeded to sort out how to embroider it. I did try to teach her a back-stitch, but in the end it was more fun for her to do her own thing. I decided that it was not important to teach her this time, and that we’d try again later. I’ll have to post photos when she is finished, since she’s not keen on letting me post it here half done – though you can see a peek on instagram (that she agreed to) if you’d like!

Speaking of Instagram, I am playing along with Made for Kids Month this June. This is a Liesel Gibson (Oliver & S) and Rae Hoekstra (Made by Rae) invention. Post photos of your kids wearing clothes that you have sewn with the hashtag #madeforkidsmonth. You can find out more here. So far my kids have randomly chosen clothing I have made each day, so that has been fun! I have definitely sewn them a lot more summer things than I have winter things, so my odds are good! Follow along if you’d like!