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Homeschooling our kids affords us great opportunities to incorporate other fun and valuable skills into our class time that may otherwise not be available to them via another education avenue. Many schools have been forced to cut courses that were once commonly included in their curriculum such as home economics (Home Ec), shop, auto mechanics and other subjects. In this series of posts, we will try to provide you with free resources to help you with teaching your children some of these skills.
When I was first learning to sew all those years ago, it really wasn't my thing. So much so, that my home ec teacher created a special recognition just for me, "Most Adventurous Sewer." This was quite possibly due to the fact that I would do almost anything to avoid working on my projects. Flash forward about 10 years and suddenly I became an avid sewer making clothing, household décor, toys, quilts and more. When we began homeschooling, I made sure that not only my daughter knew how to sew but also both of my boys. We began when they were in elementary school and moved onto more difficult projects when they were in high school so that they were able to receive high school credit for their skills.
There are a lot of great websites available that can provide a great spine to teach sewing in your classroom. Here are just a few to get you started.
4-H Special Interest Club: SPIN Sewing Curriculum – The University of Illinois Extension provides this PDF lesson plan with lots of information, worksheets and projects.
Make It & Love It – Teaching Kids to Sew – In this five-part series, Ashley shares step by step how she taught her children sewing basics.
Crafts & Fabric Links - Free Sewing Lessons – At this website you can find an online Beginning Sewing Book, free patterns for simple to more involved projects, technique tips and instruction and more.
Rachel Myers – Sewing 101 – This web page provides links to 4 weeks of instruction on sewing basics. Each post includes great information as well as detailed images and some also have video presentations.
Sewing.org - SEW-lutions Guidelines – This was my go-to site when I was teaching my children how to sew. There are tons of downloadable instructions covering all topics plus look on the left-hand sidebar for links to loads of free sewing patterns and ideas.
Utah Education Network Curriculum Resources – There is a large variety of lessons plans available on this Curriculum Resources for CTE/Family & Consumer Sciences Education page of this site. Many of the lessons include downloadable handouts, worksheets, PowerPoint presentations and much more. Scroll down the list to locate the "Apparel Design and Production" for sewing lessons. There are even more lessons available on this topic by scrolling further down to find the CTE: Pathways in Clothing & Textiles, FACS: Clothing Lab Equipment, FACS: Dishtowel Apron, FACS: Fabric, FACS: Fashion, FACS: Fibers, FACS: Personal Fashion, FACS: Sewing Projects, and FACS: The Sewing Machine. Look under the FACS Exploration section for "Sewing Introduction" and there are two entire sections named "Fashion Design Studio" and "Textile Design Entrepreneurship" that looked interesting as well. PLEASE NOTE: This page includes a large list of topics relating to Family & Consumer Education. Be sure to preview all material before allowing children to view this web page.
The Made to Sew YouTube channel has a great selection of Sewing for Beginners tutorial videos that you can use as part of your teaching.
If you are an "Adventurous Sewer" as I once was, then maybe you can learn along side of your kids and build some wonderful memories along the way.
