We Love to Sew by Annabel Wrigley. Library section 10 E: Youth, Growing Your Skills. For boys and girls in grades 4-8, this full color book presents step-by-step easy-to-follow directions on how to sew 28 beautiful items: T-shirts, pillows, jewelry, headbands, softies, bags, banners and quilts. Projects are presented at 3 skill levels: Easy Peasy, A Teeny Bit More Challenging, and Take Your Time and Ask For Help.
Before beginning a project it discusses how to prepare mentally. Begin a project thinking positive; if you run into difficulties, stop for awhile, dance a bit, grab a cookie. Then come back and try again. Don’t be afraid to be creative. Practice, practice, practice. Successful sewing takes LOTS of practice. You have to get comfortable with sewing first: how to hold a needle, sew seams, use pins, and finally, use a sewing machine.
Sew like a snail, slow but steady; rushing leads to skipped steps, messy work and mistakes. Make the project your own; don’t copy your friend’s project but choose your own fabrics, design, and create something that expresses how you feel about shapes, colors and patterns.
This book lists basic sewing supplies and extras such as embroidery floss, metal embroidery hoop, and notions like beads, buttons, and rick rack. A diagram shows the parts of a sewing machine, how it works, and how to use it. It also covers special skills such as using fusible web to add stiffness to fabric, sewing on buttons, types of fabric, installing a zipper, and reusing old clothes or fabric items to make something new.
Then it presents the projects from simplest to most complex. All of them are presented with step-by-step color photos.
Why learn to sew? It helps you save thousands of dollars, and is a lifelong skill. You can make school clothes that are unique, sew accessories like one-of-a-kind bags and headbands, recycle and reuse old garments to save money. When you get older, you can sew unique clothing for you and your family, and all sorts of items for your home that, if bought ready-made, would cost thousands of dollars: drapes, cornices, curtains, pillows, afghans, bathroom accessories, stove mitts, coasters, place mats, table runners, bed covers, quilts, and much more.
Boys need to learn to sew as well. I taught my son to sew on buttons because in college and beyond, I wasn’t going to be around to do that. Rather than shell out $15 to pay a dry cleaner to do it, he learned to sew on his own buttons. Guys can make a fabric pouch for the arm of the den sofa with slots for the remote controls, placemats, church paraments and banners, a fabric caddy for their car, golf club and tennis racket covers, coffee mug cozies, backpacks, messenger bags and more.
Once a person learns basic sewing, hobbies related to sewings are: embroidery, cross stitchery, tatting, needlepoint, sewing car and boat slipcovers, making church paraments and banners, home decorating, textile design, silk painting, tie-dyeing, batiking fabrics, humikimo, printing fabrics with wood blocks, home furnishings, furniture repair and reupholstery, weaving, dying wool, spinning, soft sculpture, felting garments, animals and toys, creating Waldorf dolls and toys, crocheting, knitting, macrame, and knotting. Wow! There has to be something in that list that appeals to you. Threads and fabric adorn our world in beauty and usefulness, and provide great scope for self-expression. Many of these hobbies like crocheting and knitting are stress relievers too, so they are actually healthy to do! Enjoy! ( )