Sewing with Kids - Book Recommendations

This is the time of year that I get busy cleaning and re-organizing our family classroom. We home-school year round to follow my husband's teaching schedule, so we are gearing up for the new year to begin in just a couple of weeks. One thing that is always part of this re-organization is the HUGE task of going through all the bookshelves. This year I am letting go of a lot of books and curriculum that I have held onto over the years, so I feel it has been even more productive and we will be even better prepared for our kick off...that is a good feeling!

Since we have been talking about "Family Sewing" and sewing with kids I thought I would share a few resources in this area that I thought some of you might find useful and/or interesting.

 Unraveling Fibers by Patricia A. Keeler is a wonderful, educational book that explains in detail where the fibers that make up our clothing come from. Detailed descriptions and lots of pictures explain the ins and outs of cotton farming, sheering and weaving fur from animals like sheep and llamas and even the silk making process of silk worms. It also discusses the difference between natural and synthetic fibers and manufacturing. Written in a very easy to read format, and all the colorful images help maintain interest as you read. This is very interesting and informative book!

 

We LOVE American Girls around here, and the American Girls craft books offer many simple sewing and crafty ideas perfect for beginners. One of the great things about these books is that they also offer a glimpse into these types of activities at different times through history, as well as, from different cultural perspectives. My girls and I have had a lot of fun with these books! (ps. the cookbooks are really great too!) :)

Sewing Teacher Resources by JoAnn Gognon is a book of reproducible stitch practice sheets, puzzles and games that help familiarize young people with the craft of sewing. It's perfect for teaching multiple children at home or in a classroom setting. Now that my girls are reaching a more independent sewing age/level, I hope to eventually develop a class for their peer group using this handy resource as a guide.

Lastly, The Best of Sewing Machine Fun for Kids. This is a new one I found this past week at our local used book store....regularly $16.95 and I got it for $1.50, can't beat it! It's a really great book for starting sewing with a younger person. It has lots of fun projects and one of the things I loved about it is that it uses dot-to-dots as stitching practice sheets. Only thing, it is a consumable book, but would be a fun keepsake!

So there you have it! A few of our sewing resources. Hope they are helpful to some of you, and if you have other suggestions, I would certainly love to hear about them!

Don't forget, you can link up your own Family Sewing projects all month long here!

Share the fun of sewing!