Embroidery with Children

I've loved the sewing of the ugly dolls / softies and now embroidery in the classes.  With the cold Melbourne weather its seemed a really appropriate thing to do.  Again, I've been so impressed at how quickly some of the children picked up the techniques.  I'm writing this post before some have been finished (hence some unfinished pictures below).  Those children have either taken them home to finish on the holidays or they will finish them in free time at the end of class.

All my students gave this a go - ages 7-11years.

I'm very thankful of Cassie Stephens who is a huge inspiration to me and whose blog and videos are so helpful.  I actually showed Cassie's simple embroidery for kids video to the children - they loved her American accent and funny sayings.

This 7 year old really enjoyed trying out different stitches..

We also used Elizabeth Pawle as inspiration.  I follow her on Instagram and just love her colourful pieces.  

What you need:

• Hessian (burlap to those in the US) - I purchased a whole roll of it and cut it into squares yet you can buy pre-cut squares in different colours.
• Embroidery needles or plastic wool ones
• Embroidery thread or yarn
• Embroidery hoops (optional)

How to:

• We watched Cassie's video first
• If children wanted to do a picture they drew that in chalk first
• Then they started the embroidery
• Some children could just practice stitches and use Elizabeth as inspiration.  This worked particularly well with some of the younger children.

 Some of the results:

Happy stitching!

Fiona