BEI Design wrote: :Ursula Schrader wrote: :>> I'm sure you both will have a great time and she will learn a :>> lot. Keep us posted on how she's doing. :> :> It's a great joy and very satisfactory to pass on one sewing :> skills, and even more so to be asked to do it. My student :> Jennifer did fairly well, although her lack of accuracy :> sometimes made me cringe. However, she never lacked courage :> and I'm sure that, in time, she will remember my advice that :> sewing gets a lot easier if you cut the fabric exactly, and :> practice will teach her hand. A pity she moved to Sweden this :> summer, with her kids and husband who is a Swedish native. :> We'll stay in touch via Facebook, I guess, where she posts her :> new creations for Cosplay regularly. My own DD, on the other :> hand, isn't quite ready for sewing yet, although she wants to. :> We'll have to take some time to practice, I guess. On the :> other hand, this morning her school integration assistant :> (she's got one as of the start of this term, a lovely lady) :> told me that she did brilliantly in Maths yesterday while all :> the other kids had trouble with what was asked of them. Is :> this my kid? I was a failure at maths; only geometry was mine. :> I guess she's her daddy's daughter... :> Sorry, I just had to share, after all the trouble we've had so :> far with her. It's great for you, Barbara, that you can pass :> on your skills.
:Ursula, very simple projects are a good start. When I started DGD :out, in order to teach her to guide the fabric, I had her stitch on :a four inch wide piece of mid-weight twill, which I had sewn, turned :and pressed. DGD stitched row after parallel row, using many of the :fancy stitches on my machine in different colors of thread. She :used the band as a belt. Her next project was matching pillowcases :for herself and her doll, with fancy stitches at the hem.
:Start her out with easy stuff, progress as she masters the skills, :so that SHE does not get discouraged and YOU don't get frustrated. :Or vice versa... :-)
On the other hand, don't do things just because you have to make a pillowcase (or a drawstring skirt, or whatever) as your first project. Many people get frustrated by things they think are make work, and do much better making something they want. You can steer them to something reasonable, but don't assume that just becaues there's a zipper or a pocket or something like that that's it's too hard for a beginner. On the other hand, if what they want is a pillowcase or a drawstring skirt, great!