I've been thinking back to my early learn to sew days. I was pretty much self taught since my mother wouldn't take the time so just experimenting and reading got me going and then the Sewing Nazi from Hell for a Home Ec teacher was pretty much it for instructions my first 15 years of sewing. I finally started taking a few classes at some shops in my late teens and was embraced into the sisterhood of sewing. Not to leave the fellas out but at that time the only men I saw around the realm of sewing either managed the fabric stores or repaired machines. I then was lucky enough to somehow come by wonderful mentors, experienced women who took me under their wing, and taught me tips and tricks and showed much patience and tact and humor and especially knowledge. I include the sewing newsgroup in this category as well. I've tried to use the most positive of my sewing knowledge and try to always keep in mind that we all had to start somewhere and didn't drop from the womb knowing how to do these things and just where IS square one in the game board of sewing. It's been my experience that some kids will happily start out with hand sewing and others want to drive the machine; forget about those needles and threads. I think it depends on the child but where ever you start them they will pick up the rest as you go along and hopefully cultivate their interest.
Do *NOT* give a child or start them out on some crappy machine you always hated to sew on. Or a toy machine that doesn't do a descent job of sewing. I was given a little hand crank Singer Sew Handy by a neighbor when I was four...did a great chain stitch and I still have it, it still does a great little chain stitch. I started sewing when I was four and haven't stopped since. If the machine isn't in excellent working/sewing condition either fix it or pitch it. If you think your frustration with it was bad think what a child who is already trying hard to learn and maxing out on frustration will go through.
Don't insist on perfection. Most of us will never achieve this so why insist a child's first attempts be perfect. I remember showing my Gran'ma my first attempts at dolly clothes, what I couldn't sew I glued or tied or pinned or taped......you would have thought I was showing her the latest Paris fashions. I could hardly wait to get more scraps and make something else, each one improving as time went on. Praise, praise, praise; it's a priceless commodity.
Praise, praise, praise! Constructive help and criticism are NOT interchangeable. Encourage and praise and *don't* compare their progress with anyone else.
My dear sweet gran'ma didn't sew but she used to sit and watch me and chat. When I'd make a mistake she'd always say, "I think you should take a little break and I'll unpick that." She did this from the time I was four until she passed on when I was 38. Bless her heart, the fact that I didn't have to unpick a lot of my mistakes before the 'do overs' probably saved me from just saying "to heck with it" and stop sewing altogether. Plus I learned so much about my gran'ma and her life and hopefully absorbed some of her kind and loving wisdom. Chats are good between the generations.
I think 'learn from your mistakes' can be taken too far sometimes. Learning to sew is supposed to be fun. When any little child I'm teaching makes a boo-boo I always think about my gran'ma and say....."Would you like me to unpick that for you and we can chat while you take a breather or would you like to undo it yourself?" Most of the time they are more than happy to have me undo it and I usually say, "Well, this really isn't all that bad you know, I've sure messed things up a MUCH worse and I'm a LOT older than you are!" Then we just chat about why whatever went wrong happened, how to hopefully avoid it next time, how we'll put it back to rights and point out the terrific other things that they've accomplished so far and go on. There's plenty of time later to learn about the down side. Relating stories of my own sewing screw ups seemed to always be a big hit. Also subjects like why big brothers stink, proper names for new pets, dealing with icky school mates, and things I did when I was their age have all been popular unpicking topics. LOL I really don't see the point in making a youngster do all that undoing so "you'll learn not to do that again." I think they just learn that sewing is frustrating, a horrible chore and isn't any fun at all and will bag the whole idea.....that's just my personal opinion, YMMV. Most of the time those little whoopsies, I choose to ignore them if at all possible, (aw, don't worry about that, we'll do better next time) don't make any difference anyway...Praise, Praise, Praise!!...it's not like they are tailoring for haute couture for goodness sakes!
When they get tired or distracted; STOP! When you get tired or distracted; STOP! When things are going badly put it away for awhile, it's a lesson we should all remember, no matter what age. My favorite, and my little students as well liked it when I'd say, "I think we need to put this away for the day and make an emergency ice cream cone run." Root beer floats on the back porch also worked quite well ;)
Hopefully as they are get older and are sewing by themselves they will do as I do and think about the positive ways dealt with the 'whoopsies' and worse the 'Aw S**ts' that come with most every one of our sewing projects from time to time. They will learn and remember those little tips and tricks and the basics and they will keep on sewing until it's their turn to pass on what they've been taught. And most of all, because a love of sewing was kindled, eventually know more than I could ever teach them.
Just musings on a day too hot to do much else in Seattle, Val