1) Start small. A doll quilt is the perfect size to keep his/her attention and complete a project quickly without it taking too terribly long.
2) Use a charm pack or per-cut fabrics. This saves so much time and avoids having a small child use a rotary cutter. I think their hands (and attention spans!) are too small to accurately or safely cut fabric. If the cut is off or lopsided or too big or too small, the whole quilt is going to be difficult. Starting with pre cut fabrics is a real lifesaver here.
3) Start simple. My grand daughter sat on my lap and did the sewing, but I controlled the pedal. Too many moving parts would have overwhelmed her and wouldn’t have been fun. She controlled the sewing, I controlled the “driving.” She told me when to slow down or stop and I kept a close eye to make sure she wasn’t making any huge mistakes (see #6).
4) Go slow. My grand daughter and I talked a lot about what speed she wanted to sew at. What seemed painfully slow to me was just right for her. Remember that if you’ve been sewing a while, it seems easy to you but it’s a lot of new moving parts to a small person. Slow down. Overall, this small quilt took us about 6½ months. Teaching a child to quilt is not a project to take on if you are in a hurry.
5) Be patient. Kid’s attention spans are short. Our goal was to sew one or two rows (5 squares) at a sitting. It was usually 5 minutes or less, which was enough for her. It drove me a little crazy, but I reminded myself it’s about the process, not the speed.
6) Forget trying to make anything perfect and don’t point out sloppy work unless it’s going to ruin the quilt. I had a hard time not doing certain steps for her to make it pretty. Accept that it doesn’t have to be pretty to be loved. Her first quilt is very human with lots of spots that show her learning process. In particular, I LOVE the spot where she totally went wonky because she was singing and just being so her. This quilt will be a treasure to me forever.
7) Take pictures. I’m sure it comes as a big surprise, but document the process. If she grows up to be a quilter (or if she doesn’t!), these pictures will be amazing to have. If you’re like me, the finished quilt will bring tears to your eyes and you’ll appreciate the moments you took to document those tiny hands sewing at your machine.
These are some of the things you’ll need:
- rotary cutter and mat + sharp scissors
- clear rulers (preferably 5×18 inches and a 4×4 inch one.)
- bias tape maker or ready-made bias tape
- clear nylon thread
- white cotton thread (or a polyester/cotton mix)
- 100% cotton fabric
- long pins
- an iron + ironing board
- batting
- seam ripper
- something to use as a thread trash bin (I like mason jars)
- walking foot for the machine
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