I have always wanted to teach sewing lessons. You would think being a teacher by day would turn me off to teaching in my free time, but I love to sew and I feel passionately about putting this knowledge into the hands of young girls. My Mom taught me to sew and it was one of the best things we shared together. I of course was the typical daughter student, although I did better with the sewing lessons than I did with the piano lessons.  We had a sewing room in our house and all of her fabric was housed in these tall closets. I used to go into that room and pull out all of her fabric just to look at it. It wasn’t anything fancy, but my mother has very good taste so the colors were always very beautiful. I remember sewing small dolls and clothes for my dolls. Eventually I was able to get on the machine by myself and while it was not the decade to be making your own clothes, I used it to embellish and make bags when I could. I still have a few pieces of fabric from her closet that will always take me back to the excitement I felt when I could put simple pieces of fabric together to create a form. 

In planning these lessons I have searched the web for advise and was surprised to find that in this DIY era, there was very little written specifically for people who want to teach sewing lessons. There is plenty for the self-directed sewer, most of which is written for an older audience. I did find one site, “Teach Kids to Sew” in which you can download lesson plans for a price. The downloads, which you have to pay for,  seem fairly thorough, however I found the site difficult to follow.  Craftapple’s blog gives some “from the trenches” advise along with some good advise. The Kids Can Sew site seems directed to those who want/need to make a full-time profession out of it. My intention with blogging on the subject is that perhaps I can impart some wisdom onto others who want to share their knowledge. Sewing can be empowering and can be used in a million different ways. You don’t have to be able to make couture dresses right out of the gate. You don’t ever have to make an item of clothing if you don’t want. It is a multi-faceted tool that can allow anyone to take it as far as they want to go.