Sewing a Pillow!

As the end of the year approaches, we wanted the children to use their developing sewing skills to make a pillow.  By doing this they create something to treasure and take home.  We began with giving the children a choice of fabric.  The fabric was colorful and fun.  We also used hoops to steady the material so the children would have to do less work with the non-dominant hand. 

The children sewed in a straight line along the penciled line.  We demonstrated how to hold the hoop steady and use the dominant hand (mostly right hands for this group) to do the work.  Some had a little trouble at first not looping the thread around the hoop.  With a few demonstrations, the children were able to hold the hoop and sew along the line.  We showed them how to use the tip of the needle to find the line and poke it up.

After the child has sewn on the line they turn the pillow inside out and begin to stuff.

We had them pull the stuffing off in little bits and put into the pillow.

We then sewed the hole closed which was a little difficult as we did not use a hoop.  There was also no drawn pencil line on the fabric as this was the side that was shown. (For this fabric we sewed along one of the lines that was already there.)

Voila!

A completed pillow!  This was so exciting for the children.