First Sewing Projects for Children, the Waldorf Way

Start with a big blunt needle, thick yarn and a piece of burlap, and sew a running stitch around the edge to make a placemat. Then move to felt and a finer needle. Stitch a leaf for an autumn garland, a small pouch or a pillow for the tooth fairy. Thread the needle and tie the knot for your child at first, so they can think only about the stitch. In many Waldorf schools, sewing grows through the early grades and becomes cross-stitch in grade 4, often a pincushion or a needle book.

Where sewing fits in Waldorf handwork

Picture a 6-year-old with a square of burlap in her lap, pushing a fat blunt needle down through one hole and up through the next. The yarn is red for ten stitches, then yellow. She isn't following a pattern. She's going round the edge, and when she gets back to the start, it's a placemat.

Knitting is the main handwork in many Waldorf first grades, and crochet often comes in grade 3. Sewing runs alongside, in short projects. Gathering Waters, a Waldorf-methods charter school, describes kindergarten handwork as "finger knitting, small sewing projects, and other handicrafts". Lavender's Blue, a Waldorf homeschool curriculum, places simple hand sewing in the kindergarten years, at about 5 or 6.

Shellie Smith of Waldorf Handwork Educators writes that in grades 1 to 3, children "learn to handle needles and thread", which strengthens fine motor skills and concentration. She notes that short sewing projects can be a welcome break from knitting or crochet. Then, in grade 4, sewing steps forward. The Waldorf Resources handwork curriculum moves class 4 to accurate hand sewing with standard stitches, and to cross-stitch and embroidery.

If your child is knitting this year, a small sewing project for a week or two can refresh everyone. Our guide to teaching a child to knit covers the needles-and-wool side, and Waldorf grade 1 shows where handwork sits in the first school year.

What age can a child start sewing?

Around 5 or 6 for a first try, on burlap with a blunt needle. Ashley Johnston of Make It and Love It, who taught her own children at almost 5 and 6, offers a practical test. If your child can hold a pencil and draw letters and shapes, they probably have enough hand control to try.

Fun Cloth Crafts, which writes felt sewing patterns, puts it this way: children can sew from about 5, and the easiest age is between 7 and 10. That's a useful reminder. A 5-year-old's placemat and a 9-year-old's pouch are different pieces of work, and both are right for their age.

Needles, thread and fabric

For the first stitches: a blunt yarn needle with a wide eye, chunky yarn and burlap. Alisha Trammell, a handwork teacher and Waldorf-inspired homeschooler writing for Art of Homeschooling, uses burlap from old coffee bean sacks. The holes are big and easy to see, and a blunt needle goes straight through.

Once your child is ready for felt: a smaller needle with a large eye, and embroidery thread or sturdy cotton thread. Trixi Symonds of Sew a Softie has taught children to sew for nearly 30 years. She recommends small, sharp chenille needles rather than blunt ones, because the large eye is easy to thread. She suggests doubling the thread through the eye before knotting it.

Felt is the best fabric for early projects. Symonds calls it easy to use, and it doesn't fray. She prefers wool-blend felt as a balance between cost and ease.

Keep the thread short. Long threads tangle and knot, and a tangle can end a session in tears. A length a little shorter than your child's arm is plenty.

Our supplies list covers the rest of a handwork basket.

How to teach the first stitches

Fun Cloth Crafts suggests threading the needle and tying the knot for your child at first, so they can focus only on the stitches. Sit side by side, and sew your own piece at the same time.

Running stitch

The first stitch. Up through the cloth, down through the cloth, along a line. Johnston gives children a simple rule for it: whichever side the thread came out of last, poke the needle back in from that side. Say it as a little rhythm: up from under, down from the top.

Trammell's kindergarten to grade 2 placemat is all running stitch, round the edge of the burlap, with a new color every 5 to 10 stitches.

Whip stitch

The needle goes over the edge of the cloth and back through from the same side, wrapping the edge. It's how two pieces of felt become a pouch or a pillow. Smith suggests running stitch or whip stitch for beginners.

Blanket stitch and back stitch

These come once running stitch feels easy. Blanket stitch makes a neat edge with little loops along it. Back stitch makes a solid line, good for drawing a stem or a letter. Smith lists blanket stitch, stem stitch, back stitch and French knots for children who are ready for more.

When it goes wrong

Knots will form, and threads will pull out of the needle. Fix them for your child, calmly. Fun Cloth Crafts reminds parents that "any sewing speed is a good speed", and that there's no such thing as an ugly stitch at this age. Trammell adds that handwork often takes longer than you think, so plan for it.

First sewing projects by age

Kindergarten and grade 1 (about 5 to 7)

• A burlap placemat. Running stitch round the edge in thick yarn. Trammell's first project.
• A sewing plate. Johnston's children practised on polystyrene plates with a drawn shape to follow, taping the thread ends down instead of knotting them.
• A knot doll, a gnome or a tooth fairy pillow. These are among the kindergarten sewing projects a Waldorf charter school handwork teacher lists on her Teaching Handwork blog. The tooth fairy pillow has a tiny pocket for the tooth, and it suits the year the teeth start to wobble.

Grades 1 to 3 (about 6 to 9)

• An autumn leaf garland. Smith describes a hand-stitched autumn leaf garland that children of different skill levels can make together. Felt leaves work well at home. Beginners take a simple shape like an aspen, birch or heart-shaped leaf and use running stitch or whip stitch. Children who are ready for more take a maple or an oak leaf and try blanket stitch, back stitch or French knots. It suits siblings of different ages too.
• A small pouch from two pieces of felt, whip-stitched round three sides, for a stone collection or a flute.
• A gingham name plate. Trammell's grade 2 to 4 project uses the squares of gingham as a grid for small crosses, which makes a gentle bridge to cross-stitch.
• A felt needle book, to keep the needles safe between sessions.

Grade 3 is the year many Waldorf classes follow fibre from the sheep to the cloth, which our guide to grade 3 fibre arts and crochet covers. Starpath's grade 3 Fibre Arts block ends with a small hands-on project, and a simple sewing project is one of the choices; the public Fibre Arts guide shows how the block runs. For a sewing project that grows out of felting, our guide to wet felting with children has ideas.

Grade 4 (about 9 and 10): cross-stitch

In grade 4, sewing turns precise. At the Waldorf School of Atlanta, handwork teacher Lisa Roggow's fourth graders make bookmarks and pincushions in cross-stitch, moving from two-part symmetrical designs to four-part ones. They work with a sharp needle.

Trammell's grade 4 project is a cross-stitched pincushion on 6-count Aida cloth, 31 by 31 squares. Her children use a blunt needle with a large eye and #3 pearl cotton in a dark, a medium and a light color. Aida cloth has a clear grid of holes, so your child can count squares and plan the design.

Many Waldorf teachers give a reason for cross-stitch in grade 4. Each stitch crosses over itself. Roggow writes that crossing the midline supports the mathematical skills children are learning at this time. Anette Sigler, a teacher at the Kassel Waldorf School in Germany, writes that in class 4 children now have to keep an image of the whole design in mind as they work.

It's the same year as the braided forms in form drawing, where lines weave over and under each other. For the rest of the year, see what is the Waldorf grade 4 curriculum? If you're choosing materials, the best Waldorf homeschool curriculum for grade 4 compares the options.

Keeping sewing calm

Keep sessions short for a young child, and stop while it's still going well.

Keep a small sewing basket with the felt, a pincushion, blunt scissors for your child and the needle book. A needle that goes missing on the sofa is a worry for everyone, so a pincushion or the needle book is where needles go between stitches.

Use what they make. The placemat goes on the table, the leaves hang in the window, and the pouch holds something real. Put the leaf garland on the nature table for autumn.

A week to try

• Monday: sew your own running stitch around a burlap square while your child watches.
• Tuesday: thread the needle for your child and start their placemat together.
• Wednesday: carry on round the edge, changing color when they like.
• Thursday: cut two felt leaves and try whip stitch around one.
• Friday: finish the placemat and put it on the table at lunch.