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How do you sew without a machine?

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A funny thing happened today. While in transit, I lost a button on my trousers. The only button that was holding my trousers up and from me being a major embarrassment in an airport!

Luckily, with the help of some fast thinking airline crew, I was able to save some dignity because they found some needle and thread that helped me sew the button back in a toilet and retain some dignity.

While I was hand sewing the button, I was thinking – has the art of hand sewing been lost these days? Do kids these days know that you can actually hand-sew?

Check out the gown pictured above. It was completely hand sewn. And why not! Sewing machines weren’t invented till the mid-19th century.

So how does one get started hand sewing? By not starting out with a gown like that of course :).

Start with these simple projects:

Martha Stewart’s hand sewing practice projects

Pruce’s hand sewing beginners projects

I am happy to state that my hand sewing skills that my mum taught me have kept me in good stead and the button that I sewed, stayed sewn till the end of the flight.

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Comments

  1. Yet another reason to make sure you always carry a small sewing kit! And especially some safety pins in several sizes, always, always handy things.

Have you read?

Reflecting on the Past Year with Kids

I’m in deep denial about the fact that new year is almost upon us again! It’s been the fastest and the longest year at the same time, and I can look back and see some good things as well as some things I wish had gone differently.

Doing a year in review with your kids — whether in the classroom or at home — is a good way to capture some of their memories and the things they really liked about the year gone by.

There are a lot of different printable year in review worksheets you can use if you want to make this super easy. Here are links to a few (often part of larger posts about NYE celebrations with kids that are worth a read, too):

  • Teach Beside Me has lots of fun printables fro the end of the year, including a year in review that covers favorite memory, funniest memory and the best book they read, among other topics.
  • NurtureStore‘s version has space for a self-portrait and prompts like favorite toy, best day out this year and future dream job.
  • Remember favorites, their “best idea” of the year and have room for setting goals for next year with this one from The Keele Deal.
  • The year in review from Yes We Made This has room for drawing or writing and includes things like something they learned, a memory they made and a place they visited.

Of course you could pretty easily make your own year in review for the whole family to do that asks questions based on what you most want to remember. (Favorite video game? Best friend? Favorite family memory?)

And if after the year in review you’re ready to look ahead a bit, Mrs. Merry has new year’s resolution printables to inspired kids to look ahead and set goals for things they want to try. You can totally fill this one out as a grownup, too.

[Photo: Mrs. Merry]