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Sewing lessons for children in Sydney Au

mem1 | Posted in General Discussion on

Hello all, My mother has just bought my niece ,who is 11, a sewing machine . She has been transfixed by fashion and spends all her free time drawing clothes so we are hoping that she might have inherited the sewing gene. She lives in Sydney on the inner north shore and I am hoping there might be someone who knows of sewing lessonsfor children  available in that area.We live in Melbourne and so can only help in school holidays and her mother is phobic of sewing machines!

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  1. bel | | #1

    Bel in Adelaide here. Your Mum is remarkable and your daughter fortunate! My mother gave me my first sewing machine for my 12th birthday , mostly to keep me away from her machine but also to nurture an obvious early interest when we lived on the wild West Coast of Tasmania where it rains most of the year and at a time when there was just one (local) TV station whose kids TV budget meant they could only afford repeat runs and re-runs of Crusader Rabbit, Rocky and Bullwinkle and Maximillian Mouse, over and over for hours!

    It is my oldest and most treasured posession, and still going strong after 28 years, I have never craved another machine (oh, apart from desiring an automatic buttonhole - but it produces a very acceptable 3-step version), was taught early to care for it (including regular servicing), and have tried just about every fabric on it with success! It's an old Myer Victor flatbed, came with about 20 specialty feet that kept me busy for years trying them all out and learning what they could do, and it's travelled all over the country with me as I've moved around for work and love.

    My daughter turned 3 in January and I intend to give her a machine when she's 10 or 11 and I am already researching what might be robust and reliable in the market for the all too soon time arrives! I'd love to know what your daughter has! I thought about handing over mine and buying a new one for me (with auto buttonhole)...but I can't bear to part with it yet - she can wait and inherit it!

    My babe has free access to my machine (it's permanently set up)- with the power off and needle out - with the one proviso that she doesn't touch the tension dial, which so far she respectfully abides by. She spends ages putting fabric and paper and ready-made dolls clothes under the foot, lifting and lowering the presser foot, all the while singing and chatting with the assembled audience of nearby toys awaiting their imaginary new clothes!

    In terms of sewing classes, my local machine dealer (they service my machine 1-2 times a year) and sewing centre run sewing classes, and have suggested that I enroll in classes and that they'd be happy for me to bring babe with me, set her up with her scissors, paper, dolls etc to play in amongts the fabric and the classes and the goings-on. Apparently the staff bring their own kids to after hours classes. Most of their classes are for quilting and related things (not a major interest of mine) but I may just go for the fun of sharing something new with my daughter.

    Perhaps you could check for something similar around sydney if you can't find something specific for kids? Or organise private lessons if you can find a dressmaker who is great with kids or a home eco teacher (do they still exist?) who can do lessons out of school hours. Good luck!

     

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