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Sewing Ideas for Preschoolers

Teach children as young as 18 months fine motor skills using sewing techniques. To avoid any possibility of injury, use plastic needles which have a rounded edge and will not pierce and precut holes in fabrics. Some great fabrics for kids projects include cards, plastic, and felt. Preschoolers can make a wide variety of activities and progress towards sewing more involved projects as they get older.

Stringing Objects
- Preschoolers as young as 18 months use yarn to string noodles and make a necklace or Christmas tree garland. Using a needle is not necessary. The noodles can be different colors, painted or dyed ahead of time. As an alternative to noodles, wooden shapes with predrilled holes or large beads make interesting designs and patterns to attract preschoolers as well. This activity helps develop fine motor skills by allowing the child to focus on maneuvering the needle inside of the hole in the noodle or wooden bead.
Lacing Cards
- Provide children as young as 2 a plastic sewing needle and a card with holes punched at even intervals around the edges. This project uses old Christmas cards, pictures printed on card stock or the preschoolers̵7; artwork to teach threading and basic hand sewing. Thread a plastic needle with brightly colored yarn or shoelaces and teach the child how to sew up and down through the holes to outline the picture. These cards are useful in teaching basting and running stitches.
Plastic Needlepoint
- Older preschoolers use plastic needles and yarn to create their own designs. Using markers, draw designs on the plastic card showing the child where to sew or let them use the needle free style without any drawings. Allow the child to overlap the edges and come back up from the bottom, go up and down through any holes he chooses and explore his creativity. To challenge your preschooler, or add a challenging element for more advanced children, let them thread the needle themselves as well.
Felt Purse
- Your little girl will be proud to make and carry her own purse from brightly colored felt. Preschool girls around age 4 possess the skills need to make a felt purse. All of the pieces are precut and holes punched close together into the pieces of felt. The preschooler then assembles the pieces of the purse using the yarn color of her choice threaded through a plastic needle. For an added touch, allow her to choose if the purse pieces are cut into squares, rectangles or a half circle.

Sewing