The Tailor of Gloucester: sewing buttons
Sep 24th, 2007 by lapazfarm
Today to coincide with our reading of Beatrix Potter’s The Tailor of Gloucester I made up a little sewing activity for JBug. Here is her basket, ready to go!
In it were a couple of activities to teach her how to sew on a button.
The first activity is laminated yellow cardstock “buttons” to sew onto laminated purple cardstock “cloth.” These I hole punched so that they would be very easy to sew through with a plastic needle and yarn. The idea here was to practice the pattern of motions needed to sew on a button.
I showed her how and then she did a great job with that:
The second activity was real buttons to sew onto some scrap cloth which I put in small embroidery hoops to help her handle it better. She used an embroidery needle, and the buttons were quite large, too, so they were easier to manage. She loved the bright cherry-red thread, “just like in the story.”
Just look at the concentration!
JBug really liked this activity and is asking for more.
I keep meaning to add handiwork to our school days, but more often than not I forget. Good intentions, but poor follow-through, you know? But this was so much fun I hope it will inspire me to make an effort to include these types of things more often.
What a great little sewing idea! You are just so crafty. I love the look of concentration on her face.
I love this idea! My dd sewed on her first button about a month ago and was so proud of herself. I figure this can be her new “job!”
Oooo, I just realized you could use fun foam instead of laminated cardstock too.
Great idea, Andrea! My wheels are turning now!
What a beautiful expression of concentration! Great activity, too.
(My kids absolutely love doing rows of running stitch or cross stitch on binka btw.)
Another fun sewing activity for a little one like JBug:
write (in pencil, in block letters) something simple on a piece of light colored fabric. Put it in the embroidery hoop, and she can “embroider” the words with thread. My girls loved doing this, and you’ve just reminded me to get Ramona going on her first “samplers”!
Great idea, Karen. Maybe I can have her sew her sight words. Think that will get them to sink in???