SchoolArts - November 2011

Early Childhood Studio Lesson
Creature
Stuffies

Idon’t know what it is about sewing that calms and focuses children, but in my experience, sewing projects have consistently led to a quiet, engaged artroom full of busy, motivated students. Maybe it’s the gradual fusion of pieces of fabric to make a tidy, compact unit, or the magic of the thread holding cloth together, or the repetitive action of making stitches. Whatever the reason, the rhythm of sewing a line lulls young students into peacefulness. Karen Shultz Goodkin

because so much distortion usually happens with each tracing and cutting out of the piece.

I take both sides and trim them as similarly as I can to make the two sides match. Students pin the two pieces together, and then I decide the best place to stuff and turn the pins sideways (roadblocks, I call them) to mark where the opening will be for stuffing.

Threading the Needle

For sewing, students use a #12 crewel
needle, sharp with a big enough eye
that some of the students can thread
their needles themselves. I use craft
thread, which
comes in a beautiful
assortment of col-
ors. Avoid embroi-
dery floss, which
has six strands and
is hard to use whole
and hard to split.

Once threaded, students knot the ends of the thread by making a circle and putting the end through it. I often say, “Make a lake, see the snake, pull the snake out of the lake.”

In my experience, sewing
projects have consistently
led to a quiet, engaged
artroom full of busy,
motivated students.

Making Stuffie Patterns

One of my favorite sewing projects with first and second graders is a creature made of felt. I call the “stuffie” a creature because that term covers monsters, aliens, animals, and imaginary beings. I specify the size by having students first draw a pattern on an 8½ x 11" ( 22 x 28 cm) piece of paper, filling up the space.

I trace around their pencil drawings
with a bright colored marker adding
on about 1/3" (0.8 cm) for a seam allow-
ance. Students cut out the paper pat-
tern and trace around it with chalk
onto the felt. After cutting out one
side, they use it to trace the second
side of the animal. I’ve found this
makes way more sense than using
the paper pattern to trace both sides
When students near the end of the
thread, I suggest they grip the thread
in their fist with the needle above
their hand as an easy way to measure
a good length to leave for the knot. A
good way to make a knot is to take a
tiny stitch where the thread comes
out of the felt, put the needle through
the loop, and then do it again. Cut the
thread off leaving a ½" ( 1. 25 cm) tail.

Karen Goodkin teaches art at the San Francisco School in San Francisco, California. She has taught this project to her students as well as to teachers at a recent CAIS conference. kgoodkin@sfschool.org

Sewing Stitches I demonstrate using a running or whipstitch (about three stitches to the inch) and away they go. One of the hardest things for students swept away by the activity is to stop in time and leave enough thread for a knot.