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Mary Corbet

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I learned to embroider when I was a kid, when everyone was really into cross stitch (remember the '80s?). Eventually, I migrated to surface embroidery, teaching myself with whatever I could get my hands on...read more

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Kids’ Embroidery Projects: Photos and a Recap

 

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My embroidery classes for children are coming to a close. I have one more class next Monday morning! So the projects are rolling in, although I don’t think I’ll see all of the completed work by the end of our last class. I thought I’d give a little recap of the different projects worked this summer and share a few photos of some embroidery projects completed this week.

For the 2008 Summer Embroidery Classes for Children, we worked the following projects, divided into groups by age:

Group A: Children 7 – 9 years old (mostly – there were a couple 10-year-old newbies in there, too) worked the following projects:

  • Two stitch samplers – a butterfly and a flower, both filled with lines for practicing different line stitches
  • An embroidered felt bookmark
  • A white towel, embroidered with a butterfly and flower scene (no photos of that one, yet! Hopefully, next Monday we’ll see some completed towels!)

Group B: Children 9 – 10 years old (with a 7 year old thrown in for good measure!) worked:

  • A stitch sampler – the lined butterflies
  • Embroidered felt bookmark
  • Embroidered checkered dish towel (pictures below)
  • Embroidered greeting card

Group C: Children 11 – 14 years old (with some younger ones thrown in for good measure here, too!) worked:

  • Embroidered Flour Sack Towels
  • Embroidered Greeting Cards
  • Embroidery project of their choice – linen handkerchiefs, bookmarks, or pillow cases

The kids picked out their own threads and colors for the various projects, with the exception of the stitch samplers, the check towels, and the felt bookmarks.

In all the groups, there were several stitchers who finished all their projects by the end of the last class, but most of the students still had a little bit left to do on their final project, so they were able to pick out enough thread to finish up the projects and take them home to finish during the slow summer days.

Here are a few photos of projects that came in this week:

Embroidered Kitchen Towel from Summer Children's Embroidery, 2008

This is one of the blue checkered dish towels. Originally, they were going to work chicken scratch embroidery on the checked towels, but the checks were bigger than I thought they would be. Still, I like this little design. It reminds me a bit of the Pennsylvania Dutch look.

Embroidered Kitchen Towel from Summer Children's Embroidery, 2008

And here’s one of the red checked towels. These towels are Really Nice quality towels. I got them from All About Blanks.

Embroidered Kitchen Towel from Summer Children's Embroidery, 2008

Here are three of the kids’ flower sack towels that came in. This was another great find in good towels – these particular flour sack towels came from Embroider This. The designs are the Java Break and Wine Country patterns from Aunt Martha, which you can find at Colonial Patterns. Most the stitching was done in simple line stitches: back stitch, whipped back stitch, stem stitch, and some chain stitch.

Embroidered Kitchen Towel from Summer Children's Embroidery, 2008

This is a larger photo of one of the more complex ones! I was so happy to see them finish these, as they were bigger projects than the Java Break designs, but they seemed to like doing them and were proud of the finished results.

Hand Embroidered Handkerchief - Kids' Embroidery Classes, 2008

This is one of the select-your-own projects from Group C, done by a 12 year old. These handkerchiefs (from All About Blanks) make really pretty monogrammed hankies. And I think she did a great job, using simple stitches and nice colors. Her tiny stitches, actually, are really perfect.

Hand Embroidered Handkerchief, Kids' Embroidery Class, Summer, 2008

She used French knots and backstitch – I was really impressed with her even backstitches!

I’m still eagerly waiting the butterfly towels done by Group A, some of which should be done when the come to class on Monday! There are also a few of these towels out:

Embroidered Kitchen Towel from Summer Children's Embroidery, 2008

This is one of the class samples I made up, but didn’t finish stitching before the classes started.

Embroidered Kitchen Towel from Summer Children's Embroidery, 2008

I think a reader asked previously about this pattern – it’s found in the Repeats and Borders book I reviewed earlier. It’s a fun pattern to work, and I’m looking forward to seeing some of the kids’ results with it.

I was really very happy with this summer’s embroidery classes. We had five two-hour sessions for each group, and I think they had fun, I know I had fun, and although it’s a lot of work, I really think it’s worth it! If you have the opportunity to instruct children in needlework of any kind, grab it! It’s a wonderful chance to pass on to the next generation a love of handwork. You also have the opportunity to give children a hobby that will make them happy for years to come, if they keep up with it! And you never, never know what they’ll do with it.

If you are interested in teaching children, but you don’t know how to go about establishing a venue or getting the word out, I suggest contacting your local library to see if they have any summer programs for youth that they’re looking for volunteers for.

If the other projects show up on Monday, I’ll share some photos of those, and then that’s it for the kids’ classes until next summer! Though I was thinking it might be fun to take a day over Christmas vacation and do an ornament class or something… I’ll have to muse a bit over that one!

 
 

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(12) Comments

  1. Oh, Mary, thank you so much for sharing! The students did a fabulous job. In the little bit of teaching that I’ve done my favourite part is seeing what the students do and especially their finished projects. It’s so much fun! I look forward to seeing more photos from Monday.

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  2. These have been very productive and worthwhile sessions with the children. Their work is beatiful and it is lovely to see that the children have so much talent. Thank you for sharing the pictures with us

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  3. Congratulations! You must be very proud! Beautiful works.

    (did you know Embroider This only sells inside USA? what a pity!)

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  4. I love seeing these projects come to life, Mary! Thanks so much for sharing them. Boy, from where I’m sitting the time for your classes flew by so quickly! – Jeannine

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  5. What beautiful work! You had done a marvelous job teaching children how to enjoy needle, fabric and thread.

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  6. These are lovely samples of your students’ work. Great examples of your teaching prowess!

    Is there a way to see all your kids’ teaching posts? I can’t find a Category or any other listing to click on to bring up all of them.

    With lots of grandchildren, I’m eager to collect ideas.

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  7. Hi, JoWynn –

    You can click on the “embroidery for children” tag at the end of the post, and it will take you to any posts I’ve done on kids’ embroidery. This it the link:

    Embroidery for Children

    The posts will be arranged from most to least recent.

    Thanks!
    MC

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  8. Hi, Amy – the “A” came from an embroidery transfer. I don’t know which one she used, actually. I do have some monograms here online if you want to check them out, but not this one, I’m afraid….

    Here’s the link to the monograms I have here on Needle ‘n Thread:

    MonogramsHope that helps!

    MC

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