Teach kids about life, teach them to sew, knit and crochet.

We are still seeing families come into Fabric8 for summer projects such as bunting.  In a week or two they'll be back for school project materials.  Over the last few years we've noticed a lot more boys come in for their school materials. Sometimes these are for courses that  are compulsory, other times they are using sewing in a technology project. Either way we think ALL children AND adults need to be able to sew or knit or crochet, or all three.

There is the obvious reasons for learning, such as being able to repair your own clothes. 

Then there is the other obvious advantage of being able to make your own clothes as well. But it doesn't have to end with just clothes, just look at the handy things you can make for around the home once you know how to sew such as Reusable Cable Ties, or Kindle or Tablet Covers.

But the reasons for teaching people to sew or knit runs deeper. Think about the skills you use when you sew, other than sewing.

To begin with you decide to make something, but what? You have to engage your brain power to work out what you want to make to begin with. Then you have to select a pattern and then you need to work out what fabrics are compatible with what you want to make. You may find you need a different pattern to make your selected garment out of a certain fabric. So you need to use decision making skills and critical thinking.

Then you need to cut out your pattern and lay out your fabric, so you have to learn to follow instructions as well as develop manual dexterity. When following your pattern you learn that things have to be done in a certain order, seams have to be done one at a time, at the right time. You may need to research a particular way of doing things, or learn how to do something new such as using interfacing. You always have to focus on what you're doing without losing sight of the over all picture, to make sure you do the right thing at the right time.

In other words teaching someone to sew teaches them a myriad of skills. So many of these skills are transferable to other projects, indeed sewing is the perfect model for project management. So even if you want your kids to grow up to work in fields other than the immediate creative ones you will be giving the a huge boost by teaching them to sew, knit or  crochet from a young age.