AliceQ

Coming to you all for advice! I am the Home Economics Club Advisor at the school where I work. We will start our meetings next week. I want to start by introducing these teens to a sewing machine. In the past many have been scared to death to touch one! I'm not a Home Ec teacher so I have no lesson plans or even instruction manuals to go by but I have learned that they need to be introduced to every aspect of sewing before letting them 'take the wheel'. I have a list of things I want to show/demo about the sewing machine, but I'd love to hear what you all think should be included in this endeavor. I will start by describing/naming the parts, discuss tension, how to thread (oh yeah, we have 3 different machines!), use of different feet, how to wind bobbin, need for cleaning and oiling, (these machines haven't been looked at for a few years I'll bet). Wish I could find some generic 'teaching' printable pages I could print out to pass out.
OK now I need input from you...what am I leaving out? Many, many thanks in advance! :D

coloradosky

Are you going to touch on the safety points of the machine? First one to come to mind is to keep your fingers away from the front of the needle while sewing and to keep your foot away from the peddal when in the stopped position.

gzuslivz

I know that you must go over safety and proper care of the machine, but keep it light and fun. If they think there is only one way to do something, most of them will tune out. If they are shown that the sewing machine is a tool for self expression and a means for creativity, you might just birth a new generation of sewers/quilters! Good luck. Wish I was there to help:-)

clarinet87

When I was in home ec (only a few years ago actually, I'm a young'n), the thing that made me most comfortable was that my teacher just printed out some basic shapes and pictures and had us 'sew' over it without any thread in the machine. It doesn't have to be anything fancy or specialized, just whatever you can find online. They could even practice seams that way, by pretending the line on the paper is the edge of their fabric, and they have to stay x distance away from it.

Good luck! I'm sure you're going to be fantastic!

AlwaysQuilting

My Home Ec teacher in 1962 sat each of us down in front of the machines (there were 20 of them) the first day, and taught us, step by step, to:
DAY ONE--
1. change the needle
2. thread the needle
3. refill and insert the bobbin
4. sew on scraps to get used to the foot pedal and told us to keep our fingers 2" away from the needle
DAY TWO--
5. we started sewing for real

She said talking about it too much made kids more afraid, so just Do It...lol
BTW we all lived and no one sewed their fingers

Glassquilt

Hands on during your instructions to reinforce what you're telling them.

Watch the fabric and not the needle - it's not going to walk away.

AliceQ

I wish you were too! LOL

AliceQ

Great idea! I'll do that! Thanks!

bstock

My Mom always did had us do paper stitching to start us off.
(Stitching thru paper, no thread)

AliceQ

Thanks so much, all of you! I'm going to print out every response! I knew this was the place to go. In a couple weeks I'll let you know how we're doing.