Sewing School: How to Make a Needle Book

I used the following book and felt to teach the girls how to make a needle book. The girls came with me to chose their felt, thread and needle threaders which increased their enthusiasm to get started:

Using the patterns in the book I cut out two patterns for the needle book and cut four manageable pieces of felt from the bulk we had bought. I popped them in a bag with everything else they needed to get started:

How to Make a Needle Book: Cutting Out the Pattern

First, I showed the girls how to pin their pattern onto the felt:

Secondly, to mark it out with a chalk pencil:

And lasty, to cut it out, keeping their scissors resting on the table the whole time. They cut out two copies each:

How to Make a Needle Book: Threading the Needle and Sewing

The Sewing School book explains how to choose the right amount of thread by using the length of your arm to measure it. That way, the smaller you are the less thread you need to control:

Needle threaders are un-necessary but were a cute addition to the girls sewing kit. Plus they really enjoyed using them!

I gave the girls a choice of pinning or tacking the two pieces of felt together. They chose pinning. The girls placed the two pieces of felt together and folded them in half:

The girls placed pins diagonally across the area they were to sew:

They did a simple running stitch, keeping their stitches small and even:

How to Make a Needle Book: Sewing on the Fasteners

The girls had already chosen the buttons they wanted to use, and they cut a rectangular flap to fasten to the back:

They made short work of attaching the flap:

As well as attaching the button, I showed them how to make sure the button was attached firmly and how to finish off with an invisible know:

Here the girls are, chuffed with their final product:

The Finished Product

This was a great, simple project for the girls to do as their second sewing project. They learnt to do things properly and well. These needle books would be going in their new sewing kits, which they will be creating pieces for each week!

Their next project will be a simple pin cushion.

For more simple sewing projects click on the following:

Making a Simple Sewing Kit

Using Binca Material to Teach Simple Sewing Skills

And for some more intricate work, take a look at Charlotte’s project based learning she did creating outfits for the Medieval times:

Medieval Fashions: Knight’s Lady:

Medieval Peasant Girl