Needles and thread When I sew with kids I use Size 5 embroidery needles for just about everything. They have a bigger eye, which makes them easier to thread.
Fabric Get a couple of fat quarters of fun prints – and maybe some of this fabulously soft cuddle fleece. Or get them a gift certificate to your local independent fabric store so they can choose their own!
Thread Get a spool each of black and white, plus another fun color or two. Don’t worry about getting thread to match a particular fabric. In my experience kids ALWAYS want to use contrasting thread in a favorite color. Get a skein of black embroidery thread too, for stitching on faces.
Patterns! I have lots of free patterns here. Print a couple out and include them with some supplies. I especially recommend this one. 🙂 It’s perfect for beginners. And, of course, my book Creature Camp is packed with kid-tested softie patterns. Read some reviews of it here and here. And get a signed copy here. I’ll draw a picture in it for you! 🙂
Extra Doodads Fill up some ziplock baggies with assorted buttons, rick rack, ribbon, beads, safety eyes, feather boas, yarn and other fun stuff for hair, eyes, scales and other add-ons.
When was the last time you walked into a store and saw an appealing stuffed animal sewn from quilting cotton? Dolls yes – the smooth fabric makes it easier to dress and undress a doll. But cuddly stuffed animals? They’re ALWAYS made from softer stuff.
And they’re almost always made from fabric that you can’t buy at your regular fabric store. Super soft stuff that’s made especially for these toy companies.
I would dearly love to find a source for the fabric Jellycat uses in their Cordy Roys collection!
Polar fleece and minky fabrics are usually as close as home sewists can come – and it’s just not the same.
But I found a source!
When I was at Quilt Market last spring I met with a company (Shannon Fabrics) who makes amazing plush fabric. They sell to a few specialty fabric stores, but none of the big box stores. They mostly sell to manufacturers.
I knew as soon as I touched their fabric that this was what I had been looking for to take my softies to the next level. I touched every kind of minky and fleece they made (and they make a lot!) and I kept coming back to something called Cuddle Fleece. It was amazing! Super soft, slightly stretchy, with a nice drape. I knew it would make terrific stuffed animals – and also blankets and quilt backs.
I searched for a few months, but I had a heck of a time finding reliable sources for anything but their dimple minky. I wanted cuddle fleece and I wanted to buy it by the yard!
You know what I do when I can’t find the materials I want to use? I find them at wholesale and add them to my shop. I figure if I’m having a hard time finding them, then so are you.
So I rearranged my studio, hemmed and hawed over color choices, and bought six enormous bolts of fabric. Now I’m going to have to rearrange my studio again because they. . . ummmm. . . don’t fit in the space I had made for them. 🙂
But they are here! And they’re available for you to make the most amazing softies ever!
Over the next few weeks I’ll show you some of my favorite patterns made up in these fabrics. I can’t wait to play! And Jo is already claiming the samples. 🙂
I’m convinced that the fabric is the key to a sensational stuffed animal – but there are a few other materials that play a strong supporting role.
Safety eyes make your handmade softies look really special. I love the way the light glints off those shiny black domes – it makes the whole face come to life!
I don’t make a lot of baby toys – but Abby Glassenberg at While She Naps is a master at it. Most store-bought baby toys have extra interactive bits: rattles, music buttons, squeakers, etc. Did you know you can add those to your handmade softies? I’ve never seen any of these components in a brick & mortar store, but Abby carries a few special supplies in her shop. Give some of these a try the next time you’re making a gift for a baby!
High end mass-produced stuffed animals are made pretty much the same way you make yours at home. Yes – they’re made assembly-line style by low-paid workers in a factory, but the process of sewing and stuffing is essentially the same. They just get softer results because they’re using softer materials. Materials not readily available to home sewists. Until now. 🙂
Two is the size. I can iron an entire piece of fabric – selvedge to selvedge – on this baby – with room to set my iron on the board too.
Please admire the vastness. 🙂
Three is the storage underneath.
I never take my ironing board down – so the easily collapsible X bottom was just a waste of space for me. This ironing board sits on some handy dandy Ikea Expedit shelving!
Here’s how I made it. . .
1. Start with your shelves. I was going to use a different piece from Ikea. When we went they had plenty in stock, but they were all on the top shelves of the storage area and they said they couldn’t get them down until after hours and we’d have to come back the next day. The Ikea is 2 1/2 hours away. Coming back the next day wasn’t an option – so we went with two of these instead, laid them on their sides and screwed them together in the back. It’s even longer than I had planned – but that’s ok with me! (Edited to add: Ikea no longer stocks the Expedit shelving. Their replacement is the Kallax, which would also be suitable for this project.)
I also added the wheels to the bottom for easy moving and vacuuming.
2. Now measure the top of your shelves. Find some small L-brackets and measure them too. You’re going to cut a piece of plywood big enough to hang over the edge of the shelf on all sides by the width of a bracket. These next pictures will make it clear.
Here’s a bracket (the ones I found were 1 1/2 inches) attached to the edge of the plywood. It’s attached to what will be the underside of my ironing board.
In this photo I’ve flipped my board over. It’s resting on the top of the shelving unit and the brackets are holding it in place so it doesn’t slide around. You could screw the brackets to the shelving unit too, but I wanted the whole top to be easily removable and I found that six brackets around the edge (two on each long side and one on each short end) held it in place nicely.
I wrapped the lower (not screwed in) part of the brackets with a layer of masking tape so they wouldn’t scratch the surface of the shelving unit. You never know – I might take this whole thing apart at some time in the future and use the shelves in another way.
Here’s the wooden top seen from above, before adding padding and the cover. Yes – that’s a seam down the middle. No – I don’t recommend doing the top in two pieces. I had a bunch of kids with me in the car the day I bought the wood and I couldn’t put the back seat down to accommodate a larger piece of plywood. I should have waited.
I rounded the corners of the wood just a tiny bit. I set a can of spray paint on the corner and traced that curved edge to use as a guide. This isn’t necessary – but I’m going to use a drawstring cover and it will wrap more neatly around a curve.
Now I’m ready to add some padding and the cover.
I covered the top with six layers of white cotton terry cloth. I usually use cotton batting, but I think this terry cloth might hold up better (compress less) over time. Cut the terrycloth so it hangs over the edge of the tabletop by 1-2 inches. Smooth out any folds or wrinkles.
Round the corners of the terrycloth too.
Now it’s time to add the pretty! A good selvedge on fabric makes me happy in the same way that good endpapers in a book make me happy.
Cut the fabric to cover the top plus 1-2 inches all around the edge – just like the terry cloth. Round the corners of the top fabric, too.
Sew bias tape all around the edge of the new cover. Use that bias tape as a tube and thread it with a long piece of cord. I like using a smooth nylon cord – it draws up easily.
Center your cover over your ironing board. Draw up the drawstring and use a toggle to hold it in place.
Ta daaaa! I love my new ironing board!
Here are handy links to all the posts about quilting tools and supplies.
I’ve been working on some cat applique blocks for a kitty quilt that matches these puppies. I’ve been posting some of the blocks as I finish them – and I’ve been getting some questions about them.
All of the blocks so far use fusible adhesive. It’s so quick and easy and I LOVE using the printable sheets. They’re worth every penny (in my tracing-hating opinion). I use Heat & Bond Lite weight for all my quilts.
All of the stitching is done by machine. Every bit of it. The eyes and nose are appliqued on and stitched in black thread – just a simple straight stitch. I stitched around the edges in a simple straight stitch too – in black thread for a loose, cartoony effect. I love it!
And then there’s the big question from the folks who are clearly zooming in on the image for a closer look.
How are you getting a thicker line on the face and whiskers?
Very observant, my friends!
I’ve been doing some experimenting and I’m getting the thicker line in two ways. Sometimes I stitch over the same line three times. And sometimes I use thicker thread. I’m demonstrating both with these Oscar blocks.
In the brown cat I used thicker black 12 weight thread for all the stitching. In the orange cat I used regular all-purpose thread once around the body, then three times for the whiskers and mouth.
You can’t just change the thread weight all willy-nilly. In my very first sewing project I used some really thick stuff called buttonhole twist and had all kinds of problems with it. I had just grabbed it because it was a small spool and I liked the color. I didn’t know there were different kinds of threads!
Now I know – and I did some deliberate experimentation with some spools in different thread weights I brought back from Quilt Market. Here are the results. . .
This is a really big photo I loaded up, so you can click on it to zoom in super close.
Just like needles, thread sizes get smaller as the numbers get bigger.
50 wt
This is crazy fine thread – noticeably thinner than the basic all-purpose stuff you can get at any of the big box stores. Use a thinner needle with it (I used a Microtex/Sharp size 80/12). You’ll get a nice, subtle thin line of stitching. This would be great with thinner fabrics or subtle quilting – like stitch in the ditch where the thread won’t be so much in the spotlight.
40 wt
A little bit heavier than the 50 wt, this feels like the most “normal” thread in the bunch. I used the same needle as the 50 wt.
28 wt
This one was noticeably thicker than the others – and is where I started having trouble with a couple of skipped stitches. It turns out I just needed to sew a little slower which, frankly, I’d be doing anyway if I was stitching around an applique shape instead of just zipping down a quick row of straight stitches to see what it looked like. I did an extra couple of rows of stitching here to get the hang of it and you can see the results – no more skipping.
For the 28 wt I used 50 wt in the bobbin and a new needle – a topstitch size 90/14. I like it. But I love the next one.
12 wt
This is the equivalent in thickness of two strands of embroidery floss. If I were hand-embroidering these faces it’s what I’d use – but I didn’t know you could use such thick thread in the machine. What a revelation!
Just like the 28 wt – use lighter weight thread in the bobbin and a topstitch needle size 90/14. You’ll probably need to play with the tension just a tiny bit since the top and bobbin threads are so different. Stitch up a quick sample using the same weight batting you’ll be using and different color threads in the top and the bobbin. Adjust the tension as needed until the bobbin thread doesn’t show on the top and the top thread doesn’t show on the bottom. In this sample you can see the tiny green specks of bobbin thread showing on the top. It’s easy to fix. Make a note of the new tension and use that every time you’re topstitching with your heavy threads and you won’t need to test it again.
So which one is better – thicker thread or more passes?
I think this is totally a matter of preference. Scroll back up to the two cats side by side. Click on the image to see it bigger and zoom in. Which do you like better?
For me it will probably vary from project to project. The heavier thread weight is certainly faster – you’re only sewing everything once. But I also really like the slightly sketchy look of sewing the same lines more than once. It’s impossible to get them perfectly lined up all the time, so the final result really looks a lot like my sketchbook. There’s a post here with more information about how to deliberately get that sketchy line.
I think they’re both going to have a place in my bag of tools. And now they’re in yours, too!
Here are links to all my posts about outline stitching.
Usually my patterns include instructions for embroidering the face before you sew your softie together. That makes it easy to transfer the pattern and position it correctly, and easy to hoop it for stitching.
But sometimes it just works better to stitch some features on after it’s all sewn up. This mouse doll is one of those times. And it’s really not hard at all! But you do need a couple of special tools. Nothing expensive or hard to find – just a doll needle and a water-erasable marker.
I show you the tools – and how to use them – in this video. Watch Miss Squeak get her smile!
A free pattern for an apron you can make entirely from scraps!
That’s right – a stash-busting project that comes together really easily and makes a great hostess or holiday gift. If you can sew a straight line, you can make this apron. The pattern has links to videos teaching all the skills you’ll need – including how to sew a straight line. 🙂
The pattern includes sizes for kids and grown-ups – so it’s totally versatile. Make a mother-daughter set! Package it up with some gardening tools and seeds, or some cooking utensils and a couple of your favorite recipes for a nice, personal gift. Have fun with it!
Materials
scraps of fabric for apron and tie
rectangle of fabric for the lining - amount depends on measurements
sewing machine
thread
basic sewing tools
Step 1
Calculate the dimensions of your apron.
Measure all the way around the waist, and measure from the waist down to the desired length (usually anywhere from mid-thigh to the knee, depending on the look you prefer).
Length ____________ Waist _____________
You’re going to piece your apron front from 3 inch strips of fabric, so divide the total width of your apron (the waist measurement) by 2 1/2. That will tell you how many strips wide your apron top will be. If you don’t get an even number (and you probably won’t) round up.
Number of strips____________
From your scrap fabric, start cutting 3 inch wide strips. They can be any length you like I usually just go with the length of my scraps. Try to have a variety of long and short strips. Rotary cutting tools are ideal for this - learn how to use them here.
Start joining the strips together into longer strips. I usually join a few together until I have a strip longer than the length of my apron. Then I trim it to the desired length and start attaching more strips to what I cut off. Keep joining strips and cutting to the desired length until you have the desired number of strips. For my 8 year old daughter that was 8 strips, each 15 inches long.
Step 2
Now play with the layout of your strips. For this one I made sure to spread out the larger solid bits so they’re not touching each other. You may have a greater range of lights and darks that you’re trying to keep balanced - it will depend on your fabric selection. Just keep rearranging the strips until it feels balanced and happy.
This is the fun part so take your time and play a while. When you’re satisfied, sew the strips together using 1/4 inch seam allowance. Press everything nice and flat.
Step 3
You’ll want to cover up all those seam allowances. Basically, we’re going to make a quilt without the batting. Lay the backing fabric face down. Lay the patchwork rectangle face up over the backing fabric. Smooth it all out.
Trim the backing fabric to size - making sure it’s slightly bigger than the patchwork fabric all the way around.
Pin the two layers together.
Step 4
Stitch the two layers together by stitching as exactly as possible over your seam lines. This is called “stitching in the ditch.”
Also stitch the layers together 1/4 inch from the edge along both sides and the bottom. This will help you with a cheater pants hemming technique. No measuring!
Step 5
Now trim the backing so it’s even with the patchwork top all the way around.
Step 6
Hem each side of the main apron piece. Turn the edge under 1/4 inch. Press.
These hemming photos show the apron with the back side facing up.
See how I folded it right on the stitching line? That makes it soooooo easy to hem without measuring!
Step 7
Turn under another quarter inch. Press.
Stitch down very close to the folded edge of the fabric.
Now repeat with the bottom hem. Turn the bottom edge up 1/4 inch. Press.
The corners can get a little bulky here - so trim away an itty bit off the corner, from stitching line to stitching line.
Step 9
Turn the bottom edge under a second 1/4 inch. Press.
Stitch it down very close to the folded edge of the fabric.
The hems will give the back of your apron a nice frame around the bottom and sides.
Step 10
Time to make your apron tie. On a scrappy apron like this I especially like to make my tie out of scraps of fabric too. Cut enough 3 inch strips so that when joined together they are the desired length.
For a girl’s apron that ties in the back, you’ll need a total length of 58 inches. To double-wrap and tie in the front you’ll need 84 inches.
For a woman’s apron that ties in the back you’ll need 72 inches. To tie it in the front you’ll need 96 inches.
Join your strips together on the diagonal so you don’t get thick, bumpy bits in your tie. You can see how in this video.
Open up the center fold and turn the short end under 1/4 inch.
Refold and press. Now you’ll have a neat end to your tie.
Yes – the fabric in the photos is changing here. 🙂 These instructions are exactly the same as for finishing the Easy Apron pattern. There’s a free tutorial for that here.
Step 12
Gather up the top edge of the apron until it’s the desired width, usually a little more than half of the total waist measurement.
This isn’t rocket science, so don’t tear out your hair (or your stitches) if you end up a little longer or shorter than you wanted. A little bit of variation won’t look bad. 🙂
Fold your double-fold tape over the raw, gathered edge of the top of your apron. If you pin the center of your tie to the center of your apron piece and work your way out from that center point, it’s very easy to get everything even with no measuring.
Pin the double-fold tape in place.
Step 14
Stitch the folded edges together, the whole length of the waistband/tie.
Start at one end. Stitch the short end together. Turn the corner and stitch all the way down the length of the tie, enclosing the gathered edge of the apron top in the fold. Sew slowly, making sure that you are catching the back fold of the tape in your stitching. Turn the corner and stitch the other short edge.
Finished!
You’re done! Step back and admire your awesome thriftiness. I bet you have more scraps hidden away somewhere. You should make aprons for everyone you know!
1. A fun way for your kids to practice some basic sewing machine skills.
2. A sneaky way for you to asses whether they’re ready for the projects in Creature Camp and whether they’ll be able to sew alone or need some help from you.
3. A video with my awesome daughter (Jo!) teaching other kids how to use a sewing machine. I’ll admit – I cried a little while I edited that video. She’s just so. . . competent! And I’m so proud of her!
There are a lot of different kinds of stuffing you can use in your softies – wool, bamboo, corn, polyester, excelsior, sawdust – and probably lots of others I can’t come up with at the moment. I always use polyester fiberfill (often in combination with weighted pellets). It’s inexpensive, readily available, has a nice springy feel, and is washable.
I’ll be honest. Once I decided what material I would use for stuffing, I never gave much thought to the quality. I figured that threads of spun polyester are threads of spun polyester and I always just bought whatever was cheapest.
I was wrong.
When I started writing Creature Camp I contacted a few manufacturers to ask if they would provide some materials for use in the samples in the book. Fairfield sent me a few bags of their plastic Poly Pellets (I love that weighted feel and flop) and an ENORMOUS box of stuffing.
Twenty-five pounds of stuffing.
That is a LOT of stuffing! That’s enough stuffing – packed as tight as I can get it – to fill two trash cans to overflowing, requiring a bungee cord to keep the lids on.
As soon as I opened the package I noticed that it was very different from my usual stuffing. It was very smooth and the fibers had a kind of a silky glide to them. The spun threads felt finer and it didn’t clump up at all.
With my old stuffing I had to spend a good bit of time pulling the stuffing apart into tiny bits before stuffing in order to keep the finished softie smooth and lump-free. No need to do this with the new stuffing. I can just pull out big handfuls and stuff them in. Nice!
Jo’s response was absolutely priceless.
She raved about the new stuffing. “It’s sooooooo soft!” “It’s sooooooo silky!” “My softies are sooooooooo smooth!”
But the best was the moment I came into my sewing room and found her, head down, buried up to her chest in my trash can full of stuffing, bouncing up on her tiptoes trying to “swim” even deeper into it.
I wish I had a photo. 🙂
When I asked her what the heck she was doing she said, “It’s just so soft and fluffy. I couldn’t resist!”
After we had used the new stuffing on a few projects she asked me if I would please give away what we had left of the old stuffing because she just didn’t want to use it anymore.
I did. My Dad always said to use the right tool for the job and I had found the right tool.
So. You’re probably wondering what this magical stuffing is. It’s Fairfield brand Poly-fil Supreme Fiberfill. I recommend it by name in almost all of my softie patterns. You can find it in Walmart under a different name and with different packaging. There it’s call Poly-fil Supreme Ultra Plush. I’m including a photo of both kinds of packaging so you know what you’re looking for.
I really, really love this stuff and feel like it has made my softies noticeably better. Not only is it really pleasant to touch and work with, the finished softies are smoother with a lot less effort on my part. Also, it allows me to get a nice smooth fill without packing the stuffing in as tightly and I really like the squishier softie that results.
Squishy = Huggable = Good.
I wanted to share it with some of you and asked Fairfield to send some samples I could give away. They said yes! So this will be one of the giveaways for folks who pre-order Creature Camp from my shop. In addition to getting a free pattern, a few randomly selected people will also get a bag of this stuffing – enough to make several softies! Thanks, Fairfield!
Edit – Sorry – the giveaway is over now.
And I’ll leave you with one more photo from the making of the book. Jo says the stuffing is her favorite part of making softies. “It’s like feeding them.” Here are Jo and her friend, Hana, feeding their new softies some silky smooth fluffy stuffing. 🙂
This is one of my favorite photos of Jo. I think she was seven or eight and I have no idea why she was wearing that mask while she sewed – but it’s totally her. 🙂
Creature Camp is coming out soon and Jo helped me so much with it that she became a co-author!
I hadn’t planned it that way.
I’ve taught so many kids how to sew (including Jo). I put together a proposal for a book written for kids, teaching them to sew (and even design) their own softies. That meant working up a detailed outline of the book, sketching all the softies that would be included, and selling the proposal. Stash bought it and I went to work prototyping and making. When it came time to photograph the first finished softie I was. . . disappointed. It looked like a grown-up had made it and I know that can be intimidating for kids. I realized I wanted all the softies in the book to be sewn by actual kids. Luckily, I have an actual kid who likes to sew and loves softies. Jo said she was willing to sew up every project in the book. Woo hoo! Stash was immediately on board and Jo and I went to work.
Not only did she sew all the samples – she also did all the sewing for the step by step photos. Those are her hands you see in the how to photos. Every single stitch you see in the book was sewn by a real kid – mostly Jo.
She also gave me great feedback along the way. “This step is hard. Can we make it easier?” “I think we should fold these ears here.” “I like these long, skinny legs. Can we make them even longer? That would be fun!”
She was a huge part of the book!
So I wanted to introduce you to Jo, tell you a little bit about her sewing history, and along the way answer some questions you probably have about sewing with kids.
What’s a good age to start using a sewing machine?
It depends on the kid.
Jo was four when she got her first machine.
(It was a toy. Don’t do that. After a couple of months it died in a large cloud of smoke and she moved on to a real machine.)
My classes usually start at age 6, but Jo was asking to use the machine, I knew she could focus, and she had pretty good motor skills. Let them start on the machine just as soon as you think they’re able. Sewing on the machine is lots of fun and I’ve never yet met a kid who didn’t want to do it. I’ve got a post here with some tips to help you get started.
Right away she said she wanted to make a quilt big enough to fit her bed (a twin). These are the first blocks. Look how proud she is!
What Kinds of Projects Should Kids Work On?
Six-year-old Jo makes a tutu for Wedge the Uglydoll.
Whatever they are most interested in! I usually steer kids towards small projects – some beanbags, a skirt for a favorite doll, a simple softie – something they can finish in a day or two and get that quick satisfaction.
But Jo really REALLY wanted to make a quilt. A big quilt for her bed.
That’s okay too.
Just don’t expect them to finish it soon. 🙂
It took Jo four years to finish her quilt. It would get put away for months at a time while she worked on other things (or didn’t sew at all) and then she’d pull it back out again and add a few rows.
Jo’s quilt after about 1 1/2 years.
If your child chooses a big project, try to find a way to let it grow as you go – not just be pieces in a pile. If I were making this myself I’d have sewn all the rows together, then joined the finished rows into a big quilt. Jo sewed two blocks together, then two pairs into a four-square block, then sewed four-square blocks into a row two blocks tall, then attached that row to the growing quilt. She loved seeing those units get bigger and bigger and it really helped that every time Jo pulled the quilt out and worked on it, it GREW.
Don’t Expect Them to Follow an Imaginary Line
Jo sewing at age six.
The number one thing you can do to help kids sew successfully right out of the gate – especially if they’re starting really young – is to draw a sewing line on the fabric for them.
I was still drawing lines on Jo’s quilt blocks at age six – if you click on the photo above you’ll be able to see it bigger.
Creature Camp is recommended for ages 8 and up if they’re sewing solo. But if you’re willing to lend a hand, a younger stitcher can handle any of the projects in the book. After Jo sewed all the main samples we recruited some of her friends to sew variations on the projects in the book. It was such fun watching them play with the patterns!
One of those stitchers was just seven years old and I knew she’d want to make the reversible butterfly/caterpillar – one of the more advanced projects near the end of the book. I drew on the stitching lines for her and helped her with some of the trickier pinning and she did just fine.
And now here’s Jo! She was nine when she made all the projects in the book, ten when we got this sample back and I recorded the video – and eleven now. That’s how long it takes to write a book! Here’s Jo talking about her favorite project in the book. . .
Jo and I will both be signing any books you order directly from me. She’s a co-author – of course she’ll sign them too! Imagine her excitement when she typed her name into the search window in Amazon and our book came up!
Today, I’ll show you the super-easy pillow covers I made!
This isn’t a full step-by-step tutorial, but if you’re familiar with the basics of sewing, I think you’ll get the idea!
I wanted pillow covers that were removable, but I didn’t want to put in a zipper or do buttonholes. So, I went for a super-easy ‘flap’ technique. The back is composed of overlapping flaps that allow you to take the pillow in and out, but still cover the pillow:
The Basic Steps
I ordered my fabric from Spoonflower, a great place to get fabric from indie designers. I went with a Tour de France fabric in yellow & grey (a sport I love and colors that match our sofa!) and a coordinating ‘houses’ fabric from the same designer.
Next, I cut out the fabric.
The important thing is that you want to cut the back pieces to be bigger than just 1/2 of the height of your pillow… or else you won’t get any overlap.
Then, I sewed the pairs of flaps together:
Turning these inside out (to the right sides) gives you the nice, sewn edge at the opening of the flap.
Finally, I sew the front onto the (overlapping) flaps, lining up all of the raw edges:
Presto! Pillows!
As you can tell, they’ve already been well-loved (that is, squished) by me and hubby!
Is your child interested in learning to sew? Or can they already sew and they want to do more?
