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“Sew Together Grow Together” – Sewing Projects for Parents and Children – A Book Review

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 Hoping to teach your child how to sew? An e-book review for "Sew Together Grow Together", an e-book full of projects for your kids. All hand sewing, no machine required, just lots of creativity!

“Sew Together Grow Together” is an e-book designed to get kids started sewing, featuring a collection of projects that are all sewn by hand and all can be done in an afternoon. It is written so that adults who have no sewing experience can comfortably use it; the book is recommended for kids as young as 5.

Trixi, the author, lives in Sydney, Australia and has been running hand sewing workshops for kids for more than 20 years. You can see shots of things kids have sewn from her workshops and book on Instagram! She sent me a complimentary copy of the book to review, I am so excited for my son to start sewing – but I confess that I made those cute little owls myself with his creative input.

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Hand sewn owl softies

I made a happy little owl family! My son (he is 3) immediately knew “who was who” and had fun stacking them up.

hand sewing

It has been a while since I hand sewed anything (I think it was another book review, Sewing School) – you trace the pattern out, sewn on that line, and then cut around it to form the seam allowance.

This is the largest owl – perfect size for fitting in his hand! I think the owls’ shape is SO clever, it looks much more complicated than it actually is. With a white belly like I chose, it would be easy for a kid to draw a face on too! The project uses up very little fabric, so perfect for scrap busting (my favorite). I didn’t have any problems with the pattern or the instructions, it was very straight forward.

Book: “Sew Together Grow Together” – Sewing Projects for Parents and Children* by Trixi Symonds

Publisher: Self-published.

Focus: A project based book geared towards young kids learning how to sew.

Project List Overview:

Funny Families: Star Mum and Bub / Gulla’aa the Koala / Twins (Reversible Monster) / Triplets (Monster)/ Three Wise Owls

Cozy Corners: Starry Night Cushion / Flower Power / Strawberry Cushion/ My Very Own Bolster / Bunny Notepad

Take Me With You: Hippy Bag / O’s and X’s Pouch / Sunny (Flower Keychain) / Baby in a Pouch / Beaded Pouch

Friends Forever: Green-Eyed Monstery / Raul (Monster) / Frog / Fridge Shnookie/ Floyd (Monster)

Highlights:

  • I love the continuous gentle guidance towards letting kids do their own thing – from picking floss colors to design elements.
  • This is a highlight for me, since I am American, but measurements are given in imperial format.
  • Each project has a nice little box of “things to think about” with ideas or tips.
  • The projects ascend in terms of difficulty, which is a nice feature as kids gain confidence.
  • There is a great range of project ideas, with something that will appeal to every kid. I really loved the O’s and X’s pouch, I hadn’t seen a toy design like that before.

Negatives:

  • Some of the supplies don’t translate into US terms – I’ve never heard of a Chinagraph pencil! Any general sewing store has cheap white marking pencils though. I also think it would be great for kids to draw shapes on freezer paper and iron them on, cut, as shown in this tutorial.
  • Some of the techniques could benefit from pictures, for novice sewing parents, like clipping curves and corners and the different stitches described. To be fair, it is super easy to Youtube a clip of “how to do a back stitch”.
  • Some patterns have to be enlarged manually – but they are all on one page, so you just hit that copy function instead of guessing and shifting the page around.

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Here is a shot of the technical illustration & pattern page to give you an idea of what those look like!

ebook instructions shot pattern pieces

See all my other book reviews listed here.

Hoping to teach your child how to sew? An e-book review for "Sew Together Grow Together", an e-book full of projects for your kids. All hand sewing, no machine required, just lots of creativity!

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needle and ted

Wednesday 2nd of March 2016

Those owl are really cute. Could work as a purse too ;-)

Stephanie - Swoodson Says

Monday 7th of March 2016

Thanks Olu! They totally could - I forget about purses since I am used to hauling a diaper/backpack around :)

Roxanne

Wednesday 24th of February 2016

That is a really great idea for a craft book and I also love that it is sorted by age. My 5 year-old loves crafts and my 1 year-old always wants to help.

Becca DuVal

Tuesday 23rd of February 2016

You find the coolest content! I love the idea of this book, and I'm encouraged that its' sorted by skill level. My 4.5 year old is starting to want to craft with me. I think it'll make a great birthday gift :)

Stephanie - Swoodson Says

Tuesday 23rd of February 2016

I would LOVE to see the creative details that her little brain added, judging by some of her style choice :) :)

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