Whether you’re teaching your child to sew or running a sewing class, one of the most essential skills you need to know is how to get kids to thread their needle fairly quickly and in as as stress-free a way as possible.
I always try to get my students to have a go at threading their own needles without using a needle threader. It’s a great skill to have and kids get a buzz from being able to do it. And truth be told, kids are pretty amazing at threading needles.
Kids love a challenge.
And getting kids to thread their own needle is a great way to challenge their fine motor skills and to give them a self-esteem boost when they succeed. To mark this auspicious event I often award them a very official-looking certificate. Which they also love!
If you’d like a certificate to award to your students, I have a really cute CERTIFICATE OF SEWING ACHIEVEMENT (designed by Yiscah’s Pencil Box) that you can download.
When threading a needle, make sure that the end of your thread is cut cleanly. It’s hard work trying to get the frayed end of a thread through the eye of a needle.
Also, you should only hold a tiny bit of thread between your forefinger and thumb when threading. If the end bit of thread is too long, it will bend and be harder to slip through the eye of your needle. Some people hold that the easiest way is to push the needle onto the end of the thread, others insist on pushing the end of the thread through the eye of the needle. You can try both ways and choose whichever works best.
If your child is still having trouble, here are some simple needle-threading tools to help them along.
Using a needle threader
There are a few options here. The old fashioned wire threader, which is good if you only want to use it a few times…they invariably break but…they do have a rather nostalgic feeling for me as they were the only needle threader I knew as a child! You can try something a little sturdier like the this LoRan needle threader is great.
The folded piece of paper needle threader
Now if you ever had a class of kids all needing help threading their needles at the very same time and you don’t have any needle threaders around you’re going to LOVE this one. A piece of paper about an inch long and half an inch wide folded length ways in half is your life saving needle threader!
Just pop the tip of the thread in between the folded paper and thread the paper through the eye of the needle. GENIUS.
And one last tip
It’s my just-in-case tip. Sometimes when I’m running a workshop the last 15 minutes are frantic. Everyone is rushing to finish (usually a second project) so to make sure things run super smoothly I have some thread needles all ready to go to give to kids to make finishing up even quicker.
Here’s a quick youtube video.
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