It’s April again and the 2024 Global Kids Sewing Party is drawing to its close.
I’m always amazed when I stop to think that the one-off event I created back in 2019, when I partnered with The Children’s Museum of the Arts in NYC, has become such a successful annual event!
This year almost 6,500 kids from 21 countries registered to sew a softie and share it with someone else. How good is that!!!
Not only are kids learning to sew they are seeing how much joy they can bring to someone else by giving them something they’ve created and made all by themselves.
If you’re looking for a kindness activity for your kids or students then join the 2025 Global Kids Sewing Party.
Some of the soft toys sewn for others:
Amongst the many schools that joined this year were art teacher, Melissa Prescott’s students at Telstar Middle School in the USA.
Her students organised a sewing afternoon and workshop:
Three 7th graders helped to run the workshop. They taught their fellow students how to thread a needle with a threader, how to do a backstitch to secure your thread and how to do a running stitch!
Refreshments were served and the students raised donations for the schools sports booster program. There’s no denying that these kids did an incredible job!
Camp Tekoa
Meanwhile, over at Camp Tekoa, run by Eleanor Trollinger, kids were happily sewing felt Easter eggs that were filled with candy and given to unhoused folks.
And in Sydney, Australia
Downunder, kids in Sydney, Australia, were also busily sewing up hordes of colourful softie creations. Phillip Macken at Montessori East in Bondi writes, “The students in my Stage 2 primary class each made two softies that were then gifted to sixty preschool children from our school. Each softie even had a red felt heart placed inside their bodies to share the love the children put into making them.”
In California
In California, Maya Genis and her students joined the Global Kids Sewing Party by sewing softies to gift to younger siblings.
I love this message Maya wrote “I am so thankful to you and your site/books for not only helping teach me how to sew stuffies/softies, but also to share these gifts with others! Last summer I made some of the zenkis from your book that I now use with my TK and Kinder artists to greet them in class (Left: Dot, Right: Belly)!”
Awww!!! I’d love to be greeted by these these little guys!!!
Full Disclosure:
I never get tired of seeing more softies, and of course zenkis, filling our world with love and happiness and quirkiness and plain old fun! And I never get tired of reading the messages I receive every week telling me how excited somebody’s kids or students were to learn how to sew. And lastly, I never ever get tired of comments like that of Mariana Ruiz Romero in Bolivia who wrote a thank-you note to me saying, “I used to fear fiber crafts and now I love them!” That’s exactly what Sew a Softie and the zenkis and the Global Kids Sewing Party are all about.
Thank you to everyone who joined in this year! Especially to all the wonderful young softie creators who made the 2024 Global Kids Sewing Party an unforgettable event!
Keep well and happy sewing, Trixi