Looking for easy hand sewing projects for kids that educators can confidently teach in the classroom? The Sew a Softie Workbook Series was created exactly for that purpose.
Why I Created the Sew a Softie Workbook Series?
For many years now, I have been receiving questions from teachers, especially art teachers, who want to introduce sewing into their school curricula, and who are looking for doable hand sewing projects they can make with their classes.
This need inspired me to begin a series of workbooks that were especially tailored to help teachers, many of whom may have little or no sewing experience, to successfully sew zenki-style softies with their young students.
Every workbook shows how simple the basic kit we need to sew is, and how simple are the basic skills needed to create imaginative softies with unique personalities.
All these workbooks are ebooks and, therefore, easy to download and access.
Finally, every workbook aims to show teachers (and parents or anyone else who wants to sew with kids) that zenkis can prove, beyond any shadow of doubt, that one of the most fundamental laws of our Universe is: kids love sewing!!!
Sew a Softie Workbook No. 1: Kandinsky Inspired Softies to Sew with Kids
This workbook was inspired by an exhibition of paintings by the early twentieth century artist, Wassily Kandinsky. It shows how Kandinsky’s abstract art provides a rich mine of imaginative shapes that we can use to create our softies from.
I have called the zenkis presented in this workbook, the Kandinskys. They form a family of ten unique softies who were “found”, as it were, in Kandinsky’s dynamic and colourful canvases.
They are a great way to get kids to really look at modern art and to feel the thrill of discovering all sorts of surprises in abstract paintings. You can see a similar art-inspired sewing project for kids in this Dot Day Zenki tutorial.
The Kandinskys demonstrate how easy it is to create amazing softie personalities from extremely simple, wonderfully quirky shapes.
Sew a Softie Workbook No.2: Square Zenki Softies to Sew with Kids
This workbook is built around a very simple premise: if you can draw a square, then you can create an endless variety of vibrant softies who are all very different from each other. You can see how this works in practice in this simple beginner softie tutorial.
It shows how when we use a square as our template for say, a rhino or a bee, then we discover how to transform distracting real-life details into a design that captures the essential nature of that creature in a way that is both clear and endearing.
In this workbook, squares are rehabilitated and seen as genuinely creative springboards for our imaginations and as amazingly useful templates for recreating all kinds of beings from the animal world around us.
Sew a Softie Workbook No. 3: Aussie Critters to Sew with Kids
Aussie critters are fresh, strange, sometimes puzzling, and always surprising. Just by being themselves, they stir up curiosity, mystery and a sense of adventure in adults and kids alike.
They’re fantastic for kids to explore and equally fantastic to recreate as softie sewing projects.
This workbook presents ten iconic Aussie critters and gives an insider’s view of their strangeness, charms, personalities and their oddly engaging charisma.
The Sew a Softie Workbook No. 3: Aussie Critters to Sew with Kids will be released in March 2026.
New to Sewing with Kids? Start Here
Supplies you Need to Hand Sew with Kids
I walk you through the basic supplies you’ll need to sew with your kids and how to decide which supplies are the ‘right’ ones to buy.
If you’re new to sewing with kids, start with these basic hand sewing stitches for beginners. A simple stitches like the running stitch is more than enough to create expressive softies.
3 easy ways to thread a needle with kids
Threading a needle can feel like the hardest step when teaching kids to sew. These three simple techniques make it manageable and frustration-free.
Looking for some simple, fun and creative projects? These free beginner sewing projects for kids are designed to build confidence while keeping the process fun and achievable.
About the Author
Trixi Symonds is the founder of Sew a Softie, an initiative that inspires parents and educators around the world to teach kids to sew. She’s the author of multiple sewing workbooks and shows how hand sewing can be simple, achievable, and genuinely exciting for children. Through the annual Global Kids Sewing Party and her step-by-step guides to teaching kids to sew, she helps thousands of children discover that they can create something meaningful with their own hands.