XLIII.TEACHING LITTLE GIRLS TO SEW.
“YES, I suppose I shall be obliged to teach my little girl to sew, some time; but I am very thankful that I have some years yet before I need take up this cross. I supply her with bits of cloth, needles, thread, and scissors, and let her amuse herself with an attempt at sewing; but how I dread the time when I must begin in earnest, and try to teach her the proper way! I sometimes hope that by letting her botch and play sewing, by and by, as she sees me making even seams, and taking small stitches, she will, by imitation and observation, gradually learn, without much effort on my part. Do you not think that she may?”
Never. No doubt some children learn with much less effort than others; but by letting your little girl “play sewing,”—botchingas you term it,—you only connive at heracquiring a careless habit which she will not easily exchange for straight seams and tiny stitches.
“Would you advise me to keep thread and needles and cloth from her, and endeavor to interest her in some other play, till such time as I am compelled to teach her how to use them properly?”
No; why should you debar her from such innocent amusements? Why not begin at once to teach her how to do a thing right, even when in play?
“Teach that baby! What can she learn at her age?”
Can she not thread her needle?
“Certainly; quite expertly.”
And can she not push her needle in and out of the cloth?
“O yes; for a baby, she shows quite a genius for this quiet kind of womanly accomplishment.”
Then you see she can learn something, notwithstanding her youth. How much more maturity or skill, think you, will it require for her to learn, by a few well-directed efforts on your part, how to put the needle in at proper distances, taking up only just so many threads for a stitch?
“Why, she is only a baby; but little past three years. Teach her! How preposterous! You must be—”
Growing imbecile, you think. Very likely; but these ideas are no indication of it. They are good, solid common-sense, we think; such as our mothers and grandmothers acted upon, in the olden times, when early teaching and genuine industry were fashionable; when there were more busy bees to “improve each shining hour” of childhood; when these first years, which were then passed in “books and work and healthful play,” were a thousand times more childlike and happier than our days of modern improvement. Now, the toddling wee things are carried in the nurses’ arms to infant parties, dressed and flounced and frizzed, until every vestige of simple childhood is lost intheir painfully ludicrous efforts to imitate their more foolish elders,—kept up far beyond a healthful bedtime, and fed with food injurious even to mature stomachs, but ruinous to a child’s digestion. Ah, dear little woman! will it be a harder task, requiring more skill and patience, to take your little girl on your lap, ten or fifteen minutes every day, and show her how to hold and use the needle; taking the warm, soft, innocent little hands, with loving caresses, into yours, and guiding the tiny fingers, until at last she learns to put the needle through the cloth, at proper distances, unaided; will this be harder or more tiresome than to dress and worry over your little one till she is drilled in dancing, taught to bow and curtesy, and gracefully accept her baby partner’s hand in the dance? Will it give you no pain to see the first development of envy, jealousy, and ill temper forced into active growth under such training? Compare this toil and responsibility with the soft and loving prattle of your little girl, as she nestles in your lap, and, with merry laugh, watches the bright needle go to and fro; and when at last she masters one stitch, and you pronounce itwell done, will not her shout of triumph repay the teacher’s trouble? Will it any longer be a work to dread? On the contrary, will you not look forward to that daily lesson as the sweetest duty of the day?
“All this sounds very pretty; but when we come to the reality,—the big stitches, the long stitches, the puckers and gathers, the mistakes and vexatious carelessness,—how many yards of cloth will be wasted before one inch of decent sewing can be accomplished by a little child?”
Not one. Cut out a little block of patchwork. Tell the child that she may make a quilt for her doll’s bed just as soon as she can do it well. Use pretty, bright colors. Take her on your lap, and show her how a stitch must be taken, making merry, gentle speeches to her as the work goes on.“See, pet, you must take up two of these threads on that side, and put your needle through two more on the other side, then pull the needle through; that’s one stitch; mamma did that. Now let’s see the little girl take one just like it. No, no; let mamma hold your hand steady. There, that’s right. Now you may try again. See, you have taken up aleetletoo much on that side. We’ll just pull that out, I think, and try again. It was pretty well, but a little bit longer than the last, and I guess Dolly won’t quite like it; so we’ll pull it out, and be very careful next time. There, that’s my little woman! You have made three nice stitches, and we will put up the sewing now, and run out doors to play. When papa comes home, mamma will have to show these pretty stitches, and he will be very much pleased.” In this way, it will not be many weeks before the square for Dolly’s small bed will be finished, and you will say, “My little daughter has done it so very nicely, I think we will have to make another, and piece the two together to make a bigger quilt.” Before a year passes, we are sure you will have a quilt large enough for your little girl’s own bed, every stitch well done, and both mother and child drawn closer together and made happier by each day’s lessons. It is, we think, a great mistake while teaching a child to sew, to pass over very poor work, simply because you think after awhile she will learn to do better; and you will throw the few early attempts aside, rather than be at the trouble of picking out imperfect stitches. Only a half-inch, or three or four stitches a day, well done, is a great gain. Be gentle, but very firm. Do not drill the child till it becomes weary, and will shrink from a second trial; but yet, let it be well understood that every stitch must be perfect before it will be accepted, and then be lavish of praise when the effort is successful. Do not destroy the child’sfirst work, thus carefully done. It will give you much pleasure whenyour daughter has become a woman, and be invaluable to her as an evidence of your faithful teachings when you are forever hid from her eyes.