If you have smaller children that aren’t quite ready for a sewing machine, be sure to grab the free printable Christmas Cookie Lacing cards.

A child wishing for a sewing machine is a wonderful thing! A child who learns to sew is a blessing. But if you haven’t got the first idea of what to buy or what to look for, buying a sewing machine can be overwhelming and intimidating. 

I want to give you the information you need to buy a machine that will bring your children joy and success in their creative endeavors. 

Buying a Sewing Machine? – Some Things to Consider

Child-sized vs. Full-Sized

Sewing machines come in many different sizes. If you go online or into a store you will see that sewing machines are often marketed in a specific way. 

Some are marketed as all-purpose or for everyday usage. Others are marketed for quilters, some can do embroidery and some are directly marketed for use by children.

Child-sized machines are generally smaller, weigh less, and have fewer features and gimmicks than your standard general-purpose sewing machines.

Whether you choose a full-size or child-sized machine will ultimately depend on the features discussed below.

New vs. Used

When you are not sure how long your child will be interested in sewing, it is tempting to find the cheapest option possible. I am sometimes called ‘cheap’, so I totally understand. 

If you see a deal on Marketplace or Craigslist go ahead and check it out. Ask lots of questions. A lot of people buy sewing machines with full intentions to learn how to sew, never get around to it and then try to salvage some of the money they spent. Those machines are virtually new.

Be sure to ask to try the machine. You want to make sure that all of the functions are working, that no pieces are missing and that it isn’t a lemon.

Unless you know someone who sews and can help you in a pinch, I would refrain from buying vintage machines. We have owned a few. Most times there are no instructions for them. 

If there are no instructions, it might be a nightmare to just get it set up and running. Not every machine is threaded in the same way. If you can’t thread the machine, you can’t sew.

Some shops offer trade-ins. This can be a great way to get a really good machine for less than retail. They will likely have been fully serviced and the sales clerk can answer your questions.

A new machine is not necessarily the cheapest method, but you have other perks. Most new machines will come with a warranty,  instructions and there won’t be any pieces missing.

Watch for sales. Sewing machines do go on sale. New models are brought in from time to time and the old models are then sold for a bargain. 

Just because a fabric shop has the reputation of being more expensive than the big box stores, don’t dismiss shopping there when you are shopping for a machine. Even if you don’t buy one of their machines, it is worth a look.

Fabric shops often have machines set up so that customers can try them out. You would be surprised to know that their least expensive models rival the big box store prices. Sometimes their deals are even better than the big box stores.

They have knowledgeable staff that can answer questions and some places even offer a free “getting to know the machine” session with the purchase. My local fabric shop does this. They help you learn how to thread the machine, adjust the settings and show you all of its features.

Mechanical or Computerized

Most sewing machines are either mechanical or computerized.

A mechanical sewing machine will likely have to be oiled from time to time and its overall maintenance is less fussy. It has fewer knobs and buttons and is generally more robust.

A computerized machine can be easier to operate. The push of a button is all it takes to change a setting. However, if it needs maintenance, you will likely have to have it serviced.

I have found that mechanical machines in the entry-level price range can handle thicker fabric and rougher treatment than similar priced computerized sewing machines.

Weight

If independence and portability are important to you, you will want to take the weight of the sewing machine into consideration. 

There are some really lightweight machines on the market. Beware that some of the lightest models have a lot of plastic parts. If a crucial plastic part is broken, that could be the death of your machine. 

There are lightweight machines (under 15lbs) with a heavy-duty metal frame. The main mechanism is made of metal. They are generally considered to be more durable than those with a plastic skeleton.

Stitches

Sewing machine manufacturers will stamp on the box and sometimes the machine itself how many different stitches it offers. It’s a marketing gimmick. Your child will most likely only use a handful.

Make sure the machine you chose can do a straight stitch, backstitch (reverse), and a zigzag stitch. With those three stitches, they can sew almost anything. 

Presser Feet

A presser foot is the part of the machine the helps feed the fabric through the machine to be sewn. Presser feet are attached either by screwing them on or are snapped on.

If you choose a machine that has snap-on feet, take a moment to see that they snap on tightly. If they fall off easily, this can be potentially dangerous. It can cause the needle to snap and break. 

I’ve had this happen a few times. This is something no one warned me about. I really like my machine with the snap-on feet, but occasionally a foot will fall off mid-sew.

The other type of presser foot has to be screwed on. It takes a bit longer if you want to change the presser foot than the snap-on foot. You will want to make sure your child can get the screw on tight enough or ask you to tighten it for them. 

If your child sews a lot, be sure to check that the screw hasn’t vibrated itself loose. That happens on one of my machines if I sew a lot. A little turn of the screw and it is all good to go again.

Presser feet are also used to market sewing machines. The presser feet that you will want to make sure the machine comes with are: an all-purpose or straight stitch foot, a zipper foot, an open toe, or satin-stitch foot (for zigzag stitch), and if your child plans on making clothing, a buttonhole foot.

Bobbins

Bobbins are either made of plastic or metal and are either drop-in or front-loading. The first picture has a drop-in bobbin casing and the second picture is a front-loaded bobbin in a metal casing.

My kids all prefer my machines with a drop-in bobbin. It is easier to load and less likely to cause them trouble.

Automatic Needle Threader

An automatic needle threader is a must-have feature in my opinion. I didn’t realize how important this was until we were sewing on vintage machines without it.

A needle threader will save you and your child a lot of headaches and frustration. 

Adjustable Sewing Speed

When my children are first learning, I teach them to sew on the machine with a speed control dial. I know that this isn’t a standard feature, but it is something to look for and to consider.

A friend of mine told me about this feature when I was looking to buy a machine way back when we first moved to Canada. 

My kids like that they have more control. The speed is controlled by pushing the foot pedal. It can be hard for kids to not “floor it” when they are first learning. The speed control adjusts the maximum speed. 

This feature is not a deal-breaker if a sewing machine doesn’t have one. Kids can learn to sew without one, but it is something to keep an eye out for.

Accessories

You will want to check what accessories come with the sewing machine you are looking to purchase. 

Most come with some kind of cover, a few needles, cleaning tools, some feet, and some way to power it (AC adapter or batteries).

Some sewing machines come with an instructional DVD.

Other Considerations

Not all sewing machines have the option of a ‘free arm.’ If your child wants to sew clothing, this is a must. 

A ‘free arm’ is used for hemming, sewing sleeves, and cuffs. Usually, all you need to do is detach a piece around the needle plate to reveal the free arm.

Look for a sewing machine with good lighting. If you can’t try out the machine in person, read online reviews, and don’t be afraid to ask around. 

Most sewists have a favorite sewing machine brand. Don’t worry so much about the brand, choose value and functionality. 

Are you still feeling confused or overwhelmed? I hope you are feeling knowledgeable and confident. I made a printable checklist for you to take along on your shopping trip so that you don’t have to remember all of the details.

My Recommendation

I was debating whether or not to offer a recommendation. I really think that it is best to try different machines out and base your decision on what works best for your child and fits in your budget.

I understand, however, that you may not have the time to go to a store to try out all the machines. You just want to buy a machine that has good reviews and doesn’t break the bank.

I have been looking around for you and found the following machine to be a great machine for any beginner. It is probably more than a child needs when they are first learning, but they won’t outgrow it anytime soon. 

It has a speed regulator! It is one of the only machines that I found around $200 that has this feature. It is pictured above.

At the time of posting the Brother CS6000i cost $209.99 US.

If you have any questions about choosing a machine, drop me a message. I would be more than happy to help.

Shop Related Products

I had never met an alpaca before and was surprised at how docile and gentle they were. Their fleece was so luxurious and cuddly. It is a dream of mine to one day own a small herd of alpacas.

As a hobby fiber artist, it is a treat to meet the animals who belong to the fibers I work with. Alpacas and sheep are one thing, but I am pretty sure that I don’t want to meet silkworms.

Alpaca Fiber

Alpacas come from the camelidae family. They were domesticated in the Andes Mountains of South America thousands of years ago. Over 85% of alpacas live in Peru, the leading producer of alpaca fleece.

The fleece of the alpaca is notable in that it is up to three times warmer than sheep’s wool. It is also finer and softer than wool.

The fleece doesn’t contain lanolin and is therefore hypoallergenic and is a wonderful alternative to wool. It has a high insulation value and is resistant to snow and rain, making it the perfect fiber for mittens, hats, and socks.

It is a natural fiber and can be blended with other natural fibers such as wool, silk, merino, or camel to produce lovely yarns. It comes naturally in a variety of colors, but also can be easily dyed. When dyed, the tones are somewhat muted and not vibrant.

Alpaca Breeds

The fleece of the Suri is straight, lustrous, and fine. It can grow long enough to touch the ground if not sheared. Shearing occurs approximately every 2 years with a yield of about 3.5kg (6.5lb) fleece and fibers ranging in length from 40-60cm.

The fleece of the Huacaya is crimped and wavy. It is better for making hats, mitts, and socks. There is a greater population of Huacaya worldwide. Shearing also occurs approximately every 2 years with a yield of about 2.5kg (5 lb) fleece and fibers that range in length from 20-40cm.

Working with Alpaca Fiber

I acquired a large garbage bag full of alpaca a couple of years ago. At the time, I was a beginning spinner and jumped on the opportunity to add so much FREE fiber to my stash.

I have no idea what I was thinking. I was a newbie spinner and I was in for a real surprise. Alpaca fiber is more difficult to spin than sheep’s wool. It doesn’t react like sheep’s wool at all. You need just the right amount of twist to produce a nice even yarn that doesn’t easily pull apart.

If you have no idea what I am talking about, that’s ok. Let’s just say that it isn’t the ideal fiber for beginning spinners and leave it at that.

If spinning isn’t your thing and you would much prefer to knit or crochet, you need to give alpaca yarn a try. I like to use alpaca yarn to knit hats like these.

In addition to hats, mitts, and socks, alpaca makes lovely shawls and baby garments. In the photo below, my little guy is wearing a scarf I knit using Berocco Ultra Alpaca in Pea Soup. It is a wool/alpaca blend that is so squishy and cozy.

Winter is either always here or just around the corner where we live. I love making yarn, garments, and toys to keep us warm and busy all winter long. 

Children can learn to work with natural fibers, too. Waldorf education is largely based on being creative and working with natural materials. In Waldorf schools, children learn to knit at a very young age.

Even the youngest of children can work with fiber. Wet felting and finger knitting are particularly enjoyable at this age. 

If you are curious about learning how to spin or knit, check out some of my favorite resources below. If you already knit or crochet, be sure to download these FREE printable “Handmade With Love” gift tags to attach to your lovely handmade gifts.

LEARNING TO SPIN

Spinning Alpaca Fiber Free e-book

craftsy.com: Spindling From Fluff to Stuff  (this is how I learned to spin)

BOOKS

Respect the Spindle

The Natural Knitter: How to Choose, Use, and Knit Natural Fibers from Alpaca to Yak

The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook: More Than 200 Fibers, from Animal to Spun Yarn

Alpacas (Farm Animals) a children’s picture book

PATTERNS

Ravelry.com (online community for knitters, crocheters, fibre artists with 1000’s of patterns)

KnitPicks.com (online source for affordable alpaca yarn and patterns designed for each yarn)

I am curious. Have you ever worked with alpaca fiber or yarn? What did you make? Let me know in the comments below.

Long before textiles were being dyed commercially, people were foraging to source dyes that are found in nature. Now you don’t even need to forage, you can open your pantry to begin natural dyeing.

Natural Dyeing for the fun of it…

I recently experimented with different pantry items to create play cloths and yarn for my children’s playtime. Over the years, our Waldorf playthings have been misplaced or played with beyond repair.

I felt the urge to make toys and backdrops for the toy buckets. Flour sack towels and some natural colored yarn were going to be given some new life. The dyed yarn is for a project that the kids and I are working on.

I have been wanting to try natural dyes for a long time. I purchased yarn over a year ago with the intent to dye it. All of the yarns that I used for this project were from the KnitPicks.com bare yarn series.

Now that I have had success with it, I can share with you how easy it is and encourage you to give it a try.

Preparing to Dye Your Fibres

I use a dedicated pot and wooden spoons for all of my dyeing projects. This is advised, especially if you pre-treat your yarn with a mordant like alum. Mordant is used to help increase colorfastness and/or to create a different shade.

Prepare your fabric.

• If your fabric is new, wash it but don’t dry it. If it has already been washed, scour it by hand washing it in water and a drop of dawn dish detergent and rinse it.

Prepare your yarn.

• Soak your yarn in lukewarm water for at least 30-60 minutes. Make sure to fully submerge the yarn. It will absorb the dyes better if it is wet.
• Optional: Pre-mordant your yarn. This is the method I use. 

NOTE: Some of my yarn was pre-treated in an alum mordant. The two yellowish skeins were a failed attempt to solar dye with Golden Marguerite flowers. I dyed over the old dye. You can dye over other dyes and yield amazing colors.

Orange Pekoe Tea

We are big tea drinkers at our house. A couple of us love orange pekoe tea. I normally wouldn’t sacrifice orange pekoe tea for a dye project, but this one happened to be decaffeinated.

We order our groceries online and during a pick-up, we didn’t realize that they had given us decaf. It just doesn’t taste right and I am not one to throw things out. So this huge box of tea sat in the pantry underappreciated until this week.

I used the following method to dye one flour sack towel, about 60g (2oz.) of wool, and one (3-6 month) baby onesie.

To dye fabric or yarn do as follows:

1. In a large enamel or stainless steel pot (aluminum pots can change the outcome), bring 3 quarts of water to a boil.
2. Add 30 tea bags to the pot and allow it to steep for 30 minutes.
3. Remove all of the tea bags and throw them in the compost.
4. Add fabric or yarn to the pot. Be sure to use a wooden or plastic spoon to push out the air bubbles. You want it to be as submerged as possible.
5. Simmer over medium to low heat for 30 minutes.
6. Leave the pot on the stove, but turn off the heat. Let soak for a minimum of 4 hours. I let mine sit overnight. You should push the fabric and yarn underwater every once in a while to keep it submerged.
7. Once it has reached the desired color, pour off the tea and rinse the fabric or yarn. Remember that the fibers will lose a few shades when rinsing.
8. Fill the sink with enough tepid water to cover your fabric or yarn. Add about a quarter cup of vinegar. Submerge the fabric or yarn and let it soak for 10-15 minutes. This helps to prevent the color from bleeding.
9. Rinse until the water is clear.
10. Wash by hand with wool wash. Squeeze out as much liquid as possible and hang to air dry.

TIP: Use an old salad spinner to remove the water from the yarn or fabric. It won’t felt the yarn and helps your yarn to dry faster.

Nettle Tea

I read several blog posts about dyeing with stinging nettles and several about dyeing with tea. We have snow right now, so fresh nettle is a tad difficult to source.

However, I had a box of nettle tea in the pantry that nobody drinks and thought I would try to get green dye from it.

I used the same method that I used with the orange pekoe tea and it barely amounted to anything. If I were to do this again, I would probably double the amount of tea bags that I used.

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Avocados

This method requires a little more patience and time. You need to eat avocados and save the pits. It helps if you wash the pits and save them in a freezer bag until you are ready to use them.

I have been wanting to try this for so long and have been making asking my kids to help me with this. Everyone who eats an avocado is supposed to save the pit for mom. Unfortunately, only one of my kids and I actually do this.

I used the following method to dye one flour sack towel and approximately 60g (2oz.) of wool. I could have added more to the dye pot since the color was pretty intense.

To dye fabric or yarn do as follows:

1. In a large enamel or stainless steel pot (aluminum can change the outcome), bring 3 quarts of water and 10 avocado pits to a boil. 
2. Boil for 30 minutes and turn off the heat. Allow the pot to cool overnight.
3. In the morning, remove all of the avocado pits and any debris and throw them in the compost.
4. Bring the water to a boil. In the meantime, prepare the fabric or yarn as mentioned above.
5. Add fabric or yarn to the pot. Be sure to use a wooden or plastic spoon to push out the air bubbles. You want it to be as submerged as possible.
6. Simmer over medium to low heat for 30 minutes.
7. Leave the pot on the stove, but turn off the heat. Let soak for a minimum of 4 hours. You should push the fabric and yarn underwater every once in a while to keep it submerged.
8. Once it has reached the desired color, pour off the tea and rinse the fabric or yarn with hot water. Remember that the fibers will lose a few shades when rinsing.
9. Fill the sink with enough tepid water to cover your fabric or yarn. Add about a quarter cup of vinegar. Submerge the fabric or yarn and let it soak for 10-15 minutes. This helps to prevent the color from bleeding.
10. Rinse until the water is clear.
11. Wash by hand with wool wash. Squeeze out as much liquid as possible and hang to air dry.

TIP: Use an old salad spinner to remove the water from the yarn or fabric. It won’t felt the yarn and helps your yarn to dry faster.

Turmeric

This is the best dye for the first time dyeing. The color turned out to be so intense.
I used the following method to dye one flour sack towel, about 20g (1/2oz.) of wool, and one (3-6 month) baby onesie.

To dye fabric or yarn do as follows:

1. In a large enamel or stainless steel pot (aluminium can change the outcome), bring 3 quarts of water to a and 3 tablespoons of turmeric to a boil.
2. Prepare the yarn or fabric as mentioned above.
3. Add fabric or yarn to the pot. Be sure to use a wooden or plastic spoon to push out the air bubbles. You want it to be as submerged as possible.
4. Simmer over medium to low heat for 30 minutes.
5. Leave the pot on the stove, but turn off the heat. Let soak for half an hour or longer. You should push the fabric and yarn underwater every once in a while to keep it submerged.
6. Once it has reached the desired colour, pour off the tea and rinse the fabric or yarn. Remember that the fibres will lose a bit of colour when rinsing.
7. Fill the sink with enough tepid water to cover your fabric or yarn. Add about a quarter cup of vinegar. Submerge the fabric or yarn and let it soak for 10-15 minutes. This helps to prevent the colour from bleeding.
8. Rinse until the water is clear.
9. Wash by hand with wool wash. Squeeze out as much liquid as possible and hang to air dry.

TIP: Use an old salad spinner to remove the water from the yarn or fabric. It won’t felt the yarn and helps your yarn to dry faster.

Digging Deeper

Once you and your children experience dyeing your own textiles, you may want to dive in deeper. There are a great number of books that explore dyeing with natural materials.

You might also want to consider growing your own dyer’s garden. This is a fun project for the whole family. Some plants to consider are black nebula carrots, calendula, marigolds, coreopsis, blackberries, beets, red cabbage, and onions.

Depending on where you live, you can also forage for dye plants such as tansy, goldenrod, pokeberry, and lichens. Lichens produce lovely colors.

My favorite Dyer’s handbook is Wild Color. It is well illustrated and explains how to achieve different shades from the same plant. 

Recommendations

Every time that I feel the urge to dye, I head straight to the library and pick up the following books. There are several others that I have looked at, but these are the ones that I grab first.

I have yet to try dyeing play silks for the children. In the past, I have dyed cheap white sheets and yardage from Ikea. It isn’t as nice as the play silks, but it is a frugal alternative. The kids love the sheets for building forts.

You can use any wool or animal-based fibers with these recipes. I may have had more success if I had used soy milk to prepare the cotton flour sack towels. The book Botanical Colour at your Fingertips is all about dyeing plant-based textiles like cotton, linen, and flax.

I get all of my bare yarns from KnitPicks. The price point is excellent and the quality is great. If you are interested in using the same yarn, I used Bare Hare and Wool of the Andes Worsted.

I would be interested to hear from you if you’ve ever tried natural dyeing. Tag me on Instagram  @underthreeacres or send me photos by email.

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out similar posts like Making Felt Balls or my Free Peg Doll Crochet Pattern.