Hello sewing friends! Just a quick little announcement for you for today. Do you remember Made for Kids Month? We did this a couple of years ago in June. I’d say it’s time to bring it back!
Here’s the general idea: For the whole month of June, let’s encourage our kids to wear and enjoy their handmade items. Whether their clothes have been made by a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle, friend, or themselves.
It’s really easy to participate. During the month of June when your kids are wearing handmade, snap a photo. Then tag your photos with #madeforkidsmonth on Instagram so we can all see.
I personally feel that sometimes it’s such a pity that we see a photo of a garment right after it’s finished and then we never see it again. This will be the opportunity to see them again thanks to your photos that you’ll be sharing. Let’s see the clothes in action!
Here are a few thoughts about the project:
- Feel free to include sewn, knitted, crocheted clothing and accessories.
- You don’t need to participate every day during the month of June.
- Participate a little or a lot.
- Participate however it makes sense for you and your kids.
- It’s not a competition.
- It’s meant to be fun and that’s all.
Will you join us? I hope so!
Oh I just fell down a rabbit hole of cuteness looking at everyone’s old tagged photos on instagram! My how they’ve all grown 🙂
Looking forward to this, but I’ll spare everyone the 20+ days of navy school uniform pants/skirts and just share the fun outfits!
I’ll be honest: I struggle with this. If I could, I would sew everything for my kids. But I have a son in 4th grade (he’s 10) and a daughter in 2nd grade (she’s 8), and it’s really, really difficult to find patterns and fabric that suit their tastes, not to mention the time and skills to execute. When your kid prefers $15 basketball shorts from Target made from polyester mesh with neon accents that you have no hope of replicating, you buy him the shorts from Target. I now understand why so many patterns don’t go beyond size 6 or 8. I appreciate that Oliver&S often goes up to size 12. This year I made the sketchbook shirt for my son (which he has worn happily to fancy events like piano recitals and school picture day) and the parachute pants…which come out on weekends at home. I’ll take what I can get!
I love that garment sewing is more and more popular, which support indie brands like O&S and has generated a supportive online community for us who like to make stuff. I really wish that the care and thoughtfulness in this niche would extend to mass manufacturing, because the reality for most of us parents is that we can’t make all our kids’ clothes. And even if we could, we can’t make our kids wear them!!
I hear you, Susan. My mom sewed everything for me when I was growing up, but there came a time when I wanted the same things my friends were wearing. And that’s fine!
My hope is that, with this activity, we’ll encourage our children to appreciate the clothes we make for them. It’s not something we want to force them into, but by encouraging them to participate and by seeing other kids participating and be seeing how this community supports each other in their creative endeavors, they might start to feel like part of the creative community themselves. Over time I came to appreciate those clothes my mom made for me, and it really helped when other people complimented them so I started to see them in a different light.
Does that make sense? We don’t want you to force your kids in participating, but maybe with a little encouragement they’ll want to do it. And more importantly, we’ll hopefully be laying the groundwork for an appreciation of handmade and DIY that will last their entire lives!
Yay! I’m up for it. Question is: will my daughter comply? 😉
See my comment to Susan above, Cate. Please don’t force her–it should happen organically, we hope!
Great idea, Liesl. I’ll be in for sure. My kids wear handmades almost every day. We’ll see how many pictures I can snap 😉
We are also up for this great idea and will be posting many cute pics of our kids wearing handmade items!
We offer over 200 patterns for kids (age range: 1 month – 12 years).
Happy sewing! Joanna & Ilka
I have 3 sons (ages 7, 12, & 14) who have never had any interest in clothes their mother might sew for them. So, I sew a LOT for only my girl (age 3) but continue to offer to include her brothers. I am constantly met with rejection (especially from the older boys). Until finally one day, my 7 year old is watching me sew a tee for his sister when, out of nowhere, he says to me, “when are you ever going to make something for me?”
Really?! OK!!! So I frantically look for a boys pattern he approves of (sadly, Oliver + S patterns are too small for him now) and finally found him a super cool hoodie. I ordered fabric online that HE picked out. So he had full reign over the entire design process. The outcome? The hoodie is his favorite thing to wear and he has asked for more!
I guess this goes along with what Liesl was saying. I never forced my handmade creations on my kids. But by always leaving the offer on the table, my son decided (on his own!) when he was ready to participate and now he has fun with it. AND,his older brother (my 12 year old) is actually expressing interest now after seeing his brother’s hoodie. Win!
I got the same “when are you going to make something for ME?” recently from my son after I’d made a few things for my daughter. Then I made him a t-shirt but it doesn’t fit quite right so he understandably never wears it. I’ll keep trying. I might have to make him plain black hoodies if I expect him to wear anything I’ve made, but I’m willing to do it 🙂
I’m glad I’m not the only one!!
There are some very good cloth shops in my neighbourhood and my daughters like going with me to choose fabrics. There are some gorgeous indigo-dyed calicoes and the love being able to choose a fabric that they think is beautiful and then getting to wear it later. They also like having full control over the design process from picking the pattern they think works best with the fabric. It’s been great because it gives us a chance to talk about fashion and clothes and about what works and what might not.