My 6 year old is making a quilt!


It’s so amazing what our kids learn just by watching us. Cadie told me that she was going to make me a quilt for Christmas and then she just started doing it.  I was floored.

(Cadie knows that she is allowed to use my sewing machine on ‘turtle speed.’ That is our rule.}


It started when she found this charm pack of 5” squares that I brought home from Quilt Market. First she arranged the squares on my design wall and then she started sewing them in pairs. Who ever taught her to do that? Not me!


But, since I had also never taught her about seam allowances, her ‘blocks’ looked like this.

After making a few she grew really frustrated. Somehow she instinctively new that her blocks would not fit together!


Then I had an idea. This is a 1/4” piecing foot that came with my Juki TL-2010Q. I don’t like to use it because I generally sew with a scant 1/4” seam allowance, but it was perfect for Cadie. Once she figured out how to make the fabric edges touch that little stopper on the sewing machine foot, this six-year-old’s seams were perfectly even and straight!

And I unpicked all of the blocks she had sewn so far. It was going to be my quilt, after all. 🙂

More progress on Cadie’s quilt is to come!

So, what have you been sewing up this week? Did you make something with one of my free sewing tutorials or patterns? I would love to see! Tag me on Instagram @sewcanshe.

Happy Sewing!


Disclosure: some of my posts contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through one of those links I may receive a small commission, so thank you for supporting SewCanShe when you shop! All of the opinions are my own and I only suggest products that I actually use. 🙂

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12 Comments

  1. This is so lovely! As I child I was allowed to use the sewing machine when my mother supervised. And now I´m still sewing my own clothes. I hope your daughter found a hobby for a lifetime in quilting!

  2. Kathy Reilly says:

    I love it when kids are excited to sew things! It’s fun and great to build up their self-confidence. Can’t wait to see the finished quilt!

  3. What a huge blessing for your daughter!! You are giving her a valuable gift for a lifetime!!

  4. Marie cavanagh says:

    What a lovely little girl bless her. This made me feel so happy to see. Well done little lady.
    Regards Marie

  5. That’s great! I love to see her sewing as well 🙂 Can not wait for more progress 🙂

  6. Karen Sopjes says:

    Great to see her sewing. It is amazing what they learn by watching.

  7. that is just precious. First of all, she looks so like you, and now she’s sewing too?? Yea!
    LeeAnna

  8. Julie Stocker says:

    I used to sneak into my mother’s sewing room, and run her Singer. I just loved it! I bought my youngest her first sewing machine at age 7. A practical $100 Kenmore that would do plenty, and grow with her. She sewed a number of things with it, but didn’t love it. She continued to go with me to the fabric store, though, and was soon drawn to the yarn and fiber aisles. Her true love is knitting now, and she collects yarn like I do fabric. I think of that little Kenmore as her ‘starter drug’.

  9. That’s awesome, and she’s gotten pretty far. If she doesn’t finish and just kind of gives up (like I did as a child), save those blocks. I had started making a quilt for myself when I was pretty young out of fabric scraps, I never finished it, but there were a bunch of strips made. When I got married, my Mom took all of those strips (we’d moved by then so she even moved the strips) and made me a lap quilt, that actually fit a crib beautifully. She put a note with it that I was to never forget my childhood lessons.

  10. That is so awesome that your daughter is making a quilt!!!! I look forward to seeing her progress and final project!! 🙂

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