Have you ever put off something for 10 years because it seemed too much to take on? Neither have I. 😂 Burlap stitching is something I knew the kids would enjoy, but thinking about how to balance all the needles, yarn, knots, and tangles just made my mind buffer then decide not to try it.

Last summer I stitched an embroidery sampler style kit. Guided by the knowledge found in TikTok and YouTube tutorials, I learned how to create many different stitches. This might have been just the nudge I needed to try teaching it this year.

After 10 years of neglect, my burlap pile finally saw the other side of the storage closet for this project. Armed with lots of yarn color choices, buttons bought just for this project, the biggest dullest plastic needles ever, and masking tape, we were ready to give it a try.

Knot School was my idea to teach the students independence in tying their knots. I taught them how to tie a knot and then they showed me they could tie their own knot. I wish I did that with all 5 of my classes but I only did it with one. I also wished I added Threading school as a prerequisite to the Intro to Stitching. When I teach this next I’m going to really put time into these before we do anything else. The time investment definitely would have been regained when the stitching started.

We sketched ideas on paper and drew them onto burlap with a black marker. They cut a piece of yarn and brought it to me to be knotted, threaded on their needle, and started from the back for the 1st stitch.

I also ordered some embroidery hoops to add a finishing touch. It got pretty quiet with concentration a few times. Most students seemed to like it. I even got the accusatory comment by a 5th grader that they didn’t get to do that when they were in 4th grade. Stamp of approval received.

I originally thought that the goals of this project would be to learn how to stitch a design with at least 2 colors of thread and to learn how to sew on a button. My button’s holes were too small for our mega needles so I bought a smaller metal set and a class set of needle threaders. The logistics of threading everyone’s needles for just the button plus the fact that somehow I bought some novelty buttons without holes created an easier solution of me hot gluing their buttons/nonbuttons onto their stitched design.