I just love how these turned out! We took a fun painting technique and turned the finished artwork into sewing cards. Make your own DIY sewing cards with a hole punch and yarn. This is the easiest way to work on fine motor skills and it saves you money.
A great fine motor activity for kids is sewing. The coordination required for putting a thread in and out in a pattern is good finger work and good brain work. This activity is perfect for older preschool kids, and early elementary kids.
You can make a few of these in different shapes for a busy bag game. It makes a wonderful activity for your older kiddo if you have a new baby at home. Your child can sew the cards while you feed the baby .
We used these as a busy bag or learning center for our preschool time. Once you make them, laminate them and they will last a long time. Here is how to made ours.
Make Your Own Sewing Cards for Kids
Supplies:
- Cardstock (One 8×11 piece will make two sewing cards.)
- Tempera paint
- Plastic forks, spoons, etc.
- Cookie sheet or butcher paper to keep the creative surface clean.
- Scissors
- Hole punch
- Yarn
- Scotch tape
- Laminator (optional)
Making DIY Sewing Cards
Teaching children to sew is an important life skills and can be done in fun ways. The skills required can be built with these sewing cards.
First off, we placed a piece of cardstock into a cookie sheet. You can also protect your table with whatever you like, but I like how the edges of a cookie sheet contain mess.
Then, on the paper place dollops of paint. You can use one color or different colors. Whatever your child prefers.
Your child can use simple art supplies – plastic fork or other utensils – to drag the paint across the paper. It is such a fun activity for them!
When they are finished making their artwork, let the paper dry completely. You can make as many of these as you want.
When the painting is dry, cut out larger shapes from the pages. I cut two sewing cards from each piece of cardstock., I cut a sun shape, a boot shape, a circle, a rectangle. You can cut out whatever larger shape you want. Even random squiggly shapes work.
After you cut out your sewing cards, use a hole punch to place holes around the edges of each card. You will space these out about every inch or so.
At this point, if you have a laminator, I recommend laminating each card for durability.
If you do not have a laminator, this is the one I love. Or, you can just skip this step. If you do laminate, you will have to punch each hole again.
Next cut a long piece of yarn. You will need a piece about 24 inches long. Cut one and sew it around one card to see if it is long enough to sew all around the card. You may need to cut a longer piece depending on the size of your cards.
When your yarn is long enough, tie one end through one of the holes in the card. Then wrap a small piece of scotch tape around the other end. This will help to keep the end of the yarn from fraying.
I store all my sewing cards in a zip top bag so my kids can pull it out whenever they want to use the cards.
These are a great little rainy-day activity. It is also a great one to use at restaurants or waiting in doctors’ office waiting rooms. It is screen-free learning time that keeps little hands busy and quiet.
Let me know how making your DIY sewing cards go! Leave a comment about the process below.