Russell County 4-H sewing volunteer leaders offered a five-day 4-H sewing day camp to eight youth.  Developing life skills and crafting skills such as sewing have been shown to increase hand/eye coordination, improve critical thinking skills, and helps develop creative thinkers.  Learning to sew produces a sense of confidence and accomplishment in youth as they learn new skills and complete projects.  It also gives youth the opportunity to understand textiles, construction techniques, and design principles (National 4-H).  Youth also learn to try new things, that mistakes are permissible and fixable, and that perseverance is important.  They also develop confidence in their abilities. The participating youth received 15 hours of instruction in beginning sewing which involved learning many basic sewing skills.  Per a post-program evaluation, 100% of the youth indicated that they learned the following skills:

• Identifying parts of the sewing machine and knowing how to use the machine in a safe manner;
• Threading the sewing machine;
• Controlling the speed of the sewing machine;
• Following ironing safety precautions;
• Setting the stitches;
• Pressing seams open;
• Putting the right sides of the fabric together and pinning it for sewing;
• Sewing straight lines;
• Changing the stitch length of the sewing machine;
• Beginning and ending a seam correctly;
• Sewing ½” seams;
• Bringing up the bobbin thread;
• Clipping corners; and
• Identifying woven fabric.

Over 75% of the youth also said that they learned to use sewing scissors, sew a basting stitch, and to sew curved lines, angles, and corners,

Over half of the youth indicated that they might enter their day camp projects in the county fair and that they wanted to continue to develop their sewing skills.