This year, for our Christmas gifts to parents, I taught my class how to embroider!
We began the process in early December, with a trip to the computer lab where students picked out simple designs that they thought their parents would like. After collecting some embroidery hoops from parents, and purchasing the rest from Michael's and Fabricland, my students began to work on their embroidery!
I found some photos online showing how to do a splitstitch (my stitch of choice, it's great for beginners because they don't accidentally leave gaping holes between two of their stitches). I gave each student a copy of the photos for reference, but I feel like it was easier for them to just watch me demonstrate how to do it. Some students struggled with threading their needles, but overall, the embroidery part of this went so quickly. Several students had time to do multiple embroidery projects!
When they were finished, they were given a frame, which they
used to frame their projects. Hopefully we had some happy parents on Christmas morning!
Overall I would say this was one of the least difficult projects I have done of this kind (think: weaving, knitting, etc.) The kids picked it up really quickly, and seemed to really enjoy the process!