Kids love arts and crafts and teaching your kids how to needlepoint is a great way to share a hobby. An added benefit is that keeping little hands and minds busy is helpful in many ways - for travel, time spent waiting, relaxation and anxiety relief. Let us share with you how easy it is to teach kids to stitch.

Choose a Kid-Friendly Canvas

Start your little one on a canvas with large holes and large areas of a single color. You might consider our high-quality kids kits that include everything your little one needs. We carry both 7-mesh and 10-mesh projects that come with a handpainted canvas, yarn, needle, threader and instructions.

Teach Your Kids How To Thread a Needle

There are multiple ways to thread a needle, and the kits come with a needle threader and instructions. An easy alternative for little hands is to fold the thread in half and push it through the eye of the needle. The needles included in the kids kits have a bigger eye (opening) to accommodate the yarn and larger size mesh of the canvas.

Learn the Waste Knot

A great first step for a beginner starting a needlepoint project is to create a waste knot. Simply tie a small knot at the furthest end of the thread opposite the needle. It doesn’t need to be pretty since you’ll cut it away later—hence the name “waste knot.” From the front of the canvas, put the threaded needle in the canvas an inch from where you will place your first stitch. You’ll come up from the back of the canvas into the hole, creating a tail of thread anchored by the waste knot. Stitch towards the knot and eventually the tail will get covered with stitches, at which point, the waste knot can be cut away.

Demonstrate Simple Stitches

Kids can easily learn the tent stitch, using either continental or basketweave. Especially on the larger mesh canvases, it’s easy to demonstrate and practice these stitches.

Show Them Anchoring and Starting New Threads

Show your new stitcher how to end their thread and start a new one by anchoring it to existing threads so that they can switch colors and threads easily. To end a thread, simply run the needle under several stitches on the back of the canvas and cut the remaining thread off close to the canvas. To start a new thread/color, either use the waste knot or slide the newly threaded needle under several stitches on the back of the canvas and come up in the hole where you want to start your first stitch.

Let us help you teach your kids how to needlepoint and share the love of stitching. Find kits any kid would enjoy at Needlepoint.com and let the creativity flow!