Top 15 Reasons for New Mothers to Learn to Sew

As any sewing enthusiast will tell you, it is always a good time to learn to sew. There are special advantages however to learning to sew when you have a young family. Whilst you may feel you have no time and no energy to learn something new when you are pregnant, have a new baby or have a brood of small children, the benefits can far outweigh any perceived difficulties. Consider the following benefits:

1. Having young children can be a big drain on the family budget, particularly if one parent stops work or moves to part-time work. Kids’ clothes are very expensive with huge mark-ups even on basic items. Sewing your children’s clothes is very cost effective.

2. As any new mother soon discovers, a lot of baby clothes on the market are not very practical. It can be surprisingly difficult, for example, to find body suits without the feet sewn into them. Babies quickly grow out of bodysuits with sewn in feet.

3. Unless you are a pure traditionalist, you are likely to get sick of the standard range of blue for boys and pink for girls. Likewise, a lot of baby clothes on the market are sickeningly cutsie. While ranges are getting better, particularly in the expensive designer stores, you have access to a much bigger range when you sew yourself and you can express you own style and individuality in your kids clothes.

4. As your kids grow, you will be called on many times to create fabulous costumes for fancy dress events. The ability to sew will save your sanity at these times.

5. Kids are tough on clothes and to be able to mend your own will save you a lot of time and money. Good sewing skills will help you do a more professional repair job.

6. As most women will have discovered when shopping for themselves, often you find an outfit in the shops that really suits you and you’d like another in different colours but you can’t find it. When you can sew, once you have a pattern that suits your kids, you can replicate it as often as you like and in as many different fabrics and colours as you like. With the right skills, you can also make the same thing in different sizes as your kids grow.

7. A common complaint from mothers is that they don't have any "me time". Sewing can provide that quiet time to create which is very therapeutic yet while also being useful and money saving, all at home without the need for babysitters.

8. New mothers have often given up work for the first time in their lives. Learning a new skill at this time can help with self esteem issues and confidence as well as provide an interest outside pure babyland.

9. It is also not necessarily more time intensive to sew. It can often be very time consuming to shop for specific clothes and often you end up empty handed. Time is too valuable with young kids - who gets hours to go to the shops? When you can sew your own clothes you will never end up empty handed because you will always be able to make what you want even if you can't buy it. And you can start sewing whenever you get a spare half an hour - like when the baby is napping, or after the kids have gone to bed. Often when the shops aren't open anyway.

10. Sewing is a great skill to be able to pass onto your kids and a great opportunity for bonding time with them when they are older.

11. For pregnant women, sewing can help satisfy that nesting instinct which might otherwise see you scrubbing out the panty cupboard.

12. Imagine no more headaches trying to find the matching piece to the perfect outfit. Simply make you own exactly the way you want it.

13. Patterns can be reused and reused and reused and the look of the clothes updated with different fabrics or buttons.

14. Sewing can be quite a social hobby. There are numerous online forums, clubs and lots of short courses in local areas to learn basic and more advanced sewing skills, great for new mums feeling a little isolated at home.

15. Have good basic sewing skills can lead into other hobbies like quilting, a great way to create your own family heirlooms for your kids.