Running Stitch on Burlap

A charmingly simple first sewing project!

For easy practice with learning running stitch, I love to give children burlap, a needle with a blunt tip and a large eye, and pearl cotton. In the Waldorf scope & sequence, I put this Handwork project in Kindergarten, but it has always been a big hit at summer camps as well!

For tidiness, you can put masking tape along the edge of the burlap (this also gives you a place to put the child's initials).

Children who are new to the idea of running stitch can just work on a simple line design. But you can make it as complicated as you would like!

Zac, Sep 2020
age 5

Zac, Jun 2023
age 8

Zac, Jun 2025
age 10

I have two favorite ways to introduce this project. For sandy-colored burlap, I like to use the "Sandpipers" poem by April Halprin Wayland, p.19 of Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems edited by Paul B. Janeczko.

(click on photo to enlarge)

For a fun twist on this project, we've also read the Inuit legend The Raven and the Loon by Rachel and Sean Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley, and embroidered designs with white embroidery floss on black burlap.

Here are the plans for this activity that I wrote up for Touch of Nature a few years ago: www.waldorfcurriculum.com/SummerCamp/RavenLoon.pdf.

Have fun!

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