Make Welcome Refugee Women's Center
Teaching Sewing to Limited English Speakers

Teaching Sewing to Limited English Speakers

Welcome to our sewing resources for ELL students. Our program has been providing both hobby and manufacturing sewing skills training for the last 12 years. In that time, we’ve discovered and developed lots of helpful resources and learned a few things about what works and what doesn’t. As we enter our 13th year of existence, we want to share more of what we’ve learned. So, for the time being, this page will serve as an online respository for tools you can use to teach (or learn!) sewing in a limited English context. This is a page in progress, so bookmark and check it frequently for updates.

Sewing Vocabulary

We teach 8-10 English vocabulary words each unit, using a combination of Total Physical Response (TPR), worksheets, games, and digital tools. For our beginner classes, here are the vocabulary lists and Wordwall practice pages.

Patterns (and what skills they teach)

  • Patchwork Bag Pattern from Polka Dot Chair – This pattern is great for teaching seam allowance, ironing skills, as well as an introduction to interfacing. It’s quite easy for students to see what happens when their seam allowance isn’t consistent. We precede this pattern by doing a seam allowance lesson, and students must successfully sew squares together using respectively 3/8″ 1/2″ and finally 5/8″ seam allowance.
  • Burrito Pillowcase pattern from Thimbles – This is one of our all time favorite beginner sewing lessons, as the gasps of surprise rise around the room when everyone pulls out the sewn pillowcase from the “burrito”. We use this to teach proper pinning, reinforce straight sewing, pivoting and seam allowance, plus begin to introduce ironing techniques. Also, for students who are oral learners and sew from “sight” rather than from a pattern, this can be an important introduction to why pattern instructions are so important for jobs in America. When students try to sew from sight, it doesn’t work and they quickly run into problems. If there’s only one pattern from here that you use in your program, let this be the one!
  • Fabric Basket from Heather Handmade – This is another popular pattern, both with teachers and students. Use it to focus on interfacing and topstitching, but you can also introduce piping and how to use a zipper foot to sew on.

Free Sewing Posters/Handouts

Free Online Worksheets

Blog Posts Related to Teaching Sewing

At times, teachers write down their thoughts on teaching sewing and working in a classroom of mostly oral learners. We’ve compiled those blog posts all into one place for you.