My husband is a renaissance man.
Currently he is interested in making furniture and in order to get a head start on learning upholstery he has asked me to teach him to sew.
He asked as I was in the middle of hemming my first circle skirt and then proceeded to stare me down until I finished so I could begin teaching him.
I started by having him do the following:
1. Wind a bobbin
2. Thread the bottom and top of the machine
3. Set the stitch and thread tension (after explaining them)
After this, I explained seam allowance, straight vs zigzag stitch, sewing right side to right side, and how to lock the stitch.
Then I gave him some cabbage (fabric scraps) and let him try it out!
(He didn’t realize there was a peddle you’re meant to depress)

He was totally amazed that sewing was so simple. That you could create something so well-made in seconds (obviously, depends on what you’re making).
The next day we went to a thrift shop in the French port city we’re currently staying in and bought a ton of bedsheets, pillowcases, curtains and tablecloths to use for our future creations.
As soon as we got home he sat down and took apart an old t-shirt of his. I instructed him on how to make a pattern from his disassembled garment (which we used a purple paper tablecloth to draft).
Then he began choosing which fabric he wanted to make up his shirt.

The front and back would be in the floral pattern pictured above and the sleeves would be cut from a Bambi bedsheet and elongated to reach the wrists.
After discussing the general construction of the shirt I left him to it. He sewed the front and back together with no issue but needed more direction with the sleeves.
Honestly, I haven’t added sleeves to any of the one top I’ve made (it was a monster and currently being remade- will post when it’s acceptable) so I was mostly working off of theory rather than practice.
We was very proud of himself and kept trying it on Pinning the sleeves on
After sewing on the sleeves we worked out the collar (which was initially too small because we didn’t account for seam allowance – whoops) and then gave it a quick ironing, paying special attention to future hems to cut down on pin use.
Lastly, he hemmed the bottom and sleeve cuffs and it was finished!
Leona always has to get in the shot
From start to finish this took him about 2.5 hours with only one minor setback not completely caused by him.
As you can see, he is very satisfied with the outcome and I think he did a really great job!