Well, I finally decided that The Princess (age 8) is old enough to learn to sew on a REAL sewing machine. Last year we bought her a "child's" sewing machine, and I'm not going to mention the brand, but it just does. not. work. well. at. all. It is impossible to thread and then it doesn't like to stay that way, so you end up spending more time threading it than actually sewing.
But The Princess really wanted to learn to sew, and she kept asking me to help her with it. Not wanting to face that uncooperative little machine, I urged her to stick to hand-sewing until she was "ready" to get a starter machine.
But The Princess did not really find this a satisfactory answer. And finally, I had to admit that it really wasn't. I mean, she sees me machine-sewing a lot, and it is only reasonable for her to want to try it for herself.
So, this morning I gathered up my courage and found her some safety eyewear, and we had our first lesson using my precious Bernina. After several nice straight rows of stitching (all by herself!), we both still have all of our fingers, so I'm calling it a huge success. Now, the serger... she's going to have a wait a few more years before I let her touch that.