This is a very simple activity that is ideal as a 'first sewing project' for any young girl. It's easy for them to do, does not take too long and also gives them something practical and pretty at the end of it. This activity was designed with quite young girls in mnd (4-5 years), but even much older children would enjoy this, making it neat and decorating it afterwards also.
To start with, take some thick material - felt or something similar, but preferably something that is heavy enough to make a good bag, but also easy enough for a small child to push a wool needle through. In this case it was a very fuzzy, woolly cardigan that had gone through the washing machine at too high a temperature so was utterly unwearable, but instead had melded into a very firm, felt-like material that does not fray even when you cut it.
Cut two rectangles: one to be the front of the bag and the other long enough to form the back and then fold over the top to make the closure flap. Do not worry about being too exact or neat - this is only a 'first sewing project' for a small child, after all.
Take some brightly coloured wool and a large wool needle. Place the two pieces of material together and then sew in long stitch from the top of one side of the front piece down the side, along the bottom and back up the other side. If the child is very young [say 4 years old] and has not sewn before, try to encourage them to make the stitches the same length, not too big, to try and be neat and be careful about what they doing - to do a good job, etc. If you wish they can continue the pattern all round the edge of the closure flap and then finish back where they started. [See the picture below for a close-up to get the idea]
If your child is old enough you could do more complicated stitches or more than one row of stitches. Perhaps teach them different kinds of stitches - blanket stitch would be a particularly pretty and good one to use on this kind of bag, for example. You could use more than one colour thread.
If, like us, you are using an old cardigan then when you cut the pieces out, try to get a button-hole centrally placed in the bit that will fold over as the closure flap. If not, then now carefully cut a line where you want the buttonhole to be. If the material does not seem 'solid' enough you might need to reinforce the buttonhole with some stitching - again an opportunity to let older children experiment and learn new stitches ('buttonhole embroidery stitch'!). If it is 'felted cardie that's been through the hot cycle,' though, then you probably won't need to bother!
Sew on a button. (We used the same wool we had used to sew the bag together, and the button was one that had come off the old cardigan)
Then make the handle and attach it. The handle could be anything. If you have a long piece of something suitable ready to hand, use that. In this case we plaited together double strands of the same wool we had used to sew round the edge of the bag, leaving long tassles at either end. A finger chain would also work just as well, or any number of similar things, perhaps even plaited strips of material - anything, really.
You can also 'finish' the bag by adding embellishments and decorations. In another we made we sewed on a pretty fabric flower that had fallen off something else. Pretty buttons, patches, sequins or even appliqued flowers cut out from other material - anything that takes their fancy.
A simple project in which you can teach several basic sewing skills to a small child and in which they can feel quite an achievement with the end result, insha'Allah - the start upon which to build to learn other things for them insha'Allah.