Camp Stitch-A-Lot started in 1999 to help Snohomish County 4-H members enter their work at the Evergreen State Fair. But sewing is so much more than a yearly project aimed at earning a blue ribbon.

Long before basic sewing needle options evolved as “sharps” or “betweens,” cave-era folks simply threaded bone shard and animal horn with sinew or plant fiber to stitch animal skins into outerwear.

My 11-year-old son pressed the sewing machine foot pedal like a NASCAR driver hitting the gas on a straight away. The machine hummed and rattled as he fed the fabric under the flashing needle. I ...