Infinity

Infinity scarf made from recycled sweater.

I was just in the middle of using my seam ripper to dissect this African shirt I found at the thrift store the other day when I realized I needed to take a "before" picture in order to illustrate what the item looked like pre-surgery.

I think I have an idea of what this shirt will become, but you know what they say about the best laid plans.

Fabric

I purchased the fabric for my sample dress. I could make it out of muslin, but I thought that this would be more fun. Since it is a sample size 8, needless to say, I will not be wearing it myself. It might end up being a little loud, but I wanted to look at the finished product as more than a garment. I might end up adorning my dress form for quite some time.

Session 2





French dart



I guess I slacked and never finished up logging in about the end of the first session. I actually made quite a few projects, but I guess I will add the pics later. They may end up as gifts. I have finally made good friends with the industrial sewing machine. I actually really like it. The second session will consist of making a size 8 dress and then having open lab. We have the option of making another garment for ourselves or working on other items. I plan on learning as much as I can about the finer details of garment making. I want to pick the instructor's brain because I will have a different teacher for draping.




Kick Pleat

Week Three

Another one bites the dust.....four. Actually, I think that we will really be six, but people were not able to attend last night. I finally figured out that it was not me, it was the machine. Really. I swear. My machine was having an "issue", so I had to switch to another. When I stepped on the pedal I swear I heard a chorus singing. It was so easy,so smooth. Like a fine-tuned Italian sports car. I had no problem controlling it and it never got away from me. It performed the tiniest edge stitch around a curve with no problem. I am just glad I found out this early in my tutelage. As you can see, we made a skirt last night. Our real purpose was to learn how to put in an invisible zipper, but my teacher decided it would be more fun to make a skirt and learn other piecing skills as well. No, you are not seeing things. I put the pin cushion in the photo for scale. That skirt would fit on my arm. We made "mini" skirts.

Funny story of the evening? My teacher was telling me how she was having a bad day. It all started when she got up to get dressed in the morning. That is when it started, but it did not come to fruition until later in the day. She crashed a departmental computer among other things. Anyway, she was up in front of a class and she casually put her hands on her lower back and realized that he had put her hands in pockets. She was wearing a dress that should have a tie in the back and pockets in the front. She had put her dress on backwards and not realized it. She wanted to know why nobody had said anything to her all day. I said that she teaches in a fashion department. Who is going to question your fashion choices? They probably thought she was trying out a new trend.

Week Two

...and then there were six. Ooops, missed a week. I could not believe it. We went from 10 to 6 in the matter of seven days. No more bobbin. There goes most of my comic relief. I think my favorite item from this week was how people can show up so incredibly unprepared for a class. We are all adults. This is a class at night. You are paying for it. You are not pulling all-nighters. We were given our class supply list on the first night of class. We not only received it, we went over each item with our instructor. Someone had the nerve to show up this week with absolutely no supplies. Nothing. I thought that she was just lacking her material. Nope. She had nada, niente. She claimed to have lost her list. Umm, you know what class you are taking. You could call the school and ask for the teacher or her e-mail. Really people.

Anyway, this week was all about darts. See above. I sort of screwed up the edge stitching on the curve. What can I say? It was late and the NASCAR machine got away from me.

I have now officially become a kiss-a**. One of the items on our supply list was a pincushion. Preferably a magnetic one. I bought one of those, but I decided that I needed a little je ne sais quoi. I decided to make a wrist pincushion out of some leftover scrap from a men's shirt and some vintage fabric. I wore it and my teacher loved it. I know. Brown noser.

Pin Cushion

On our list of school supplies was "pin cushion". You could use any type that you wanted. I bought a magnetic holder to play pick-up sticks with. I decided to make my own wrist pin cushion. Since I did it without a pattern it turned out to be absolutely HUGE. You know, like one of those wrist corsages they write into a prom scene on a sitcom. The wrist band part was made out of a leftover men's shirt cuff that was in my scrap pile. I just added some elastic.

Week One

Industrial sewing machines. Who knew? Since nobody in the class had ever used one, all one could hear was the loud sound of runaway sewing machines. It was similar to the cacophony at the starting line of the Indy 500. I am not exaggerating. My teacher is great. I really like her. I am one who will only use power tools with strict supervision. I would never walk up to a drill saw and start working. I tend to be cautious around dangerous machinery and this sewing machine was no different. I think that the teacher explaining how powerful they were and that, yes, they can sew through a finger. She knew. She had done it. Her thumb. OK, I promise that I will never try and do anything to the machine without making sure it is turned off. Trust me.

This class is a short course in the methods of garment making in accordance with industry standards. (If I had audio, you would now hear Austin Powers mutter, "Alright".") Not much chatter went on during class. In fact, most of the students were pretty mute. Well, some of the others should have taken the cue. I finally ended up befriending the student at the machine next t o me. I suppose that I shall mention the reason for my previous comment about students being seen and not heard. There is one student who arrived in all of her preppiness. That was not the problem. I appreciate the prepster. The problem I had with her is that we were doing some work and the teacher noticed that she had not cut her thread. Said student gave the teacher an exasperated look and replied, "I don't have scissors." wtf. Those of us from the guerrilla school of sewing just used our teeth. This just seemed to foreshadow her behavior in the future weeks. That's right. I think I have ESPN about this one. Anyway, I told my friend, m, about this. She has decided that this particular student shall be referred to as "Bobbin" from now on. So it shall be.

Our first class was about getting acclimated to the machine and then learning various seams. Simple, French, and felled. Next week, "darts".