Adventures in Sewing

One of the most fun parts of my classes this year was the sewing unit in Orientation to FACS.  We did this unit in 9 weeks and I was quite ambitious.  We made pillows, aprons, and pajama pants.  I had two sections with 10 and 15 students respectively, and only 5 sewing machines to work with.  That's right 5.  For anyone who has ever attempted sewing before, you know that this is quite a task.  Only a couple of my students had ever touched a sewing machine before.  Most of them were scared for their lives (and their fingers).  Needless to say it was a unique experience. 

The first project was designing their own pillow.  Nothing large or complex just a few pieces of fabric sewn together to give them a feel for working with the fabric and the machine and have something to show for their efforts.  The projects went really well.  We had some very nice looking pillows, lots of unique color combinations.  I was pretty happy.  As I carted these things home to grade, I was pleasantly surprised at how well they had done.  Until I get to one pillow. 

Upon first inspection, it looks nice.  Even stitches, straight seams, even stuffing.  Except for one corner.  As I'm feeling for lumps in the stuffing, I find something hard.  It's small, right in the corner of the pillow.  What on earth has this girl stuffed in her pillow?  It's small, hard and in the shape of a cylinder.  Any guesses?  A spool of thread.  I guess instead of tying a knot to keep her thread in place when she sewed her pillow shut, she just left the thread on the spool.  When I asked her about it at school the next day, she replied, "I wondered where that went!" 

There were a few other incidents, but none as humorous as that first one.  We had a few crooked apron pockets, and there was the pair of pants that one boy sewed a front piece and a back piece together and a back piece and a front piece together to make his pants.  To explain, you end up with a piece that is more curved (that's supposed to fit your back side better) on the front of your pants.  It makes for an interesting fashion statement and a strange walk!

Overall, I would call our first efforts at sewing a success.  Next year, I will not be quite so ambitious.  I need more sanity at the end of those nine weeks!