A Gold Star

I had seven students in my jacket class yesterday. I thought it went well. Two ladies came to class with their patterns already cut out. They finished about an hour ahead of everyone else. I prefer that students not cut their patterns out ahead of time because I like to talk about fitting and tracing and grading, but old habits are hard to break. They were happy with their finished jackets, though, and that is what counts.

I really need to do some kind of demo day or presentation on fabric choices. I don’t know that it needs to be a whole class—although I certainly could turn it into a three-hour class—because students don’t always choose the best fabric for their projects. I used to have the same issue when I taught knitting, even when I specified yarn and needle sizes. I had a woman show up one time thinking that she would use navy blue sock yarn on size 2 needles to learn a very intricate cabling technique. Um, no.

And it wasn’t that any of the students had the “wrong” fabric, but I would have steered a few of them in a different direction. I did spend about 20 minutes at the start of class talking about fabric and fitting and some other topics.

The really fun parts of class are the ones that aren’t scripted. One of the ladies, Mary, took the Easton Cowl class a few weeks ago. She brought this with her to yesterday’s class:

She had gone home after class and made herself another one. We ooohed and ahhhed over it. Seeing students take the skills they learn in class and run with them is one of the best parts of teaching. The husband asked me if I had given her a gold star. I should have.

The store owner was also in yesterday’s class. She made her jacket out of fleece and wanted to do the blanket stitch serger edging on it. I helped her pick out thread and showed her the settings on the machine. She was able to make a few test samples to try it out and said she would do the edgings after class.

I want people to be fearless. I want them to think creatively about how they can make their projects unique.

And because it was an all-day class, we had plenty of time to talk over a variety of subjects. Without prompting, several of the ladies complained about our Joann Fabrics and how depressing it is to go in there. They are not happy about the limited store hours, either. And my sense that people want to sew more of their own clothes again is not far off base. Certainly, these women would like to do so. The sticking point seems to be locating quality fabrics. I applaud the quilt store owners for being willing to invest money in garment fabric inventory, because that is a risk for them. I think they’re seeing the demand for those fabrics, though, and that feeds on itself.

I see parallels to what quilters say it was like in the 70s and 80s, when quilting started to enjoy a resurgence in popularity but floral-y calicoes were the only fabrics available. Look where we are now with quilting fabrics.

I’ll do my part and continue to wear my me-mades so that people can see what is possible. (I had on one of my LC knock-offs yesterday.) At the end of class the students were asking what classes we had scheduled for 2023. The interest is there—we just need to keep feeding it.

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I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving if you’re celebrating this week, and a great week if you’re not. I’ll see you after the fact.