Textiles and Clothing Construction Class: Project #2 Blouse/Top With Sleeves

Last semester, my students in our homeschool program completed

two sewing projects from a pattern in our 

Textiles and Clothing Construction class.

The first project we completed was pajama pants

and you can click here to see my post on that.

For our second project, we constructed a top or blouse with sleeves.
What fun it was to shop with these girls and watch

their personalities blossom as they chose the styles

and fabrics that appealed to them!!

 

This project was particularly challenging to the girls 

as we learned to measure their body type 

against the measurements on a pattern envelope.

Off-the-rack clothing and measurements on a pattern are inevitably

never the same. 

I let the girls chose whatever pattern suited them,

and a couple of them had tons of little steps that just seemed

to take lots of time.

The girls had never executed some of the skills presented to complete

their garment, so it took us several weeks to get through

all the instructions.

In the end, I was so very pleased with how each girl's

garment turned out.

They learned how to choose appropriate fabrics for the garment style they chose,

  measuring their body types and choosing a pattern size to construct,

how to set in sleeves, top-stitching, hemming,

pressing and seam finishing.

What a delight it has been for me as the guide to watch these

young ladies learn perseverance when the struggles were real,

how to envision a finished product when it looks like a hot mess,
and how to express their individual styles in their clothing choices!!
But most of all as they graciously are learning to live out our theme verse:

"She seeketh wool and flax,

and worketh willingly with her hands."
Proverbs 31:13

Textiles and Clothing Construction Class: Project #1 Jammie Pants

This fall I've had the charming privilege

of, once again, teaching Family and Consumer Science classes

to the high school girls at our homeschool program.
Last year I taught Beginning Foods and
Beginning Sewing and Crafts.
This year, the girls wanted to continue to learn

and expand on the skills we explored, so I'm teaching

Textiles and Clothing Construction this fall semester.

Next semester, we delve into Advanced Foods.

We spent the first few weeks of the new school year learning

about fabrics and textiles and how to care for synthetic and natural

fibers.  We also discussed how to choose fabrics that are the most

appropriate for the garment or project you are making.
In this class, we are constructing three garments from a pattern.

The first garment we made was pajama pants.
The girls did such a good job,

and they loved how this project turned out!

Homeschool Co-op Award Night with Craft and Bake Sale

 Just as we were finishing up our school year, our homeschool assistance program

had a heart warming student awards night.

We heard from our piano teacher's students in a little recital,

and our student body gave recitations and sang some of the music

they competed with during the school year!

Each student received academic and character awards,

and the evening wrapped up with a lovely reception.

My Family and Consumer Science Class hosted a mini-craft and bake sale with all the proceeds 

benefiting the home-school program.   The girls had made some extra sewing projects

throughout the year, and then made some cutie baked goods to sell too!

 We all had such a delightful time together celebrating all the accomplishments of

each student and what a wonderful year we had together!!!

Fun sewing project #7: Beginning Quilting

 The last several weeks have been such a blur, 

and now I'm playing catch-up.

So much has happened that I want to journal!!

Our final sewing project for my Family and Consumer Science 

Homeschool Co-op Class  was a doozy!!

It took just about 3 weeks for us to finish this project, but we had so much fun in the process.

 

 We had a lovely guest teacher come in to show us the basics of this

home arts textile craft and she brought lots of goodies to share.

She made these adorable rag baskets {pictured above}

 for each of my students and myself out of scraps

of fabric she had collected.

She showed us lots of examples that she was working on that were so very

inspirational to us!!

 

 The girls learned about choosing colors to have a color co-ordinated finished product.

 The girls learned how to use the rotary cutter to cut strips of fabric and 

then their squares.

 They had fun deciding which pattern they wanted for their quilt piece, and

making sure all the directionals went in the same direction!!!

 Pressing, pressing, and more pressing!!

 It was so exciting when the top of their quilts were finished,

and we could begin to see the reward of all that hard work!!

 Learning the basics of machine quilting:  The "stitch-in-the-ditch!"

 This project was pretty intense for these girls,

and they were all delighted with their finished pieces!!!