Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Pattern Review Contest
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Sewing and tutoring
It's July 4th! Am I sewing? stamping? NO. We had a big family reunion on Sunday. I tutored yesterday. I may not join the family on the other side of town to watch fireworks as I need to get up very early to take care of my grandson. His day care is not open on the 5th.
What mischief have I gotten into? I had an awful lot of fun buying fabrics in the last few months. I'm still prewashing and ironing them. I went to S R Harris with a new sewing friend, Susan. I got batiks, flannels and other items like sequined collars.
This morning I , ahem, purchased 47 patterns at the Club BMV! Each was the price of a king size candy bar. They were out of print or clearance patterns from Kwik Sew, Vogue, McCalls and Butterick. I will need to spend some time organizing them, along with others bought in the last few months. They were $1.69 each with my Club BMV membership.
I finished 19 of the 21 pairs of pants or shorts I was making. I have two pairs that need another hour to finish up. I went over to where a number of refugee kids live near me, and began bringing out tote boxes with used clothing, the newly sewn pants, school supplies and toys. Well silly me. What was I thinking? They started grabbing inside the bins. I said NO, wait. I wanted an orderly give away , with kids in lines and letting each kid get a chance to get something they wanted. Well this didn't happen. Believe me I tried. However I needed a helper, and I should have brought out one type of item at a time to give away. I stopped some children from taking almost all of one item. My hope is that the items were shared and most got something. Mothers came over and they looked over the sleep pants and pants and took them. I'm sure they will be used. It would have been fun to have had a video of all this. Sorry, I don't own a video camera. I will tell you, the kids were very excited.
I have felt a little guilty not offering to help my church when I heard they were wanting to help the refugee adults by offering sewing and knitting classes at the local community center, where they take their English classes. I was very involved with the one family we sponsored Sept to Dec 2010. The reason I felt bad not helping them is because for 3 years in the mid 90's I had a sewing program for low income people. We would organize a series of 6 classes that were 3 hours each in various community centers or schools. It was a whole lot of work. It's the reason I had so many sewing machines when I lived in my old house.
I don't have the energy I did then and the tutoring is a full day a week. However I did agree to teach just 3 hour long classes this month at the community center. I found out that the women wanting to help teach sewing, did not sew themselves and didn't have teaching experience. They realized the way they were holding the classes was chaotic and frustrating.
I've also made phone calls, done research online, purchased books and watched a video on teaching to dyslexic people. I wanted to find out if there are tried and true methods for helping adults who don't read fluently. I think I'm basically doing well but I think I could refine and tweak my teaching methods.
What mischief have I gotten into? I had an awful lot of fun buying fabrics in the last few months. I'm still prewashing and ironing them. I went to S R Harris with a new sewing friend, Susan. I got batiks, flannels and other items like sequined collars.
This morning I , ahem, purchased 47 patterns at the Club BMV! Each was the price of a king size candy bar. They were out of print or clearance patterns from Kwik Sew, Vogue, McCalls and Butterick. I will need to spend some time organizing them, along with others bought in the last few months. They were $1.69 each with my Club BMV membership.
I finished 19 of the 21 pairs of pants or shorts I was making. I have two pairs that need another hour to finish up. I went over to where a number of refugee kids live near me, and began bringing out tote boxes with used clothing, the newly sewn pants, school supplies and toys. Well silly me. What was I thinking? They started grabbing inside the bins. I said NO, wait. I wanted an orderly give away , with kids in lines and letting each kid get a chance to get something they wanted. Well this didn't happen. Believe me I tried. However I needed a helper, and I should have brought out one type of item at a time to give away. I stopped some children from taking almost all of one item. My hope is that the items were shared and most got something. Mothers came over and they looked over the sleep pants and pants and took them. I'm sure they will be used. It would have been fun to have had a video of all this. Sorry, I don't own a video camera. I will tell you, the kids were very excited.
I have felt a little guilty not offering to help my church when I heard they were wanting to help the refugee adults by offering sewing and knitting classes at the local community center, where they take their English classes. I was very involved with the one family we sponsored Sept to Dec 2010. The reason I felt bad not helping them is because for 3 years in the mid 90's I had a sewing program for low income people. We would organize a series of 6 classes that were 3 hours each in various community centers or schools. It was a whole lot of work. It's the reason I had so many sewing machines when I lived in my old house.
I don't have the energy I did then and the tutoring is a full day a week. However I did agree to teach just 3 hour long classes this month at the community center. I found out that the women wanting to help teach sewing, did not sew themselves and didn't have teaching experience. They realized the way they were holding the classes was chaotic and frustrating.
I've also made phone calls, done research online, purchased books and watched a video on teaching to dyslexic people. I wanted to find out if there are tried and true methods for helping adults who don't read fluently. I think I'm basically doing well but I think I could refine and tweak my teaching methods.
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