Sewn Products Diva: July 2009

Friday, July 24, 2009

Eddie's Big Adventure

My name is Eddie. This is me before my big adventure. I was big and strong. I was a "tuff" cat. The picture on the right is what happened to me as I was running away from being eaten by .....I can't even tell you.....I was running away so fast. The vet said that I was lucky to be alive. I have scratch marks all over my belly. AND the bite they took just to the right of my tail took all the skin. That pink stuff is muscle. I have to wear a special collar so that I don't help clean my wound. Neosporin doesn't taste as good as my favorite cat food. My Mommy was so glad to see me. AND Daddy actually came over to me and picked me up. Ah......to feel love again !!!!

I was gone 21 days and lost 3 pounds. My claws were badly mangled. It's a jungle out there !!!!

The only one who was NOT glad to see me, was Stella, my sister cat. She is just getting over having surgery for a plugged anal gland. She and Mommy were very thrilled she did not have cancer. BUT she is spending all her time trying to keep me in line.

Trust me. They don't have to try to keep me in line. I THANK GOD every day that I found my way home and don't have to scrounge for food and water any more. It is HOT and SCARY out there !!!

I hope I remember what happened to me in the months down the road. I don't want to repeat another big adventure. I realize that I only have 8 lives left.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Fandango to Whittier Museum

Hope you all had a very happy and safe July 4th!!!! This week we accomplished a lot !!!!

Serging: Make sure you marked your notches and dots before you take your pattern pieces off the cut fabric. We embroidered a pocket for our robes – last week. The next thing to sew up is the shoulder seams and sleeves in the armholes. Remember to serge your sleeve bands on before serging the sleeves to the armholes. It occurred to me, that the technique for sewing in the sleeves in the armholes – WITHOUT PINS – could be new for some of you, so I will demo this on Monday morning. THIS IS A GREAT TECHNIQUE. Once you learn it, you will use it all the time. You won’t be using many pins any more. After you sew up your shoulder seams and sleeves, it is time for a fitting. We need to place the pockets perfectly and we need to decide where we will be putting our belt loops. If you have the time, work ahead. Sew (straight stitch) up your pockets with the lining fabric. Slit the lining fabric and turn your pockets right side out. Iron them flat. We will need them ready for the fitting. If you have time, serge on your neck band.

Basic Sewing: Now that you have serged up your fabric pieces, it is time to repin the patterns to the fabric and mark your notches, and dots, etc. Make sure your notches are all marked with china marker, pencil, etc. Clipping the notches and dots through the serging will defeat the purpose of the serging which is to keep the fabric from unraveling. About ½ of you embroidered your pocket. Start sewing your nightshirt together with the shoulder seams. You can then put in your sleeves FLAT and start work on your neckline. I will demo all of this. I will also demo putting your pockets together. Then we can have our first garment fitting. We will see how the neckline fits after it is staystiched. We will place our pocket in a GREAT spot.

Patternmaking: We started working on our pants draft. It is time to finish it this week and start to make muslin toiles of the draft. The leggings can be tested in a 4-way stretch knit.
DON’T WORRY SO MUCH. I got many emails stating that they didn’t like what was happening to their drafts. You need to realize that the drafts will reflect what the measurements tell them. Once we make the toiles, we can tweak the fabric and take the tweaking back to the patterns. Remember, the final fabric pants are the end result of all the drafting and tweaking. Everyone’s measurements are different because everyone’s body is slightly different. When you manufacture clothing, you take an AVERAGE of the body type you want to fit. Trust me. This is how designers make millions in the mass market. Calvin Klein made his money by fitting rear ends. Donna Karen fits people with big boobs. Ralph Lauren lowered the crotch on gentlemen’s jeans. AND SO ON. This is NOT couture. This is for the millions of people who need to buy from the mass market and can not afford to spend $500 – $5,000 on one garment. Come and finish up the pants draft with me. For those of you who were not there for the last class, we are #17 of the two dart pants sloper in your handout. This is where we will begin on Wednesday, July 8th.

In Embroidery, we did pocket toppers. (Of course, I didn’t finish mine. I am trying to cover up a hole that my wondrous husband put in his shirt. We learned how and why to use a template. This week, we will be doing an all in the hoop project. It is the teddy bear from our text book. For those of you with embroidery machines, I would strongly suggest that you input this design DIRECTLY into your machine. It is too big for the amazing box cards. I did make it into a 4 by 4 design. BUT…I have NO IDEA how it will stitch out.

Of course, I did NOT get to put the Sewing 10 Commandments onto the blog site. I will need to do this…during the August break. Watch for it…it is coming. I found them all !!!!

This coming Saturday, July 11, there is a Fandango to the Whittier Museum. We will be eating breakfast in Laguna Hills and lunch in Whittier before driving back to San Diego. The Whittier Museum is having a room display of their Women’s underwear. The name of this exhibit is entitled: Underneath it all: The Evolution of Women’s Undergarments.” Sounds like a great learning experience to me !!!!! This is why I invited you all to come.

This Fandango has NOTHING to do with the school. It has NOTHING to do with my courses. It is just something extra I will be doing and if you want to come, you are welcome to come. The school has NOTHING to do with this. AND if you don’t want to come….this is fine. We will just be using the WCC parking lot. Some of you will be drivers. Some of you will be riders. We will be car pooling. IF YOU ARE A RIDER….MAKE SURE TO PAY FOR PART OF THE GAS TO GO. Be sure to make arrangements in this week’s class.

We will be having a docent tour at 1 PM at the Whittier Museum. The tour will include the entire museum. This includes the history of Whittier, Nixon, a military hallway and the gallery where the underwear exhibit will be. Note: Nixon grew up in Whittier. AND the museum is two floors. The docent tour takes about 1 hour. I am told there are many restaurants around the museum, so that we can have lunch before the drive back.

The entire Fandango is NO HOST. All food will be NO HOST. Breakfast may be eaten at Luisa’s Café. There is a pink umbrella there. This is one building over from A Time to Sew. A Time to Sew is on the Quilter’s run so it will be open at 9 AM.

I am making maps for the drivers. Those of you who have been on Fandangos with me previously, know that my maps are…NOT PERFECT. I have included phone numbers for you to call the shops/museum in case you need to. I suggest you make your own maps with the addresses I am going to give you here. OR program and take the family GPS. We will MEET AT THE WEST CITY CENTER PARKING LOT ON SATURDAY, JULY 11, 2009 BY 8 AM…….. I will be giving out the maps on Saturday morning.

A Time to Sew
Owner: Martha
27071 Cabot Road
Suite 101
Laguna Hills, CA 92653
949-282-0084

Whittier Museum
http://www.whittiermuseum.org/
6755 Newlin Avenue
Whittier, California 90601
562-945-3871
It is at the corner of Newlin and Philadelphia

See you all in class this week and on Saturday !!!!!

Class Etiquette Guidelines

Read & Observe

1. The instructor truly does have a hearing loss. Some names will never be pronounced correctly no matter how hard I try. Ambient noise causes me to disconnect when I answer questions. (As a flower child of the '60's I did really stupid things that caused this to happen.)

2. Unless stated otherwise in class: Student attendance and completed project(s) are required for a Certificate of Participation/Completion in each course AND for the Sewn Product Business Program. You may attend the classes and NOT receive a certificate or be involved in any program.

3. The ADMINISTRATION requires a minimum of 26 registered students PER CLASS. If the numbers drop, I can’t guarantee the class will remain open. MAKE A COMMITMENT TO COME TO EVERY CLASS, EVERY WEEK FOR THE ENTIRE CLASS PERIOD, or you may cause the class to close for yourself and the rest of the students who want to attend.

Following is the new Continuing Education Attendance Policy:

Regular attendance is expected in all classes in accordance with the approved class schedule. Any student absent for three consecutive class meetings may, at the discretion of the instructor, be dropped from the class. Those students receiving financial aid or Veteran’s benefits must comply with the attendance requirements specific to those programs. Some instructors may have attendance requirements that are specific to the class or program. These requirements will be found in the class syllabus. Students should direct questions regarding class attendance to the instructor at the time they enroll in the class. Non-fee classes may be closed when student attendance falls below a required level. Students are urged to be in regular attendance and to assume, through regular attendance, the responsibility for keeping the class in session.

4. There will be time, AFTER every class, for individual help. To ensure these needs are addressed, please put your name on the whiteboard, in descending order.

5. It is prohibited to use cell phones, beepers, cassette players, radios, a Walkman, etc., while in class.

6. The WCC room 209 computer is NOT for personal use. In case of personal emergency, please ask permission to use the computer.

7. The WCC computer lab computers (room 203) are NOT for personal use. If there is a waiting list to get into any of my courses, and you just want to come and use the computers to surf, view your email, or chat on line, you will NOT be welcomed back into class.

8. Be prepared to be an active participant in class discussions and lectures. Take notes! Jot down your strategy concerning your trials, experiments, stitchouts, and outcomes. This will provide guides to fall back on for years to come, and prove that learning is accumulative.

9. Respect the rights of other students, faculty, staff, tutors and their positions. During lectures and discussions DO NOT ask for or OFFER personal assistance. There will be NO SEWING MACHINE USAGE during lectures, demos, and discussions except for “Sew-Alongs.” Individuals that want to hold private conversations with other students need to take the conversation outside the classroom so that it will not disrupt the learning of other students. The instructor may STOP class and ask you to hold your conversation outside.

10. Civilized, pleasant, and cooperative behavior is expected during class. Any disruptive or hazardous behavior will NOT be tolerated. Notification will be made through a personal conference or official notification from the school.

11. Faculty members will assign seats when deemed necessary.

12. Due to the size of Room 209, layouts cannot be done here. You will need to find space for the cutting of your sewn product. You may choose to cut on the floor in the hallway. You will know that your layout is correct because the instructor will check it. Then the cutting may be completed at home.

13. There is a wide assortment of home sewing machines, tucked away in Room 216. Straight stitch: Bernina, Pfaff & Janome. Sergers: Imagine & Bernina, plus one Evolve set to a 3 thread cover stitch. Dedicated Embroidery machines: Decos and one Accent. These machines will be signed out to each student, each class period, along with their respective BOBBIN CASES. Ask the instructor where the “Sign Out” book is kept, if it is NOT next to the Class Attendance Verification Form (CAV). The faculty and other sewing students expect the school's machines to be returned to room 216 in good working order when you are finished.

14. Bobbins are considered a supply. You need to purchase these specifically for the sewing machine you intend on using. Example: Pfaff bobbins for Pfaff machines. Bernina bobbins for Bernina machines. Janome bobbins for Janome machines. You can NOT use a Pfaff bobbin in a Janome, etc.

15. If a machine has an equipment repair order (ERO) taped to it &/or a red dot, DO NOT USE THAT MACHINE. ……….. If you suspect that there is something wrong with the sewing machine you signed out, the first thing to do is rethread the machine. 99% of the time, threading is the problem. If that still does not fix the problem, there are Equipment Repair Orders (EROs) in a pocket in the sign out book. You will need to fill one out. The machines are all numbered. The forms are easy and fast to use. Give the completed form to the instructor.

16. ALWAYS carry your machine in its carrying case from room 216 to where you are going to set up, if there is one assigned to the machine. If you are going to be brining in your own machine from home, buy a carrying case!!!! This will save you money in future repair bills. It is nice to get sewing machine luggage on wheels. Check with your sewing machine dealer- FIRST. Check Joanne's with a 40% off coupon. Check http://www.bluefig.net/ or call them: 1-800-688-8442.

17. There are 12 industrial sewing machines in room 209. You may ONLY use them, if you have a Certificate of Training on file in the classroom. If not, and you want to learn HOW to use these machines, I will be teaching how to do this when I teach the Sewn Product Business Program. (Course Title: Sewn Product Business II: Sewn Product Production.)

18. Joan's PERSONAL loaned books and videos are due back the following week during class. No Exceptions! Please ask and sign out any of these before taking them home. Example: If you borrow a book on a Tuesday, the book is due back on Tuesday the next week.

19. You MUST clean up your workstation and the floor before leaving the classroom. Leaving early is no excuse for not doing this.

20. It is a very good idea to label all your personal tools and supplies. Colored ribbon is a good visual queue but a name permanently inscribed is strongly advised. This insures that if something is left behind, it can be returned to the proper owner. This should be done before the item is brought to class.
21. Be PREPARED to work in class. Bring your projects, sewing supplies, Schmetz/Klasse universal size 14/90 needles, notions, notes, pens, text, 2 Gig USB, etc., to each class. The instructor can NOT be relied upon to supply you with anything.

22. If you miss a class or a handout, you need to obtain "hard" copies from a classmate. Many times, the instructor gives handouts electronically. ALWAYS carry your 2 Gig USB with you.

23. If you cannot come on a FANDANGO FIELD TRIP, it is okay. Fandangos are not part of the class. They are thrown in “extras” that the instructor feels you would benefit from. Don’t worry if you can’t make the fandango.

24. I have attached additional Commandments to the original 10 Commandments, which will help you start, and accomplish a safe and honorable sewing experience. #11 – 20:

The Ten Commandments of Sewing
(The first Ten are Too Good to Mess With)
© 2011 Joan McKenna

XI Safety First*
XII Respect Thy Grainlines
XIII Seam Lines are Second Chances for Perfect Fit
XIV Thine Iron is Thy Friend
XV Listen to Critiques & Opinions, Then Choose Thine Own Path
XVI Mastery Cometh through Experience
XVII Mistakes Present Opportunities for Creativity
XVIII Expose Thyself to Historical & Technical Sewn Product Inspiration
XIX Size all Patterns with Thy Client's Name
XX First Sewn Product Collections Should be Kept Small & Manageable

SAFETY FIRST*: This instructor would rather yell and have you quickly stop what you are doing, than see you get physically hurt. I do not want ANYONE to suffer bodily harm in this classroom.

San Diego Community College District: Continuing Education

VISION STATEMENT

San Diego Continuing Education strives to be the Nation’s leading career development, college preparation, and life-long learning provider.

MISSION STATEMENT

To provide the highest quality learning opportunities, preparing diverse individuals for a prosperous career, a successful college experience, and a life of great achievement.

PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT

San Diego Continuing Education is a multicultural institution dedicated to providing educational access and lifelong learning opportunities. Our commitment is to all students who come through our doors, without regard to their academic skill or life’s challenges, offering innovative, high quality instruction and student support services. We believe that people have the capacity to change and that education can positively transform individuals, enriching their lives and contributing to our community.

CORE VALUES

We, the Continuing Education faculty, staff, and administration of San Diego Community College District, acknowledge our responsibility to society and believe that access to lifelong learning is a cornerstone of a democratic society. We consider it our duty to anticipate changing demands in education and welcome the opportunity to shape the future. We place students at the center of all that we do, supporting and promoting excellence in their endeavors. We affirm and embody pluralism; we value collaboration and shared decision-making; and we honor creativity and innovation.

CORE STRENGTHS

• A commitment to student success.
• A dedication to educational access through an affordable education.
• A professional faculty, staff, and administration.
• A diverse and motivated student body.
• A promise to facilitate student success from any starting point.

Business Relationships

Eight Essential People Skills By Lee Hopkins

PlatinumManagement psychologist and skilled communicator,

Lee helps both businesses and individuals communicate better for better business results. Recognised as one of Australia's leading business communicators, ... ...

Being able to communicate effectively with others requires people skills, and here's eight essential ones:

1. Understanding people People not only come in all shapes and sizes, but they come with different personality types as well. You may want to brush up on how to communicate with the four main personality types by reading this article. Indeed, dedicated students of communication could do little better than purchase Bem Allen's excellent introduction to personality types, 'Personality Theories'.
People are individuals, with as many similarities from one person to the next as differences. To communicate most effectively, each will require you to communicate with them in their own individual preference style, using their language, their body gestures, and their pace and intonation.
So how do you find out how best to communicate with someone? Spend time with them! Don't expect to meet someone off the street and talk intimately with them within a minute. Understanding a subject takes time -- whether that subject is an academic one or another human being.

2. Expressing your thoughts and feelings clearlyOur brains can only take so much information in at any one time. We are bombarded with messages every second of the day, so to compete with the barrage of 'noise' a person faces, your message needs to be clear, succinct and to the point.
It is very worthwhile taking time to plan your communication -- no matter by what method it is delivered -- to ensure that you are taking the least amount of time to express the right level of thought in the most receptively simple manner.

3. Speaking up when your needs are not being metJust as important in business relationships as in domestic ones, speaking up to ensure that your needs are met is a fundamental part of any relationship.
You may wish to read this article on assertive, not aggressive, communication, but in a nutshell there are six different ways you can be assertive and not aggressive in your communication: by rehearsing your behavior prior to the communication; by repeating your communication (the 'broken record' technique); fogging; asking for negative feedback; tentative agreement with negative feedback; and creating a workable compromise. Assertiveness is a useful communication tool. It's application is contextual and it's not appropriate to be assertive in all situations. Remember, your sudden use of assertiveness may be perceived as an act of aggression by others.

4. Asking for feedback from others and giving quality feedback in returnAlongside assertiveness techniques, the giving and receiving of feedback is a key communication skill that must be learnt if you want to have any hope of developing long-term business relationships. Toastmasters International teach a useful feedback and critical review technique -- first give a sincere compliment, follow this with any practical suggestions for improvement, then wrap up with further sincere praise. It is known as 'CRC', or 'Commend, Recommend, Commend', a three-step model for excellence in giving quality feedback.
Remember, too, that truthfulness is a subjective view. What you may find distasteful in someone may be equally desirable from another's point of view. As I learnt, by living through a series of IRA atrocities in England and watching the US political and media reactions, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

5. Influencing how others think and actWe all have the opportunity to influence how others think and act. All the way from Cialdini's Persuasion principles down to simple violence (of a verbal or physical nature), we are daily able to shape the thoughts and actions of those around us.
From something as simple as smiling and saying, "Hello!" as a way of influencing someone's mood, to leading by example during an intense period of change, there are many ways of either leading to or drawing out of others required behaviors and attitudes.
Remember that an attitude leads to an emotion, which in turn leads to an action. Shape the attitudes and you have a more reliable way of predicting actions.

6. Bringing conflicts to the surface and getting them resolvedI confess: I'm not a 'natural' at handling conflict. It's taken marrying into an existing family of three children to help this only child come to terms with conflict.
It's taken me three years of living in my family to realize it's possible to co-exist in conflict and not get personally involved. But it wasn't an easy lesson to learn, I can tell you!
But being a step-father to teenage children has helped me learn the importance of bringing conflicts and resentments to the surface where they can be more easily managed.
Your employees might be harboring secret resentments of you, and unless you find out what they are, bring these 'dark secrets' out into the light of day, you are never going to be able to successfully deal with them. It's embarrassing, potentially humiliating and requires a strong level of patience not to launch straight into a defensive mode, but giving people the opportunity to express their concerns, disappointments and anger, face-to-face, gives you tremendous opportunity to put things right, or help them see where their thoughts and feelings are misplaced.

7. Collaborating with others instead of doing things by yourselfI'm a shocker at this, but learning to delegate and share has been instrumental in growing my own business.
The quickest way of burying yourself in excess detail and workload is to try and do everything yourself. Yet sharing the workload can be the smartest thing you will ever do. Here's why: 'Leverage'. Leverage is taking your skills and abilities and allowing others to magnify your work capacity. You train them to do what you do and you do something else.
One bricklayer can only lay a certain number of bricks in an hour, but that same bricklayer can train 15 mates to lay bricks and suddenly those 15 bricklayers are building monuments while the first bricklayer is out securing more work for them.
While the 15 are laying bricks, the original bricklayer can be learning how to perform advanced bricklaying, or learn sales strategies, or learn supervision skills. The lesson is simple: try and do it all yourself and the 'all' will bury you; teach others to do what you do and you build a monument. Jesus taught 11 men how to do what he did. Then he left them to carry on while he moved on to other things. From the simple act of one man teaching 11 others, a church and the largest, most influential religious movement the world has ever known was born.

8. Shifting gears when relationships are unproductiveSometimes you need to walk away. Sometimes you need to jettison unhealthy cargo. And sometimes you need to take drastic steps to regain balance and momentum.
'Shfting gears' can be as simple as changing the venue of your supervision meeting from a dark office to a nearby cafe. Sometimes it can be moving the meeting from straight after lunch to first thing next morning, when clearer heads might prevail. Sometimes it can mean increasing the level of assertiveness in order to ensure the point you are making is being received. Sometimes it might mean bringing others into the meeting so that the other person understands the implications of their attitudes or actions.
And sometimes it can mean helping them find a more meaningful and satisfying role outside of your sphere of influence. As a management psychologist I clearly remember one organisation I consulted to: the only way out of a staff impasse was to remove the impediments to progress. Which meant helping key protagonists find new work outside of the organisation. Sometimes culture change can only be effected in a quick way by bringing in an entire new team and throwing away the dead wood. But only as a last resort.

Conclusion: The whole idea of being people skilled is knowing or finding how to bring out the best in others in any situation, rather than their worst. By mastering these eight essential people skills you dramatically increase your chances of achieving the best outcomes out of your interactions and business challenges. When you match consumer psychology with effective communication styles you get a powerful combination. Lee Hopkins can show you how to communicate better for better business results. At Hopkins-Business-Communication-Training.com you can find the secrets to communication success.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Eddie's Big Adventure

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Fandango to Whittier Museum

New FREE Courses !!!!!!!

Don't Let This be YOU !!!

About Me

Careers, Jobs and Personal PR

UT: sdmarketplace.com

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Fabric and Textile Links

Fashion News

Healthy Living Links

Map to Classes

Patternmaking Links

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Inspirational Picture

Entrepreneurial Businesses

Text and Library Book Links

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MORE Resources

Industrial Sewing Machine Repair

Take Care of YOUR Computer

My Blog List

Blog Archive

Class Etiquette Guidelines

San Diego Community College District: Continuing Education

Business Relationships

Followers

Friday, July 24, 2009

Eddie's Big Adventure

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Fandango to Whittier Museum

New FREE Courses !!!!!!!

Don't Let This be YOU !!!

About Me

Careers, Jobs and Personal PR

UT: sdmarketplace.com

Apparel Links

Embroidery Links

Fabric and Textile Links

Fashion News

Healthy Living Links

Map to Classes

Patternmaking Links

Sewing Links

Couture

Inspirational Picture

Entrepreneurial Businesses

Text and Library Book Links

Sewn Product Links

MORE Resources

Industrial Sewing Machine Repair

Take Care of YOUR Computer

Subscribe To Sewn Products

My Blog List

Blog Archive

Class Etiquette Guidelines

San Diego Community College District: Continuing Education

Business Relationships

Followers