The Joys of Learning

Technology Note: Somehow, we lost all our incoming email for the dates of 9-25 through 9-26, 2009 (Friday & Saturday). My husband and I just don't know what happened. IF YOU TRIED TO EMAIL ME DURING THIS TIME PERIOD, PLEASE RESEND TO ME @ MCKENNA@GOTHERE.COM. Trust me; we went crazy trying to fix this. I apologize for the inconvenience.

It is going to be an exciting week of classes !!!!

Power Sewing: Last week, we went over how to use and maintain the industrial straight stitch sewing machines in WCC Room 209. This week, we will go over the use and maintenance of the industrial overlocks. As usual, all Basic Sewers are welcome to come to this class. You will be exposed to many things that you will find useful in the future, including ergonomic techniques. Remember: You can not use the industrial sewing machines in other classes unless you have a certification certificate on file in the classroom. Other instructors do not know where you are in your learning. Remember to bring your sewing projects and extra fabric to class.

Patternmaking: Last week we left off making our front master bodice with #17; page 46 of our text. There were lots of questions. So I went home and looked up the dart intake question in Handford, and Armstrong. Yes, the bigger that one front dart is in the bodice, the better! Of all the books, Lori Knowles is the only one that gives you dart intake measurements to make the bodice correct. This week, we will go back and revisit #11 on page 45 and I will explain. Remember to bring your text books, and supplies.

Basic Sewing: Everyone is now into individual help with their sewing projects. Don't be afraid to ask how to do ANYTHING. Ask !!! You will be surprised at how many students were thinking of the same question. Mark-Allen and I will be there to help. Last week, was the first time he and I tried this. We agreed too much. You need to see us disagree. You need to know that there are millions of ways to do things. You need to know that nothing is written in stone. If something works for you….and you like the technique. TEACH US !! So, as Mark-Allen heals don't be afraid to ask him questions. He has been sewing for a long time and is willing to share his knowledge. For this I THANK HIM VERY MUCH! NOTE: We found something we disagree on: HOW FAR DO YOU GO WHEN YOU WANT TO BE COMPLIANT WITH COMMANDANT # 12: RESPECT THY GRAIN LINES. We will be disagreeing all night. It will be a fun class.

For those of you who are doing the portfolio: You need to know, that once you cut your pieces, you can begin sewing them according to the needs of the portfolio written in your syllabus. You have cut basically 2 or more of everything. This is so the instructor or one of your peers can demo the technique for you. And then, you can go and try the technique yourself. You will find all the techniques for this portfolio in Connie Crawford's Fashion Sewing Book. I have about 6 of these behind the white board, for you to use IN CLASS. It's a great book. It belongs on EVERYONE's book list. See if you can get it used (any edition) from www.Amazon.com.

I am now in possession of 3 USBs left in class: A white and green stripe, a blue centruim and a black and red Dane. Please come and pick up your USBs.

Embird Editing: THE CLASS TIMING HAS CHANGED!!!! We will be meeting on Fridays from 1:30 to 5:30 PM. This particular Friday, October 2, we will be having a NO HOST lunch at El Pollo Loco's on Midway and Fordham at Noon. This is to honor the old time period and go on to the new time period. We learned so many new techniques last week. We learned how to organize our free designs so that we can find them again. We learned that Embird has a monogram feature. We learned WHERE to put TT type fonts so that Embird can use them. I PERSONALLY LEARNED THAT THERE IS A TT HINDU g (I do hope this is non-offensively correct) in one of the school's TT Wingding fonts. There was a handout from Bill on where to find FREE TT fonts. AND the class just continued till 4:30 PM.

This week, we will make our name tags in room 203 AND go into room 209 to use the Amazing Box to put the designs on our rewritable Amazing Box cards along with Penny's circles. BE SURE TO PRINT OUT PENNY'S DIRECTIONS TO MULTI-HOOPING THESE CIRCLES ALONG WITH THE DIRECTIONS FOR SPLITTING DESIGNS FOR 2 HOOPINGS. I only have 2 PES format cards. So now is the time to purchase if you want your own. (Central Sewing will match the price on the net.) The Amazing MAX box is BETTER than the Amazing Box II that the school owns because it can take designs of higher stitch counts. Trust me…..this is a GREAT feature to have. For those of you who can input a USB into your sewing machine, you will NOT need an Amazing Box ANYTHING.

Final Thought: RETHREAD your machine. This solves 99% of all sewing problems.

SEE YOU IN CLASS !!!!
MAKE MONEY WITH YOUR SKILLS !!!!!!!!!!