They say you don’t really know something until you try to teach it. True.
Stumbling while I explained to a group of middle school students how to sew was eye-opening.
As I taught them, they taught me because sometimes it takes a fresh set of eyes to point out things you never thought of.
14 Sewing Lessons I Learned From My Students:
- The lining of anything can become the exterior (and usually this occures half way through a project).
- Not every seam has to be straight, or even sort of straight (and seam allowance is only a suggestion).
- Leaving an iron flat down on fabric, or the ironing board doesn’t scorch as fast as I thought.
- Hand basting stitches can be left in the finished project. It’s becomes a decorative element.
- Be flexible – if you sewed it backward or all cattywampus, just go with it.
- Some of us are planners, some of us are not even close and it doesn’t matter.
- Fancy, decorative machine stitches are always preferred over the straight stitch (even for sewing seams).
- The machine’s guides for threading it are more important than they look (They are actually there for a reason, Ethan).
- Sewing machines give many clues that something is not right; clanking noises, knotting thread, breaking thread and more (whether or not you choose to pay attention is your decision).
- Sixth-graders are the reason magnetic pen holders were invented. Placing pins into a pincushion takes too much time.
- If you can picture it in your head you should be able to just sew it up (easily and in the 45 minutes we allow for class).
- After cutting out your fabric on the floor it’s important (for humans and scissors) to pick up your scissors immediately.
- Putting pins just under the top layer of the skin on your palms and fingers is fascinating to some and disgusting to everyone else.
- Teaching what you know and enjoy to someone who wants to learn is a wonderful experience.
Thank you, to my wonderful students. I always looked forward to teaching your class and always left exhausted. You were really the teacher to me.