{"id":3718,"date":"2018-03-19T12:14:14","date_gmt":"2018-03-19T16:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedailysew.com\/?p=3718"},"modified":"2022-03-14T11:40:30","modified_gmt":"2022-03-14T15:40:30","slug":"14-lessons-i-learned-from-my-middle-school-sewing-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/2018\/03\/14-lessons-i-learned-from-my-middle-school-sewing-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons I Learned Teaching Middle-Schoolers Sewing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They say you don\u2019t really know something until you try to teach it. True.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stumbling while I explained to a group of middle school students how to sew was eye-opening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I taught them, they taught me because sometimes it takes a fresh set of eyes to point out things you never thought of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

14 Sewing Lessons I Learned From My Students:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
  1. The lining of anything can become the exterior (and usually this occures half way through a project).<\/li>
  2. Not every seam has to be straight, or even sort of straight (and seam allowance is only a suggestion).<\/li>
  3. Leaving an iron flat down on fabric, or the ironing board\u00a0doesn’t scorch as fast as I thought.<\/li>
  4. Hand basting stitches can be left in the finished project. It’s becomes a decorative element.<\/li>
  5. Be flexible – \u00a0if you sewed it backward\u00a0or all cattywampus, just go with it.<\/li>
  6. Some of us are planners, some of us are not even close and it doesn’t matter.<\/li>
  7. Fancy, decorative machine stitches are always preferred over the straight stitch (even for sewing seams).<\/li>
  8. The machine\u2019s guides for threading it are more important than they look (They are actually there for a reason, Ethan).<\/li>
  9. 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\u00a0decision).<\/li>
  10. Sixth-graders are the reason magnetic pen holders were invented. Placing pins into a pincushion takes too much time.<\/li>
  11. 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).<\/li>
  12. After cutting out your fabric on the floor it\u2019s important (for humans and scissors) to pick up your scissors immediately.<\/li>
  13. Putting pins just under the top layer of the skin on your palms and fingers is fascinating to some and disgusting to everyone else.<\/li>
  14. Teaching what you know and enjoy to someone who wants to learn is a wonderful experience.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    They say you don\u2019t 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 […] Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[324],"class_list":["post-3718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sewing-life","tag-teaching-sewing"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-3-tds-bg-14-lessons-ft.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EZxn-XY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3718"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4812,"href":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3718\/revisions\/4812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}