Bags and Shirts

Our co-op meeting was fun yesterday—we had a big group and the discussion was lively. I got to catch up with Sarah, who brings a portable electric spinning machine with her and spins yarn. Robin made a cute table runner with fussy-cut gnome fabric. I took my finished Little Poppins bag for show and tell and sat and knocked out a few more hexies. I’m going to have to do something with all of these hexies soon.

My commission sewing is finished for the year. I was able to get the second of two reuseable grocery bags made yesterday morning before heading to co-op. This was an order from a friend at church. She showed up after church one day holding the bags I had made for her. She likes her so much that she asked if I would make a few more for her to give as a Christmas gift.

I made a whole slew of these bags several years ago—enough that I had the process down to an assembly line. I’ve got a couple, my kids have some, and I showered a bunch of my friends with them. And then stores stopped letting people bring their own bags because of the pandemic. I quit making them, although I still had parts for some bags in the stash. These are 10 oz duck canvas from Joanns with a quilt cotton lining. They are nice and sturdy.

I still have plenty of duck canvas and could make more of these, but they are down on the list. I need to do some serious project prioritizing for 2022.

Today’s task is to cut out a bunch of tops. I’m teaching a three-part class in January, February, and March at the quilt store where I have been teaching serger classes. I feel like I am still trying to find my footing there. What a store wants (or thinks it wants) and what makes a good class aren’t necessarily the same things. I know there is a lot of interest in me teaching a leggings class, but after my experience last summer when people showed up for class not having even unboxed their sergers, offering a class like that is courting disaster. I could see half a dozen students showing up with unboxed sergers, expecting to take home a pair of leggings that fits them perfectly.

Instead, I suggested a T-shirt class where we make a kid’s T-shirt. My rationale is that a kid’s T-shirt is going to be simple to trace, cut out, and assemble, giving students the experience of working with knits without being overwhelming. I expect to spend a fair bit of time on fabric selection, although I asked the store to order a bolt of Laguna Cotton and an Oliver + S pattern so that all the students come with the same materials. However, I know—I know—that there will be people who don’t look at the supply list and don’t come with what they need, and I anticipate having to explain why a slinky rayon/spandex fabric from Joanns probably won’t make a good kid’s T-shirt.

The woman in charge of organizing classes asked why I wouldn’t teach a class on making a T-shirt for the student taking the class. She said, “Don’t you think it would be better for each person to go home with something they themselves could use?” That’s a legitimate question. However, I differentiate between teaching a technique class and teaching a fitting class, and I don’t want to marry the two. I’ve left enough room in the class outline that if I get one or two really ambitious students who are comfortable with their sergers and want to try making themselves a T-shirt, we can do that. The last thing I want, though, is to have to teach fitting and fitting adjustments at the same time that I am trying to teach serger techniques for sewing with knits. Fitting (or fitting and pattern drafting) is a huge topic and needs to be its own class. I would rather plan a simpler class and have additional ideas in my back pocket to pull out as needed than plan an ambitious class that leaves students frustrated.

I’ve found that it’s also impossible to schedule a class at a time that makes everyone happy. The Jan-Feb-Mar classes are on Monday afternoons, because no one wants to drive at night in the winter (including me). However, that eliminates everyone who works during the day.

We’ll see what happens. I’m going to make up a couple of T-shirts this weekend that the store can use as display samples.

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I got my indoor lettuce-growing operation underway. This is a popular topic in the homesteading group and there are plenty of podcasts and YouTube videos about how to set one up. I started with a simple system but I think I am going to have to modify it. (Thus, I am not a good person to ask for advice.)

Now that I see it in action, I can see what I want to change and what kind of a system might be better. This is part of not being able to visualize things ahead of time. Once I get the system dialed in, though, I expect that we’ll be able to grow plenty of lettuce in the basement to keep us in salads all winter.