Genius Hour 1.5

     This week, I repaired another item. One of my classmates was kind enough to lend me his tie to sew. So, thank you to that person for having enough faith in me to do this. This was a pretty simple repair, although I would have like to hide the stitching but I think it will hold better with the way I ended up doing it. I am happy with how it turned out. Hopefully he will be content with it also. I am still on track with my plan. I might jump ahead one week because I think a pillow case will take a while to make. I think I am making good progress and getting lots of experience on different kinds of clothing and material.

Genius Hour 1.4

     This week, I decided to try something a little more challenging than before. Previously, I have just been sewing fabric back together to repair the item to its previous condition. This week, I decided to hem a pair of pants. I thought it would be challenging and it was, so I had my grandma there to help me through it. First, I had to cut the pants to the length that I wanted. It was hard to make sure the cuts were straight and even, since the material was stretchy. Next, I folded the bottom of the pants so the cut part of the fabric was on the inside, and ironed and crease in them. Then I doubled checked to see if the pant legs were even before using iron on adhesive to make secure the fold in place. After the fabric cooled, I sewed around the fold to make the hem more secure. The sewing wasn’t too difficult since there was already the adhesive holding the fabric in place. After the hem was complete, I folded the bottom of the pants up an few times, because I was making the pants into capris. After they were folded and even, I racked them in a few spots. I’m sewing, this term means to join two pieces of fabric together by sewing in the same spot. I did this on both sides of each leg. This would hold the fold in place, and complete the process of hemming the pants. I was happy with how they turned out considering that they were my first pair of pants than I hemmed and the fabric was hard to deal with. I am right where I’m supposed to be according to my action plan.
Here are some pictures of the process:

Genius Hour 1.3

     This week, I decided to repair another item, but this time it wasn’t clothing. I decided to venture out a little bit for a few reasons: one, I couldn’t find a piece of clothing to fix, and two, I thought it would be helpful to apply the skills that I am learning on some other things. I decided to fix one of my blankets. Part of the fabric on the edges had come apart from the blanket. There were some challenges with fixing this. It was difficult to place the fabric where it needed to be before I could begin sewing. I had help from my grandma on this part. It was also difficult to tell if I where going through the fuzzy fabric since it’s hard to see the thread in it. I got frustrated a few times but I kept trying until I got it. It’s easy to get frustrated with things, but it’s rewarding when they are finished. I am happy with how the blanket ended up looking, it blended in well with the rest of it.

This was the blanket before.

I used these pins to hold the fabric in place.

This is the end product.