First Sewing Machine Garment Making Project ... all while in Hospital!

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Making a scrunchie is easier than you think!  

I recently qualified as a Design and Technology Teacher but I’ve already been teaching Textiles and Art in a range of educational, health and other alternative situations for several years. 

I recently worked as a temporary teacher as part of the Becton Hospital Outreach Team; in this role, I worked as a Teacher at Sheffield Children’s Hospital. 

I worked with students with all sorts of health issues and diagnoses but that’s not what this blog is about; this is about young people’s desire to learn to sew!

While at Sheffield Children’s Hospital I taught a range of subjects including; Maths, English, Science, Art and also Textiles. 

Having access to the Hospital School Teaching Team was a way for students to keep up with school work as set by their usual school teachers. It is also a way to have access to teachers to tutor them one-to-one so they can use this time to get to grips with anything that they have found tricky at school and want to spend some extra time on. Finally, it is also an opportunity to do something completely different from their normal school work. 

C was one patient who was very interested to hear that I had access to the teaching team's sewing machine AND that I was able to use her hospital school lessons to teach her how to use it.

C very quickly picked up the basics of threading up the sewing machine and in our first lesson she also made a small stitch sample ; all this despite having to wear an oxygen mask

We found this cute fabric and matching cord in the classroom stores so I suggested a drawstring bag as a first sewing machine project. C used straight stitch and zig-zag stitch in this project. This cute little bag is a present for her little sister, F.

As soon as she had completed the small drawstring back C asked if she could make  a garment. 

Flexibility is hugely important in hospital teaching and I wasn't sure exactly how many more lessons C and I were going to have together but I was really excited by her enthusiasm and wanted to find a way to do my best to make this hospital stay have some positives in terms of C having some fun and learning new skills.

C suggested a small top for her two year old sister and once I knew that she would be in hospital for a few more days I researched possibilities.

A BIG thanks to www.itsalwaysautumn.com for this downloadable pattern for a little girls' Flutter Sleeve Top

What's not to love about mini pompom braid? 

In this first garment making project C learnt:

• How to thread the sewing machine correctly (top and bottom threads).
• How to wind thread on the bottom bobbin.
• How to select appropriate stitch length and width. 
• How to use reverse button to reinforce at the beginning and end of a line of stitching.  
• About Warp and Weft threads, Selvedge and Fraying 
• How to ensure that pieces were pinned on the Straight Grain
• Some key pattern terminology ('Place on Fold' and 'Cut Two')
• How to use dressmakers pins to pin out pattern pieces and also to pin garment pieces together Right Sides Together. 
• The importance of Tacking before machine sewing; I do always stress this in my lessons, firstly as it is much safer than leaving metal pins in while machine sewing and also because it invariably means that sewing is neater and more accurate and reduces the need for any unpicking.
• About Bias Binding and how to use it to neaten curved edges such as the arm holes and also to form a Casing to thread the neck edge elastic through. 
• About snipping Concave Curves to ensure a neater finish (the armhole edges).
• How to use a safety pin to thread elastic through casing / channel. 
• How to use zig-zag stitch to neaten the seam edges. 
• How to Top Stitch (lower edge and sleeve hem edges) to give a neater and more decorative finish.

"Wow! And to think that just a few days ago I had never sewn before and hadn't even threaded a needle... And now I can use a sewing machine and have made this! "

I was delighted that C 'powered on'. She used her positive attitude, enthusiasm for learning and desire to make a fabulous present for her little sister to get her through this project. She worked to a really high standard and finished it JUST BEFORE her hospital transport came to take her home! I am pretty sure that she will have her own sewing machine before the year is out. 

The timing was perfect as this all happened a couple of weeks before series 5 of The Great British Sewing Bee started on BBC TV. 

One book that I suggested that she buy is Sewing Machine Basics by Jane Bolsover 

Completed BTEC Level 2 Textile Masks (Carnival module)

My exemplar mask to give students an idea of how they might combine some techniques 

Here I am finally catching up and uploading my final selection of photos of student BTEC Level 2 Module Carnival Project work. This is a follow-on from the previous post which showed some of the students’ inspiration images and also how their first pieces of wet-felted base fabric turned out. 

These year 11 students had already experimented with some other textiles techniques:

• Couching
• Appliqué 
• Reverse appliqué (Mola) 
• Stitch and slash 
• Machine embroidery 
• Melted Angelina fibres 
• Machine patchwork 

It was now time for them to review these techniques and consider how they might be incorporated along with the hand-made felt into their final mask designs. 

Making a start: leaf/ petal shapes cut from melted Angelina fibres and stitched in place. Plus some carnival sparkle added by hand-stitching silver sequins in place.

Angelina fabric was ruffled to add texture to this mask plus this student added her multi-coloured felted beads.

Good to see how this design developed as the student learnt more textile techniques.

A mask with added feathers, machine appliquéd ribbon, hand made felt and wet felted multi-coloured beads.

Excellent use of the heart shapes that this student had originally added as decoration to his base felted fabric. Plenty of surface interest and movement in this mask.

This student used fabric crayons to decorate a piece of calico with a design that he had previously sketched in his workbook. He then machine appliquéd the decorated calico onto his hand-made felted base.

Here the base for the mask was made from a fabric made using the Reverse Appliqué (Mola) technique. Next strips of handmade felt were machine appliquéd in position.

A glue gun is the perfect tool for attaching the wet-felted beads (once completely dry) to the mask base.

See more School Felting projects http://www.allsensesart.com/schools-projects

Fabulous hand-felted Fedora

Left: inspiration- a computer generated image of a Fedora found on the internet. Right: the hand-felted reality (made by L, a 12 year old student)

I love working with kids; I love their ambition and enthusiasm; and there’s no where quite like a Special School to find young people (with Autism) who are determined to complete their vision.
 
While working as textiles teacher at Brantwood Specialist School, Sheffield (Mar 2015-Nov 2016) I had the privilege of working with a broad range of students with various special needs including Autism and PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance) and guiding them through various, completely unique, textiles projects.

The Felted Fedora made by L, a fairly new student to the school, was completed in my last few weeks at Brantwood. L (aged 12) had spotted the felted top-hat which had been made by one of the senior students at the school and he decided that he too would like to make his own felted hat. The major difference was that the older student was a fairly experienced felter and L had no previous experience of felting at all. But it is pretty impossible to say no to a student who is determined on a project and so, even though I knew that I only had a few weeks left at the school, I let him go ahead with his project.

We used two colours of Norwegian wool fibres, sky blue and lavender, to make L’s Fedora. Norwegian Wool is really suitable for; felted hats, slippers and handbags because it results in a firmer felt and is less prone to pilling than Merino wool fibres.

The first step in making a made-to-measure felted hat is to measure the circumference of the wearer’s head. Other measurements of importance are; the depth/ height of the crown and the width of the brim. You also need to know how much shrinkage to expect during the felting process. I phoned Maggy at www.norwegianwool.co.uk to check my shrinkage and then got my pencil and calculator out to work out these measurements (see photo below).

L wasn’t very involved at this stage partly because of his special needs and also partly because I knew we had a very limited amount of time left until my leaving date.
However he was involved with every other stage in the process and was very focussed on his project. 

I then drew out the bell shaped template on a piece of paper and cut out a resist from stiff builders' plastic. 

L also watched several videos on YouTube which explained the need for a Hat Block. I let him research suppliers and costs of hat blocks and then explained how we could economise by making out own hat block. Give a student a saw and a block of polystyrene and they are obviously going to enjoy the (messy) practicality of this wet-felted hat project! 

The first layer of the 'laying-out' process

Building up the layers until there were five layers of wool fibres on each side of the plastic resist

Flipping the wool/ plastic 'sandwich' over and rubbing to felt the wool fibres together.

After rubbing, rolling in a bamboo at is another method of tangling the wool fibres together.

L cutting through the felted layers to remove the plastic resist.

Tossing the wet and soapy and fedora. This tumbling action is yet another method of continuing the shrinking process.

Still some work to do! 
Over the next few textiles sessions L progressed through his wet felted Fedora project. He seemed to enjoy all the stages but especially the process of shrinking the the fedora onto his own bespoke hat block and the finer detail of the shaping of the top of the crown and the curve of the hat brim.

Marking and cutting the brim to size.  

Rinsing the soap out.  

L worked to get the achieve the traditional Fedora shape.

L made design decisions as his project progressed. He decided to finish the edge with bias binding made from fabric that he had found in the textiles store cupboard at the start of the project. 

Adding a red gem to the front of the crown was the finishing touch. 

L was incredibly proud of his hat (and quite rightly so!) He went on to wear it at school and at home every day for almost a year. This was also an excellent experience for me as his teacher- it was so good to see a young student's confidence blossom. I was lucky that my head teacher gave me the freedom to run projects which were bespoke to each student as this enabled me to achieve so much more success with students in this Special School. 

Perfect Craft Parties for Creative Kids in South Yorkshire

Cute Owl - dry fibres BEFORE wetting and felting 

 AFTER the wet-felting process

Every year mums (and dads and carers too) want to do their best to make their children’s birthday celebration memorable and extra special. 

It is quite a challenge but if your son or daughter likes making things and being creative then a good start would be to Google, ‘Kids creative birthday party entertainers’, and to make things easier you could then add where you live- like, Sheffield or South Yorkshire. So maybe Google, ‘Children’s Craft Parties Sheffield’.

That’s how so many of my customers seem to find me and often they don’t come directly to my website or Facebook page to very often they find me through Netmums or FreeIndex

Whatever way that they find me, very often the next step is a phone call, e mail or text to chat about dates, when the party will be and most importantly, what the birthday girl or boy is into and would like for their Perfect Crafty Birthday Party

Rainbow- dry fibres BEFORE wetting and felting 

AFTER the wet-felting process

I love working with children- I love their energy and enthusiasm and I also like their honesty; for example if they don’t like something they will soon tell you. 

One of my mottoes is ‘You can’t kid a kid’, and I have to say that in the 9 years since setting up www.allsensesart.com in 2007 I have never had a child say that they haven’t enjoyed one of my creative craft parties. 

Even one of my most skeptical customers; an 8 year old boy at a felted cushion party where he was the only boy and he had had to miss his football practice session for the party-  Even he was thoroughly won over. At the end of the party he was busy munching sandwiches while proudly sitting on the football cushion that he had just made!

A design making use of cut shapes from pre-felt- dry fibres BEFORE wetting and felting 

AFTER the wet-felting process

Often I find that people are a bit puzzled by the idea of wet-felting- I mean, 
How exactly does it work?

Well you 
1. Gently fluff out two or more layers of wool fibres.

2. Gently arrange a final layer into a picture. I describe this as ‘drawing’ with wool.
3. You cover this all in netting 
4.Then you wet the wool with (slightly) warm soapy water 
5. And gently rub to tangle to wool fibres together,

This is the magical wet-felting process. 

Samiah using knitting yarn to write her name - dry fibres BEFORE wetting and felting 

AFTER the wet-felting process

While I am leading a children’s craft party I tend to whizz around the table making sure that every child has all the attention, encouragement and also freedom to work with whatever colours they prefer and also to create a design that is completely unique and their own.

A graphic design in a dramatic colour scheme - dry fibres BEFORE wetting and felting 

AFTER the wet-felting process

Given completely free reign to make a felted picture what would you ‘draw’? 

The photos above show a selection of pictures made by 11 year old girls in one of my creative two hour sessions.
Yes they only had two hours to, not only devise these design ideas, but to also make their very own first piece of handmade felt!

For more craft party options (cushions, bags, mini-beasts and jewellery) and feedback from previous parties visit www.allsensesart.com

and you can also watch a short video of one an AllSensesArt Felted Flower Jewellery Craft Parties. 

Prices start at £105 for 7 children with £15 per additional child.
South Yorkshire UK.

e mail kirstyallsensesart@gmail.com kirstyallsensesart@gmail.com
text or phone 0773 995 9951