Author: Katelyn Squires
Planning Unit: Green County CES
Major Program: Apparel and Textiles (Non-Master Clothing Volunteer)
Plan of Work: Unrelated to a specified County Plan of Work
Outcome: Initial Outcome
Sewing should be a universal skill taught throughout the world. Sewing is for everyone, no matter what age, what occupation, or what walk of life you are currently going through. Green County FCS Agent, with the help from Cumberland County FCS Agent, hosted a three-day Sewing Basics series for the local highschool fcs students. Throughout the series, students got to learn about hand sewing, machine sewing, parts of a sewing machine, basic sewing information, and create two projects in a hands-on environment. Throughout this series, we had twenty highschool students with both a male and female demographic participating. Before the series began, I asked each student who had sewn before and used a sewing machine, only two individuals indicated that they had. At the end of the series, students were asked to fill out an evaluation. With the sixteen evaluations returned, fourteen of the sixteen students stated that they planned on sewing in the future. Some students even gave examples of items that they would like to sew such as pillows, clothing, repairing holes in clothing, and even an outfit for their future child. While some other students were finishing one of their projects, FCS Agents went around the room checking on other students. They came across a student that had taken it upon themselves to start repairing a hole in the clothing that she was currently wearing. The student stated that she wanted to try out her new hand sewing skills on something else. The UK Publication “Clothing Repairs” was shared with the students and that sparked an interest in this student to mend her own clothing during class down time. Another student was having trouble with their sewing machine threading properly and their partner decided to tackle the task alone rather than asking for assistance. Once they completed the task, they made the comment “Look at me, I can repair a sewing machine”. Students gained the confidence to use a sewing machine, with thirteen out of sixteen students rating their confidence about a 6 out of 10.
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