BUILT WITH BOLDGRID

  • Course Description
  • About Me
  • Goals for Course
  • Course Schedule
  • Syllabus
  • Suggested Supplies

Teacher and sewing student


FCS4304C Teaching Textile Product Construction

Summer Session 1 – 2024


Course Description


About Me


Goals for the Course


Course Schedule

The class will meet five days a week from 9-noon, which much of the time focused on lab time to practice our new skills, observe a class with new learnings and create our own teaching materials.

The fifth week of class will meet online so that we can practice using online tutorials to teach and learn sewing.


Syllabus

FCS4304C Su24 Syllabus


Required Materials

  • Sewing Machine: Singer M100 or 1034. These machines are lightweight, portable and avoid the unnecessary attachments and computerization that can impede learning by beginners. If you already own a machine, do not purchase this machine but download all of the instruction guides so that you can create sample classroom materials.
  • Sewing Kit
    • Fabric scissors
    • Paper scissors
    • Small thread snips/scissors
    • Rotary Cutter (optional)
    • Clear 6″ sewing ruler
    • Pack of sewing pins
    • Pack of hand sewing needles
    • Seam ripper
  • Fabric
    • 3-1 yard pieces of 100% cotton fabric from the quilting section (your choice of print) for simple projects
    • 4-7″ trouser zippers that coordinate with the fabrics you chose
    • 1 roll 1/4″ wide grosgrain ribbon that coordinates with the fabrics you chose

 

Forest

One of the first oneshirts that I made is available for purchase, being featured first in the Mothership Studio Tour on April 1st and 2nd, 2023. This oneshirt was featured in this blog post on making shirts from fat quarters.

The shirt is gently used and will fit a size 18-22.

Content: 100% Cotton

Care: Machine wash cold, non-chlorine bleach, line dry, do not dry clean

 

Piecing together bolt ends provides a fun challenge

I was in love with the floral in this shirt, but there was less than half a yard.

 

Two yards of the red shirting would have to be enough to piece with the floral. Each shirt requires 2.5 yards of fabric if there is no piecing, but with piecing, it can use less.

Just a bit on each side of the front.

Like flower beds with brick walkways between.

Planning through doing

  • Red cotton with tie-dye print
  • Standing collar with button closure
  • Full, bell sleeves
  • Loose open hem

Red shirt on clothesline

A muslin for an exhibition project


Making Changes

The oneshirt is adaptable, lending itself to tunic length and a variety of sleeve types. However, changing the neckline involved some additional planning. In order to complete a project involving Telemark style an embroidered collar and sleeve cuffs, a new version of the patten needed to be created. However, as long as inexpensive muslin was being used, why not produce a oneshirt that could be worn for itself?

 

Heritage Red Muslin is named for the Heritage oneshirt it was built to plan, but stands on its own as a dressier version of the shirt.

Red shirt on clothesline

 

Madras Garden

This onshirt was made from sale scraps that I purchased at the Quilt Basket in York, Nebraska. This oneshirt was featured in this blog post on making shirts from bolt ends.

The shirt is gently used and will fit a size 18-22.

Content: 100% Cotton

Care: Machine wash cold, non-chlorine bleach, line dry, do not dry clean

Ladies Faces

I purchased a strip of fabric featuring ladies faces and, during a making binge in the early pandemic time, used the scraps from Clementine to this oneshirt, being featured first in the Mothership Studio Tour on April 1st and 2nd, 2023. 

The shirt is gently used and will fit a size 18-22.

Content: 100% Cotton

Care: Machine wash cold, non-chlorine bleach, line dry, do not dry clean

 

On to the next painting, this time of the back of Origin. I must admit that it has been several weeks since I painted the front and ideally, they would be painted “back to back”, so to speak, to keep the colors consistent. I found myself puzzling a bit, trying to remember which of my paints I had used the first time, for the front.

I started watercolor about 2 years ago and started in ernest with the delivery of the Daniel Smith Extra Fine Essential Introductory Watercolor set to our cottage in Nebraska. I took advice I found in the books in the San Marcos Public LIbrary to heart, that the very best materials will produce better results. I quickly purchased a secondary color set that included Undersea Green, Quiacridone Burnt Orange and Carbazole Violet. But it was Daniel Smith Cascade Green that made me fall in love with watercolor. The granulation of the color in water, the blooms and how quickly the shadows of trees emerged from the spreading paint, suddenly watercolor stopped being “weak tea” compared with oil and acrylic and became a living moving force. Watercolor is like putting a saddle on a water dragon, holding on for dear life while the spirit spurts across the sky.

In the case of this specific painting, I have used a Yellow Ochre that is left from a watercolor set I had purchased in Vancouver while at a conference in 2016. This was a MungYo set, from South Korea, and has been dependable and durable, although not as inspiring as the Daniel Smith paints. I also used Schminke Prussian Blue to represent the chambray and used Daniel Smith Cobalt Teal Blue as the green linen. These two colors are brought back into the batik as well as the Daniel Smith Carbazole Violet, Cascade Green and Schminke Indigo.

 

In a nod back to my previous 100 Day challenge, I am also planning on doing some digital textile design that I can use to print more unique fabrics inspired by my Oneshirts. This is where the watercolors of each shirt will come in handy. I started by scanning the painting of the front of Origin and then used the offset filter in Photoshop, plus the cloning tool and some paintbrushes, to make an endless repeat drawn from the painting.

And so this..

became this..

 

which looks like this when applied across a larger space.

This fabric is not necessarily the one I will pay $18 a yard to print, but it demonstrates the concept. I am upcycling design ideas, not just materials.