Textiles - The 'Craftier' Side of Me

Since school has finished for me, I've been thinking about all the things that I've learnt and done during the last 13 years of my life. 13 years of school, all the good and bad memories, the laughter and the tears. It's been about a month since my last school lesson and a part of me already misses it :/ I kind of miss the atmosphere of school and being able to see my friends each day.

In high school there was a class called 'Textiles' which others may know as 'Home Economics' or 'Sewing class' etc., etc. I've decided to make a post on all the things that I made in Textiles class in year 8 (known as 'freshman') and year 9. Most high schools in other states in Australia start high school in year 7 but it's different here, there's 5 years of high school.

Since I made these items quite a long time ago, I won't mind if you criticise their style or colour etc. because my taste is fairly different now lol. I'm not expecting anyone to say these things are cute or nice, but if you think they are then that's fine ^_^

Enough of the babble, here are the things that I made in year 8, my first year of high school:

You might be thinking, 'what is this?'. Well, it's a glasses case. Not the most attractive thing but I was happy to actually be able to make this when I was only 13 years old. Stitching is a little crooked but that's okay :) I don't actually use it because the drawstring came off and I can't put it back in :/ Ha, I knew how to make it but I can't even fix it!

The bottom pattern is called 'chenille'. Our whole class had to make that pattern on their glasses case :S I didn't like it but we had no choice and it did go towards our grades. I can't exactly remember how to get that chenille look but all I remember was that we sewed coloured fabrics together, cut through them all, soak it in water and put it in a dryer to get that crinkled effect. I remember when I put it in the dryer, the power went out haha. Luckily this happened at home, not at school!

The next thing we made in year 8 was challenging. I've used it a few times and I still like my design.

I made a denim clutch. We all had to use denim in our product and find a template to copy fabric measurements. The majority of people made bags and pencil cases but I decided to make a clutch because it required a smaller amount of fabric and it could also be used as a purse or a pencil case anyway. My sewing techniques definitely improved when I made this.

We had to choose the fabric to go inside and I chose polka dots because I had a little obsession with polka dots back then. I still think they're cute now but I loved them much more when I was younger.

Unfortunately the teacher didn't provide us with zips so I went out and bought velcro =/ Would much rather have preferred a zip! Velcros are too noisy and the one I bought wasn't long enough to reach the ends of the clutch, so things could fall out...

It stands up on its own, yay

I still like my pink flower embroidery on the clutch :) Of course I didn't sew it myself, the embroidery machine did :D All I had to do was download the design and save it onto a chip that needed to be plugged into the machine. I just had to press start and off it went. Thank goodness! I'd have so much trouble sewing my own design -__-

I don't think I did too well in Textiles back in year 8 but despite my low grade, I still continued it in year 9. It was always a fun lesson to attend and I enjoyed making things that could be used.

In year 9 I made something that took almost a term to complete (about 8 weeks).

Boxer shorts!

Yes it took about 2 months to make 1 pair of boxer shorts! Haha they're obviously not that great and in year 9, I was obsessed with cherries :D

They're longer than regular boxer shorts because I bought lots of fabric (I still have a lot of it somewhere) and I wanted to use up as much as possible. I had the option of making pants but I decided not to because I have lots more pyjama pants than shorts for some reason.

I extended the length of the shorts but not the 'crotch' area.. LOL oops, no one told me that I needed to! I only realised after I completed it

I wanted to make silky boxers but the teacher didn't let us since it would have been 'hard to work with'. I can imagine how clumsy I'd be if I used silky fabric xD It would be slipping around so much while using a sewing machine!

This material was easy to work with but it crinkles too much. It definitely needs ironing but I don't see much point in ironing something that is only worn at home and will continue to crinkle anyway.

With the shorts, we also had to pair it with a pyjama top. Fortunately we didn't have to make the top. I just went out and bought a cheap singlet from Target to match the background colour of the shorts. Aw no, I wasn't able to match it :( Instead I got this green top which was similar in colour.

It didn't come with the cherry

I also bought an iron-on motif which is an already embroided design that just needs to be ironed on, simple as that. There's a glue behind it and the heat from the iron melts it and helps it to stick onto the surface. Pretty cool, huh?

Looks sewn on but it's not :)

I also bought a strawberry iron-on motif and yes, I was also obsessed with strawberries. And by obsession I don't just mean eating it, but having the images on everything! I have a top with cherries all over it -__- Hehe.

I won't be putting the strawberry one to use so it's included it in my giveaway:

The giveaway winner will receive a strawberry iron-on motif to use on any clothing :]

Together the pyjama top and the boxers were marked by the teacher. This is what they look like together:

Not bad, right?

I was happy with and proud of my final product, and I wear these in summer =] I hope no one asks for a tutorial or anything because I seriously do not remember how to make any of the above! I had a set of instructions and the teacher helped us all along the way. I wish I could have remembered the steps so I could try making more in the future. It sucks how uncreative I am :( However, I don't see myself putting in the time and effort to make myself pyjamas or anything like this because I wouldn't be motivated and it's usually cheaper just to buy it instead of buying fabric x]

Also in year 9, we made 'fabric postcards' which only took one lesson.

Very pink and girlie... that's pretty much how I am still :)

This was just made for fun, not for marks at all. I had a bit of fun making this as I collected random pieces of fabrics from the class fabrics box and pieced them together. I think at the time I thought of making a girl's bedroom or something o_o No idea why haha!

I used all different sewing patterns from the sewing machine and some of them I regretted using because they ruined it a little :/ You can kind of guess which. It's way too time consuming to unpick the threads if you don't like your sewing.

The pillow is stuffed with threads and I made the blanket look flow-y :) What I can tell from this fabrics post card is that the person in the bed is dreaming of Peter Rabbit. Not heaps creative and there wasn't much in the fabrics box for me to really think of what to use and design.

I decided not to continue with Textiles in year 10 but if I did continue, I would have made a dress! That would have been awesome.

Did anyone have these sorts of classes in high school? And are there things that you can make?

Besides items relating to textiles, I can knit a scarf, fold paper cranes, paper hearts and mini stars. I also had cooking class but I'm not such a great cook. I need to rely on recipes to help me out!

I hope you liked this post. I wanted to tie it in with my giveaway item (strawberry iron-on motif) as some may not have known what it was.

Speaking of which, my next post is going to be about my giveaway. I have a few things to share with those who have entered and those who are thinking of entering.

xx Jen