DATE: Sept. 22, 1997
CONTENT: My dad and I went early to his first night class of upholstery
in order to walk through with me step by step on how to measure the window
and how to find out how much material is needed.
HELPFUL: First my dad showed me two examples from start to finish of
how long and wide the finished drapes would be and took me through the steps
for the measurements of the material. After this, he gave me two measurements
of make believe windows and I had to show him how I got the end result of
how many yards of fabric we would have to buy and use. He was very patient
and answered all of my questions especially when I didn't understand the
transition to another step. He also used a manipulative which was a scrap
piece of material so that I could see how he measured for the top and bottom
hems which have to be taken into consideration for measurements.
BOTHERED/SLOWED ME DOWN: I couldn't understand how the widths of
material turned into the yards of material. I also didn't understand how
the repeats of a pattern were relevant to the measurements. My main
frustration was figuring out the math conversions from inches to yards.
FEELINGS DURING AND AFTER MY PROGRESS: Well, like I said before
the math was tricky to comprehend because he showed me how many inches were
in a yard and how many widths you would need which took alot of mental math.
Once he gave me more examples, I felt more capable and the math went a little
smoother to figure out.
DATE:10/1/97
CONTENT: My dad taught me one on one at his upholstery shop. We started with
the roll of fabric for a set of sample draperies and layed out the measured
widths of material. After this, we measured and cut two more widths of material
from the pattern of the original width, always! After cutting one width into
two pieces, so that I would have 1 1/2 widths for each side, I continued to sew
the pieces together with a Singer 281-1 self-oiling high-speed machine. I ended
by pinning up the bottom and side(front) hemming so that I could hand sew it for
my next lesson.
HELPFUL: I really enjoyed the hands-on experiences with the following items: the
material, the scissors, the sewing machine, a yard stick, iron, and the weights
used so that the drapes would hang down properly. My father also would start to
show me how to do each particular step but let me do about 75% of the project
because as he said I'm the one who has to learn it, he already knows how to, so
I have to do it all. He answers my questions completely, showing me through all
the necessary steps.
BOTHERED/SLOWED DOWN: What bothered me was the pinning of the hems with the
T-pins because it was tedious and took forever. If I pinned too much fabric, he
made me take out the pin and pin it again with just a stitch of the material so
that no holes would show. Sometimes I put too many pins in or not enough.
FEELINGS DURING AND AFTER MY PROGRESS: I was proud of myself when I machine
sewed the materials together because I sewed it straight and properly. It was
nice to be complimented for it by my dad. I was frustrated when I had to pin up
the hems, that was really slow because of my performance. I really enjoy
spending this time with my dad and learning a valuable trade!!
Oct. 23, 1997
CONTENT: I told my dad about one way which was listed in the text book which
would help me learn more thoroughly which was to divide the project into steps
and develop a timeline for completing each step. So for today, we "tabeled" one
panel of the drapes which means we set and measured the lining of the drape up
with the drape itself.
HELPFUL: Before each mini-step of the one step for today, my dad would always
show me how to start the mini-step such as lining up the cremlin with the top of
the finished side of the drape and pin the material with the cremlin (this is
sort of stiff so the drape will look finished at the bottom, but it's inside of
the drape). My dad would start to pin it together and then I would continue the
rest of it. He did this with every mini-step throughout the whole project so
there was constantly hands-on experience.
BOTHERED/SLOWED ME DOWN: What slowed me down was the temporary 4-inch
back-stitch which I had to do to hold the cremlin with the fabric until we
machine sewed everything together at the end. I really have a hard time hand
sewing, probably because I had to use a curved needle instead of the straight
needle which I was used to.
FEELINGS DURING/AFTER PROGRESS: Each time I go to the shop, my dad sets up my
next step for my lesson on the cutting table, so I can see my progress from one
week to another. So, today I saw what I thought of as a good accomplishment so
far. At the end, my dad said to me that he wished that he spent 5 years
training me as a seamstress and I could have been in charge of the draperies and
such of the business. I didn't say it, but I thought "NO THANKS!" because it's
so meticulous and each step has to be just "so" and everything has to be lined
up perfectly.WHEW!!!!