lol.. it's ok.. I won't tell.. because we all know I can't read a recipe And I must be the only person on the face of the earth who fears knitting needles :lol:
lol I think you are both just silly! hehe I kinda learned to crochete with bread bags from my Canadian Grandmother ( actually was a step and that sprobably the nicest thing she did for me) Then I learned Knitting from my grama Bradley also Canadian Grandma... she was nice My step dads mom she taught me stamp collecting too and so many other cool things! I still have a little clutch purse she gave me for using at my wedding, but i Had no use for it at it so I kept it bagged pretty little thing! OOPS back to task, I learnd to hand sew and embroider from my 'little grama' moms mom, and to glue a hem from my mom! hehe! I also learned about 'perky bond' the iron on hemmer? From my mom! Just a few nostalgic thoughts on Home Ec theme
**Looking over my shoulder trying to figure out who the silly person is.. because I know its just soooo not me** I am going to teach my oldest hand sewing this year. I think when I told him he would learn to sew he thought he would get to use the machine.. haha.. no way Jose!
ya, my dd thought the same thing at first! lol, what do they think we would teach them to drive a car before teaching them to ride a bike?
Deena, I have looked into this a little and found a book called "Buckles and Bobbins: A Beginning Sewing Book for Boys" by Joanne Gagnon. The CBD site has this product description: Any guy who loves custom cargo pants, camouflage fishing and hunting vests, and really cool gear cases, bags and packs, will enjoy this book. Your son will build confidence and master new skills as you experience 16 excellent projects, step-by-step for the sportsman, the mechanic, bedtime, cooking, quilting, and more! These projects really work, the first time - valuable tips give you a heads up before you get into a bind. Even the patterns are included! But I was thinking of waiting a little bit so I can use it for all three boys. In our high school Home Ec we made shirts and/or simple dresses, and then invited parents to our "fashion show". We also made felt shaped pillows- I chose a skateboard and then had a hard time sewing the wheels so they stuck out from the skateboard!! lol Shop class was great! We did leather work and laced our own leather wallets. Then we layered thick plastics together and cut and sanded them down into ice scrapers. Mom still has that! I think gardening might fit in to home ec (growing your own produce)- but math and science and all would be great! MT3
Deena, I didn't read all the thread, I did read yours and home ec. in my school was sewing, and cooking, we had to cook a meal for the class on our own, and make one shirt.. to pass. We had to know how to measure, turn on stove and use the kitchen things.. but sounds like he can do that. Shop was repair work around the house, fixing things for the house. Ag" was garden work..
You know, in Canadian schools that I went to in JR High, we did quarter changes, four classes in one year, like a sampling.. that would still come up as an elective but just if anyone can use it.
Thanks everyone, you guys are GREAT! :love: I'm going to look into a lot of this stuff, and the book too, MT3!
Just wanted to add another suggestion, since I am a sewer...... if you had a sewing machine, I can list some easy projects to use a machine with. Finding a pattern and then measuring and cutting...helps with math measurements....and making sure you have enough fabric will also help with that. It's may be challenging to find projects suitable for boys though...... DD loves all the barbie stuff!! Just let me know...I'll be happy to help in any way I can on the sewing realm. A themed quilt would take awhile, and can be customizable for a boy. The simple "stitch-in-the-ditch" technique isn't hard to do. You can also tie buttons to hold the batting, topper and backing on. Just another thought.
I would absollutely LOVE any info. you would have for me on this!!! am NOT a sewer, so teaching the skill is tough for me! I can do a little bit, but not much! I think I could find a million and one thigns to do with my dd for home ec, but with a 14yo boy, I want him to learn stuff without hating it! So I'm trying to be careful what I do! A sports themed quilt might work, but how'd you do that without a stand for tieing. Maybe just a wall hanging quilt???? Yes, I do have a machine, I just never remember how to thread it! I can do scrapbooking, but sewing..... Any ideas you have I'd be most grateful for! Thankyou so much!
Well, need to be a member longer to post links!! Ok... You don't need a stand to tie buttons off. I would just use my kitchen table, or floor depending on how large of an area you would need. Doing a themed quilt is a wonderful idea. And he would love it as he did it for himself! Using the stitch in the ditch method is really quite simple. You just would need to be able to sew a straight line. Depending on age, you can practice with the sewing a straight line using one of those pieces of foam craft sheets...draw a line with a marker and space them out, you can do curves and squiggles. This helps your child learn the speed in which to press the pedal on the sewing machine as well as helping them to feel comfortable with using the machine. Starting off with a simple block of fabric cut to a size you would like and then figuring out how many across and down is a good thing. Planning it out on paper is a good idea. Instead of getting all over-whelmed with batting and a backing...try fleece for a backing. This will give your quilt a little bit of heavyness and you wouldn't need to use a batting. If you didn't want to try and use a stitch in the ditch method, you could just measure out your topper and backing, lay them face to face and then sew around the outside of the quilt leaving an opening in which to flip the quilt right side out. This is the same sort of method used when making pillows. Very effective and easy for beginners. This would be a good thing as you wouldn't need to use binding on the outside, can be tricky to get used to! If you wanted to go ahead and tie off using buttons, then you most definitely could. Either hand sewing them on, or using yarn to tie off is very effective as well. The sky is really the limit here, as the imagination will take you very far!! I hope this is helpful!! What sort of sewing machine do you have? Maybe I can help you with threading issues. :love:
oh! Wanted to add that with Christmas approaching, a wonderful idea for you could be making placemats or something easy for gifts. I know my children have a sense of pride for giving home-made gifts to family and friends...and everyone loves placemats!!
Oh, I thought of something else. My two oldest DS's have both done cross-stitching- DS #1 made an 8x10 football one- big football on a field with goal posts and FOOTBALL in yellow with red back-stitching. I'd count that for home ec. Middle DS is working on a hedgehog (driving us nuts in keeping the thread colors straight as it is about 8 variations of tan!). Last year DS #1 made some gifts for Christmas too. We found the no-sew fleece kits for scarves and he cut out ones for MIL and I. They are cute, and actually quite warm! lol I think he has two more for this year to make for his aunts. The boys made fleece pillows in Sunday school one day- the ones that you tie together. WILD tie-dye patterns! They were pretty simple, so don't know if I would count them for a 14 yr old, but DD might enjoy. MT3
Hunychikn: I DID come up with an idea while I was reading your post. I'm not sure--I'm thinking that a full-size quilt might be a little overwhelming, since I don't know enough to guide him. But a theme, and buttons.....those made me think of soccer; both my boys LOVE soccer. So he could have a soccer theme and "tie" it with soccer buttons! Hmmmm, I'll have to think on that one some more. The placemats idea is GREAT! Would we need to get a pattern or how would we go about that? What kind of material would be best? Would we need a "middle" (batting or something) part? MT3: that's a great idea too! I could take him to Michael's or somewhere like that and have him pick out that or those rug latch things! I just love you guys, thankyou all soooo much for all these ideas and all the help! I'm starting to get pictures and ideas, and feel we CAN do this! :love:
And for you, there is Sewing book in the "For Dummies" line. It's WONDERFUL. Simplicity also has a book to teach the basics of sewing. It's more of a reference book, but it's been very useful to me. I can't for the life of me remember what it's called, though. lol. BUT... in the process of scanning their website to find it, I did find Free online sewing lessons. Also, on the left, there is a red box that says "Sewing Basics". There are links there to all sorts of tips and techniques. Happy stitching!
Actressdancer thank you! I have been looking for a step by step sewing class for dd, I just signed her up! Sewing 101, I can teach her the machine work, but I am lousey at following a patter so I actually taught her how to design her own clothes instead of how to follow the pattern's instructions. I know that wad bad... I probably hear your gasps! My mother left my daughter her sewing machine and we will be picking it up in November when we go up for thanks giving. My mom always had all the fancy stuff so we are looking forward to seeing what all she has to play with, but I would love for ehr to learn to sew first! She will be great in design someday , I can tell because she is already standing out in fashion has her own C U T E style. She makes or rather re makes t shirts into cutsie styles. Reads every craft or sewing by hand book she can get her hands on at the library so this online thing will be just the ticket! YOU ARE A TOTAL BLESSING! I Hope God blesses you greatly for finding that site for Deena and inadvertantly ME!
Thankyou Amie! I am VERY interested, but I don't see anything that says what's in the sewing 101 classes. I don't know if I want to sign my ds's name or my name, or if it's what I want. TMom, is there any description of it once you sign up? How long is it? What's included?
Well what I saw in it is lessons, and lesson plans, its kind of a do it yourself but follow the directions it looks like. Not exactly what it sounded like, but still some sort of instruction to follow, starts with easy work,
My 16 year old daughter took home ec for 10th grade last year. She made salsa (served with nachos) and strawberry jam. For sewing she learned to sew on buttons and made a pillow. There was more time spent on cooking than sewing. When I was in school for home ec we made a shirt, taught a preschool class, and did alot of cooking. In bachelor living (the boys version of home ec) they learned to sew on buttons, hem jeans, and how to do laundry, including ironing. They took the nursery school children to they gym and told them to shoot baskets ... lol I think anything you can teach about successfully running a home and family within the home would be great. Good luck to you! BeckyB
Hi Deena Glad I could be of some help! A soccer themed quilt/lap quilt/wall hanging would be great. To keep it easy for you guys, if you choose fabric with a print for squares and pick up a coordinating color from the print, you could do more than one color... it would be very easy for you to tie off with soccer buttons. You wouldn't really want to tie off each square, so if you did choose more than one color, I would keep the buttons on a single color block. This would make your finished project not too busy visually. Should be great fun! The placemats are pretty easy. You can assemble them however you wish. I like to do reversible ones, and you can find free quilt block patterns online to get some ideas...but a single big placemat in a print is nice as well. You would just assemble as you would your quilt. You don't need batting to finish this. One thing I like to do though, is to place a layer of fleece in between the front and back, and then sew lines over the top...it's a nice touch to add the lines, gives it a padded/quilted look. And is fairly easy to do. I also like to take a block of a printed fabric, sometimes it is seasonal, and apply it to a solid back ground....ends up looking like a picture frame... Just remember to draw it up on paper first. That way, you are picturing it mentally and by putting it on paper brings it to life. Sometimes it doesn't work out quite like you wish for it to. But half the fun is making something that is all your idea!! Just have fun! I am sure your boys will have fun too!!
