Skills Investigation

Intention

My main goal of this skills investigation is to sew a skirt made from old jeans. Through this project I hope to refine my sewing machine skills and learn how to solve problems and challenges as they come up on my machine. 

Process

To begin I had to find a pair of jeans that fit my waist to use as the base pair. After this I cut pieces from other pairs of jeans and sewed them on to this base pair as I went. Halfway through the process, as I tried on the skirt I realized that I did not pick a good starting pair (the skirt was way too big) so I decided to try to alter it rather than starting over. This worked out okay but it would have been better if I had altered the skirt before I had already sewed on other pieces of denim. 

At first my sewing machine was not working but I used skills learned in class to investigate what could be wrong and found that the bobbin was not threaded correctly. Also, part way through the process the needle on my sewing machine broke, most likely because I was trying to sew through three layers of denim, and that was too much for the machine to handle. Unfortunately, I did not have another needle so I had to continue by hand. 

To continue in this process I am going to add more denim pieces in a couple of places and the even out the bottom and hem the skirt. I also may try to find a way to make the altering on the back look better once my sewing machine is up and running again. 

This project was interesting and I found that it was easier to sew than I thought it might be. I have always wanted to make a jacket out of old jeans I think this is something that I will definitely do in the future. 

Reflection

This class was useful to get to know how to use sewing machines more. I also though the the circuit sewing was very interesting and I want to learn more about its applications. The laser cutter was also super cool to use and I now am noticing just how much it may be used in the fashion and apparel industry. 

Sample Book