We are now FOUR weeks into our summer sewing class and we are so happy with our class! Kate and I have loved working with every single woman who has come to sew with us at the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries Genesis House for Women. The women are dedicated to making their projects look good and are very engaged in the class. We have had as many as 5 women in the class to as few as 1 person with their own background, age, and personality. One is studying for her masters in IT while one is only in 7th grade! Life in the Genesis House has been described to us as “stressful” and hot so we’re glad that these women are having a good time learning with us. We cannot wait to see how much the women will have progressed by the end of the 8 weeks!
On the first day, the women were introduced to the basic functions of the Brother CS6000i sewing machine and caught on very quickly. Kate and I were surprised at how much they liked just getting to know the machine (we have named the machines after the characters in our favorite show, The Middle. Today we had a student come in and want to work with Brad only…the sewing machine!) Soon after they were practicing sewing straight lines on some extra fabric and next thing we knew they were making twisted headbands left and right! We even had 2 new, very eager women come in on class 3 and by the end of the 2 hours, they were caught up with everyone else. The women who were there for all 3 classes got to make more twisted headbands for friends who requested them! Everyone learned how to follow directions and work with stretchy fabric that they were not yet accustomed to.
We began the infinity scarves this week. The women were enthusiastic about starting when we showed them the beautiful material Kate and I had picked out! The scarves will again involve following directions and sewing in a straight line on a ¼ in seam. Additionally, we will introduce corners and how to sew a button and buttonhole. We hope that this project sparks even more creativity into our students as they will get to choose how long and wide their scarf is and where the button/buttonhole should be placed.
Once everyone has mastered the scarf we will move onto making the tote bag (which will involve sewing from a pattern) and finally helping us sew our Blanket Wraps. More to come on that soon!
We still have 4 classes left and lots of projects to work on. Please consider making a donation to MK Blanket Wraps to help cover materials for our class AND help us buy more fleece. In addition to teaching our class, we are still working very hard every week to build up our blanket wrap inventory for the winter. ALL DONATIONS ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED!
