The Cherokee County, SC, 4-H Sewing classes will meet the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of each month from 4-6 pm beginning Thursday, 5 Sep 2024.
Attendance to classes is expected, because most projects will span several classes. By attending classes you, as students sewist, will maximize what you learn, hone your skills more finely, and complete your projects on schedule. Sewing accurately and with ease requires practice at sewing. To achieve your highest level of sewing requires you attend classes.
Class, 5 Sep.
This is the initial class. Students will be issued tools and notions, begin a reference folder, inspect and clean their assigned sewing machine, operate the sewing machine without thread, and then will load threads and begin sewing a scrappy quilt project with 2 1/2″ fabric squares. This scrappy project will be sewn to completion over many classes.
Introduction to ironing and pressing. These skills are best practice for achieving a neat and well sewn project.
After sewing 2 1/2″ squares, students will begin sewing a cotton napkin. The napkin requires all edges, one at a time, be turned over 1/2″ twice and stitched 1/8″ from the inside of the fold. The seam will be backstitched at beginning and end. Folding the fabric precisely 1/2″ and sewing the seam precisely 1/8″ from the fold’s edge is extremely important. No project will be precisely sewn without each and every stage of the project being precisely sewn.
Class, 19 Sep.
A sloper is a fit garment sewn with wearing ease. The sloper is a tool to develop a pattern for a specific person. Students will measure themselves for a skirt: waist, high hip, hip, and skirt length. The measurements will be transferred to Swedish tracing paper and a pattern will be drawn. The drawn pattern will be cut out and used to cut cotton fabric to sew together as a sloper. The sloper will be assessed for correct and desired fit, and adjusted to achieve a final desired fit. Once a desired fit is achieved, a wearable, fashionable skirt project will begin: using final sloper pattern to cut skirt pieces, sew pieces together with best practices, insert elastic waist band, hem skirt, and trim threads.