Create and Craft Club

I am a firm believer of passing down skills, knowledge and techniques that can be used at home, school etc which adds to a well rounded life.  Many of which I also feel are what were once called life skills!

So I have a small craft club at school with some Year 7 students.  They have been trying skills such as basic knitting, simple stitches, basic weaving, creating items with felt and more recently.

To support the knowledge of felt we had go at wet felting.

They loved getting messy with this.........

They used a range of beads and sequins.

Used a range of stitches to add to the design.  We will need to come back to this again.

The students were then given a small canvas to paint on using fabric paints.  The aim was to take the stitched panel and continue the design beyond the stitched piece and on to the background.

Any theme could be used.  A bit of a Jubilee theme here perhaps?

I have a TA who also joins in and helps with the group.  We both like to make as well, it encourages the less confident students.  So the picture above is of Maureen's stitched Canvas.

Finally mine.  It was nice for us all to sit down painting our canvas and having a chat about anything.

The last stage was to hand stitch the handmade felt to the canvas.

They are now on display in the main reception area.  I put them up today so the students do not know yet.

I am really pleased with these as the students do not know what we are making each time and I am just getting them to appreciate that you do need to take more than 5 mins to make something!

So next week we are starting something new.

What do you think of them?  The girls are 12 and are coming to the end of their first year at Secondary school.

xx

Tie Dye T-shirt Re-Vamped

A couple of weeks ago my Textiles group tie dyed some t-shirts, tops and pillowcases that they had brought in. It was amazing how the same dye baths reacted with the different fabric contents. One of the purple tops had red streaks running through it which gave it a sort of 3D look.

The following lesson, once they had dried on coat hangers on a running rail sat on top of plastic sheeting we discussed embellishing the tops.

I like to have a go as well, white t-shirts to not seem to stay white like they used to and it enables me to demonstrate how it could be added to.

So my t-shirt is shown above, dyed in the pink bath along with everyone else's.

I like my buttons so I decided to pick some bright summery colours to decorate the neckline.The flower in the centre is a lovely shell button and I evenly spread them along the neckline and stitched the on individually.It looks a little like a necklace.

Some of the students added sequins and ribbon too. Sorry no pictures as they were so keen to take them home that I could not really say no just so that I could take some photos. Never put off enthusiasm!

I have often tie dyed t-shirts for Sophie, especially when she was younger, just popped a top in from ASDA along with the students work as I feel that learning is also by doing the task yourself as well.

Actually wearing the final outcome is even better, but the B

British weather had other ideas, but come next term and a fine day I shall be wearing this to work!

You can easily tie dye at home and it does not need to be messy or cost a lot of money. It can rejuvenate a white or light coloured top which may have a pale stain on it. There is a limit to what the dye can cover but my husband managed to dye a top black which had been discoloured with motor oil.

We just make sure that it is washed on its own. If the weather is nice tie dyeing is a good to do outside. I would like to dye some pink pillowcases for Sophie next time. She is still very much into her pink.

xx