Being one week into the senior project my experience thus far has been very on point. My projecting is matching up to my expectations well and even going beyond them. Coming into the project I expected that with all the time I am given I will be able to create really good pieces of clothing. When I sewed before the senior project in my free time the clothes I made always felt very rushed. I had to balance sewing with school, homework, and other activities. This made me have a feeling of wanting to just get a piece of clothing done and not really put time and effort into it. As for my senior project, I am given a lot of time to work on sewing, and as I expected my work has definitely been a lot stronger. For example, I worked on a pair of upcycled jeans and shorts from scratch and they are already some of the best things I’ve ever made since I am given so much time to work on them. In addition, with all the time I have, I am able to be very productive. So far the pace I am making clothes at is very good and will reach my expectations of how many pieces of clothing I will make. My senior seminar for sewing has also exceeded my expectations. We have had two weeks thus far and I am already learning a lot. I have learned various hand stitching techniques, how to sew snaps, and more. I was a little worried going into my senior seminar that I wouldn’t feel very fulfilled but that is definitely not the case and I’m excited for the weeks to come because we will be working on sewing from patterns and I have a pair of jeans from a pattern that I have wanted to make for a while that I definitely need help with.
What hasn’t been matching up to expectations great though is sourcing materials. When having to source sustainably you are not always going to get exactly what you are looking for because sustainable options are a lot slimmer than non-sustainable options. When I went out to find dress pants and a suit jacket to upcycle it was very hard to find what I wanted and my size even when I went to various thrift stores. In addition, when I was out looking for fabrics I was not able to really find what I was looking for. I have learned that when sourcing materials sustainably I have to keep an open mind and not have something super particular in mind or else I might be disappointed. As well I have learned to try to find ways to work with a different fabric or material than what I had in mind. Going forward I will remember to keep this in mind when sourcing materials.
During the first week of my senior project, I discovered various things. I have learned a lot from sewing at home. For example, I learned how to sew a pair of shorts from scratch and what goes into that. Sewing from scratch and upcycling are very different and sewing from scratch can be a lot more confusing. I have also discovered various techniques to sew with during my experience.