Isn't Sunday Supposed to be the "Day of Rest"?

So, I'm a bit of a masochist. I like to punish myself knowing that it will cause more stress later. But--I do it for the good of my students, knowing it will benefit them more in the end. So, as you recall, last semester the 7th grade Project Runway kids tackled the infamous boxers. This semester, I REALLY wanted the girls to be able to do skirts. But, there are boys in the class too, don't forget--so they should get to do a boys' project. And some girls might not want to all do the same skirt. Or any skirt at all. So, that's when I had the bright idea to allow back sacks, simple skirts, and high-waist elastic skirts to all be constructed under one roof in one class at the same time. Crazy? Beyond.

So, things kind of caught up with me pretty quickly as I was out sick ALL of the last week in February and then I came back and realized, oh CRAP, I have not made ANY of the samples or student-friendly directions and they are starting on the projects like, NOW. So, today I spent my Sunday doing exactly that. I did get a wearable skirt of my own out of it, though. Five hours and three Power Points later, we have:


The Nylon Back Sack


The Regular Ol' Skirt...do forgive the strings I forgot to trim...


The High-Waist Elastic Skirt

While I admit that I was dreading spending all day at school when I'm normally alternating between sleeping and, well, SLEEPING on Sundays, I was very excited when I finished. The kids will be so proud of themselves when they finish these projects. All practical, all things they can use. A far cry from the useless drawstring bag I made in 7th grade Home Ec.

The Nylon Back Sack is waterproof and available from Haan Crafts. They've been around forever serving schools--my 6th grade Home Ec pillow was a Haan creation.

The first skirt is a simple, elastic-waisted (also non-vomit-inducing) and very easy skirt for beginning sewers. It can be purchased from Lama Sewing Kits, which is a great local business here in Maryland that serves its schools well.

The Elastic Waist Skirt came from another cool blog by a lady who does really great tutorials on a wide variety of sewing and crafty things; you can find it here.

Hopefully you won't see any "I'M GOING INSANE!" posts over the next few weeks... let's hope that my dear children actually use and READ the student-friendly instructions that I took my sweet Sunday to make for them and build their independence along the way!