Becca's CAS: Textiles Action!

Textiles Action!

7^th January 2015 – 25^th March 2015

CREATIVITY & SERVICE PROJECT

Every Wednesday for two school terms I and three other students ran a textiles club as part of the Action! program at my school. Action! allows younger students to participate in extra-curricular activities that they may never have tried before.

The main project that we undertook was a make-up bag with a striped panel section. Below is the plan that we established before the club started and roughly followed:

1 Wed 7^th Jan	Girls will be shown the example make up bag and then cut out all of their fabric using templates. Some of the smaller strips may be sewn together.
2 Wed 14^th Jan	The smaller strips will be sewn together and onto cotton sheeting. The top and bottom pieces may be sewn on.
3 Wed 21^st Jan	The top and bottom pieces will be completely sewn onto the patchwork section and the sides of the bag can start to be customised.
4 Wed 28^th Jan	Continuation of customisation.
5 Wed 4^th Feb	The zip is sewn into the bag.
1 Wed 25^th Feb	Zips are finished and then the front and back are sewn together.
2 Wed 4^th March	Bags are fully finished.

The final two weeks were then spent making scrunchies and hanging hearts as we had insufficient time to complete another larger project.

Examples of the make-up bags

Scrunchies

By taking part in this project I hoped to improve less confident students with their textiles skills, especially on the sewing machine, and providing a fun and relaxed atmosphere at the same time. I feel that I did accomplish this and after receiving feedback from the students many of them felt the same way too. Below are some examples of the answers to our questionnaire:

1. Have you enjoyed this Action!?
2. Have you learnt anything - if so, what?
3. What would you have liked to do differently?
4. Any constructive criticisms?
5. Rate out of 10?

At times it was difficult to keep all of the students occupied as they would all be at different stages due to their different levels of skill. The different stages meant that often more than one stage needed explaining at one point and this was difficult for all four of us leading to keep track of so occasionally a student would have to wait a few minutes until one of us finished with another student. I do not think this was too big of a problem though as many students who were further ahead than others would explain steps and help other students which further enhanced the sense of community.
Throughout the project my reflections were guided by the other three students I was running the club with. At the end of each session we would talk about how the Action! had gone that week and if we needed to change anything the next week. It was very useful because it was not just me thinking about what could be different and we all came up with new ideas.

Throughout this project I learnt that I am confident with speaking in front of younger students and I am approachable, as students would not feel worried about asking me for help. I also learnt more about different student’s styles of working, as many would be very eager to finish quickly and others would take more time and be more precise with their work.

I can take the leadership skills that I have developed throughout this project into other life situations such as future jobs and at university. I have also developed my textiles skills throughout this project which are a very useful thing to have as they can be useful in many situations.

Helping a student with their project

I do feel this activity benefitted the students taking part as they all learnt at least one new skill. I know this because none of them had ever used a zip foot before, and we taught them how to.

If I were to do this activity again I would perhaps include more smaller projects as some of the students provided the feedback that they would have liked to do more smaller things instead of one big project.

The students who took part

Learning Outcomes achieved in this project:

- Undertaken new challenges

- Planned and initiated activities

- Worked collaboratively with others

- Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities

- Developed new skills