Support Sewing Dreams for Future Designers

I am an educator in the Kansas City 33 School District. I am in my sixth year with the district as a middle school English Language Arts teacher at an alternative school servicing students in grades 7-12. Aside from the regular academic rigors, I also mentor the Sewing Club that meets every week. As I am interested in sewing, I wanted to share my interest with my students. This year, I co-mentor with another educator to combine our middle school and high school students together. The advantage is that we have an empty classroom for the club, but the drawback is that this year, we have more students than we have available sewing machines, something that I would like to correct. This year we have three sewing machines, a steam iron, tables, thread, and other necessary tools to conduct our club, but we are still grossly underequipped for the number of students who come every week.

To go into more detail, I am interested in helping my students learn the basics of sewing and garment design. I find that sewing is relaxing and a calming experience and I believe that my students can also benefit from having a new hobby to link them with their interests in their clothing, connect them with other sewing hobbyists in their families, and above all, learn something that they can use to improve a variety of problem-solving skills. After all, sewing projects do not always go the way that we want them to. We talk about setting the machines up, winding the bobbins, and then move into a variety of basic seams before continuing to more advanced discussions of ironing techniques, repairing/upcycling existing clothes, pattern creation, fabric cutting, pinning, and setting up the correct sewing step order to complete a student’s design. Allowing students to plan their projects and then complete them from start to finish is a wonderful way to teach them patience as well as provide a palpable boost to their self-confidence when they can take home and enjoy a finished project. Right now, as I mentioned, we have more students than available sewing machines. Certainly, it would be unrealistic to have a machine available for every single student, but for the seven students that we have, having only three machines creates a bottleneck. Often, several students are left waiting to use a machine for a substantial part of the club time, preventing them from progressing in their projects. Having additional machines would allow the club to continue as scheduled and help the students be more productive.

With sewing machines and supplies that I have provided myself and using supplies that I have collected through donations, we have been able to cover the basics and some more advanced topics, and as expected, the students are enthusiastic to craft their own clothing and items. We are limited by my classroom budget and personal funding to collect some of the more expensive parts needed to create even simple garments. I would like to be able to buy a variety of quilting rulers, a dress form, additional sewing machines, and fabric with which the students can comfortably have the tools needed to make their sewing project ideas a reality. With additional equipment, my students will have access to sewing machines as they need them, helping make better use of the class period time.

As my classroom budget is spent on my academic ELA supplies, I am looking to GoFundMe for help to buy some of these things. I hope that you will consider helping to sponsor my club so that we may continue fostering a love for sewing.