And the girls were at it again this year with 4-H. It was a quick, whirlwind of projects!
Madison chose the project Clothing for Middle School. It was an intermediate sewing project. Although she has never done a sewing project for 4-H, she has tinkered around with sewing by watching videos and working to make a dress with Grandma Yoh. This one required making a shirt with sleeves or a top (sleeveless) and bottoms. Originally, she was going to make two pieces of clothing. However, her project went into hyperspeed the night we got home from vacation. As I was processing upcoming dates, I realized that the late judging in August (her original goal) was the same day as her first freshmen volleyball scrimmage. So, we decided she needed to aim for early judging which was exactly 8 days from the day we figured it out! Monday (the day after we got home) we headed to Joann Fabrics to pick out and pick up everything – pattern (only 1 piece of clothing!), fabric, thread, supplies, etc. She chose a pattern for a flannel button-down shirt; it did not say “easy sew” on it.
I called my mom immediately to see if she had any availability – really a lot of availability– in the next 8 days. She said she could come on Wednesday and we would go from there. Madison worked through finishing her book that went with the project – really a pretty antiquated book about posture, pattern texture and lines, colors, and ironing your clothes and shining your shoes. Grandma and her worked at cutting out the pattern and sewing for 3 very long days.
Then, Grandma stepped aside when it came to the buttonholes. My machine has a buttonhole function, but it didn’t want to work on our test fabric. We were brainstorming solutions. Because, really, if you make a beautiful button down shirt and then ruin the buttonholes, it would be devastating. It occurred to me to call the Viking Sewing Gallery (inside of Joann Fabrics) where I got the machine and a sewing lesson (free with purchase!) to ask if they could help me. The woman, Arnette, said to bring my machine in and the project and she would see what she could do. So Monday morning (a day before judging), Madison and I hauled the machine into Joann’s. Artnette had the same trouble we did with the buttonholes, but did point out that our thread was too thick… I didn’t even know there were different thread weights! Then, she said, “I wish I could just put you on this machine with an automatic buttonholer.” I said, “You can!” So, she taught Madison how to use the $2000 machine to create very nice button holes and how to use the machine to also stitch on the buttons. It was a blessing!
The outcome was beautiful!
Judging was tough as the judge examined the shirt, asked questions from the book, and rated Madison on her very first project at an intermediate level! She scored an Excellent! While it was initially disappointing to her, we discussed how the rubric would reflect skills that an intermediate sewer would know – and she just didn’t know they were expected… not finishing the seams with a zig zag or surge was a major deduction. In the end, her hard work still led to an excellent score and a shirt that she will love this fall and winter!
Ellie stuck with health this year, completing the project Medicine, Science, and Safety. She took a lot of initiative to work through the book almost independently this year, asking a few questions when she had them. She filled out things neatly and completely. She had intentions (unlike Madison) to go to early judging. So, when we got back from vacation the only thing she had left to do was make a poster. She took some time to sketch out what she wanted the poster to include and how she wanted it laid out. Then, while Madison and Grandma sewed away, I worked with Ellie to space things out and line things up on her poster. Mariah Michaels let her use her stash of markers for the poster to create colors that matched the theme colors of her project book – a bit of a genius idea she had!
She did a great job with the judge – pointing out things she learning as the judge flipped through the book, explaining her poster thoroughly. She scored an Outstanding at the county level.
Then, on July 23, we found out that she was also selected to go to the state fair for the second year in a row! Her judging time was the following day at 2:30 down in Columbus. Jeremy rearranged some things at work to be able to join us, and Madison was, once again, having a ball at Camp Luz and unable to come. We killed a little time in the science/space area prior to judging – it is in the same building and it is air conditioned, both positives!
Ellie did a good job interacting with the judge again. But she walked away thinking she didn’t do a good job – the judge had to rephrase a couple questions and assumed because of that Ellie didn’t know her information well. Ellie said she just didn’t understand the question the way it was worded. It led to a good conversation about how to redirect back for clarification in those situations. But the judge also commented that Ellie had one of the best posters she had seen all day!
We spent some time roaming around, looking at things, finding Noah Michaels again, fishing, pig races, and some gyros prior to the 6:30 awards ceremony.
Ellie and I also switched shoes for awhile since she forgot her casual shoes and the sandals were giving her blisters. (Isn’t it crazy I can swap shoes with her??)
Ellie ended up getting Outstanding of the Day (top 20% in her project) which is pretty awesome!
And now, we are done. The last thing to do is hand the projects over to the 4H advisors to display at the Wayne County Fair.
