Simple Classroom Sewing

Now that I am teaching French, I needed to organize and decorate the room a bit. When I taught world history, my whole room was decorated in neon pink and neon green, which was very cheerful and bright. Since I am starting to teach, my room is not quite as cute as my last one, when Stephaie and I spent days decorating before school started. :)

 I bought 3 yards of felt in the colors of the French flag (bleu, blanc, rouge), which cost about 15 bucks. As the flag is simple stripes, I slapped it together in about ten minutes. Then I got a very tall boy to stand on desk and hang it up :)

The white boards have lost their finish and always look like that!

 The cabinets have little bulletin boards on them, so I covered them with the left over felt. It looked kind of unfinished, so I bought some tri-color ribbon on amazon and fixed it right up. Now they look very cute!

These don't count toward my January goal of three items because I made it in November...

Twinsies! A skirt for Stephanie

Stephanie, my very bff from NOLA, took over my job teaching the baby 6th graders. I had extra fabric left over with the creepy children from around the world fabric. A world history teacher needs a crazy flag and child skirt!

 Steph is skinnier than I am, but I wasn't sure of her measurements and I didn't want to ask her because it was supposed to be a surprise! So I made it with a narrow waistband and pleats, so the hips ar eloose and the waist can slip down to wherever it fits.

She was excited and sent me some pictures to show off.

Yay, success!

It's...alive!! The Necchi, that is.

I got the Necchi working! All it needed was a little TLC. It has been cleaned, de-linted, and oiled in all possible locations. A little oil on the belt, of all places, and it was ready to rock.

I must say, this has taught me a lot about sewing machines. This is like my bike story. I have a beastly 100 lb vintage bike that I love, I love it so much I'm afraid to tinker with it for fear of ruining it. Then I got a less cool vintage bike at a garage sale for 10 bucks, and I learned how to clean up an old bike and tune it up and I sold it on Craigslist for 80 bucks. So then I could apply my knowledge to my better, beloved bike.

Now take that story and apply it to my beautiful, awesome Singer 15-90 and this weirdly green Necchi. Same thing. So while I got this guy working, I also de-fuzzed and oiled (for the first time, bad Molly!) my Singer. Can you believe I have had it since 2006 and never oiled it? And it runs like a dream...I love that thing.
Look at all the things that came with the Necchi. Three feed dog plates, several bobbin holders, the original manual (which you need because threading this thing is totally absurd), and bunch of feet, including one for sewing on buttons!!!!!! OMG, I wish the Singer did that. I hate sewing on buttons! This machine can zig-zag, so it can sew on buttons.

Now look below. What is that thing, you ask? It looks like an eye ball.
Why, that is the Wonder Wheel, of course. It does decorative stitches. Two bars ( I am missing the top one, which is longer) hook into holes on the levers that control the length of the zig zag and stuff, and then make fancy patterns, all by itself. I am tempted to buy some wire and wire cutters tomorrow and make one to try it out. I have pliers, I am crafty, I bet I could do it!!
Lastly, here are my stitch samples. So it works, doesn't jam and will be great for teaching kids to sew on. Even on "HI" speed, it goes a weak medium, so no one will puncture their fingers! hee hee.

Parting shot- we get to start decorating our rooms now, so I took some pictures. Since I had "The Cart" (say that in an evil voice) last year, and had to move through other people's classrooms all day long, I am psyched about having my OWN room!! AHHH. Now I can still be mildly jealous of the people who have enormous eight-window rooms upstairs, but I am still excited!!!

The back wall is inexplicably blue, and the front beige. Sorry about the lighting, it looks less prison-y in person!
Anyways, I'm excited about lots of things! Yay. I have been washing all of that free fabric and I must say, to each his own. I would not make a single thing out of any of this fabric, for my own garments. However, other people will like it, and it was free, and it will be great for the club!

and the Closer is on tonight! Yay!