If you did needlework at school...

[PoodlesRUs]

...what sort of things did you learn? What projects did you make? I'm really curious to know.

Needlework or Textiles in general?

An apron, with embroidery on the pocket.

We had to make a school dress. There was only one pattern, but you could have blue, green or yellow checked material. Only one shop in the town stocked uniform and material for that school and it was very expensive.

I attempted to make the dress with no success. Ultimately, I took it home, my mother took one look and unpicked and remade the whole thing.

a pencil skirt

We made a nightdress , a skirt and patchwork bag, but that was 50 years ago in the 70s and it was just needlework back then.

Made a stuffed toy- nothing useful. Teacher was not nice to us. I'm sure she saw us as the great unwashed🙄😄. Not teacher bashing- I'm one myself. At my school now kids are making a pencil case.

An apron, and then a cotton skirt ( this was in the Stone Age when I was young). I loathed and detested it.

Twenty years later I discovered embroidery. I now have a City & Guilds in embroidery and BA in design for craft. You never can tell….

A cross stitch book mark in primary school. In secondary, a hooded jumper.

In my own time as a tween/teen, I made latchhook rugs/pillows, cross stitch Christmas cards and tree decorations, long stitch pictures and items with fimo clay.

A bag with applique on, a kimono, and a top for a baby.

DC made sock puppet. DD2 did GCSE textiles - did various things - quilt, dress and jacket apron.

I remember doing cross stitch and we did parents jobs in windows in 80s primary - as part of medieval guild lessons and a pencil case and book mark. Secondary I think scrunchies but seemed to keep missing textiles - they did fod tech and DT and textile in one slot per term then switched next term and my class seemed to miss textile slot most.

Aprons,a blouse,by hand then on to hand sewing machine,then electric. This was beginning in the 50s then the 60s

An embroidery sampler, a pair of macrame owls and a hideous A-line skirt that I never wore. I did quite a good job of its zip though.

Late 70s apron for woodwork. Bag. Skirt with a pattern.

It was just simply needlework in my day. We had to make a half slip in cotton with French seams and an elastic waist. We used Bernina electric sewing machines, Butterick patterns and tailor's chalk if I remember rightly.This was 1967 by the way - convent grammar for what it's worth.

We did "Fabrics and Fashion" in the early 70s.
I made 2 smocks, a skirt and a washbag

I was utterly useless and haven't sewn anything since 🤣

A red and white gingham apron to wear in home economics. And then a skirt.

Prior to that, aged about 8 I managed to sew my cross stitch sampler to my dress.
Still remember the embarrassment. I might have even cried. 😢

In our first term at secondary we made an apron. It was white with a flared skirt and bib. We added stripes of coloured fabric( mine was pink) on which we embroidered flowers- 2 bands up the skirt and a band across the bib. We also made an elasticated headband to match. This then became our cookery apron !

How to join on and off properly.
How to hem.
Running stitch, back stitch, hemming stich, chain stitch.

I made a cushion and a skirt.

Being confident in different stitches has been very helpful over the years for sewing on nametapes and badges, mending, and especially shortening many many many pairs of trousers.

We all made a tiered skirt (girls, boys were in woodwork) and I sewed the middle tier to the top tier then the bottom tier to the other side of the top tier. The teacher laughed her head off and held it up for everyone else to laugh at, which was too much for my autistic brain. Scarred me for life.

Oh I forgot the apron we made in P7 in preparation for our high school cookery lessons.

I was so bad/slow at sewing that my smocks were sleeveless as I never had time to do them.

Pencil skirt.... Still remember how much I struggled but loved that pencil skirt 😊

A nightdress, a tennis skirt with box pleats (never finished), a tray cloth with drawn thread work.

1980s needlework: We had one project per year for the first three years of secondary school (until we were mercifully allowed to drop the subject!). A cotton summer A-line skirt was the only one I managed to finish - and dutifully actually wore a handful of times! From memory, the next year’s item was a sundress which remained unfinished, and then after that I think possibly a blouse which my mum probably finished off for me.

Our teacher was absolutely horrible, she used to scream at us and throw scissors across the room, so I was perpetually terrified and shaking in her lessons which really made my dyspraxia kick in so at the time my work was just terrible. But about 10 years later I started sewing for myself quite happily. Turns out I had basically learned by osmosis as a result of watching my mum sew loads when I was a small child. And unsurprisingly, not having the time pressure or some awful woman bellowing at me and constantly belittling me also made all the difference!

A blouse and jacket after doing small projects like a peg bag. (Button holes, pleats, and tucks for busts) Also learnt how to put in a zip, how to
do hems, repair socks, invisible mending and do smocking and how to take a basic pattern and customise it. Also learnt a lot of embroidery stitches and how to use both a manual and electric sewing machines.
Taught quite a few skills including the importance of throughly reading instruction and the art of measuring twice and cutting once!

I couldn't do sewing and I didn't want to do it, like much else at school. But I guess that wasn't the teacher's fault.