Search Results for: sewing at Bishop maginn

Jon and I went to Bishop Maginn again today.  He did another interview and I taught another sewing class.  When we got home I worked on shipping my wool sales from yesterday.

Now it’s almost 8pm and I’m too tired to write about the class.  I do want to, but it will just have to wait till tomorrow.

The sewing machines were still in boxes when Jon and I got to Bishop Maginn today.  I unpacked them and figured out how to thread the machines and wind the bobbins before the three students who wanted to learn to sew showed up.

By the time  Paris, Hser Nay (pronounced Sur Nay), and Jayla showed up I had two machines set up and used the last one to demonstrate on.  They knew little about using a sewing machine but were very interested in learning.

After a few tries, they were all able to sew a pretty straight line.

I kept reminding them that we were just practicing, but they all wanted to make something so there was a lot of experimenting going on.  That gave me the opportunity to teach them some of the basics.

As they sewed they also learned about using the machines.  How sometimes they need to be rethreaded or what to do when the bobbin jams.

Hser Nay sewed the two ends of a piece of fabric together. When she showed it to me, as if she made a mistake, I turned it inside out and she slipped it on her wrist.  “Look, she said, “a bracelet.”

Paris taught herself top stitching as a way to make a checkerboard square. I explained to her the difference between top stitching and just sewing two pieces of fabric together.   But I thought it pretty creative of her to figure out her own way to make what she wanted to.

That’s when I knew that next week I’d be showing the basics of sewing the fabric together.

Sewing the right sides of the fabric face to face took some getting used to.  “I still do that sometimes,” I told Jayla, when she handed me the two pieces of fabric she’d sewn together backward.   Then I got to show her how I rip the two pieces of fabric apart to fix the mistake.  (And I mentally added seam rippers to my list of things we’d need for the next class.)

Teaching three people how to sew, who really wanted to learn, was a delight. I’m looking forward to the next class when I can explain and demonstrate how to create a simple square of fabric.

I think the most satisfying part for me was as Jon and I were leaving.  Two boys came into the classroom curious about sewing and  Paris, Hser Nay and Jayla began teaching them what they had learned.

(Photos by Jon Katz)

It was pillow day at Bishop Maginn.  With some of the donations I received from a few of you, I got some polyfill stuffing for the lunchtime sewing class in Sue Silverstein’s art room.

Hser Nay, Paris, and Jayla were there as usual.  They picked up where they left off last class.

But it was the first time sewing for Natalia.  She had to be talked into it.  Sue, who knows each of her kids well,  was able to convince Natalia to try by appealing to her desire to make her own clothes, because she doesn’t like dressing like everyone else.

Natalia is shy and was afraid, to even press down on the foot pedal.  She surprised me and herself by having great control over the machine and sewing an almost perfectly straight line the first time she tried. She would hardly look at me when we first began, giggling nervously.  But by the end of the class she posed with her pillow, looking straight into the camera.

When it was time to hand sew the pillow closed, Natalia was more confident about it because she’s seen her grandmother sew by hand.

Hser nay was ready to stuff her pillow when she got to class. She was the first one I showed how to finish it off by sewing the opening closed by hand.  Thanks to Elizabeth we had lots of different colors of thread, so Hser Nay was able to find a green that matched her pillow.  Her long nails made it hard for her to thread her needle but were perfect for pushing the polyfill into the corners of the pillow.

Jayla found the patchwork piece she put together two weeks ago.  She chose a plaid for the backing and sewed them together with a little help.  She was just finishing her pillow up as I was leaving for the day.

Paris got to the class late, so I didn’t get to spend too much time with her.  But she figured out how to sew the front of her pillow to the back and cut it to size without my help.  She’s been working on this patchwork piece outside of our lunchtime class.  I asked Paris and Hser Nay to show her how to sew the opening closed since I had to leave before she got to it.

Everyone was able to thread their needles when it came time to do the hand sewing.  But the tricky part was tying the knot.  I showed them two different ways of doing it. I also showed them how to tie off the thread when they were done.  I’m not sure they’ll remember that, but I imagine we’ll have a chance to do some more hand sewing again soon.

There were three new students who wanted to learn to sew this week, Tajon, Floasade, and Dah Blue. They learned while other students in Sue Silverstein’s class filled up bags of Thanksgiving food to give out to refugee families. Much of the food was donated by many of you in the Army of Good.

The kids were so impressive in how they learned and how they helped each other.  A half-hour into the class, Jayla and Paris and Hser Nay, who learned to sew last week, showed up to do some more sewing and help out too.

Jon and I got home just as it was time to feed the animals and soon I’ll be heading out to my belly dancing class. I’ll write more about what happened today, but it will have to wait till tomorrow.

The students in Sue’s class are already putting their new sewing skills and machines to work. This past week, Sue and her students created a print on fabric and made it into a pillow for the Bishop from their church who is sick.

The bell rang and Sue’s art room began to fill up with students. Folasade was one of the first to show up.  With the help of the Army of Good Jon is raising money for her for college (you can read about that here).

Folasade was one of the kids I taught to sew at Bishop Maginn.  She’s still a regular in Sue’s classroom and among other things,  she helped paint the door to the art room this past summer.

So many of the kids that I’ve known for some years are graduating and going off to college.  Sue is a great help to them, teaching them how to work with financial aid and admissions.

I was hoping I’d get to see Hser Nay.  Jon bought her a stand for her smartphone so she could take self-portraits, something I found out she was interested in and good at the last time we were at Bishop Gibbons.

When she showed up Hser Nay showed me the skirt she is working on.

She told me how her family is moving and it’s been stressful for them trying to find a new place to live.  She said it had been hard for her to concentrate on sewing, but she wanted to finish the skirt if possible.

She used one of the wrap-around skirt patterns that had been donated.  And with help from Sue, she already had the panels of the skirt and the waistband sewn together.

But she wasn’t sure what to do next.

The beautiful donated fabric was silky, and not easy to work with. But Hser Nay had done a great job so far.

I showed her how to zig-zag stitch the edge of the fabric to keep it from unraveling, then she hemmed the long edges of the skirt.  Hser Nay chose a ribbon to add to the waistband to tie the skirt.  I showed her how to make a buttonhole on the waistband, to slip the ribbon through so the skirt would tie evenly.

She kept saying that she wasn’t good at sewing a straight line, but that’s not what I saw.   She made a perfect buttonhole on the first try.

Now the skirt just needs to be hemmed.  I told her if she didn’t get to it, we could work on it together the next time I was there.

While I was working with Hser Nay,  another student showed up and introduced himself.

Kah-reem was dressed in a white cape and hood that he had made with Sue’s help.  Today he was working on a gold mask that went with the costume.

This weekend he’ll wear the cape and mask to a local Comic-con.  It’s a character from Disney’s Owl House. Kah-reem is confident and charming, with a big personality.  I enjoyed meeting him, and can’t wait to see what he does next. (You can see more about Kah-reem  here, on Jon’s blog).

Just before we left, two younger students who just started sewing yesterday showed up.  I gave them a few pointers and showed them how to thread the sewing machine.  But I didn’t get to spend as much time with them as I would have liked.

I was reminded today how much I enjoy teaching sewing.  This summer I’m going to meet Sue and any of the students who show up and sort through all the fabric that has been donated over the past year.

Jon is buying some storage bins and we’ll organize the fabric so it’s easier for the students to access.

We hope to get back to Bishop Gibbons in the next few weeks.  I want to make sure that Hser Nay gets to finish her skirt before the end of the school year.

It was an assignment in Sue’s photography class that got me and Hser Nay sitting on the floor in the art room.  Hser Nay was showing me some of the photographs she took of her friend Say K Paw as well as self-portraits and photos of food.

I had no idea Hser Nay, who was always at my sewing classes, was such a good photographer.  She loves to cook and sets up her plates creatively, then take pictures of them.

Say K Paw and Da Blue soon joined us.  I know the three of them from Bishop Maginn.  They are all refugees from Myanmar and are good friends.  They all know Zinnia from when she was a puppy and they helped train her at Bishop Maginn.

As we sat talking other students from Sue’s class came over to see Zinnia.  One of them asked who I was and what I was doing there.  I told her about how Jon wanted to do some good and found Sue Silverstein to help make that happen.

“That’s why we’re able to be here,” Hser Nay told her.  The Army of Good paid the school tuition for each of them.

I didn’t expect to be sitting in this circle of young women today talking about art. Both Say K Paw and Da Blue have been accepted into a couple of colleges and are nervous about getting the financing needed to go.  Sue assured them she’d help both of them get the financial aid they need.

As she was leaving for her next class Hser Nay thanked me for talking to her.

Because of the winter weather and Jon’s problems with his foot, we haven’t been able to get to the school in a while even though Sue keeps up updated on the wonderful art that is being made in her classroom.  We began questioning if our actually being there made a difference.

Now I know, without a doubt, it does.  We have plans to go back next week.

Sue Silverstein could not stop talking about how wonderful her new art room is at Bishop Gibbons.

And when Jon and I got to there today I could see why.  It’s not just one room, but a big space with many smaller rooms off of it.

There’s a room for print making and paper mache.  A ceramics room and a kiln.  There’s a room that will be the art library and even a room for the computer and Sue’s desk (Sue’s standing in front of it in the photo above).

And there’s a room for fiber art.

The three sewing machines that the Army of Good bought for Sue’s class last year plus three more sewing machines that are being donated will have a room of their own.

Jon and I got to meet Kiante Jones, the principal at Bishop Gibbons too.

It’s easy to see why he and Sue get along so well.  His mission is to make sure that each student who goes through the high school, not only graduates but has a plan for life after school.  Whether it’s college, an apprenticeship, or work.

And he’s as dedicated to community service and teaching it to the kids as Sue is.

Sue has been cleaning up and moving into the art room since school ended in June.  There were some art materials left over from the last teacher, and she brought some from Bishop Maginn.  Soon she’ll know what she has and what she still needs.

Next week the floors will be cleaned and waxed, but the walls and sinks already say art room.  You can’t make art if you have to worry about making a mess.

There are already some murals painted in the hallway leading to the art rooms. And Sue plans on having the kids paint more.

Today  Folasade, who was one of the students in my sewing class, came to paint the door.  It had blackboard paper on it when Jon and I were there. Folasade gave it a background coat of yellow after we left and will be painting her own design on it once that dries.

Sue said that some of her students can take two weeks to work on a project and others will have it done in a day.  So she’s planning on having projects available in each room for the kids to work on.

This way they can work at their own pace and always have something to do.

It was great to get a feel for the school today.  I’m looking forward to teaching more sewing classes.

Sue already has a project in mind.  There’s a nursing home next to the school and She wants to have the students make lap quilts to give to some of the people who live there.

I’ll be there to help.

I was all ready to get to my studio and work on my “Hope” potholders yesterday morning.  But something was nagging at me.  Last week when Jon and I went to Bishop Maginn one of the girls from my sewing class, remarked that I hadn’t been there in a while.

It was true.  When the school got the news that they were closing everyone there needed time to adjust to it.  Then other things kept us from visiting as regularly as we had been.

When Jon said he was going to talk to the Prom Committee, at first I didn’t think there was a need for me to be there too.  But then I thought about Madeline who lived at The Mansion and died in January at the age of 99.  The last time I saw her, even though she was fading, she still thanked me as she always did for coming to the Mansion to visit.  She always said how much it meant that we kept coming back.  As if it was the consistency of the same people showing up, not so much what we did,  that really mattered.

When Jon told Sue I was coming with him she said that Jazmine had been asking about me and would be glad to know I’d be there.

If I needed any assurance that I had made the right decision about going, I got it from Sue in those few words.

Once at Bishop Maginnm Sue’s artroom was as busy as ever.  The prom committee sat at one of the big round tables, trading ideas and researching the things they might need or wanted to do for the prom, on their smartphones.

Once again I got to see how well the kids all worked together.  Everyone listened to each other, they were thoughtful and kind.   They had already decided on a Casino theme which actually works more like an arcade than a casino. They’ll have games and win prizes.  Sue said the parents were looking forward to making the food as they did for last year’s prom.

They’ll set up a tent in the gym to make the space more intimate and easier to decorate.  While we were there they came up with the idea of having a table with board games and getting an App that allows them to each record the prom in their own way. (I’m not sure how that works, but they all seemed to know about it).

The mood of the school had recovered since they learned of the closing.  Sue said the prom is a big part of keeping the students engaged and excited to be there for the rest of the year.  They even postponed it till June to help keep everyone engaged and their spirits up.

It seems a prom was just what they needed.   

Before the committee gathered, I got to reconnect with some of the students from my sewing class. Jazmine and I had a nice conversation about her plans after school and I got to see Paris again for the first time since February.

There was a group of students sitting in what Sue calls the quiet corner.  It’s where Mother Mary hangs, and it seemed to me, a high school version of a grotto.

I never got to my studio yesterday, we stayed at Bishop Maginn longer than usual.   I didn’t teach sewing but as with the Mansion,  it felt good and seemed to be helpful just to show up.