Thread: Teaching a trumpet skirt workshop: your tips?

I am co-teaching a workshop on making trumpet skirts and I'm a bit nervous. I have taught people to sew one-on-one, but not a group with varying levels of skill. Does anyone have any tips on teaching this kind of class? We have handouts and some volunteer assistants, but I'm not sure how we're going to keep everything on track.

I'm an art teacher, and when I give step-by-step instructions to groups of students with a wide range of skills, I break up my directions into distinct steps. I'll demonstrate and narrate a step, and then when the students are working on it I walk around the room to check that everyone is on the right track. When it looks like everyone is ready, I'll demonstrate and narrate the next step. You'll be on your feet the whole time if you want to interact with everyone, so wear comfy shoes.

You may even want to have students who have sewing experience sit next to novices. Before you begin, you can ask your class what they already know about sewing and move those who need the most help near where you'll be stationed so you can keep a watchful eye on them.

Originally Posted by Karnak

I'm an art teacher, and when I give step-by-step instructions to groups of students with a wide range of skills, I break up my directions into distinct steps. I'll demonstrate and narrate a step, and then when the students are working on it I walk around the room to check that everyone is on the right track. When it looks like everyone is ready, I'll demonstrate and narrate the next step. You'll be on your feet the whole time if you want to interact with everyone, so wear comfy shoes.

You may even want to have students who have sewing experience sit next to novices. Before you begin, you can ask your class what they already know about sewing and move those who need the most help near where you'll be stationed so you can keep a watchful eye on them.

Excellent advice! Thank you so much! We do have some volunteer sewing sages coming in to help.

I don't know how well you know the group or whether you are hoping to take this on the road at some point, but regardless, I would suggest you provide good enough documentation that students can take a few notes on some handouts and replicate your process on their own in the future. I know there is a risk that if your documentation is too good, people will redistribute it or put it online, and that does cut into your potential to give the workshop again, but a teacher's job is to give students useful information, not to see how little knowledge they can get away with imparting. Nobody will recommend you to their friends by saying, "If you get a chance, you should take this class. She barely told us enough to understand what was going on, and when I tried to make another skirt at home, I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do again from my notes." It is better to cultivate the reputation of being so knowledgeable and generous with your expertise that you don't need to feel threatened by petty information thieves, and send students out spreading the word, "You missed a great class! The explanations were so clear and straightforward! I've already made two more skirts all by myself!" And don't feel guilty about whether you're going too slow and dumbing the material down. You don't need this class if you're an expert seamstress, so set your sights on the people who are coming to learn something they don't already know. Be prepared to go into detail for each step, and have a few tangents about material types or closure options or whatever prepared if the group can handle a faster pace.

Finally, put copyrighting on any original documents ("Copyright © [date] [name]"), give appropriate credit if you're referencing someone else, and explicitly tell students how much (if any) you're comfortable with their sharing your class materials with friends. If you think your documentation is so fantastic and original that you'll eventually publish it, you can invest in filing a formal copyright, but since it is probably unlikely you'll sue if someone redistributes, good faith is the most sensible course of action.

Yes, everything Tourbeau said, and a few other thoughts.

(First: a disclaimer -- I have not taught a sewing or crafting workshop; but, I have thought about it. I have had a LOT of thoughts about it, because as a student of such workshops, I have seen what worked and what didn't. The thoughts here are from the student's perspective on what could have been done differently.)

The workshops I attended were on:
1) "Basic costuming" to include concepts on making a bra and belt (including base construction and decoration), with actual making of patterns for harem pants and circle skirts. Because this workshop was concept based, the Instructor could cover a lot of topics in a short period. There were a lot of principles, ideas, and advice to write down. But, it was in actually making the patterns that some classmates struggled. This is where you will see if your students grasp not only the basics of sewing, but also the basics of geometry. Execution of tasks here took 2-3X longer than the instructor planned, and since it was after the principles section, some students left without complete patterns.
2) Sewing styling as taught by (somewhat famous tribal costumer and designer who is an absolute DOLL and I love her!). The workshop was positioned as a chance to "get into her head" and see how she developed her unique examples of repurposed costuming. Granted, this was her first iteration of this workshop, and I got a LOT out of it. But, in real time, she realized that she couldn't have us practice hands on execution AND get the principles in 2 hours; so, she defaulted to mostly lecture on the principles and some chance to observe her sew (without hands-on practice for us). Still ranks as one of my favorites, by the way!
3) A course taught by a friend on constructing beaded sleeves. Stated goal was that students would have completed beaded sleeves at the end of the class. Teaching style was very task oriented, hands-on execution. I am the only one, of the 8 students, that I think ever finished the sleeves. Class time was 2 hours, and the things took 3 trips in traffic in the passenger seat between Richmond and Baltimore to finish.

Lessons Learned:
* Length of workshop should be scaled to the complexity of the topic.
* Goals should be clear. Will students get principles, or a completed garment?
* Prerequisites should be clear. How much sewing knowledge should they already have before they come in?
* Hands-on tasks will take longer than you plan. One student will get it right away and be ready to move on; another will be 2-4 steps behind.

Teaching a sewing class is a lot like teaching a choreo class. The difference is that for sewing, the student has a physical object that shows clearly whether they "got it" or not - any missteps will be painfully obvious.

Regards,

AnalaVA

I like to have several pieces prepped to show various stages of garment construction, so I don't actually have to sew the entire garment in class, just demonstrate how something is done, pass the sample, and get the class running with their attempts. I have found I really like very small classes, and for my bra making workshops, I've had former students who want a refresher volunteer to assist with class too. How many people do you have in this workshop? Do you have enough time (and sewing machines!) for everyone to complete the project at the class, or is this just a demonstration?

Originally Posted by Lara L

I like to have several pieces prepped to show various stages of garment construction, so I don't actually have to sew the entire garment in class, just demonstrate how something is done, pass the sample, and get the class running with their attempts. I have found I really like very small classes, and for my bra making workshops, I've had former students who want a refresher volunteer to assist with class too. How many people do you have in this workshop? Do you have enough time (and sewing machines!) for everyone to complete the project at the class, or is this just a demonstration?

We've told them that everybody will leave with a partially finished skirt. Some people will be quite far along and some people will probably only have a few panels attached to each other. We also told them specifically that bringing their own machines along means they will get farther. We put a max of 12 on the class, though I think we're likely to have only about 6. At the moment we have the main teacher, me, and one other assistant for sure.

Samples are a great idea!

Re the samples, maybe you could make them up in a smaller scale (doll sized!), so that you don't actually have to make *all* those skirts yourself! (There's a limit to how many trumpet skirts you really need in your wardrobe!)

Did you distribute a supply list in advance, or are you providing supplies? It's not a bad idea to bring extra pins, needle threaders, box of chalk, etc., because someone will probably forget something.

Here's a thought: teeny brass safety pins. If you pin the outer top edge of each piece as you're cutting it out, it identifies which direction of the fabric is "up" and which side is "outside." Safety pins don't fall out like straight pins or work off like chalk, and they're quicker than using thread to mark. It's a very common beginner mistake to be sure you're going to be able to keep the pieces oriented properly when you're cutting them out, and then be confused about which way they go when you start sewing, especially for something as nondescript as a solid-colored rectangle. As long as you're careful you don't poke any nasty holes in your fabric, and you don't try to run the pins under the presser foot, it's a handy trick.

Will each person have a customized, usable pattern when they leave? Do you need to bring or tell them to bring gallon zipper bags or big envelopes to hold their papers in?

In a worst case scenario, you can remind students that if they are really unhappy with their first skirt attempt (hopefully they won't be, but stuff happens...), it may still be possible to cannibalize the fabric for another project like a bra-and-belt base, so no need to panic over ruined fabric. On the other hand, you might want to suggest that the less experienced students stay away from stretch panne velvet. L. Rose makes the stuff look easy to work with. It is not, especially when it's the lower-weight fabric you find at chain fabric stores.

Originally Posted by beafarhana

(There's a limit to how many trumpet skirts you really need in your wardrobe!)

nonsense!!!

its like shoes- as far as I know- you can't ever have too many!!! :D

Bea, that's a smart idea- less expensive *&* less prep! Wouldn't work for my bra making workshop, but I already have a box of sample for that, lol!

Along with what Tourbeau was saying, if you are requiring them to bring fabric/supplies, be very, very specific with what is acceptable. We also had a case where someone bought fabric to cover a bra she was planning to use for her troupe without getting the fabric okayed with the troupe director, and tho the fabric could certainly be used for another purpose, it might be worth mentioning that if they want to use the skirts for a specific purpose, they *should* double check to see what fabric is acceptable for that specific purpose. Whew, that was a tangle- hope it made sense!

Just thought I would follow up here and let you know how it went.

The handouts were very well received and people found them understandable.

The class split into halves, one set working on "classic trumpet" skirt (each skirt piece is flared at the bottom) with my co-teacher and the other set working with me on gored skirts. We had seven students. That turned out to be the right number because our "assistant" decided to take class too. :-D

I helped my students with measurements and discussed ease with them. My "v2" version of the handout expanded the idea of the best measurements to take, and I was glad I did, because explaining how your beltline-to-floor measurement is different at different points around you was a revelation to them. All of them had sewn before but had not had to draft a pattern like this from mathematics.

As Karnak warned, my three students moved at very different paces. One ended the day with all her skirt seams finished, but not hemmed or waistband made; one had some seams done; one barely finished cutting. I had to interrupt each of them at different points to talk about grain and nap in relation to their fabrics.

My co-teachers' four students did very well too although there was a cutting mishap with the trick of accordion-folding fabric to cut more panels at once. (I personally don't cut more than two at once because I always screw that trick up, so I felt her pain.)

Thanks again for all your tips and warnings! much appreciated.

I'm glad to hear it went well. I hope the students will be able to finish up their skirts on their own.