When something isn’t working, just rip out the seams and start over.
Iola High School students Kinsey Schinstock and Jess Kroenke talked to USD 257 board members about the lessons they’ve been learning from sewing classes. They’re picking up life skills while learning how to make clothes.
The students attended Monday’s school board meeting as part of a program about the Career and Technical Education pathways. IHS has 20 career pathways students can explore, and many will go on to work internships as seniors. Kroenke, for example, is a senior and has an internship with Audacious Boutique. Schinstock is a sophomore.
The students are pursuing a pathway in fashion apparel and interior design.
They showed off several of the clothing items they had made or are working on, talked about how they’ve overcome challenges and the lessons they have learned from solving those problems.
Schinstock, for example, held up a short black dress.
“It didn’t fit so I had to sew a zipper, and it’s really short. There are still pins in it because I’m fixing it so I can submit it in the fair next summer,” she explained.
She held up pieces of pink denim cut in the shape of a leg, which she plans to turn into a pair of jeans.
“I spent all of my class hour today trying to interpret the instructions for this. I’m a visual learner, and trying to visualize the instructions was very difficult.”
Kroenke talked about how the students find patterns. They search online sites, purchase a pattern to download, then print it. The pattern will print on dozens of sheets of paper, so they have to piece it together before cutting it out, pinning it to the fabric and then cutting the fabric.
It’s an extensive process, she said.
“The tricky part is finding your size, because your waist may be one size and your hips another.
“It’s very fun to make something you can be proud of.”
They also talked about finding and buying fabric. They have a budget and typically make trips to a fabric store in Kansas City, but may also shop at stores in Humboldt and Yates Center.
Superintendent Stacey Fager asked if they ever purchase fabric online.
“We like to touch it and feel it. You need to know if it stretches,” Schinstock said.
