Pattern cutting course - update for this term at half way point; shirt construction project

I'm just back from my pattern cutting course and starting to draft this as I unwind before bed. I thought it was about time I updated on the course.

I say it's a pattern cutting course; in fact this is now combined with garment construction which I think is a good idea. It means, though, that there is less design and less draping than there might have been and more making up. This suits me, I confess, as my needs are more about developing the skills appropriate to make a wedding dress!

Next week is the mid term break so tonight we were handing in our portfolios to have them looked at to make sure we were going in the right direction.

So far, we have some  draping,  some TR pattern cutting and some flat pattern manipulation of bodices,  skirts and sleeves. We have also made up samples for gathering,  construction of inset corner (this being particularly useful for some potential wedding dress styles especially as also used in godet construction) and plackets. I have finally understood the difference between 'gathering' and 'easing'!

Tonight (Thursday 22 October), we started to make up a shirt/blouse. This would utilise skills in collar insertion,  placket making,  yoke insertion and of course ultimately button holes.

A preview! Front

We are using a size 12 (UK) standard block so of course the finished shirt wouldn't fit me in a month of Sundays!

In class, we managed to cut out the pattern and then the fabric. I inserted the darts and double folded over the front. Our tutor R didn't want us to try to finish the blouse at home but she wanted us to try to insert the yoke using the same clean insertion method she had and add the patch pocket.

R chose my pieces to demonstrate what we had to do with the yoke pieces. Unfortunately,  I had only cut one and so R borrowed one from Sarah.  Trouble is I had to give this back to Sarah and I hope that I can work out what to do - it seemed pretty complicated. R said she was using a standard shirt yoke construction method. I wonder, however,  if this is what some refer to as the 'burrito method' as we ended up with what looked like a burrito!

So after my bridge weekend away, which starts tomorrow,  I have 10 days or so to complete the blouse to the necessary stage and make some other replacement samples.

Up to date now

I drafted those earlier paragraphs a week ago. Today I did my homework for return to class next week, well at least part of my homework - I have quite a number of images to gather and some research to do.

I don't sleep well while I'm away from home. Instead of counting sheep, I've been going through the possible steps for the clean yoke insertion! I couldn't find it in my books, surprisingly but I did a bit of internet search and came up with a Craftsy post on  the 'clean yoke insertion'.  Later, they say this is also known by some as the burrito method, so my feeling was correct. My tutor is very traditional and working in the UK this probably isn't a term used while she was training. I didn't use the Craftsy method exactly as I remembered and had written down some of the details my tutor gave as she demonstrated.

Anyway, bear with me. I took photos of my process today and I'm going to post them here as part of my future portfolio and to  remind me of the process.

Clean finish method of yoke insertion:

I started with a back, two fronts and two yoke pieces - these are referred to as yoke and yoke facing.
I had originally forgotten to cut out the yoke facing; luckily, I had a piece of fabric big enough to allow me to do that now. My front pieces has the centre fronts turned in, pressed and pinned, though later I removed these pins for ease of manoeuvrability. I apologise in advance for white fabric against grey - though that was better than against the white of my sewing machine table where my camera completely refused to play ball!

1. Pin yoke to back of blouse along straight line, right sides together

2. Now pin yoke to front at shoulders. Again, right sides facing. 

3. Pin yoke facing to shoulders, sandwiching the shoulders and matching notches to yoke piece.The Craftsy post pinned together yoke at back straight seam here and left the shoulders until later. I found it easier to envisage  this way.

4. Same as above but opened out

5. The pieces are now sewn together using a 1 cm seam in this case

6. Looking at it from the outside, ie right side. I pressed the seam allowances towards the yoke before the next step.

7. Now the magic starts! I have carefully rolled up fronts towards yoke and back towards yoke.

8. The fronts and back are rolled up to yoke; yoke and yoke facing reach together over them and pinned

9. I then sewed the yoke to the yoke facing, right sides together, over the burrito filling of back and two fronts. I used the previous stitch line as a guide. It was important to ensure the burrito filling didn't catch in the stitching.

10. Stitched burrito

11. Start of trying to unravel everything! The fronts and then the back are drawn through the neckline gap seen in 10. above. This was more difficult than I thought - perhaps the way I rolled the fabric caused this.

12. Well, all out - terribly crushed. This is an inside view.

This is an attempt to show inside and outside at the same time. It's not yet pressed.

13. Yoke has now been pressed.

View of front of blouse.

What did I learn?

1. Firstly, this wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared.
2. Secondly, the stitching is trying to come away at the edges. I used a big stitch length for ease of unpicking if needed. There is a lot of pressure on these edge stitches while turning through, so I should have reinforced the ends or finished off better.
3. My turning out might have been easier if I'd  rolled the fabric differently
4. To be careful with which side of yoke facing is stitched - I found it counter-intuitive when I was going to attach along back edge (wrong side to right side there) but easier to envisage on the shoulders as the seam lay in an easier direction.
5. I don't think the cutting in class was as careful as it could have been. It's important to cut out carefully, mark all notches and match these while sewing.

Patch pocket

I'm not doing a step by step photo journal here - to be honest, I didn't even think of it at the time!!

Method:

The patch pocket was cut out in class using a paper pattern we had cut from the cardboard templates (not blocks as these had seam allowances on them). 1 cm turnovers again. I cm at the top and then 2 cm. The position of the second turn was marked by snipping.

I chose to make a cardboard template with the seam allowances removed as that allowed me to fold the edges over the cardboard and press.

Excuse the distortion of perspective! The sides are actually parallel. I couldn't get a better photo tonight but will do better for my portfolio

Scanned from an old pattern instruction sheet

10. Press under 1cm on upper edge of pocket.

Turn upper edge to OUTSIDE along fold line, forming facing. Stitch along seam line on raw edges as far as the main pocket. Trim seam allowance in the facing area to 6 mm

11.Turn corners RIGHT side out, turning facing to the WRONG side; press, pressing under raw edges along template edge.

Stitch facing close to inner edge.

12. On OUTSIDE, pin pocket to left front. I didn't have markings on the blouse front so used the front edges to ensure my pocket was straight and guesstimated from pictures of shirts blouses. Personally I wouldn't put on a pocket for me - disastrous in this position!! Stitch close to side and lower edges.

I tried the shirt to this point on Missy, my small model.

Front view - the side seams are not stitched

View f yoke - the side seams are not stitched 

Pocket close up.

 I haven't to carry on at this stage as we will be doing collar, cuff and sleeve placket in class next week and apparently the sleeve placket is inserted while the sleeve is flat.

Model renovation and correct sizing

On another note, my little model is falling apart and I need to modify to use for Helen as I don't want to spend a lot buying a new one. I think this one should do as although Helen is 6' tall, her length is largely in her legs, which are endless! I've lengthened the model as much as possible - the overall height is tiny but the body is not too bad, I hope at least.. My tutor said then to pad the model out to Helen's sizes, using a toile I've already fitted. I have a few problems with this. Sure, although I expanded to the correct size, the proportions are not the same so I will shrink down again. I need to fill in the gaps where the adjustment mechanism is. Missy's cover is tatty and I bought a new one but can't yet get it on! Missy's shoulders are rather large, I think. David thought it might be a good idea to build up with mouldable high density foam. Anyone have any experience of this?

I'm planning to start some sewing that's not course related tomorrow. I'm looking forward to that.

Anne

Pattern Cutting Portfolio Handed In

I'm glad to say that I managed to hand in the second of my two portfolios on Thursday.

Both the portfolios were massive undertakings and it's clear that I made them much more involved than they need have been. My husband attended a photography course which also required a portfolio each term and the tutor there commented that mature students have a tendency to want to do things really well. My tutor (Thursday - pattern cutting) said my work was what was required for level 3. At that stage, she was talking about quantity only, of course. While she hasn't read through the portfolio at that stage, she clearly knew all my work. She wasn't surprised by the number of pattern drafts and toiles I had. I didn't in the end hand all of these in.

In pattern cutting I had to make a personal trouser block with all the steps that involves and include the different pattern drafting stages and fitting toiles with comments on the process. The we had to research trousers, trouser styles, trouser details, fabrics etc and choose one to take forward. We had a croquis exercise, then moved forward to a working drawing. From that we had to develop a pattern and go on to toile fit. We weren't expected to have a garment made up in fashion fabric but we were expected to have made up a final toile.  At every stage we had to include detailed notes on our thought processes.

I chose what I thought would be a useful and not too difficult style - cropped trousers with side knee slits, back patch pocket, jeans type front pockets, fly zipper closure and standard waistband with belt loops. This is the type of trouser that I like wearing to golf in the summer months.

I had to include lots of drawings and photos. I don't propose to put them in this post, you'll be relieved to know!

I found that my initial trouser block wasn't that good a fit, unfortunately.

However, I drew out and modified my block (no seam allowances or details - sloper for those in US) to the correct length and added the slits and seam allowances. I drafted out the pieces for the fly front closure and for the pockets and waistband.

I should say that the vast bulk of this work was carried out at home because there simply wasn't enough time in class to tickle the surface! Also, I missed the penultimate class. As a result, I didn't have any tutor input for the end stages.

My initial toile was tried on and some modifications made to it; the tutor was able to help with this fitting. I transferred the modifications to the pattern and made another toile... repeat several times! I had a number of problems as I have knock knees; these didn't seem to be much of  a problem in the past but as the arthritis in my left knee is worsening, so is the bend! In my penultimate toile, I was reasonably happy with things, though I felt that the trouser legs were too wide below the knee; I had done some market research and wide cropped trousers were a no-no. So I narrowed the legs by quite a bit, tapering out to zero at fork point/high hip on side seam. I later split the difference and widened them again as I feared them being too tight for me to wear - and they were to fit me, after all.

At an earlier stage, I spoke to my tutor of putting in a side seam 'vent' and she advised me on that. However, I later came to realise that what I wanted was a 'split' not a 'vent' and was grateful that I had the book 'Professional Sewing Techniques for Designers' by Cole and Czachor. While I had fitting books, they didn't have sewing instructions and sewing books didn't have the pattern details I required; this book is great as it has both the pattern elements and the sewing details. I didn't find this out until too late in the process to modify the pattern appropriately, though.

I carefully trued all the pattern pieces, but found that somehow I'd made an error and my back and front  lengths didn't match at either inseam or outseam. I added the necessary amount (2.5cms) to the back leg length. There was still a discrepancy in the inseam but I texted the tutor who advised that the amount would be usefully eased in particularly as these were sports trousers.

So I carefully cut out all my pieces.

I followed the construction process we had used in our jeans making course. This meant the very first thing to be constructed was the side pocket. This went ahead no problem. Then I had to insert the fly front zipper. I struggled with this - the notes from the class we had previously weren't great, unfortunately. The Reader's Digest 'Complete Guide to Sewing' came to my rescue.

Looking good so far - then I tried them on! The back side seam was 2.5 cms longer than the front. No matter what I did. Well, toiles are for cutting apart and ripping up and drawing on (there's really no such thing as the 'wearable muslin' that I read about so often) so despite this being the night before my submission was due, I unpicked the toile, cut off the excess on one leg only and resewed at the correct length. Now my inseam and outseam lengths both matched perfectly!

Otherwise, I was reasonably happy with fit - I felt another couple of toiles would do it!! I further modified this toile by taking in the back seam where it was loose and standing away from my waist. I found that there was some pouching below the zip and I wondered if I had used too long a zip (8") and also I felt tightness across the thighs when I moved.

It was too late to do anything else. I decided against putting on the waistband. I didn't hem but put in a sample of the vent/slit treatment with comments. I completed my portfolio, including the necessary changes I still thought was required, and went to class on Thursday evening.

The tutor looked at my fitting photos, then I tried on the final toile. It's interesting that the tutor thought one thing when looking at the photos but immediately changed her mind when seeing the real thing, which shows the limitations of fitting from photos.

She didn't think they were too bad and pinned out some adjustments which I transferred to the 'modified final pattern'

• I further took in the back seam
• Excess fabric was removed from front (the pouching between zip and inseam)
• I added 1 cm to the outseam of front legs only
• My left leg (the one where I have a particularly knock knee) was okay from the back but the right leg was not. Although I knew I really needed separate leg patterns, I hadn't had time to address this. However, now I did!

In class I redrew and modified the main pattern pieces. I had one front leg piece and two back leg pieces, for right leg and left leg. I didn't have time to modify pocket pieces, waistband etc.

I look forward to actually making up a pair of trousers when I get my portfolio back - though rest assured, I'll do another toile first! The calico I used for the toile is much heavier than the fabric I intend to use for the trousers, so some adjustment on that account may be required.

I've signed up to the class for September for 30 weeks. The tutor has suggested that my pattern drawing and then sewing project should be my daughter's wedding dress. The main stumbling block is that my daughter lives in the east end of London, works at Kings Cross, and I don't see her that often, so fitting is an issue. I discussed options for fitting - duct tape, plaster dummies etc. I know that Morley College does a dummy making weekend but I think her Dad will carry this out when she's home. Unless anyone has a better idea? My daughter feels that thinking about the design is more crucial at this stage. She wants me to go to London for a few days when we can see a couple of the dresses she likes, finalise a design, go fabric shopping etc. I think it's too early for that. Expense is a problem - I really can't afford to spend several nights in a London hotel and really can't stay with my daughter; I could commute from Cambridge, perhaps. I'll have to think about this.

Birthday weekend in London and frantically getting porfolios ready

I haven’t written a blog post in a while as I have been too busy.

My main reason for starting my blog was to act as a kind of log book for me. Tonight I handed in my portfolio for the Fashion and Clothing Course I have been doing. Whew! It seems a long time since I had to do anything like this - and while I was used to academic submissions, this was very different. It means, though, that as I was documenting for my portfolio, I had less reason to blog, as well as less time. I haven't mentioned the courses for a while. The Pattern Cutting Course has been running smoothly, and to plan, but the Sewing Course has been a fiasco from start to finish, not due to the tutor. I spoke about the problems previously but I elected to continue, in any case.

I made a dress for my final garment, see above, which was submitted alongside a previously made skirt, see below. I will submit a review of the dress later.

 

Tonight, I’m too tired to sew and not tired enough to go to bed just yet, so decided I’d write this post. I’m not through with sewing, you see - I have another portfolio to submit on Thursday for my Pattern Cutting course and I’m way behind. I drew up the pattern for my final garment - a pair of cropped trousers for golf and today cut out and made up the toile. It was awful! It was too baggy, too long at the front and rather twisted in appearance. DH took some photos.

How could that happen when I’d been so careful? Well, I found out the answer! I realised that the sewing class tonight would involve a lot of waiting and paperwork and that after I had sewn on the last poppet to finish my dress, I could look at my toile. These crops have side vents - and I realised I had cut one longer than the other! In a vent, there is a crucial point to which the side seam must be sewed. I had very carefully marked these points - but a 2.5 cm difference in the position of one made a huge difference! I started sewing at that point, sewing up to the side waist so it is no surprise that the front was 2.5 cms too long for the back!

When I realised what I had done, I inadvertently made the situation worse by reducing the length of the long side, when what I should have done was move the stitch point down by 2.5cms. Magic tape will come to my rescue - tomorrow. I'll get it sorted.

I ripped the toile apart and re-pinned to the correct position. Now, the trousers at least met at the top in the right place. I tried them on in the college toilets, just pinned, so my critique is likely to be far from accurate. However, I don’t think I now need to alter the waist height. However, I do need to narrow the trouser legs, increase the side seams to tighten a little and make a knock knee adjustment as they were not lying properly due to my knock knees (the left is a lot worse than the right due to arthritis). I thought that had been taken into account previously as I had already made such an adjustment at an earlier pattern stage for my block, but it's relatively easy fix, though I'd probably be better having separate right and left leg patterns. I'm not sure I have time for that though.

So my plan is that tomorrow I will re-sew the toile, making a knock knee adjustment, greater on the left, narrowing the legs and adjusting the vent. If the result is reasonable, I will draw up what will have to be my final pattern and stitch up a complete garment - if I have time. I’m busy tomorrow night and Wednesday morning and all day Thursday, but I hope there will be enough time to achieve this by Thursday evening.

So I have been pretty immersed in the course work for the two courses I’m doing but not everything has been course work.

By birthday is on 4th July and I said I'd like to visit the Alexander McQueen exhibition at the V&A in London. We arranged our hotel but I was unable to get tickets for Alexander McQueen. Fortunately, I joined the V&A as a member and that gave me access to a members' only showing on the morning of my birthday. I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition. I don’t have any pictures but there are many online and the exhibition was reviewed very well by Kate from Fabrickated. My youngest daughter was unable to go with me, though she had so much wanted to go, because she had a lot of back pain after camping at Glastonbury a few days before that. So DH accompanied me to that too. The exhibition finishes on 2 August and has been so popular and constantly sold out that the museum is opening overnight for the last two weekends. There are many supportive materials available. One of my pattern cutting friends went at a busy time and found that she couldn't read the notices (I use a large print book - but she's young and doesn't need that!) because people kept getting in the way. Although I don't live on London, I still think that my membership plus 1 guest has already been very useful; I do have a number of things later in the year pencilled in. We're likely to be in London reasonably often.

While in the V&A I also chose to visit the shoe exhibition Shoes: Pleasure and Pain which is on until January. This was also well reviewed by Kate. This time, it was at a rather busy (Saturday late morning) public time and my enjoyment was a little spoiled by the crowds - and the heat! As a northerner, I’m not used to the heat in London. Fortunately, I hadn’t been in London 3 days earlier when the temperature broke all records.

In the course of our weekend, I also visited the Imperial War Museum to see the exhibition 'Fashion on the Ration’. I very much enjoyed that too but was disappointed that in addition to not being allowed to take photographs, or sketch, there were no postcards available of particular garments and the book was text rather than any exhibition photos. I liked a utility garment - these must have been two a penny at the time; one was sold by M&S. But no joy, I’ll just have to remember, as although I'm not a vintage enthusiast, this looked fabulous and I'd love to make it.

Not everything was sewing related, though. I did visit Tate Modern for the first time. I found London very wearying in the heat.

On each of the two evenings we spent in London, we met our youngest daughter and her fiancé (we can't stay with them as their flat is so tiny (and they have so far been thwarted in their attempts to get onto the property ladder) but we stay in a hotel across the road). The first evening, I was so pooped and my feet were killing me that we ate in our hotel. The second evening was my birthday and we went to a lovely and helpful restaurant not too far from our hotel that my daughter recommended and booked. My oldest daughter came to London to join us so that was lovely.

A while back, my youngest daughter had requested that I make her a kimono and she chose the fabric for it when we were at Olympia in February. Eventually, we decided on one of the patterns I already had (free with a magazine) and she requested that I make it as long as possible both in body and sleeve - there she requested 3/4 length sleeves. Well, I did make it and took it to London with me to give her. I will review that, too, later. I took a couple of photos of it on my mannequin but we weren't able to get any of my daughter wearing it. She’ll send me photos eventually. I'll post then.

On the Sunday, we decided to leave London and return to Cambridge slowly, via Duxford (we drove to London; originally we were going to leave the car in Cambridge and get the train but our plans changed.). No, I didn't do any fabric shopping while I was there! My daughter had prepared a lovely family celebration evening meal and my grandsons gave me their handmade cards. Then, unexpectedly, my middle daughter arrived. So I didn't see all three daughters at the same time, but at least saw them all in the same weekend.

On the Monday morning, we were babysitting for our younger grandson until he went to nursery school in the afternoon but then we made our way home slowly. This meant I missed my sewing class, which meant in turn that I have been more pressurised since! As I went to London via Cambridge on the Thursday, I also missed my pattern cutting class.

So it comes full circle. I need to go to bed now so I'll be refreshed for my marathon to come, tomorrow!

On Friday I'm going to see the Yves Saint Laurent exhibition at the Bowes gallery. Should be good. I'll write more about that next week, perhaps.

Bye for now.

Anne

 

College Evening Class Update

I've realised I haven't updated about my College classes after being so uncertain about continuing them previously.

Major changes to the dressmaking techniques class, which I've mentioned before (no longer called that but that title will be best here), but meaning a bigger class, twice the number still with only one tutor, in inadequate space, mixed ability with lots of absolute beginners rather than the class was were expecting and now a certificate course rather than pure adult learning, and a huge level of disorganisation meant that many dropped out and I seriously considered doing the same. In fact I had asked for a refund of the class after the tutor had said it wouldn't meet my needs but DH suggested I should give it a chance. I think I actually said in a previous post that I had attended my last one. One of the other students, Elizabeth, decided to continue and we agreed to work together. Plus we were given permission to work in a separate room - more space but no tutor available as she would be working with beginners in the original room. We could call on her if necessary. The room was very useful from the very first night when there were 4 of us oldies (the other two have since dropped out) and we critiqued the fit of Elizabeth's dress, giving her advice on what we felt she could do to improve the fit. She checked this in a quick 2 minute discussion with the tutor, who agreed with our suggestions. E has since made those changes and her dress was looking good and fitting well.

So, I'm going along with the syllabus. Having to be seen to be able to complete basic tasks. I don't mind the recap of seam types etc. Elizabeth and I have managed to combine picking up and completing the exercises with some of our own work. One very useful exercise was me taking Elizabeth through the steps to insert an invisible zip on the evening we were expecting this to be the exercise but the actual exercise turned out to be very basic and very quick to do. We used written and photographic instructions to help and used my invisible zipper foot. Elizabeth had inserted a pretty competent invisible zip in the dress mentioned earlier but had taken several tries to get it to look okay. She had managed to come up with a way of inserting but the way we followed was easier (though with calico being the same on both sides,  we thought that we had got the work twisted). She hadn't known that it's usual to sew this type of zip before the seam is closed and hadn't known there was a special foot. Her result was excellent.  She has since gone and bought a similar book to the one I had taken with me and an invisible zipper foot, though she hasn't used it in earnest yet.

I do have to produce a portfolio, which I haven’t properly started yet. All of our little samples will be included. I think the mini garment will be a skirt, which we did in our first term in September but it’ll be a useful recap - and I can’t find my original sample. I still have the mini jeans and that might be suitable to put in as well/instead.

I'm also still attending my pattern cutting class. This has also become a certificate course but the new bosses have fortunately not managed to destroy the class and several of us have continued plus a couple of new people. We are currently drafting pants patterns, fitting those pants, designing from this and we have to end up with a fitting pair of pants in the muslin stage - we're not required to make up in fashion fabric, though it was pointed out that fashion fabric needs to be firmly in mind when the pattern is being designed. I seem to be a very long way away from this stage at the moment, yet we’re halfway through the term.

The work is new to us and we have quite a lot of homework to do outside the class. I need to start my portfolio, which will be more complicated than the other. I’ve put together some jottings and I’ll type them into Word. I’ve taken some photos which can also be put in.

I’ll post something more specific nearer the end of term.

 

 

Blogger and Google Drive photo problems solved (I hope!); update on pattern cutting and dressmaking techniques classes

Just to prove I can still add photos - but this is the only one here! Unless you want photos of apple blossom, tulips, snowy mespilus, grape hyacinths etc. The garden is awash with colour. Gorgeous!

One of the problems I had was that my photos disappeared from my blog. This followed computer problems after which I changed the location of the photos to organise them better (not realising the chaos this would cause).

A few months ago, I discovered that photos taken on my smartphone could be directly uploaded to Blogger. In the add photo box in blogger, taking directly from your phone was an option. This worked well and was very easy. The only issue was the lack of editing of the photo.

I think I changed the settings on my phone, however, as I didn't like that every photo I took was potentially going to be broadcast. This is only in retrospect I'm working this out, so I'm not sure. However, I think I changed the share/privacy settings a little (my photos were always private, anyway). Anyway, my phone photos stopped being available to blogger. I couldn't work out how to change it back. At the same time I cleared up the photos as my phone had lots of photos on it and any particular one was difficult to find - but found this meant I deleted them from blogger.

Fortunately, I was able to restore the photos, after finding out how by Google search, though I couldn't restore their links into my posts. I manually restored the links, or at least some of them. Others I decided could be missed off the post.

I now found that if I downloaded my phone photos onto Google Drive, I could upload them into blogger. Still no editing but that seemed to work for a little while. I shared the contents of Drive across all my platforms - by this time my laptop was long gone, so that meant PC, tablet and phone. I did some posts on my PC and some on my tablet. The tablet was easier as I could start working on a post when I had some spare time eg waiting for a class to start. My tablet did not have access to my PC hard drive where I stored photos and had editing software. I decided this was okay.

Although I shared Drive across all platforms, I found that if I changed Drive, I could not access the changes to Drive made after a particular post was started. This meant that the image of the Drive was outdated. Changes I had made didn't show. I had previously noted that not all photos I tried to put onto Drive got there. Anyway, I realised I couldn't just use my modified Drive to replace the photos.

After the problems with the computer, I tried to organise my photos in Drive as they were so very difficult to find. Not at all like the lovely folders of individual projects I had envisioned. However, I now found that my blog posts were full of empty photo frames, some with captions. Only so far back, though, as my use of Drive to get photos from my phone and onto Blogger was relatively recent.

I still had the photos in Google Drive but Blogger couldn't find them (the ones that I had taken from our shared drive were fine - these were the ones DH took on his camera). Okay, I thought - all I need to do is to copy them or move them onto my computer. No. Nothing that straightforward. I've solved it now, but if anyone has problems with this, please ask me and I'll give you more details how to manage the transfer.

Some of the photos downloaded okay (select, choose download, choose 'save as ' after message about zipped file appears and choose where you want them to go). They downloaded into a zipped folder, but I could choose the site of that. Getting the photos out of the zipped folder was fine except on a couple of occasions when my computer hung or something - saying it was going to take over 4 hours to copy 40 photos - something I achieved later in a few seconds.

After I was sure that all the photos had downloaded okay, I took them out of the zipped files and put them into the appropriate file. At this stage, I didn't then delete the photos from Drive - I may as well leave them there!

I started to go through the blog posts to try and replace the photos. I have replaced some but decided others didn't need to be there. I don't feel that it's worth a lot more of my time to sort them to the nth degree. I have the info in my physical learning log.

I have decided that my blog posts from now on will not use Drive as an intermediary unless it's simply to get a photo from my phone onto my PC. I can then call up the photo from the appropriate folder, edit it if necessary (I'll probably continue to use Photoshop Elements as I've used it before) and then get Blogger to download, I mean upload, the edited photo.

So my next posts should have appropriately edited and oriented photos, even if I take them in class on my phone! No photos in this post, though - I spent a long time getting photos back into my blog posts and I'm quite tired! I still have one post, that I know of, to update, but I can't find the photos anywhere!

Update on classes:
My pattern cutting class has restarted - we enrolled on Thursday past and the first official class is next week. We worked in the extra enrolment class on modifying the style of a quarter trouser block. Next class, we will start on our personal block.

The news isn't so good with the dressmaking techniques class (now called sewing techniques).

I have enrolled but the new person in charge wants to have so many students in the one class that it just won't work. Previously there was a class size of 12, with different classes on different nights divided into beginners, 2 or maybe 3 classes I believe (absolute beginners included and those who were starting course even though they had some experience), continuers and advanced. I did one term of beginners, where we learned some skirt making techniques, one term of continuation where we learned some trouser and jean making techniques and the third term you do your own project, with the tutor on hand to help as required.

However, new guy wants to have 20 students, mixed levels (as he says we are all starting at the beginning of a BTec.) and they have 20 enrolled in the fulltime college course, during the day - but during the day, at any one time, some are doing research, some are doing fabric painting, some are ...etc so there is never a situation of 20 trying to sit and sew.  There isn't the power supply for 20 sewing machines, certainly not safely.The room might physically hold 20 students. The new guy has been told repeatedly that a mixed class of 20 won't work - we are adults there for 2 hours per week to learn how to sew, not students there for several hours a day over a college year.

At this stage, I still don't know what's happening - I believe new guy is prepared to have 2 classes if the number of students is 24+, but at the moment , due to all the chaos around this - people being enrolled for the wrong course, wrong night, wrong fee, being told class was full when it wasn't, turning up for enrolment and finding no-one there, giving up because they don't like fee increase or want to do a course etc, the numbers have not reached 24 (last term there were 50+). D is trying to chase up the 35 students who told her last term they wanted to continue but who haven't enrolled.

So I'm going back next Monday (today is a bank holiday here) and don't know whether this will be a class of 12 which would be tolerable or a class of 20 - meaning that in 2 hours my maximum share of tutor input would be 6 minutes - but then there's all the whole class stuff, admin, course related work etc taking time away from hands on sewing. A lot of us who were together last term are very unhappy and it's possible that we'll withdraw altogether, but only as a very last resort. If that happens, D and R have said they'll do extra classes in their studio (they currently only have one night work each per week - previously they each worked 3 or 4 nights, so their income has plunged). That's great for me as their studio is only 20 minutes from my house - the college is an hour, but not so great for those students who live closer to the college.

I actually quite like the idea of a course as it keeps things more structured. Extra sessions would be a sewing bee and not provide me with the basic foundations of technique that I am seeking. So I'll be at college to the bitter end, whatever that end might be!!