On handling professors

I am in the middle of marking right now and continuing my discussions with my nephew on what university life is like.

I am also aware that this fall I will be dealing with a new batch of new students.

Here are some thoughts, and I know they seem pretty basic, on professor management tools most students have to learn.

In no particular order, meaning I have mixed up big and little ideas:

• Read the syllabus. This will tell you when the assignments are due and when the exams are written. It should also tell you what the expectations for each are. If it doesn't make sense go and talk to the prof after class. (Students have caught typos in my course outlines and it has been helpful to know that).
• Read the syllabus. Most of the questions I am asked can be answered if the student read the syllabus.
• If you are going to submit an assignment electronically (more and more courses, like mine, have you upload assignments to a course website) save your document as a .doc or, if the prof asks for it, a .pdf . If in doubt submit .docs, they are easier to mark with track changes. If you are a Mac person and believe the whole world should use Macs still have Office installed so you can save .docs. It is the industry standard. A prof marking a mountain of assignments doesn't like to have to email a student asking for a resubmit when they can't open the document. (I work on a Mac but still run into this).
• Always put your name and student number as the file name in assignments you hand in. (I get many sent in as "Final assignment" then I have to resave after I have added the name etc.)
• If you have any questions at all, about an assignment, what any course expectations are etc., go ask the prof directly. Do not ask other students. Repeat do not ask other students. If I had a dollar for every time 15 students misinterpreted something because one student had it wrong and that was the student every one else asked, I would be golfing in Florida right now.
• Profs have office hours. This is time they sit and wait in their offices for customers with questions. If you are worried about a course or an assignment go early and go often. Do not be the kid who only shows up the week before the end of term and says "I'm going to fail this course what can I do?"
• If you are unsure about what a prof wants in a paper or an assignment see above but even better give it back to them in your own words to see if there is a match, as in "OK so you want me to do some research on this topic and make an argument on why this theory is useful using 5-10 scholarly sources, 10 pages double-spaced 12 pt, font."
• If you get a bad mark in an assignment never, ever whine about it or tell the prof you feel bad. To be honest this is about learning and work not about feelings. Make an appointment and go in and say "I didn't get the mark I expected for this assignment so what can I do next time so I get a better mark?" Keep your eyes on what you can do instead and on making this assignment a learning experience. This stuff is music to a prof's ears and they will be more than glad to help you regroup and raise your mark next time.
• If you are really stressed or sick and think you are not going to make the deadline go and talk to the prof at least 48 hours before this is due and ask for an extension. Be prepared to supply a doctor's note.
• Never plagiarize, whatever your friends tell you. You can get a zero in the assignment, the course, or even be asked to leave the program. You never know what prof is going to come down hardest on this (I do) and once that process starts there is no going back.
• If you are in your first year and managed your time horribly and are freaking out go and see your prof and be honest about that (they are still not obliged to, and most won't, give you an extension but honesty is always your best bet).
• Never go with a problem without a solution. "I am not going to get this to you Friday at 6:00, I have been sick, can I have an extension until Monday at 9:00?"
• Do not under any circumstances send an email, or go see a prof with a fake excuse. Profs have fake excuse radar like you wouldn't believe.
• Do not say your grandmother is sick. I once had six grandmothers go down the week before exams. Miraculously they all recovered. 
• Do not write emails that say "I was on a family trip over the weekend and we didn't have internet access so I couldn't hand in my assignment."
• Do not write "my computer crashed and I lost all my files including this assignment and I have had to start all over again." I this has never happened to me so it makes no sense it happens to certain students every term. Back up if you have to and be prepared to have no one believe you if this does happen.
• Do not write that your computer fell out of the window.
• Do not write that your room mate took your laptop to class by mistake.
• Do not write that your boyfriend ran over your laptop in his car by mistake.
• Do not put a smiley face at the end of an email asking for an extension.
• Do not put a picture of a sweet kitten at the end of an email asking for extension because someone has said I like animals.
• No smiley faces and no kittens.
• I mean that.

Flypaper thoughts

• On the sewing table are three shirts for the boys
• Nothing unpredictable there
• Front, back and collar. And sleeves
• Will post when they are done
• The loud road work has moved past our house and Miss Daisy is well settled
• She plays with toys now and has one furry "baby" she frantically runs around hiding
• I wonder where her real babies ended up
• Speaking of babies
• My daughter is discovering once again they are all different
• Mothers learn that over and over
• Asked the little girls what they wanted for lunch
• Miss Heidi at two said "hot dogs
• Miss Scarlett at four said "do you have any brussel sprouts?"
• My point exactly
• To break up pre-collar band angst I am engaged in some private projects
• The best ones make no sense
• Am collecting all the pocket patterns from my various pattern and putting them in one large envelope
• Labelling it "pockets" just to be confusing
• Decided to institute pockets in most garments
• For years I just didn't put them in because sewing them slowed me down
• Ready to be slowed down
• Also cell phones and poop purses make them a necessity
• All dog walkers will get this
• Have also decided to do final versions on heavy paper of my TNTs with alterations made
• Reading Add 3/8", add 1/2", add 3/4" is confusing even me
• Need to consolidate my TNT suite
• One little corner of my life organized
• Had a mouse in the sewing room
• Nice little nest made in my "to do mending pile"
• Could have been there undisturbed for 15 years without me knowing
• You don't need to build a better mouse trap
• Just put peanut butter in it
• Considering spending the fall making dresses
• Easiest dressing and goes with rubber boots
• Off to figure out what to do with four bunches of kale
• Made kale chips last weekend
• Everyone said they were great and left them in the bowl
• Tasted like paper towels
• Who can blame then
• Wonder if Butterick falls will be interesting
• Would be nice if they were

Pictures, shorts, sweaters and squirrels

First of thank you for the comments. 

A picture and objective eyes are helpful. I have avoided belts for previously stated reasons but I can see your point. Time to revise the assumptions maybe.

I have a lot of school work to do today (thinking of a how to handle professors post this week in the last of my getting ready for university series) but have some random material to share.

My sons, the varying degrees of hipsters, have discovered weird quilting cotton prints, and with it, their mom the sewer.

I now have four shirts on order  I hope to get started on once the paying job stuff is out of the way.

One guy chose this fabric and wanted some old school drawstring shorts. I can do old school quite well since that is who and what I am. I used this pattern dispensing with the elastic waist and fake tie (I mean really McCalls we are grown-ups here) and made a real drawstring with an elastic piece in the middle for a little bit of spring:

There is a fly zipper in there somewhere and the waistband/casing is continuous at the top if that makes sense. I had a lot of fun sewing this happy fabric.

I also submitted a baby sweater to my daughter, she loved it but she isn't a knitter, even though it is apparent neither am I.

I used a pattern I found on a blog which I realize had a few things I shouldn't have done, like the decreases were knit two togethers in the middle of the sleeves which really showed - although all the other mistakes are entirely my own.

I figure my knitting is at the stage my sewing was when I was about 14.

I am going to need some coaching.

First question is how do you weave in your ends so they don't come poking out later? I would really like to figure this one out.

Finally I have decided to really reduce my extra curricular activities. For example I had a good run with some Burdastyle courses but have bowed out of that, and have a few other things I want to ease out of.

The truth is I need more time for sewing and this means less teaching or writing about sewing.

Except for this blog.

For some reason, and they certainly aren't economic, the blog is more interesting and more fun than some other projects and I want to do more here.

I also want to have time in my life to clear the decks for conversations with people like Miss Scarlett.

Here is a sample from this week:

On all the things little Billy hasn't even experienced yet (obviously a long list, took us a while to compile):

Scarlett: "But it makes me said that there are some things he will never see."

Me (somewhat alarmed by the turn of this conversation) : "Like what?"

 Scarlett: "Like seeing me do cartwheels. I can't do cartwheels."

When washing my hair and pretending to be a hairdresser (this is a favourite thing she does- I like it because I get to hang my head over the bathtub and rest):

Scarlett: "Well Mrs. what kind of hair style would you like? How about a squirrel hair do? I know a lot about squirrels. I saw one once and I have a book on squirrel hair styles at home. (all of this is a fake English accent). I will make it go up and then make it flat. How does that sound?"

And finally the best for last. Miss Daisy had a brief escape earlier in the week and disappeared behind some bushes while I was out. My frantic, and tearful, husband (don't judge a book by its cover, tough guys can be pretty sentimental) called and asked me to rush home and coax her out. He was afraid she would make a break for it.

I was bringing the girls home from swimming lessons in the car and said to them "girls we have an emergency."

Scarlett: "Heidi this is great, you always wanted an emergency." (Heidi is two and agreed with this).

Pause.

Scarlett: "Babsie should I pray Daisy stays where she is until we get there?"

Me: "Good idea."

Scarlett: "Who is God I forget? Grandma Monica told me."

Me: theological discussion before the light turned.

Scarlett: "Listen God I need you to do something for me. You can do this. You made the first man and the first woman so you can do this for us. This is easier. Tell Daisy to stay in the bushes until Babsie gets there."

Pause.

Scarlett: "Maybe you better get Norval Brown (my late father) to help you."

A person has to be available for conversations like that.

The non-colour blocked Charlotte dress

Well folks here we are. 

A short post as we have just got in from the movies and I have dishes in the sink before I go to bed.

This is the dress that took me a week to hem, the previously described Charlotte dress from Stylearc that was supposed to be colour blocked but wasn't. 

If you remember I didn't do the taping of all the pieces together right and ended up with a front 2" wider than the back (hint to you, if you try to do this line up your front with the front neck facing and you will catch this mistake before you cut).

I ended up making a little box pleat at the neckline to take this in and this probably was a good thing as the fit in the upper bust was fitted enough that I should have done a FBA anyway so this turned out to be a handy mistake.

Once I got the colour run out of this rayon I really liked it.

If there ever was a fabric that could speak for itself it is this one.  I wanted the simplest pattern possible so that could happen.

I tried it both with and without a belt - I don't really like belted things on me, since there really isn't any real waist to cinch and I think belts make me look dumpy. 

I have the kind of belly fat that they write health articles about on the CNN webpage, you know the kind of fat you absolutely are not ever supposed to have - or else - although if someone can tell me how you are supposed to get to post-menopause, have  three big babies, and employ Nutella-on-crackers-eaten-at-the-kitchen counter as the only mindfulness meditation/emergency stress relieving exercise that really works - and not develop a nice little parcel of belly fat I would really like to hear it. I mean enough already, is a person supposed to have done and do all this and get this far without evidence? A map with no roads on it? How can we be expected to have bodies that are smooth when life isn't?

Back to the dress.

I also think this fabric speaks best just hanging there as is - just like it caught my eye on the bolt.

So here it is.

Belted and unbelted. In either case a nice breezy dress for hot days out.

What do you think?

And of course gratis dog picture:

On why it has taken me a week to hem one dress

And here he is:

A little brother to Miss Heidi and Miss Scarlett. Our newest addition, Mr. Billy, named after a legendary grandfather.

One step forward two steps back

I am involved in one of those quick and easy sewing projects that keeps throwing up road blocks.

I am attempting to do an instant dress by taping together the various pieces of this Stylearc pattern, the Charlotte dress:

I have owned colour-blocked garments before and they fall into the category of things that look up to the minute one day and totally dated the next. Since the trend has been around for a while now I figure if I make a colour-blocked dress the trend will take an instant nose dive.

In piecing it all together with great optimism and enthusiasm and unwarranted self-confidence I assumed the vertical piece in the middle was in fact in the exact middle so I sliced it in half and stuck it onto the front piece.

Wrongo.

Since even I have noticed the front is much wider than the back now and much wider than the front facing my suspicion is that this piece was designed to be off centre.

I have considered seaming down the middle of the front to take out the excess, but will probably just pleat the neckline in a bit as that sort of still in style, maybe, and proceed. If that looks dumb I will revert to the centre seam idea.

Whoever said measure twice cut once was for sure a sewer and not a carpenter.

In addition the fabric has spit up a few surprises. It is a good quality rayon challis from Elliot Berman but once I got to work on this I noticed that the pre-washing, cold water, line-dried treatment I always do had put little black spots on the light parts, from some running dye apparently.

At that stage the whole thing had been cut out (wrong as it turned out but still cut out) so after spending an hour trying to talk myself into believing that no one would notice I tore out to the store and bought this stuff, appropriately called SOS:

I put this in a bucket of really hot water overnight. The next morning the water was totally black, which was a worry when the fabric is mostly light yellow, but amazingly the run was gone.

I rinsed the whole lot in the washing machine on cold rinse with a cup of vinegar thrown in. 

I added the vinegar because 80% of all household hints involve vinegar, you don't even have to look it up. The other 20% involving baking soda of course.

So here I am back to square one with a dress that is too loose at the front.

Since I am too, this may work out yet.

Always the optimist.

Things a kid needs to know before going away to college

You are going to have to help me with this list, the final post on this subject.

My sister has been smart this summer. 

My nephew is planning on going away to university after his next and last year of high school. He wanted to get used to more independence by working and living away from home. 

That's why he is here. 

My sister also wanted to make sure he got used to managing things on his own and one of my jobs here is to encourage that.

Sometimes it is easier to do this if you are not the parent and already well in the role of doing things for your own child.

Yesterday we did laundry intensive for example, including how to use a clothesline because they don't have one at home.

He already cooks well so that's not an issue. And he is a conservative guy so probably will handle his money well but his situation has made me think of launching my own kids and of all the first years I see every fall.

One story that sticks in my mind is a mother that bought her son a chest freezer and filled it up with his favourite frozen dinners.

Another is of a really nice 20 year old boy who asked an accountant who was a guest speaker how to claim bankruptcy because he was in so deep with credit cards. Or the girls who take their student loans and go to the Dominican at spring break.

My students also tell me things like learn how much you can drink so you know when you have had enough (for me that would be two glasses of wine max, their self described limits would amaze you), or that girls need to always take their drinks with them at a bar, even into the washroom, so no one puts anything into it. (I find this one so sad).

I also remember my middle son telling me the most useful thing I ever taught him was how to iron a shirt. That's it. After 19 years of my upbringing what he remembers is shirt ironing.

So what's on your essential skills list? Here is the start of mine:

• how to iron a shirt (details first then the body, use steam)
• how to make quick dinners with pasta that don't require tomato sauce
• what interest is and why it is scary (be aware that your freshman is going to be surrounded by credit card kiosks)
• how to sew on a button
• how to look at the unit price of food
• that students are no longer living at the level of their parents' income (I am blown away by the "essential" $30 lipsticks and Coach bags my "broke" students bring to class)
• how to sew a button
• how to treat girls with respect
• how to expect men to treat a girl with respect
• how to separate colours in the wash and why some things need to be hung up
• how to do a quick clean even if it is only with a box of disinfectant wipes

I know I am going to think of a million more things through the day but now its your turn.

Over to you.