Introducing the Sewing Scoreboard

In the Tuesday evening Assisted Sewing Lab, you'll usually find two of our teenage fashionista students toiling away on one project or another. They've tackled skirts, dresses, costumes and ballgowns over the course of the past 18 months. Both have brought their sewing skill-set up to an impressive level (neither had ever sewn before the Beginner A-Line Skirt Class) and finished numerous projects worthy of being sported to school and family gatherings, but does that satisfy these stellar students? No. Only when a new or challenging sewing task is accompanied by the elusive "Gold Star" from that evening's lab instructor are the girls truly fulfilled. Now, mind you, the gold stars doled out to these young ladies are not real. They aren't seen or counted. As far as I know, I've given them 100, and they've received the same from Lauren, Lori and Arielle for all their "jobs well done" over time (though, let's not build the pedestal too high, there have been just a few instances of gold stars being stripped...is that a rotary cutter open on the table? Um...yeah, I'm docking you.). All of this, plus the late-night phone conversation with Barbie after we had returned from this year's ASDP educational conference with a booty of fantastic fabrics from Haberman, in which I heard myself blurting, "...and I'm gonna make (this), and I'm gonna make (that)!", knowing full-well I was going to add all that beautiful material to my ever-swelling "stash" and never take the scissors to it, led me to the epiphany I had last week. Let's make the Gold Stars REAL and actually have them count for something!

So, earlier this week, I came up with the Sewing Scoreboard - which is, in fact, a bulletin board covered in butcher paper and pattern tissue, but bear with me, it's symbolic AND motivational.  Here's how it works: Each student (and teacher if they want) makes a list of projects they intend to complete and pins it to the sewing scoreboard. The projects can be completed at the Schoolhouse, at home, in class, outside of class, whatever, but when a project is complete...and I mean COMPLETE - lining closed, hooks and eyes on, hems...hemmed, I'll place a star (yes, a REAL one) next to it on the list. You're probably thinking, "Hey! Nifty! I'm going to get stickers and public praise and that system is going to make me accountable to finish my projects!" Yes. (Cue late-night infomercial voice) But wait, there's more! If you earn Gold Stars (or silver or red) by finishing sewing projects, you'll also get FREE sessions at the Sewing School! Drop by and make your project list today so you can start earning stars!

Here are the details:

• Finish 3 Gold-star projects and earn a FREE session of  Tuesday Lab or Intermediate Sewing Club

Gold star projects typically take between 6 and 15 hours to complete and might include skirts, dresses, tops, unlined jackets, hats, un-detailed pants, shades or piped cushions

• Finish 2 Red-star couture projects and earn a FREE day of Couture Club

Red star projects typically take between 20 and 45 hours to complete and might include couture dresses and tops, pants, jackets and coats

• Use small projects to earn more stars

Silver star projects take less than 6 hours to complete and might include purses, t-shirts, athletic pants, simple skirts, small or easy home decorating projects, quick vests, straightforward knit dresses or tops

• Trade in 3 gold stars for a red star, or 3 silver stars for a gold star