Over this past summer, I took a couple more university courses so that I could 1) hope to finish my degree within five years and 2) try out my new academic essay-writing skills. The first one ran over May and June; so in regards to time commitment, it was like taking two courses in a normal semester. After a super-intense commitment for last school year, this seemed like a breeze, except for the fact that courses require writing, which still makes me nervous every time I have a new assignment. This one was called The Creative Process, which I think of as fourteen modules of fourteen different ways or philosophies of approaching a variety of creative projects. It’s a Creative Writing course within the English department at Dalhousie University (the school associated with my school), and yet the creative project component was open to any creative project. I thought about doing a creative writing project, but I figured I’d better stick to practicing academic writing for the time being. So, I chose a textile project. Meanwhile, the assignments were small writing assignments where we practiced analyzing parts of the reading we were doing, so that was very helpful to me without the pressure of full-blown essays like I had every two weeks last year. We did have to write project proposals and assessments of our project, incorporating what we’d learned through our reading, but somehow it didn’t seem as scary.
My textile project was a rectangular construction tunic. I have known for awhile that clothing can be made simply from shapes, but I have been used to using store-bought patterns (or refashioning clothes I have). A bit of trial and error in internet searching brought me to the term “rectangular construction” and down a rabbit hole of constructing garments using geometric shapes. THIS was what I had been looking for for years! I listed everything I’d be learning and applying if I did this project and submitted my proposal. Below is the result.
As you can see above, I used some of my vintage Wabasso floral sheets – two colourways in the same design. The basic design is a long rectangle folded over for the front and back and two trapezoid pieces for the arms. If you look closely, you can see that I added squares for gussets at the underarms, and triangles for godets at each side of the bottom part. I’ve never done either of these techniques before, and do they ever make a difference! The gussets add extra room and the godets add flair to the skirt part. I also use flat-felled seams everywhere. This was a bit tricky for the corners or angles of the squares and triangles, but I managed alright.
Below is a closeup of the keyhole neck facing. I’d never done this before either, and it was fun for me to draw it all out on paper, following some geometric principles. I also watched a video for sewing this on without having to first cut the neckhole from the long rectangle. This made it more stable to sew because I cut the neckhole out after the neck facing was applied.
I was also quite thrilled to learn how to make my own button loop! Since I now know how to make buttons, this skill just made the fastener issue complete. Making the loop involved making tiny blanket stitches, so it was pretty simple. I always love figuring out how to do things so that I don’t have to depend so much on buying from elsewhere.
What do pink bathroom tiles have to do with all of this, you ask? Well. My second summer course over the month of July was pretty intense due to its short timeframe. As well, I had to go to campus for this one (the first course was asynchronous online). This was an English course in Contemporary Science Fiction. Science Fiction isn’t an immediate love of mine, but it was one of the English courses offered this summer and it would give me a feel for the English department (I’m considering doing a combined honours degree in English and in the History of Science & Technology). It turned out to be pretty interesting for me, and big bonus for me, the newly-minted PhD professor who taught it was REALLY GOOD at teaching academic writing. The big assignment in that class was a seven to ten page essay, which terrified me. I always think, how am I going to have enough to say in X amount of pages?? But she had lots of writing teaching built right into the course, such as giving us credit for going to the campus writing centre, teaching us to find secondary sources and make annotated bibliographies, and having us write several short argument essays. She also replied to e-mails and graded our papers very quickly so that we would have the feedback we needed.
But, the pink tiles, Colleen! Tell us about the pink tiles! Right. So, this course was held in the chemistry building on campus, and the washroom near the classroom was totally pink, with splashes of white! The first time I walked in, I was pleasantly overwhelmed by the sight of all that pink! I know some would see this as horribly outdated, but I loved it. Then again, my house has a purple bathtub and my last house had a blue one, and I loved those, too. So, I determined to take a photo of the pink tiles, as long as I was alone in the room, haha! One day, I had my opportunity, so I snapped a few quickly. Now every time I look at this photo, I am reminded of my summer class with the fabulous writing teacher and the strange but fascinating stories we read. Side tangent: I wrote my long essay on the concept of the carnivalesque, a concept I’d never heard of before reading Harlan Ellison’s “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman.” If you’ve ever read this story, the jelly bean storm was my window into learning this concept. That jelly bean storm really captured my imagination!
As did these flowers. I walked by these every day on my way through the Dalhousie campus to the pink-tiled-washroom building where my class was held. They were in a little section full of these colourful wildflowers. I loved looking at them.
Same with these beautiful orange tiger lilies. Tiger lilies just scream “summer!” to me.
I am back to school full-time again; more on that in another post when time allows (I hope soon! So far, this school year is not as intense as last year…let’s hope it stays that way…). What have you been up to over the summer of 2024? What does the fall hold in store for you? What is capturing your attention these days?