Girls from the PG Roller Derby Brat Camp 2009 show off their shirts. (ohsweetie)
This past weekend I got to participate in a teen girl roller derby camp that my place of employment, the YMCA, threw with a handful of other local agencies and businesses. One of the girls’ main projects was DIY-ing their camp t-shirts into derby dresses/shirts of wonder. They used lace, glitter, markers, and general deconstruction techniques to turn their men’s cut tees into the sassy piece they desired.
The fun part was that even though a lot of the girls were crafty, a number of them had never hand sewn before. Even basic techniques like how much thread you need, threading a needle, and tying a knot. It was exciting to be able to teach these girls basic sewing skills and it even erupted into a bit of feministy conversation:
Me: “Can you believe that once upon a time people argued that women were naturally inclined to do this [sew]?”
Pink Ink: *groan*
Zero: “Nuh, uh! They were forced to!”
Basic sewing tutorials:
Three techniques for basic hand sewing
Securing a knot and tying off thread
How to hem jeans in three easy steps.
Digg
Facebook
del.icio.us
Leave a comment
This blog post is older than 90 days old. All comments submitted regarding this post will be automatically held for review by the editors before posting. Your comment will not appear on the site until it has been approved.
Our comment policy
Shameless prides itself on the diversity of opinions expressed by our writers, and we encourage and appreciate different points of view. Our intention at Shameless is to foster community and to maintain a safe and positive blogging environment; we do not consider it our duty to give a voice to anybody with an opinion.
Discussion on this site is moderated. We will delete comments that:
(We get to decide what's discriminatory, hateful, attacking, or inflammatory).
In some cases, we will cap off comments on a discussion when we feel they are spiralling out of control and fostering an unwelcoming space for bloggers and readers. Comments will be closed by the Web Editor, unless the post is by the Web Editor, in which case the Editor in Chief will close them.
If your comments repeatedly make the same point, they may be deleted. This also applies to comments made by multiple members of the same organization.
Your comments should be about the topic of the post, not its writer—although we certainly encourage praise for our writers, if you want to say something nice.