Summary of week 5

Yesterday we collected everything we had made during the past couple of weeks on the big table at the back of the classroom. It was nice to see what others had been doing. Of course you see glimpses of other people's projects all the time, but as you're mostly concentrating on what you're doing yourself, you can't pay too much attention to them.

Here's my part of what was on display. I've already posted about the other things, but the little baskets on the back are new. 

The first basket wasn't exactly a success. The fabrics fit nicely together, but the lining fabric was really slippery. The seams of the outside and the lining aren't aligned correctly, and the edge of the lining isn't straight. Still, it's not a total catastrophe, and after making it, I knew what I should be paying attention to.

The second one looks much better, although the lining looks a bit creased on the inside. It was probably too big, although I tried to cut the pieces accurately. The pattern for the basket is a cross formed of five squares. However, I had to make this from five separate pieces to get the pattern upright on all sides. There's still some of that bag fabric left even after this, so there will be at least one more item made of it at some point.

The last one is made of the felt I used for making felt boots for dolls (the projects for writing the latest book). I wanted to use the felt for something in which the surface of the felt would be left visible, and this was good item for experimenting. This basket is made of three pieces: one long strip and two squares. I didn't want to cut the cross shape out of the felt as the remaining felt would have had an awkward shape. It was left in a more usable shape after cutting it this way.

I used a big needle and thick red thread for the stitching as I wanted it to be as visible as possible. I also increased the stitch length quite a bit, because longer stitches look nice in something like this. 

The main problem was that the bottom was convex after sewing the corners. That was solved by stitching the bottom edge as shown on the right in the photo above. The optimum way of making the basket using material like this would be to cut the material in cross shape and stitch all of the bottom edges in this way.

The photo below shows this basket in progress. It wasn't too hard sewing it, but you need to make sure that the edges are even and that you don't go too close to the edge, although you shouldn't go too far either.

The best thing of the week came around 4 PM on Friday. I got email from the study advisor. There are some theory courses that are common to all students, regardless of what vocation they're studying for. When you've got previous degrees and work experience, you can get some courses credited. I get to skip all courses in Finnish, English and Swedish as I've studied all of them quite extensively in the university and also worked as an English-Finnish translator for 25 years. I also got credit for the computer course I took in the open university. 

There are a few courses for which I need to go and talk with the teacher and may get them credited, if they think I know enough about the subject. That leaves some courses the advisor said I have to attend, mainly mathematics, physics and chemistry. No surprises there, the last time I had anything to do with those was 30 years ago. I mean, not considering what you need in everyday life, such as calculating discounted prices, making a budget for yourself, knowing that the only thing you should add to chlorine is water, etc.