Planet Nice Crafts to the Rescue

Hello Everyone. I hope all are adjusting to the Stay-In-Place order if it applies to them. There has been relatively little change here at Planet Nice because of an already remote job and class. This week is Spring Break for College of Lake County, but before it started I did have a relatively significant class project due, a field research report.

For the assignment, we could choose our topic and we were encouraged to have fun so I chose sewing. But what to do a field research on specifically?

Ongoing at the time of the assignment were announcements about an event called Maker Faire Lake County. Maker Faires are events that celebrate and promote the innovator mindset which includes design, creativity, building, and tinkering and are associated with Make magazine. A call for makers was made in the event announcement and the application was due March 20. As the announcement included crafters, I thought it would be a new venture to complete the application as Planet Nice Crafts. After more thinking, I thought to be time efficient and come up with something that would satisfy both the maker application and my field research report assignment.

The maker application was four screens long and included questions on the exhibit title, booth description, and equipment needed. To engage with those visiting the Maker Faire, an interactive exhibit and/or hands-on activity was encouraged. I was prepared to bring in the needed equipment such as a sewing machine, iron, and ironing surface. As you know from Planet Nice, there is plenty of fabric, thread, and other materials to share with the masses. I then decided to design beginner level sewing projects that are also relatively fast for the maker application. Research was conducted from my home library of books and computer files.

I pursued three sewing projects: a coaster, a bag, and a belt. For the field research, I decided to do several trial runs of each, to record the amount of time needed to complete, and to take photographs. And now I can share the photographs with you!

Here are the coasters, the time needed to complete each ranged from 5 to 9 minutes.

For the bags, I pursued a tote bag inspired by Bag Making Basics with Kristin Link and a drawstring bag inspired by Lacy Lingerie Bag by Claire Shaeffer. Undecided what to do next, I brought both of them to my last day at school, March 11, and asked 15 people which one they preferred. The drawstring bag was the winner so I did a second trial run of it, but this time I added some appliques for a little bit of fancy.

The time to complete these ranged from 43 to 64 minutes so in my research report, I concluded that none was appropriate for a hands-on activity, but instead, a demonstration.

Lastly, the belts were inspired by Ribbon Belt by Claire Shaeffer.

The time needed to complete the belts ranged from 21 to 26 minutes, which I did not think was too bad for a hands-on activity. The assignment and the maker application were completed, however, with the pandemic, the Maker Faire Lake County has been postponed until 2021. So, who knows what will happen. No matter what, I think it was a worthwhile exercise, because I still needed to complete the class assignment. But if anyone knows a need for beginner level sewing projects, just contact us at planetnicecrafts@gmail.com.

In other news, Spring is upon us with more daylight and a lot of bird activity. Don’t tell this to the resident Thanksgiving cactus, which didn’t bloom at all during the holidays, but decided to start blooming for the Spring Equinox.

Because it is putting on such a show, it deserved its very own photoshoot.

Strange times indeed!

Be healthy & safe.