Welcome to another fashion post, today I wanted to piggy-back off the last post and talk about Studio Methods again. In studio methods, I learned the core skills that it takes to construct a garment. In this post, I wanted to share the skills that I learned in this course. I wanted to touch on the fact that my professor worked hard to make sure we learned our stuff. She made it a point to make sure we understood what we were getting into as students. She stated that the class would feel like a chore, and it is going to be boring and repetitive, but its necessary. This will teach you as a student or as a learner how to find your rhythm, and what works for you. If you do not repeat steps, there is no way you will learn it.

• Hand and foot coordination. I do not know if that is even a thing, but separating what my hands did, and how my foot controlled the petal was a lot to get used to. It took me a long time to become confident and let the machine do its thing. Don't worry about the needle going through your fingers, as long as you pay attention and have common sense you'll be fine. No one in my class hurt themselves with the needle.
• You will notice it takes a significantly small amount of time to sew a garment, because about 90% of constructing a garment is measuring, marking, looking for fabric, and gathering other supplies you might need.
• The first thing I learned was to sew a straight line, as well as a curved line. We practiced on paper first, using the sewing attachments that we received for the machines. The lessons lasted a week, and at the end, we were experts. After that first week, we then learned how to thread our sewing machine.
• We learned about bias, edges, seam allowance, sewing fabric together, mainly a shell fabric as well as lining fabric. This was difficult to me because I (until this day) have trouble with slippery fabric.
• I learned how to sew a zipper in about 5 different ways. Pay attention to this part, it goes by fast, and it's very important because it will not be taught in any other course.

I hope my tips and tricks helped you out. If you have any more tips that a new fashion student or fashion learner can use, feel free to leave the tips down below.

Can Sexual Abuse Cause Repressed Memories?

During the 1990s there were a lot of cases of a reported child abuse based on repressed memory. Many individuals were arrested and jailed.

Many of those who were arrested, were accused of being abused and were jailed on the basis of repressed memories.

This post will investigate an article by Michael Humphrey called My lie: Why I falsely accused my father. This article’s main focus is on Meredith Maran and her story about false memory. Maran falsely accused her father of molestation in the 1980’s after she saw a feminist-inspired campaign to expose molesters (Humphrey, 2010).

Maran immersed herself into cases where abuse took place; she interviewed molesters and even observed family therapy sessions. Out of nowhere, she began having nightmares about a molestation of her own, and what was a great relationship with her father turned into horrible conversations and accusations.
Maran had nightmares for five years, and she convinced herself that her father had molested her. In the early 1990’s there was a movement of falsely accused fathers, and wrongly accused fathers were using their daughter’s therapists for introducing such horrible ideas of incest to females.

Although Maran's repressed memories were false, there were real cases of repressed memories. During the 1980s and 1990s tens of thousands of Americans, who were mostly women suddenly were overcome with repressed memories of sexual abuse as children, didn’t recover memories of those horrific events until decades later (Humphrey, 2010).

According to the article, as reports of molestation increase, individuals may create a scenario in their mind, that they too were molested. Individuals who have false memories such as Maran don't come out of nowhere with the visions of molestation, it’s more of a process than a single epiphany.

Maran never directly confronted her father, she withdrew from him, and in the years she spent away, she patched together the story and lined up the false evidence her mind came up with.

Maran was confused and thought about how it was possible that she could be dreaming of something so horrible that has never happened. While speaking with her doctor, he said a dream is a dream, and it’s not reality.

Maran immersed herself into the symptomatology of incest survivors that she thought she was one, and that could have been a cause of such horrible detailed dreams (Humphrey, 2010).

Source:
Humphrey, M. (2010, September 20). “My Lie”: Why I falsely accused my father. Retrieved May 03, 2014, from http://www.salon.com/2010/09/20/meredith_maran_my_lie_interview/

Fashion School: Tools You Will Need

Today's post is other basic terms post piggybacking of off last weeks post. This post is going to break down more fashion design vocabulary.
In this section of the post, I’d like to focus on tools you will need. So let’s begin.

If you are hand sewing, you might need a thimble. This little contraption is a small metal or hard plastic cup you put on your finger. This pushes the needle through the fabric while you are sewing. You can get one of these in most dollar store sewing kits, but there are obviously more choices at other stores.
A tracing wheel is essential if you need to poke dots on fabric or fabric paper. Think of a pizza cutter, but on a much smaller scale. You can transfer patterns using a tracing wheel by putting transfer paper in between the fabric and pattern.
Tracing paper is used with a tracing wheel, it can be used to transfer pattern markings.
A seam ripper was and still is my best friend. It is so sad, I always lose them, and I do not know where they go. I have a feeling there is a pile of seam rippers just waiting for me to find them. A seam ripper is used to rip the seams that are sewn together. Think of it as your eraser.
Tailors Chalk is neat; it feels soapy though. Maybe it is the brand I got from Wawak (sewing supply store), but none of mine ever feel like chalk, and I think perhaps that is standard. This chalk is used to transfer markings to fabric. The chalk disappears, and its neat to use.
As always, if you have any fashion questions or any questions at all, feel free to leave them down below.