Lately, Doug’s been following a few Maker Groups made up of lots of different kinds of engineers who get together, learn from each other’s knowledge base, and create new, exciting electronic gizmos. (Ok, my explanation is definitely lacking technical knowledge… but you get the idea.) The idea sounds so great, and Doug, being a computer engineer, would love to join something like it. So last week we went to a meeting of a local group so see it was like. (I have no engineering background, but I love to learn things and I like hanging out with Doug, so I thought I’d give it a go as well) Unfortunately, our local chapter seemed less focused on learning and more focused on a bunch of 20-something-year-olds hanging out and blowing stuff up. And charging quite a bit of money for the opportunity. So we didn’t join.
Instead, we left the meeting and bought some food. (Always a good alternative, right?) As we sat and ate we decided to form our own group. Sure, learning from people in real life would be optimal. But in all honesty, YouTube can teach you just about anything you need to know if you just give yourself time to learn it. So we scheduled in the time. Now, every Thursday night we hold our own household Maker Space. Doug works on electronics projects to spruce up his engineering skills. And since we got to set our own rules, I decided I’d work on improving my sewing and pattern making skills. (Learning engineering stuff would have been fun, but sewing skills are a bit more applicable to my life at the moment.) So far it’s been fun to learn together, even though we are studying completely different things :).
To begin, I thought I’d work through some patterns by other designers. I never seem to have the time during the day, but it really is helpful to see how they handle creating different shapes, and to see how they explain making them in their instructions. (Writing instructions is so hard!)
I started with the Snowball Men from Nancy Halvorsen’s new pattern book, Table Please Part Two
Art to Heart has been around for a long time, so I wanted to go through and make note of all the things she was doing right. On a business level, I’m interested in the fact that she prints her patterns in book form instead of individually. (Which do you like better as a customer?) Her instructions are brief and to the point, a lot more brief than mine ever are, which I think I could learn a lot from. I highlighted some good wording to help inspire me the next time I write my own instructions. (Don’t worry- I won’t copy or plagiarize! I just like to keep good examples around for inspiration.) Over all I’d say it’s a very professional pattern and would definitely suggest it to a friend. (Plus, they are just so dang cute!)
I added some bells to my snowball men so they’d sound like Christmas, and because of our Maker Space, I had time to research online all the different ways to stuff a bell inside a softie. I feel like I learned a lot in just one evening- I think this whole Maker Space idea is going to work great for us.
Have you ever taught yourself something from home? I’d love to get some more ideas for our Thursday nights.
this is a great idea. i bet if you put up a post on facebook some of your creative friends & family would join you at your home to expand your group.