First Week in Dressmaking

When I say I want to improve my skills, this is what I meant. I want to enhance my creativity but now, with garments. It is pretty hard to enroll for this short course here in my place (for free too) because they have hidden it well. Fortunately, we found it! I will use what I learned for our business that is why I'm trying new things. Looking forward to getting my national certificate by the end of 35 days!

We have classes from Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm (with an exception on Mondays because we have a flag ceremony at 7:30am). I have to wake up early again to go to school just like the old times before the pandemic happened. That's why I'm very excited!

I already met my classmates before in our orientation. They are fun to be with and I can see my mom having fun too (we are classmates btw). Most of them are already parents, meaning they are probably older than me by a decade/s. It has a different vibe from my high school; the atmosphere is very light and everyone is easygoing. I'm one of the youngest and they treated me equally I'm so happy. Our organizers (I don't know how to call them) are young too like they are probably in their twenties and they treated everyone like students. I remember they said that we can go out of our room to eat outside or to stroll but they advised us to not go too far like we are not kids to get lost that easily. That's so funny it's like we are back in kinder with that advice. My classmates and I respect them very much because they provided free training for us citizens who does not have a job. I'll do my best so their effort won't be wasted.

July 31, 2022

Day 1

Everyone seems to be laidback. We did our flag ceremony and our teachers announced their reminders like our groupings for cleaning the room. We haven't used the sewing machines there because this day is our introduction day. Each student introduced themselves and our adviser is very encouraging while we are talking in front of the class. Our adviser also talked about what we should not do; this includes taking pictures with our uniform doing non-student things (picture of lying with a pillow while wearing the uniform), talking in our official group chat about guns or grenades even if it is not serious because our school will sue us, and not attending on class because we will be immediately kicked out of our scholarship once we reached 5 absents.

However, as time passes I felt tired. My classmates keep asking questions about our online activity. I'm the kind of person who hates confrontation and if you add it to the fact that my classmates are older than me, I have no choice but to entertain their questions. Why am I making a big deal of answering questions? Because they have trouble understanding what I'm trying to explain. The generation gap is apparent here because the ones who help our classmates are millennials and gen z. I have to spoonfeed the instructions just so they can finish their assignments. I just did their assignments indirectly. The most annoying thing is that I do not know how to approach them without being disrespectful because I know how blunt I talk and I know that when I speak my thoughts, it will appear as rude, especially with generation x people. I deeply felt conflicted but my personality of hiding my needs instead of standing up for my beliefs gets in the way. It is an unfamiliar minefield I'm facing and I'm scared to walk.

We went home early this day and when we got home I felt very tired. I did not answer any related messages in dressmaking because it reminds me of how pressured I am to please them.

August 1, 2022

Day 2

My classmates still asked for my help when it comes to our online activity but it is less than yesterday so it was easier to help them. Almost all of us are finished getting our digital certificates however, many of our classmates backed out so we have this worry that we might be suspended until we reached 25 students again. A lot of our classmates are absent this day because they are sick or their child is sick which makes us alarmingly few that we started late in our classes. Our teacher discusses what should we do in order to succeed once we finish our course. She talked about her inspirational personal events which led her to who she was today: she is very hardworking and goal-oriented ever since she was young which made her successful and she uses her skills so she can make others successful too. What I like about her is how righteous she was because I've never seen someone who is genuine when talking about these things. Why? Because she also talks about her hardships and failures, and not only her successes.

After that, we got to try sewing with the machines. I first tried the highspeed machine. I was nervous at first because I saw the people who tried first go too fast. When it was my turn, I felt the vibration coming from the table through my palms. With the guidance of my classmate who is a professional sewer, I manage to practice using the sewing machine. I also tried the ordinary sewing machine with a motor and it is easier to control but it can be too loud, unlike the high speed.

Our last activity is measuring the body of our partners for the blouse. Then our adviser gave us homework which is to make a hand-sewn buttonhole.

Our service came and we can now finally go home which can be pretty tiring because of how long we are in a vehicle. I'm not really used to traveling that much.

August 2, 2022

Day 3

Today, we learned how to make a pattern for a blouse. It was hard at first because we are just watching our teacher demonstrate how computations and measurements work. But when I do it and ask some questions to my classmates, I manage to finish mine early so I have a lot of free time while waiting for others to finish. I guess having an experience with drafting helps in accuracy but as always, I'm still slow.

We made our pattern on bond paper and converted our own body measurements from inches to centimeters. While doing my output, I stayed away from my classmates so I can focus on drawing. I'm not fond of losing m train of thought because someone asked me something. I'm glad I did that because some classmate of mine blamed the one who helped her because her drawing is wrong. I will not get into this subject because it's pretty messy so do not go shaming the one who asked for help or the one who helped.

At the end of the day, our assignment is to repeat what we did on another paper that I just finished before writing this diary entry.

August 3, 2022

Day 4

Pretty boring day for me because I was waiting for my classmates to finish their assignments while I'm already finished. On this day, we tackled how to make a pattern for pants. It was easier than making the pattern for the blouse. I still felt bad during the day because of the same reason from Monday. When will the unrelated online activity end and when will people have the initiative to learn by themselves? I do not like being disturbed when our teacher is explaining because I do not understand what is being tackled. When my train of thought is interrupted, I can't formulate any ideas and it is very annoying. My head and the one who interrupts me annoy me that's why I shut up until I eat my lunch. I'm not in a very good mood that morning.

After we eat our lunch, we continued doing the pattern for our pants. I'm not mad anymore because I strolled outside for a minute. I finished mine and we do not have an assignment for this day which makes me happy because I manage to write this early and I can also sleep early. I will charge all the energy lost from going home through our service (I'm not really used to long rides).

August 4, 2022

Day 5

On this day we made our pattern of blouse and pants in the manila paper. We are already using inches which are the real measurements instead of a centimeter. We took a whole day to finish this one and I made a lot of mistakes but learned a lot. I have a classmate that has a birthday and bought food for us. I'm kinda sad yesterday because my other classmate bothered me while I'm doing my pattern. So when I'm already slow, I can't move forward. That's why I finished late. I already explained above why I'm easily upset with these kinds of things; I came there to learn, and that's my main objective. When I'm done with my work, they can start asking me long questions or tutorials I will not be mad if that happens. I do not like being left behind in class because I also do not like bothering other people too with my questions especially when it is my fault that I'm not learning. Yeah, the ride is still tiring, motion sickness is real.

August 5, 2022