Class Days

Mr. Kopf and I are all about some higher education--or maybe just some education in general. I think we are that really strange couple who just loves school. We were both pretty good at it, and stayed organized (for the most part) and enjoyed reading and writing and generally getting good grades. It makes sense that we are both teaching now and where my power point addiction comes from.

(I'm really obsessed with making power point presentations, you guys. Maybe I just like the power of the projector or the organized lecture or the ability to put in pictures or videos. In any case, it might be a problem.)

I knew what I wanted to do for most of my life: teach English. Spoiler alert, I'm still not teaching English, but I suspect that I got into English in the first place for my love of story and philosophy... and you can probably find more jobs in English than Philosophy (maybe? that one is debateable.) Mr. Kopf wasn't quite sure, so we did my masters program first. Now that mine is done, and he is settling in to being the Middle School's Mr. Turner, it's his turn. This means online and night classes for him, and evenings alone in my apartment for me.

Aw yeah

It's camp days all over again! Craft time! Cleaning uninterrupted time! Eating cereal for dinner time! Pretending to live the bachelorette lifestyle for a few hours, while still having a husband to cuddle with at the end of it time. It's a pretty good time.

Last night I finally got around to a project I'd been thinking about doing for a long time. I have gotten into the habit of buying clothing items from garage sales and picking them apart to see how they're constructed. I don't do this with anything more than 50 cents, usually, but it's proven to be an excellent learning experience in the realm of apparel! About a year ago, I bought a top with a center knot in the middle for a quarter, took it apart, traced the pattern on craft paper, and never touched it again... until now.

I made a teacher top--that's right, and I wore it to school today and then made my husband take pictures of me in my classroom. What's great about this top is that I would not even be afraid to show you what it looks like inside out. It's all serged and nicely finished with some fancy rolled hems.

It paired nicely with my tan cardigan and black fancy work pants. (Kids got points today if they talked. Brownie points that get uploaded into Mrs. Kopf's heart...)

The back turned out nicely as well!

Read books, you guys.

Here's a couple shots of the "knot" part. I didn't even plan for the pattern to match up and for the petals to sort of come out of the knot, but it's amazing how well that worked out! Because of the placement of the knot, a cami was definitely essential, but it was a fun and comfortable top to work in and I got a lot of compliments. I always get a thrill when people ask where I got an item of clothing and I'm able to say "I made it!" The look on their faces is always complete shock and amazement. What? Clothes are something we buy... not that we make and then wear out where people can see them!

Is it illegal to give people a pattern that I "harvested" from a manufactured top? Someone tell me... otherwise I'd love to show you guys how to do this on your own! The knot seems complicated but it's so simple, and isn't that the best kind of project? 

I love my husband, but it's nice to be able to spend quality time with my sewing machine in the middle of the week. Hooray for class days!