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Clothing and Textiles

There is a lot to this project, but I've never seen any club (yet) doing it all. Most focus on sewing clothing, trying for something finished to be worn by the end of the year. When I took it, I made this (I'll admit it now) very ugly jumpsuit out of green velour that had one leg longer than the other, so when I was in the fashion review, I walked with a slight limp to mask it :) More important, I never wore the thing again. I've been talking to people who are in the project currently and found that they are still making clothing that is worn just for the show or just for the fair. At the risk of insulting those kids - boring! Nothing wrong with making your own clothes and for those kids who wish to do so, more power to them! But we won't be having the kids in this project making things they won't wear again outside of 4-H, that just seems silly to me. Nor will we focus just on sewing, since there is more to clothing than making it. We'll be getting together once a month to discuss the consumer aspects of clothing - how to tell if something is well made, figuring out when it is a good price and when to walk away, wardrobe planning, budgeting and more. For the "make it" end of things, members are welcome to come in with an outfit or piece of clothing they already wish to make in the project /or/ for those who are more "out there" and wanting to make something different, I'll be helping them to design and make their own historical costumes. Nick is fluctuating between a Roman soldier and George Washington, trying to decide which costume he'd want to have to play with first. Wearing the item(s) made at a show is optional, of course, but whatever they make can be displayed at the 4-H fair in April.

Fashion Revue

This project is for kids who are also in clothing and textiles and wish to participate in the various revues held during the year. We'll get together for only 1 or 2 meetings, just to learn how to write your text and prepare for the revue (plus a bit of runway walking of course.) The bulk of this project lies in participating in the revues themselves, giving the kids a chance to show off their outfit/costume to an audience. Part of Nick's indecision between soldier and first president is which will play better to the audience - a yelling Roman charging onto stage or a dignified Washington doing an equally dignified wave to the people :)

Foods-Nutrition

As I've already had one person offer to consider helping out here, I feel safe in saying we will be able to offer both a mainstream and a vegan/vegitarian version of this project. If we get enough who also want a special dietary needs focus group, plus a leader for that, we'll open a third. They'll meet monthly to learn about cooking and nutrition, though exact recipes are undecided yet. We'll also cover menu planning, budgeting, converting recipes for more/less people, party planning and table settings, and bulk cooking for more free time.

Oh, and we'll need locations to hold these meetings - my kitchen barely holds one person and we want this to be hands-on learning, not jr. high cooking class where you watch the teacher make cookies but never get to feel the dough yourself.

Food Preservation

Different from nutrition, this project focuses on saving foods for the future - freezing, drying, canning, etc. When I started collecting meeting ideas for it, I was concerned about having enough to fill six meetings - we'll get together every other month for this project. Sitting on my computer, I've lessons for the next three years so at our first meeting, in addition to the very important safety discussion, we'll be deciding on a focus for the remaining meetings, letting the kids decide what to learn first. My apologies in advance if they all decide to make sauerkraut :)

Home Arts and Furnishings

This is one of the few projects in this department that all ages can participate in - even the little ones :) At our first meeting, we'll be discussing the year's plans. Our main focus - making their perfect room. While I insist, every step of the way, that members keep the parents involved in the decision making process, I do ask that the parents be understanding if their child decides to re-do a room /other/ than their bedroom. I knew a boy once who wanted to re-do his dog's house, another kid who took on the kitchen. If it is a public room, and I'll be stressing this with the kids, it needs to be a family decision on what is done. If it is the dog's house, the dog of course should be consulted, at least on color selections :) So they'll spend the year (and future years) working on this perfect room they designed and the bi-monthly meetings (alternating with food preservation) will include projects to include in their room - how to make a lamp from just about anything, how to paint a room without making your parents insane, etc. Nick is also asking about finding two willing member families to do our own club version of trading spaces with, so we'll see what future fun we may be having :)