Graduation Stoles

As mentioned previously, I GRADUATED! I am so happy to complete that chapter of my life! This post comes with a story, though. It goes a little something like this:

I was meeting with one of my professors to review my final portfolio at Sac State. We were discussing graduation, and...
Professor: I always have a hard time finding my students in the crowd.
Me: I can imagine. Everyone is wearing the same thing, and there are hundreds of us!
Professor: It would be nice if your cohort got together and had matching sashes or something. I always mention it to students before they graduate, but no one ever has time for it.
Me: That would be nice. It would help family see their person, too.
Professor: Well Wendy, I'm giving you the job then. Make yourselves visible to me at graduation.

Instead of saying, "You know, I'm not sure how much time I have, or if people will be into that," naturally I said, "Yeah! I think I could do that!"

Fast forward to my last classes, where I make an announcement to the whole class that I am thinking about making stoles (and ordering honor cords, but that's a whole different story!) Next thing I knew, I had 16 stoles to make in just a few weeks. One thing to keep in mind is that, while I have a sewing machine, I had never actually used the sewing machine. Nor have I used a pattern. Nor do I have a kitchen table at the moment on which to learn to use the sewing machine to make 16 stoles in 2 weeks. Yikes! I always seem to get myself into these situations!

Fast forward again to graduation, and I have completed stoles for everyone who ordered one, as well as a few extras for those special professors who have been with the cohort through our time in the credential program.

 I made a pattern out of cardboard to cut half of each stole. This pattern was based on the stole being about 80" long. I eye-balled the angle to the point at the end of either side. I sewed each half stole inside out with roughly a half-inch seam allowance. Once I had two halves, I turned them right-side-out and sewed along the middle in the back. These stoles definitely did not come out perfect. One of the ways in which they weren't perfect is in how they lied on the back of the neck. They didn't stay flat, but I felt this wasn't absolutely necessary to fix, since I barely knew what I was doing anyway. :-) This meant that the only visible seam was along the middle of the back.

                                                  With my amazing husband after graduation!

My cohort of fellow teachers. So happy with how our matching stoles looked in the end!

                          ;Wendy;