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| Ms. Bernum on her trip to Germany with the MU History Club. |
As for her creativity
and passion for sewing, her students see this everyday without even realizing
it. The bags she carries from class to class are handmade creations in both
design and construction. Why design your own patterns when you can buy a
pattern to use over and over again?
“If it doesn’t work,
design it yourself.” Ms. Bernum said simply. “When I started teaching sewing
lessons, I realized that patterns were poorly written and more importantly it was
hard to find easy to follow patterns that were able to teach specific skills.”
And she’s right!
Patterns are really hard to follow, especially when you’re a beginner and what
becomes the simplest instruction once you know what you’re doing sounds as
though you’re trying to read Finnish. But if reading patterns is hard,
designing them must be harder.
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| Ms. Bernum designed and created the top bag after she saw the bottom bag online. |
“It’s my favorite part
of sewing. I like to think about what the end bag or piece will look like based
on what my needs or my friend’s needs are and sketch it out.” Said Ms. Bernum,
“I love the challenge of designing patterns.”
She started teaching
sewing in 2009 when she opened her store in Corning, NY. The classes she taught
were focused around skills, which differs from other sewing studios.
“Most times, you go to
a class and when you leave you’ve learned to sew one thing. When I taught
classes, I taught a skill each time through a piece. That way, attendees walked
away knowing how to put a zipper into whatever they were doing at home.”
In 2012, due to her
success, Ms. Bernum closed her store. Because of success? Who has ever heard
that! Ms. Bernum said that because her store became so successful, she had
hired staff to teach classes during times she was unable because of her
teaching job. When her staff started
moving away or getting full time employment elsewhere, she closed down. No worries, she’s been able to keep her store
alive though through the creation of her blog, Ms.Elaineous.
I started sewing in
high school, and unfortunately haven’t done much of any since I started
college, but after visiting Ms. Bernum’s blog a few times in the past couple of
weeks, I’m ready to go buy a sewing machine with my next paycheck, or ask for
one for graduation. The blog offers a tutorial section helping readers with
simple sewing tasks like backstitching (a very important technique which keeps
your creation from falling part) to the more complex sewing lessons like how to
make a ruffle.
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| The Ms.Elaineous blog homepage which Ms. Bernum designed herself. |
Ms. Bernum is always
encouraging her readers and shares her struggles of putting something together
with them. She insists to her readers that with a little patience and hard
work, they’ll be able to achieve their sewing goals. After having her as a
professor earlier this year, I can say that this is also true of Ms. Bernum
when she’s talking to students.
“I model my sewing and
academic teaching after each other.” Ms. Bernum said. “I relate skills to the
prerequisite classes students take. You can’t do calculus without knowing
algebra, just like you can’t tailor clothes without knowing how to construct
them.”
Most importantly
though, I found Ms. Bernum’s story of why she returned to sewing to be the best
piece of advice a faculty member could give student.
“I realized that the
core of who I was had become my job and I needed a different outlet.” Ms.
Bernum told me. “I started sewing scarves and bags and selling them at the arts festivals in New York and Michigan. When I stopped selling there, I opened my store.”
Remember that as a
student, our jobs are to go to class and to put effort into our education but
that we need an additional outlet for when we’re stressed or just need a break
from our main focus. For Ms. Bernum she sews and designs patterns, but as a
past student who learned the hard way, don’t ask her to hem your pants.
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