Life at Norland College Part 2

So yesterday I set the scene and wrote the introduction to the Norland college......today I'll start by writing a little about how my 2 years was spent there.

Training to be a Norland Nurse is a 2 year course consisting of practical work in and out of the college and lectures within the college.  Emily Ward believed that professional child carers should not only learn about the theory of caring for children, but that they should also learn how to use that knowledge in a practical way.

In the first year our weeks consisted of either 2 or 3 days in lectures and either 2 or 3 days in a practical situation.

Sewing classes seemed to take up a huge part of our training.....yes I said sewing!  We were taught all the basic stitches, how to use a sewing machine, insert a zipper, hemming etc etc and then we had to make a multitude of garments.  Luckily I had the most fantastic mother who used to sew a huge chunk of our childhood wardrobe so I had an introduction to sewing already PHEW!

The list began with a smocked dress and went on to include a fancy dress costume, I chose Little Bo Peep. When I asked if I could include a lamb in my final display the answer was "only if you have MADE the lamb", so I made a Little Bo Peep lamb. Thank goodness they didn't ask me to make the shoes too.

(Apologies for the quality of the photo's. They are 20 years old and scanned from my old scrap book.

I plan on taking the items out of storage later this year on a trip to England and taking better photo's that I will share at a later date).

Smocked dress on the left.  Little Bo Peep on the right with lamb!

We also had to learn patchwork by hand and I chose to make a quilt and bumper.  This project took forever.  Many a night I would sit in front of the T.V. sewing my quilt.

My patchwork quilt and bumper sewn completely by hand.

 A jointed old fashioned teddy bear was mandatory (apparently every good nanny needs to know how to make a jointed Ted just in case there's nowhere to buy one in a time of need).  The worst thing about making him was the amount of fur that used to get up one's nostrils.

My jointed Teddy (so proud).

We also had to make a rag doll with a full set of clothing.  I decided to create a PAIR of pigs with a full set of clothes each.  I'm not sure why I always felt the need to go above and beyond....I mean for goodness sakes we only had to make 1 doll....I'm not quite sure why I pushed myself to do 2.  It must have been encouraged in some shape or form!  That's the only thing I can think of....but I do love my pigs.  I look back now and think "wow, I really made those".

My beautiful fully dressed pigs.

The most frustrating piece for me was my wall hanging.  We had to create wall art using as many different textured fabrics as possible.  While most decided to create a simple picture, maybe a teddy bear or a clown I decided that I was going to torture myself and tackle the world (literally).  But why stop at the world......I had a brilliant idea....let me make 12 dolls and dress them in their national costume and then place them on their country on my world!  Well it was a brilliant idea but boy did I suffer for being so creative.....it was a labor of love I guess.

My wall hanging.

 

 We also had to knit a garment for a baby (knitting, not exactly my forte), make a mobile, book, musical instrument and several educational toys.  At the end of our 2 years we had to create a display to showcase everything we had made.

Final Display before graduation

Not content with just the items I had made for children, I decided to make my own 'Laura Ashley' style dress for the big reveal also.

So this was my creative life at Norland.  I learned so much.  I have used my knowledge and made various clothes and fancy dress costumes for children that I have cared for in jobs over the years but never again attempted a wall hanging, knitted garment or jointed teddy bear.

I still continue to sew, it's one of my hobbies and hopefully in the future will be a small business on the side.

Tomorrow I'll talk about the academic side of Norland College and how I spent the small amount of free time that we had.

Read Part 3   http://textiletrolley.blogspot.com/2012/06/life-at-norland-college-part-3.html