For me, middle school Home Economics was great fun. We each made a silky pillow. You could choose between a heart-shape or a star-shape. I chose the heart. We also made all different kinds of cookies and a pennant. Here is mine:

We taste-tested different products, like Coca-Cola versus Pepsi, to see which was our favorite and the favorite of our classmates.

This was a time of ease for me. I knew this class would involve something fun and not memorization, learning the beginnings of algebra, or dissecting frogs.

High school Home Economics (now called Life Skills), was another story entirely. We cooked, but very little. The big project of the year was sewing. We had to choose and buy the material and make our own pair of shorts. Choosing the material was fun, but I have never been interested in sewing so I hated this portion of the class. Thank goodness I married a man who can sew for me!

The truth is, you don’t need to know how to sew. There are people who make their living sewing, hemming and making alterations. I would much prefer to pay a professional than make a costly mistake myself.