Course Identity
This course is a hands-on, studio-based Grade 12 fashion and textiles course for students at GW Graham Secondary in Chilliwack, BC. Students learn to design, sew, fit, revise, and present textile products while building habits of safety, cleanliness, creative risk-taking, respectful critique, and community care.
This is Level 1 (Foundation). An advanced continuation, Level 2, builds on these skills with pattern drafting and draping, couture and tailoring, textile science, and a capstone collection — see level-2/00_Level2_Overview.md.
The teacher stance is intentionally positive: "I am excited to see what you make, and I expect you to care for the space, your tools, your classmates, and your work."
BC Curriculum Connections
This course draws from BC ADST Fashion Industry 12 and Textiles 12. BC organizes learning standards into Curricular Competencies (what students do) and Content (what students come to know). They are mapped separately below so the course is easy to align and report against.
Curricular Competencies (the doing)
- Understand context through user-centred research before designing.
- Define a need, user, criteria, and constraints.
- Ideate, prototype, test, make, share, and reflect.
- Use tools, materials, and technologies safely and appropriately.
- Apply interpersonal, collaboration, project-management, and consultation skills.
- Critique, revise, and iterate based on feedback and testing.
Content (the knowing)
- Relationship between fibre content, fabric type, care, use, and construction choices.
- Construction methods: seams, finishes, closures, fit, and pattern use.
- Historical and current textile and fashion influences.
- First Peoples historical and current textile knowledge and practices.
- Design for the life cycle, including social, environmental, and economic impacts.
- Ethical and environmental issues, including fast fashion and cultural appropriation.
Core Competencies
BC's three Core Competencies — Communication, Thinking (Creative and Critical), and Personal & Social — are built into the course and student-assessed. Students self-assess at least one Core Competency at major checkpoints (sampler, bottoms, final). The self-assessment prompts in 10_Assessment_Tools.md name these explicitly.
First Peoples Principles of Learning (FPPL)
The course connects to FPPL, especially that learning is embedded in memory, history, and practice; that it takes patience and time; and that it is relational and connected to place. Chilliwack is in Stó:lō territory. Indigenous textile knowledge belongs to people, families, and communities; students study broad ideas (protocol, relationship to land, material respect, anti-appropriation) and never reproduce protected, sacred, or Nation-specific designs. See Unit 8 and the README protocol note.
Cross-Curricular And Career Connections
The course links to numeracy (measurement, cost), literacy (reflection, design statements), Art, Drama, Photography, and Business, and surfaces real career pathways. Concrete enrichment, careers, and industry-connection plans live in 12_Enrichment_Challenges_Studio_Culture.md. Inclusion, differentiation, and UDL supports live in 13_Supports_Differentiation_UDL.md.
Official BC sources:
- https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/adst/12/fashion-industry
- https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/adst/12/textiles
- https://www.fnesc.ca/first-peoples-principles-of-learning/
Semester Structure
Assumption: about 20 weeks, 5 classes per week. For an 18-week semester or a block schedule, compress pacing — the Tops unit and any timed-challenge days (see 12_Enrichment_Challenges_Studio_Culture.md) are the easiest to trim or fold into adjacent units.
| Unit | Weeks | Focus | Major Product |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1-2 | Studio safety, tools, design process, community routines | Stitch sampler and design journal setup |
| 2 | 3-4 | Fibres, fabrics, care, cost, textile history | Fabric ID swatch book and care label challenge |
| 3 | 5-6 | Machine skills, seams, hems, closures | Utility pouch, tote, or apron |
| 4 | 7-8 | Measurement, patterns, fit, alteration | Fitted mock-up or alteration project |
| 5 | 9-11 | Garment construction: bottoms | Pajama pants, skirt, shorts, or upcycled bottoms |
| 6 | 12-13 | Garment construction: tops | Woven tank, finished-neckline top, or upcycled top |
| 7 | 14-15 | Textile manipulation and surface design | Embellished panel or wearable accessory |
| 8 | 16-17 | Sustainability, ethics, Indigenous respect, repair | Upcycle/redesign or repair capsule |
| 9 | 18-20 | Final collection/portfolio/showcase | Student-designed final garment or look |
Assessment Plan
Project-based assessment is the centre of the course.
| Category | Weight |
|---|---|
| Major projects and hands-on assignments | 55% |
| Process portfolio/design journal | 20% |
| Studio habits: safety, cleanup, collaboration, time management | 15% |
| Quizzes/tests/technical checks | 10% |
Studio Culture
The room should feel creative and calm. Students are encouraged to experiment, but the shop/studio expectations are firm.
Daily routines:
- Enter, gather journal/project, check daily agenda.
- Set up only the tools needed for the current task.
- Work with safe posture, safe machine habits, and respectful volume.
- Ask three before me: notes, peer, sample wall, then teacher.
- Last 8-10 minutes: clean, return tools, thread bins, sweep, machine covers, project storage.
- Exit after table/machine check.
Community expectations:
- We compliment effort, craft, courage, and problem-solving.
- We critique the work, never the person.
- We share tools fairly.
- We leave spaces better than we found them.
- We do not copy cultural designs without permission, context, and relationship.
Core Supplies
School supplies:
- Sewing machines, sergers if available, irons, ironing boards, dress forms.
- Scissors/shears, pins/clips, seam rippers, measuring tapes, rulers, chalk/markers.
- Scrap bins sorted by fabric type/size.
- Basic thread, needles, bobbins, elastic, interfacing, closures.
Student supplies:
- Binder or digital folder.
- Sketchbook or design journal.
- Pencil, eraser, fine liner, coloured pencils/markers.
- Fabric only for larger projects, chosen with teacher approval.
Cost control:
- Use thrifted sheets for muslins.
- Run a class textile donation drive.
- Keep projects flexible by skill level and budget.
- Encourage redesign before buying.
- Use remnants for samples and small accessories.
Grade 12 Professional Habits
Students are expected to:
- Track project deadlines.
- Keep a clean labelled storage system.
- Document process with photos, notes, and revisions.
- Make independent decisions after consultation.
- Use tools safely without constant reminders.
- Help create a supportive studio community.
References and Further Learning
Watch
- Designers — think big! (Tim Brown) — A short talk on design thinking that frames the user-centred design process this course uses (TED).
- The life cycle of a t-shirt (Angel Chang) — An animated lesson tracing where a garment's fibres, labour, and impacts come from (TED-Ed).
Read
- Fashion — Explore the Collections — An introduction to five centuries of dress, designers, and techniques (Victoria and Albert Museum).
Explore
- First Peoples Principles of Learning — The nine principles that ground how this course approaches learning and Indigenous knowledge (FNESC).
- Two Centuries of Costume in America (Alice Morse Earle, 1903) — A public-domain history of dress for browsing how clothing and textiles changed over time (Internet Archive).
_Links were verified at publication; if one moves, search the title._