Wendy Neyland’s PHS classes have been taking on life skills that she hopes will help her students through difficult challenges. Neyland has been teaching her students sewing skills.

“You never really know when someone will need a button sewed on a pair of pairs or a shirt,” Neyland said. “I hope this can help at least one person with that skill.”

It wasn’t an easy task to master.

“It took me, like, 12 times just to thread the needle,” junior Jonathan Gonzalez said. “I was really getting agitated because I had to keep starting over”.

For a few students, it was more of a review because they had learned sewing basics when they were younger.

“It was really easy for me, because my mom taught me when I was little,” junior Emily Weathers said.

Before the students were allowed to even pick up a needle and thread, they had to learn the basics, the tools and the care.

“I learned that there’s a lot of preparing and hard work before you even begin the actually sewing, like threading the needle,” junior David McAlpine said. “I also learned that there are a lot of tools and names for those tools and that the tools could only be used for certain things. For example, material scissors – I learned that you’re only supposed to cut material with them because when you cut paper, it makes then duller.”

As the holidays grew closer, the students used their new skills to sew Christmas ornaments, as well.