A few weeks ago, I shared how I applied for several teaching positions, including one at F.I.T. I've been teaching a long time, both in formal classroom settings and in sessions I've held at the factory at the back of the shop. I love teaching and I love learning new ways to teach.
Around 11 years ago, I discovered YouTube. I thought it was very interesting. I saw people from many backgrounds creating and posting videos. Some of them were commenting on world events or posting funny jokes, but many were teaching skills and experiences they had learned and mastered. I asked my son about it and whether we could film some videos and post them on YouTube. My son was very surprised that I had heard of YouTube much less thought about posting on it. He asked what I would like to film and post first.
Long ago, I learned a technique for hemming blue jeans. I call this the "magic hem." I've refined it over the years and have taught it to students in my classes. I didn't have any real plan or reason to put it on YouTube other than I thought it might be an interesting experiment.
We filmed the tutorial, which my son edited, using a very low grade camera (we long ago deleted our original channel but you can see a repost of the original version of that tutorial here). The camera was so bad it made a clicking noise so he had to overlay some music. We posted it and pretty much forgot about it.
About a month or two later, my son informed me that the video had over 40,000 views. We also started getting comments. I was very surprised. We started posting more videos and soon got subscribers and more comments.
We eventually got a new camera, created a new channel, which we recently rebranded to Fashion Design R&D Center and filmed an updated version of the blue jean "magic" hem tutorial, which today has over 2.1M views. I never imagined that this video would become what I learned is called "viral." I was pleasantly surprised and genuinely touched by all of the comments.
I haven't kept up with posting on YouTube as much as I would like. Most recently, I posted a video two years ago on how to make a cloth mask. Although I don't have as much time to devote to creating videos, I fully appreciate how powerful video is as a teaching tool and how a platform like YouTube can reach many students worldwide. If you're a teacher or you know anything about fashion or sewing, I encourage you to share your knowledge. There is a great demand for what you know.
Hyi
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