META24 WORKFORCE LAB · GRADED TO THE CORE · PROJECT-BASED · FASHION DESIGN & APPAREL · THE LAB'S YEAR · MIDDLE SCHOOL · UPPER SCHOOL · GRADE 6–12 · 1 CREDIT · META24 LAB COMPETENCIES
Fashion Design & Apparel · the year
The Cut & Sew House · Fashion · in The Cut & Sew House · Fashion
Fiber & fabric · color · fit · pattern-making · construction · the industry — the campus uniform supplier
This year is laid from the lab’s own calendar — every course inside the lab end to end, then its floors — not written quarter by quarter. The weeks are the lab’s; the quarter windows are the catalog’s.
THE MIX · HOW MUCH OF EACH CORE SUBJECT THIS COURSE CARRIES · IN ORDER
TECHNOLOGY & TRADESART & DESIGNREADING & WRITINGMATHSCIENCECODING & AIHISTORY, GEOGRAPHY & HUMANITIESBUSINESS & ENTERPRISE
The squares are a picture of a course — how much of each core subject its own rooms carry, read from the rooms’ text — never a score of a student. Every course in a lab is graded to the core across the board; the squares say which columns it feeds most.
WHAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DO
- Draft a pattern from measurements
- Sew real seams on the machine
- Cost a garment incl. the labor line
AT A GLANCE · 36 WEEKS
Q1 The Course · the machine, the stitch, the pattern — A sewn garment
Q2 The Course · the machine, the stitch, the pattern → The Craft · the material is the design — A graded pattern
Q3 The Craft · the material is the design → The floor — A sewn garment
Q4 The floor — A graded pattern
THE COURSES INSIDE THIS LAB · 2
THE ROOMS · 9 · BEHIND LOGIN
Semester 1
WEEKS 1–18 · QUARTERS 1 AND 2Quarter 1 · The Course · the machine, the stitch, the pattern
WEEKS 1–9THE WEEKS · THE ROOMS EACH ONE OPENS
WK 1The Machine — How It Actually WorksTHE COURSE · THE MACHINE, THE STITCH, THE PATTERN
A sewing machine does something genuinely clever that almost nobody understands — and once you get that one idea, every “my machine is broken” makes sense.
WK 2The History of the Machine (and why it matters)
The sewing machine has one of the most violent, contested histories of any invention — a story about technology, labor, and who gets paid.
WK 3The Stitch — Hand Stitching
Before the machine, the hand. Every stitch has a job, and using the wrong one is like using a hammer on a screw.
WK 4Machine Stitches & Seams
The machine gives you a set of stitches and the seams built from them — and each one exists for a reason. Use a straight stitch on a knit and your homemade tee pops; use the wrong seam on a sheer and the mess shows…
WK 5Thread
Thread is not a detail — it’s the only thing actually holding the garment together, and the wrong thread fails while the fabric is still perfect.
WK 6Needles
A needle costs almost nothing and will destroy a hundred dollars of fabric if it’s the wrong one. The point shape is the whole game — a sharp needle CUTS a knit’s loops into permanent runs, while a ballpoint slides…
WK 7Fabric, Deepened
Before you cut anything, you have to KNOW what you’re cutting. Fiber, construction, weave, weight, and grain each change everything about how a cloth behaves — how it drapes, stretches, frays, and whether it protects or…
WK 8Leather & Specialty Materials
Leather is a different trade inside the trade, and it punishes you for treating it like cloth. Every needle hole is permanent — you cannot un-sew it — so you measure, clip, and get it right the first time.
WK 9Measurement, Fit & Grading
A garment fits a body only if you measure that body right, add the correct amount of room (ease), and understand how one pattern becomes a whole size run (grading).
THE PROJECT · WHAT THE QUARTER IS FOR
A sewn garment
The question. Can you draft a pattern from measurements?
The make. A sewn garment
The evidence. Handed in through The Cut & Sew House · Fashion’s own surface and kept in My Work; the Report reads it from there.
Quarter 2 · The Course · the machine, the stitch, the pattern → The Craft · the material is the design
WEEKS 10–18THE WEEKS · THE ROOMS EACH ONE OPENS
WK 10Pattern MakingTHE COURSE · THE MACHINE, THE STITCH, THE PATTERN
The core craft — where cloth becomes a garment. Everything derives from one base pattern of a body (the block), and the great “aha” of the trade is that a dart is just fullness you can move ANYWHERE without changing the…
WK 11The Pattern Studio
The signature of the whole House — and a genuinely current, marketable skill. Generate a pattern by size, download it, and then the technique that changes everything: PROJECT it onto the fabric at true scale and cut on…
WK 12Construction, Pressing & Quality
Where it all comes together into a real, sellable garment. You sew in a specific ORDER (get it wrong and you sew a sleeve shut), you PRESS every seam as you go (the unglamorous secret that separates homemade from made),…
WK 13Embroidery — Decorating with Thread
Sewing HOLDS cloth together; embroidery DECORATES it — building a picture, a monogram, or a logo out of thousands of stitches.
WK 14The Material Is the DesignTHE CRAFT · THE MATERIAL IS THE DESIGN
Two shirts — same pattern, same stitching, same color. One feels like money, one like a dollar store. The difference isn’t the design; it’s the cloth. Before you cut anything, know what you’re cutting.
WK 15Texture Is a Color Variable
Color for textiles isn’t color on a screen. The same dye reads differently on matte cotton and sheen satin — because the fabric’s surface is part of the color.
WK 16The Honest One
The most important week, handled with care: fit is a design problem, not a body problem. Bodies aren’t wrong — patterns are.
WK 17A Dart Is Just Fullness
The core craft. A pattern is the flat map of a 3D body — and the “aha” that hooks everyone: a dart is just fullness, and you can move it anywhere without changing the fit.
WK 18The Machines, The Seams
Where the pattern becomes a garment. The machines, the needle matched to the fabric, the right seam in the right place — and the unglamorous secret that separates homemade from made.
THE PROJECT · WHAT THE QUARTER IS FOR
A graded pattern
The question. Can you sew real seams on the machine?
The make. A graded pattern
The evidence. Handed in through The Cut & Sew House · Fashion’s own surface and kept in My Work; the Report reads it from there.
Semester 2
WEEKS 19–36 · QUARTERS 3 AND 4Quarter 3 · The Craft · the material is the design → The floor
WEEKS 19–27 · IN THIS OFFERINGTHE WEEKS · THE ROOMS EACH ONE OPENS
WK 19Sellable vs. HomemadeTHE CRAFT · THE MATERIAL IS THE DESIGN
The eye that judges quality — and the honest picture of the industry you’re about to make things in.
WK 20–21Fiber & fabricTHE FLOOR
The floor — the work is done in the room, logged in the room, kept in My Work.
WK 22–23Color
The floor — the work is done in the room, logged in the room, kept in My Work.
WK 24–25Fit
The floor — the work is done in the room, logged in the room, kept in My Work.
WK 26–27Pattern-making
The floor — the work is done in the room, logged in the room, kept in My Work.
THE PROJECT · WHAT THE QUARTER IS FOR
A sewn garment
The question. Can you cost a garment incl. the labor line?
The make. A sewn garment
The evidence. Handed in through The Cut & Sew House · Fashion’s own surface and kept in My Work; the Report reads it from there.
Quarter 4 · The floor
WEEKS 28–36THE WEEKS · THE ROOMS EACH ONE OPENS
WK 28–29ConstructionTHE FLOOR
The floor — the work is done in the room, logged in the room, kept in My Work.
WK 30–36The industry — the campus uniform supplier
The floor — the work is done in the room, logged in the room, kept in My Work.
THE PROJECT · WHAT THE QUARTER IS FOR
A graded pattern
The question. Can you draft a pattern from measurements?
The make. A graded pattern
The evidence. Handed in through The Cut & Sew House · Fashion’s own surface and kept in My Work; the Report reads it from there.
A course is a quarter, a semester or a year — nine, eighteen or thirty-six weeks — a project a quarter. Offered as the year, a semester or a quarter, it is the same course seen through a window. A lab is a family: its year, each of its tracks as a course, and its rooms. The evidence is what a student hands in through the room; the Report reads it from there. Nothing in the catalog is a grade.
THE PASS · THIS COURSE AND EVERY OTHER ONE
One pass includes Fashion Design & Apparel · the year and every course in the catalog. Pick a pass, or enter a school code; checkout stays on this page.