She’s sharing how she gets a neat, sleek, high ponytail for performances.  Just a few quick steps for performance ready hair.

For more posts from Mrs. T visit her blog at http://www.colorguardblog.com.

Thanks again Mrs. T!

We who judge like to think we have all the answers. But if you wait until next week, you’ll probably find another judge with a different answer. It can be maddening, but that’s what you get when you try to put an “objective” evaluation on a creative process. (Interestingly, in the “real world” people in various creative fields disagree ALL THE TIME and no one loses any sleep over it. It’s our own desire to create a definitive “best” that causes our troubles.) As the director/designer/instructor of your program, your job is to do what’s best for your students and the program. So, here are some things to consider:

1. How many judges are giving you the same feedback? NEVER make a change because of ONE person’s opinion (unless you agree). If you get similar comments from several people it may be worth taking a look at it.

2. Make sure you really understand what the concern is. If you don’t, you’re going to have a hard time deciding how to fix it.

3. How will the change affect your students’ performance? Is it something that will be easy to master? How will it impact the rest of your “to do” list and rehearsal schedule?

4. Do you have a BETTER idea. I’ve known groups to make changes week after week without any improvement because the changes weren’t better than what was there originally.

5. Will it matter? Do YOU think it will make the show noticeably better? Will you be rewarded numerically for your efforts (more points, higher placement)?

Sometimes instructors (especially younger or less experienced instructors) over-value the importance of the score and the judges’ opinions. Of course everyone wants to give themselves the best possible shot at competitive success, but you’re the one responsible for steering your program. No judge can tell you what’s best for your circumstances. They don’t know your students, your rehearsal schedule, etc. Even if you believe the feedback you’re getting is correct, it’s OK to make a different choice that’s better for your program.

At the end of the day, you’re primary responsibility is to your students. I would encourage you to make choices that give them the best chance of having a final performance that they feel great about. If they can perform with confidence and feel that they’ve fully mastered their show then the numbers won’t seem so important.

1. Show up – Attendance is key for our success.
2. Be on time.  Show up 15 min. before the start of rehearsal. Rehearsals begin
   promptly at start time.
3. Be engaged.  Focus, listen, and learn at every rehearsal. Make the most of the time spent
   learning from your instructors.  They know how to help you improve.
4. Wear appropriate clothing.  All black is required at rehearsals. Rehearsal attire also
   includes pulling your hair back away from your face and wearing jazz shoes or running
   shoes.  When indoor you may go barefoot .
5. No gum chewing – gum is very distracting to a rehearsal.
6. Eat well.  No junk food at rehearsals.  Only water will be allowed at
   rehearsals.  String cheese, fruit, almonds, and protein bars are a few examples of
   healthy snacks.
7. Exercise and practice at home.  Walk as much as possible or light jog.
   Practice spinning at home.  Practice makes perfect.
8. No cursing or inappropriate conversations.  Please keep negative comments
   away from rehearsals.  Cursing will not be tolerated.
9. Be positive.  Encourage and motivate your fellow members.  Be helpful if you
   see that someone needs help.
10. Lead without a title.  Whether or not you have a leadership title, you can
    still lead.  If everyone acts as a captain, the entire group will benefit at
    every rehearsal. Performances should be a celebration of all our hard work.
    Rewards come to those who work hard together.

Learn how to make a sock bun with volume in her 3rd video installment here on CGE.

Then go visit her at her blog www.colorguardblog.com.

Thanks again Mrs. T!

…in 20 seconds.

A group that I work with has a football field across town from the high school, so changing clothes for a special halftime show is not feasible. They always march the pregame in their school uniform, which is a long sleeved tunic over a camisole unitard. With the popularity of one shouldered tunics, I thought it might be possible to make a spandex sleeveless tunic that only exposed the black sections of their uniform. The band wears a red jacket, so I wanted something that would be more visible. These popovers also look fine with just the camisole unitard, as we wore them for a basketball performance in November.

The fabric was purchased on sale from Spandex World. The cost was less than $8.00 each to make, plus thread and needles (more on that.)  I could get two pieces out of one yard except for XXL sizes, but you will need more fabric with one way designs or napped fabric. For 16 uniforms I bought 10 yards of each fabric, front and back, or a total of 20 yards, which was plenty for 6 small, 4 medium, 3 large, 2 XL and 1 XXL.

First make the pattern (pictures 1-8.)  I used craft paper here, but you can use the back of wrapping paper that has graph lines on it, that works great.  Make lines on the craft paper as shown. When tracing, try to stay about a quarter inch away, and when cutting, cut another quarter inch away, giving a half inch seam allowance.

The fabric was laid out as you would wear it, with the outside back down and the front up. If you have fabric with a one way design, make sure the pattern is facing the same direction every time.  Do not turn the pattern over or your shoulder will be on the wrong side.

I laid out the mediums first, pretty much staggered side by side like footprints, then the larges and XLs alongside the smalls, then the XXL alone. It is important that you are running along the true line of the fabric or the tunic will not fall as nicely. Here I used a different fabric so you could see how the pattern lined up.

Once you get one or two pinned, pictures 9-10, cut out the front and back and keep them as a pair and keep track of your sizes.

The pinning and cutting took the longest.  Use smooth strokes, especially top and bottom, as these edges will not need to be finished. The sewing was a walk in the park, pictures 11-12.  Three short seams with backup seams, or serge if you have a serger.

When sewing on metallic or sequin/sparkle you will probably need one ball point needle for every two garments, whereas regular spandex will need one needle for every 3-4 garments.  If your machine starts skipping stitches, the first thing you do is change the needle.  There are lots of instructional videos on the internet if you are not used to sewing on knits…I wasn’t!  Don’t let that stop you. Or find a band parent, you did the hard work!

Photos 13-15 are the final product. No need for a changing room, we just put them on over our regular uniforms.  They are also easy to take off for a change on the field, if you want to conceal and reveal.

We put bright green on the back of our tunic for a special effect.  The bright green popped when they turned as if they were saying: “Hey! Watch us!”

Time needed:

30-45 minutes to trace the different sizes to make the patterns. (I did two sizes per pattern piece, but you have to cut out the largest ones first –medium, then small)

4 hours to pin and cut 16 tunics.

3 hours to sew 16 tunics…only 3 short seams, leave neck and hem unfinished.  The thought of leaving the hem unfinished was introduced to me by the dance catalog companies…I would have never thought you could just leave the hems unfinished, but the spandex in the fabric pulls the bare edge enough to keep it from fraying, the exact opposite of lame!!

So I thought, “Why not an eBay junk drive?”

Selling things on ebay has never been easier.  There is even a mobile app that will allow you to list certain things for sale right from your phone.  With a paypal account to accept payments along with eBay’s integrated shipping label feature, its easy to turn donated junk into cash.

Step one: Find a parent volunteer with established eBay and paypal accounts and some ebay selling experience.   If no one fits this description, reach out for someone to get it set up and give it a try.  eBay’s business model depends on the rest of us wanting to sell our stuff, so they have countless tutorials that will get you started.

Step two:  Acquire donated items to sell.  Send out an email blast to your members or post on your group facebook page asking for items to be donated.  The key thing to remember with eBay is, virtually everything you sell will need to be boxed and shipped.  Generally, things that weigh less than five pounds are the sweet spot.  If you get much heavier that that, the cost of shipping tends to discourage possible buyers.  Some great ideas are old cell phones, Halloween costumes, digital cameras, name brand toys, camcorders, gold and silver jewelry, and even old blue jeans.

 
Step three: Evaluate the items that your members and friends want to donate to determine if it’s worth the effort to sell.  The easiest thing to do is simply search for the same item on ebay and see what it has been selling for.  You will want to toggle the search results to show only ‘completed listings’.  This will let you see the items that actually have sold along with their final price.  This is also a good opportunity to set expectations with the person donating.  Maybe they are giving you something that they don’t realize might be worth $300.00.  It’s a chance for them to decide if they are sure they want to donate.  Or perhaps they feel their item is very valuable, but you find it typically only brings in $5.  Would they rather just hang onto it?  Keep the lines of communication open.

Step four: List your items.  One at a time, grab an item from your pile of donated loot, take some pictures, and write a brief description.  Then go to the eBay selling wizard and get it listed.  I typically use a 7 day auction format and start the price low with no reserve.   One by one your auctions will close, the buyers will pay, and you can print out a shipping label to send the item.

Step five: Keep good records.  While ebay and paypal are great tools, they don’t come free.  You can expect to see about 23% of your take go to ebay and paypal in the form of fees.  It’s a good idea to keep a shared spreadsheet up to date for transparency.  This way, everyone in your program will know how much money you are making, and understand the fee component.

We just closed out our first eBay junk drive which netted $400.24 in just over a month!  This was with only guard families donating items they had laying around.   Next time, we may target more specific items, like cell phones for instance, and go door to door asking for donations.

Our first one was on a very small scale, so I was able to perform all the legwork.  But for the next run, we want to divide the work up into several sections.  This will allow us to scale up, and make more money.   We plan to have a couple of people in charge of gathering and evaluating items.  Have one or two people taking pictures and writing the descriptions.  Another person will list the items and a final person will ship the sold items and update the records.

We are just getting started, but I think this will be a great new revenue source for our program over the next several years.

​When I first took over, the key was to rebuild the Guard program from the ground up.  After two years of successful fall seasons the next logical step was to start a winter program. After looking deep into the funding that is required for a successful competitive Winter Guard I came to the conclusion that interest was slim and money was even slimmer. I had to come up with another idea to continue the growth in our program.

School Spirit and Fundraising

I began with making it a student funded activity. I decided to keep the girls I currently had in Fall Guard on through Winter and we would be a new type of spirit organization for the high school. We would perform at basketball games and facilitate a bake sale at each game to raise money for new equipment.

We started practices the last week of November (giving the kids some time between State Finals and Winter Guard to rest and rejuvenate). We practiced three times a week and came up with a routine that consisted of flag, hip hop dance and some tricks for the crowd to “ooooo & awww” at.  It was well received by the audience and was a really positive experience for students and families. The cost was virtually free because we used our uniforms from fall guard and flags we already had in our closet.

After two very successful seasons with our non-competitive Winter Guard, I wanted to find ways to make our numbers grow. We were sitting at about 9-10 girls each year and numbers just weren’t sufficient for our competitive fall season. I wanted to use Winter Guard as a tool for recruitment.

Stepping it Up for Recruitment

In the fall of 2011, I decided to eliminate tryouts and add 8th graders to the Winter Guard. With this being non-competitive, I saw no reason why we needed to hold auditions.  The key was to make it fun for the new members. We put up flyers all over the high school and middle school stating “no experience necessary”. We made announcements at both the high school and middle school each day for a week and a half. This was enough to double our numbers.

With double the numbers we now needed double the uniforms so we had to charge a participation fee.  I ordered through Dancewear Solutions (very affordable) and we purchased some black capris, a cute “hip hop” tank top and a black flat bill hat. The girls could wear whatever tennis shoes they wanted and most borrowed practice flags that we had available. The total cost per member came to around $70 per person. We performed at 5 basketball games and also raised $1,000 in funds from the bake sales which went toward equipment for our fall season.

Seeing the Results

Fifteen members continued to Fall Marching Season.  With the boost in numbers and the additional off-season training we saw great improvements on the field.  We received Best Auxiliary in our class at all our competitions this year. We also surpassed our best overall score twice, received Top Guard at one of the competitions (beating out schools quadruple our size) and finished out the season with two superior ratings (the highest rating you can get in the OMEA circuit).

Winter Guard is a great tool for any school. Whether you are competitive or not, students are always looking for outlets to keep busy and be involved, and the opportunity for off-season training pays off when fall season comes back around.  The key is to keep them interested and not burn them out.  Our version of Winter Guard is a fun and cost-effective alternative that works great for us and might be an option for programs that aren’t yet able or ready to make the leap into a competitive winter season.

And this one I LOVE!

Bus Pillows made from Upcycled Guard T-shirts with Crochet Edgings

Before I start with the step-by-step let me just say that my own kids love these – so all you guard coaches who are also moms with kids outgrowing some of their school or activity t-shirts… this one is great for your own kids too!  The t-shirt fabric is so soft that they just love using these pillows in the car.  I love getting a little glimpse of these old show t-shirts too because these two particular shows bring back many happy memories for me.  These would be great as gifts and they were super easy to make.

Here’s how I did it (instructions below are for the pillows with a crochet edge – you could certainly do a simple version of these by just stitching the 2 sides together with a sewing machine and stuffing them):

Step 1: Choose a t-shirt and cut out the size/shape of the pillow you’d like.  

• Leave yourself some room on the side of the designs (I left about 3 inches around the design) to give space for poking holes (or sewing a seam if you don’t crochet) and to allow for some width so that after stuffing the pillow the design doesn’t totally wrap around the edges.
• A rotary cutter and ruler makes the cutting WAY easier and neater although it isn’t necessary.  I cut with scissors for my Spin for a Cure pillow and with the rotary cutter for the purple pillow.  The rotary cutter is my preference.
• Make sure to peek over to the front side because if you have a pocket design and a back design you may want to include both.  I was careful to make sure I wasn’t slicing through that pocket design on the underside.

Step 2: Poke Holes

I did this two different ways to see which I prefered.

First, on the “Spin for the Cure” pillow I used the “Sharp Crochet Hook” which I heard about on a crafting blog.  This is a small but pointed crochet hook that is designed to poke through fabric for creating fringed edgings.

On the second pillow I decided to try an ice pick for poking the holes instead.

My preference?  The ice pick.

While I was super hopeful for my sharp crochet hook, the t-shirt material was just too hard to poke through the fabric.  My hand and elbow were really hurting by about half way through the first side.  It was also a small hook and I had problems with my yarn separating with each stitch.  The size of this hook would have been much better with crochet thread rather than yarn.  While the holes are decidedly smaller and neater it just took too long and caused too much pain for my elbow/wrist.

The ice pick produced much larger holes and those holes were a little harder to “control” in terms of size (I was occasionally worried about ripping the fabric) but overall I was able to poke all of the holes around the entire pillow in less than 15 minutes and move on to the fun part – crocheting the edging.  

Some tips for using the ice pick:

• It helps to have a surface to place the pick against – I used my cutting mat.
• I placed the t-shirt on the cutting mat with the pick pointed straight down.  I held the pick still with one hand and pulled the fabric upward to create the hole with the other.  This helped me to control the size of the hole and be consistent from hole to hole.

• Make sure to keep both layers of the t-shirts lined up throughout.  I poked the holes through both layers at one time.  Just be careful not to let the bottom layer shift.
• Make sure to give yourself enough space between holes and from the hole to the edge so that you don’t accidentally tear the fabric from the hole to the edge of the shirt or tear the fabric between holes.  I didn’t have an issue with this but it could be a problem.

Step 3: Choose Hook and Yarn

For the Spin for the Cure pillow I used my sharp crochet hook for the first round and then swiftly changed to a nice sized hook (I think it was F) for the remaining rows of the edging.  The reason was that the sharp crochet hook is tiny – better suited for crochet thread really.  It kept separating my yarn.  For this pillow I used a baby weight yarn.

For the Purple Pillow (from a 2004 show about community service) I used a size G hook and Caron One Pound Acrylic Yarn.  The holes from the ice pick were much larger so I wanted to make sure the yarn filled up the space of the hole so no stuffing would come peeking out when the pillow was used.

Step 4: Crochet your edging

The edging is really up to you – whatever you think looks nice will work!  I will share the two edgings I created for these pillows.  Here goes:

Spin for the Cure – pink ruffled edging

1. Starting about ½ of the way along one side, single crochet in each hole around the pillow.  At each corner do 3 single crochet stitches in the corner hole to create a nice rounded corner.  When you get to the final corner stop and fill the pillow lightly with stuffing being careful not to overstuff (less stuffing means a softer pillow).  Then continue stitching around to close the hole.  Join with slip stitch to first sc.
1. Remember I was using the sharp crochet hook so my holes were close together.  I could single crochet in each hole without any fabric bunching between stitches.  If you are using an ice pick with holes farther apart you may need to fill the space between holes with a chain stitch or two as I did with my purple pillow
2. I actually started my pillows at the corner BUT… after finishing both I think that starting ½ of the way down a side will make it easier to get stuffing evenly into all four corners at the end.  Otherwise you can’t stuff the final corner and instead end up trying to move stuffing into the corner after it’s stitched shut… which just doesn’t work quite as nicely.
2. Chain 3 (counts as first dc), dc in same stitch.  2 dc in next stitch and each stitch around pillow.  Join with slip stitch to top chain in original ch 3.
3. Chain 5, skip next dc, *double crochet in next dc, ch 2, sk next dc, dc in next dc*, repeat from * around when you get to the final stitch ch2 and join with sl st to 3rd chain of original ch 5.  It’s possible your stitches won’t match up perfectly depending on how many holes you are working with.  If you end up with 2 dc at the end don’t worry – just skip the last 2 and ch 2 and join.  No one will notice
4. chain 5, *dc in space created by ch 2 on the row below, ch 2, dc in next ch 2 space*, repeat around, after final dc chain 2 join with sl st in 3rd chain of original ch 5.  See note in step 3 for what to do if it doesn’t end up perfect.  Let go of perfection
5. *chain 4, sc in dc*, repeat around to final sc stitch.  ch 4, join with sl. st in first chain of original ch4.
6. Finish off

Purple Pillow with Simple Edging

1. Starting about ½ of the way down one side of the pillow join with slip stitch in one of your pre-punched holes.  chain 1.  sc in same hole as joining.  For mine I found that I had spaced my holes a little too far apart to simply sc in each hole.  So I found that one chain stitch between each sc was adequate to span the space between holes without fabric bunching.  If your holes are closer together you could sc in each hole.  If they are farther apart simply add as many chains as needed to span the space between holes.
1. I did: sc, ch 1, around.
2. 
3. Make 3 sc in each corner hole.
4. 
5. When you get just past the final corner stop and lightly stuff the pillow.  Remember less stuffing means a softer pillow.  After stuffing continue with sc and chains around to close pillow.  Join with sl st in first sc.
2. For this row I used a contrasting color.  I pulled up the contrasting color in the ch 1.  Sc in same stitch (making sure to stitch over the tail of both colors for the first 5 or so stitches) and each sc and ch st around.  join with sl st in first sc.
1. 
2. 
3. 
3. For this final row I went back to my original color.  I pulled up the original color in the ch 1.  sc in same stitch and each stitch around.  join with sl st in first sc.  Finish off.
1. 

So there you go!

This is only my second time sharing a crochet pattern so if you try this and have any edits or suggestions for me in making the pattern more clear please don’t hesitate to let me know and I will make the changes here.  This was a fun project for me and it makes me so happy to see these old t-shirts that I couldn’t part with but couldn’t wear anymore put to creative use.  My girls randomly tell me how much they love their soft new pillows and the memories of these shows make me smile.  One day I will make a quilt from the large stack of shirts but for now this quick little project was a fun way to use a couple of the shirts I had “doubles” of.  And they’re just adorable!

[Note: this pattern is also posted at my personal blog: www.catinaanderson.com]

Jody’s Bio:

Jody has been coaching high school guard for over 30 years and says he still feels like he’s learning every time he teaches a new set of kids.  He’s been with Broughton High School in North Carolina since 1984, University of North Carolina from 1991 – 2000, NC State University from 2009 to present and Assembly Line Winter Guard 1987 – present.

Here’s the insight Jody has to offer:

I think the best advice I would share:

• Never stop growing, the main reason I do a Senior Class Guard is that I still want to be taught.  I love learning from a new instructor and seeing the different ways to approach teaching. Change up your training exercises, try different techniques for teaching, do not let your teaching style become mundane.

• Never compare season to season treat each season like your first, just keep building on the lessons you have learned to make the experience better for your students.  I do not find it healthy to make comparisons between seasons.  Each group of kids is unique, and should be treated as such.

• Also, as you age never forget where and how you started.  So often I feel like I may have started not understanding the other issues that pull on our students.  I must then back up and remember the state of mind I had at their age.  How fast did I learn work? When did I achieve a solid catch?  Maybe these answers will make you a better instructor.  Very often when I stop and think, I realize that this is very important to me but that I cannot expect the same devotion from a new member, who has not completely found the passion for color guard.

For those that may have missed last month’s installment called “I’m Getting Sunburned” Mrs. T is a performer with the Govenaires Drum and Bugle Corps (DCA) from St. Peter, MN.  She also writes her own colorguard blog (with… we should note… maybe the best guard blog url out there, www.colorguardblog.com).  She’s offered to join us here on the CGE for a guest post once each month that will feature a video tutorial showing how she achieves a particular hairstyle or performance make-up “look.”

So without further adieu… Here’s Mrs. T explaining how she achieves the Purple Cat Eyes “look.”