Author: Kristin

The Loss of Lois Ericson

Sad news-this email was sent to me so I am passing it on to you-I had to look online to be sure who Lois was.  I have some of her patterns even though I haven’t met her. Her daughter teaches classes with Marcy Tilton and does lots of other things.  I especially liked the last few lines-

Diane has asked me to let you know that her mother, Lois Ericson passed

away peacefully on Monday afternoon after suffering a massive stroke last

week. Diane and her two children went up to Reno as soon as they heard, and

all 4 of Lois’s children and all of her grandchildren came to be with her,

so the entire family had a chance to be together at one time surrounding

her with their love. Her magnificent creative spirit has touched so many

and she will continue to be an inspiration.

There are no plans at this time for a memorial service. If you want to

honor Lois, follow her lead….go into your studio and create, make,

invent. Teach. She continued creating right up to the end, pursuing a

renewed passion for watercolors, and always, always, always fabric and

fiber. She was beloved by many, and forged a path in the fiber arts that is

a foundation of the work we all do today.

Upcoming Fashion Sewing Club Week

We hope the new year is inspiring you to spend time on your favorite craft-garment sewing. Did you see some of the pattern companies have released spring fashions!

This month’s Fashion Sewing Clubs will be held at the following times and places:

Tuesday, 1/10, Treadle Yard Goods, St. Paul, 10:30 am
Thursday, 1/12, Bernina/Hancock/Southtown, 10:30 and 6:30
Saturday, 1/14, Treadle Yard Goods, St. Paul, 10:30 am
The Monday meeting at Make It Sew won’t be held this month but we’ll try again next month.  Thanks for hanging in there while the Bernina/Hancock location gets figured out.
Some of you also caught my typo-Bernina/Hancock subscription should be $17.50 for Jan/Feb. Oops!
Hope to see you and your sewing next week!

Super Deal! And a few other things…

 

A coupon is being offered through Amazon Local (think Groupon) for half off sewing classes at Make It Sew!  Through Sunday night, you can buy $50 of classes at Make It Sew for only $25!  And you can buy multiple coupons too.  We have a wool coat class scheduled for January and Guided Sewing (you pick a project) in February, March and April.  Of course, it can be used on any of their other quilting, serging, sewing classes.  It doesn’t HAVE to be a Material Girls class…

Here’s the link: Amazon Local Minneapolis

My faux leather Marcy Tilton bag is featured on Marcy’s blog.  Thanks, Marcy!

A few pictures to share-

I’ve been doing a bit of stash busting and finished the fat quarter bag.  Six fat quarters and a yard and a half of cotton gone from the pile.  Pattern was passed around ASG circles.  Sorry, I have no link.  Alice was kind enough to share her copy.

Debbie finished her coat for the Make It Sew class.  You can choose your own pattern.

Last picture is one of my favorite Christmas presents-a bag from Modcloth.  If you haven’t been to the site, it’s lots of fun.  Many, many dresses that are for the younger woman but the ideas to be gleaned are many.  Indie, retro, vintage.

The other gift was a Fitbit so hopefully you’ll be seeing less of me (wink, wink).

The New Year is the time for optimism and big ideas.  Have fun with all of yours!

Happy New Year from the Material Girls.

Fat Quarter Bag
Wool Coat/Jacket Sample
Sewist's dream Christmas gift

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Everybody that is coming to my house is now on the road, the kitchen smells like gingerbread so it’s time to wish all of you wonderful Material Girls, “Happy Holidays and All the Best in 2012!” And then I’m going to turn off my computer and enjoy Christmas.

Here are show and tell pictures from December Club. We hope the receivers of your gifts enjoy them as much as we did. Garment photos are found under the heading Club Sheets and Garment Photos in top bar along with the Club sheets from December.

Dupioni silk quilt

Lucky granddaughters

Sweater vest made at Expo-see dresses on wall too.

A bit of knitting

pretty pillowcases

View December Club garments.

In a New York Minute!

Contributed by Carrie Diamont

In 2009 I attended the MN Sewing Expo and watched my friends, the Material Girls, participate in the Peggy Sager’s customer fashion show for a chance to win a trip to NY to shop for fabric in the Garment District. In 2010 I attended the Expo again, but this time I was determined to have a fighting chance at winning the NY fabric buying trip. Luck was on my side – I was one of two customers to participate in the afternoon fashion show. And I had come prepared – I brought two garments with me so I had two chances to win the trip. Surprise, surprise, with a 67% chance of winning the trip – my name was picked out of the hat and I won!

I asked Peggy if I could join the next December trip as the December 2010 trip was already full.
Can you believe I waited just over a year to go on the NY Fabric buying trip? Although there is a spring option – I prefer fall fabrics of wools, heavy knits, darker colors, etc. Although it was a long time off -believe me I didn’t let Peggy forget that I would be on the December trip in 2011!

The trip begins officially on a Thursday afternoon and wraps up on Friday evening. You would not believe the amount of shopping you can do in just a day and a half! Peggy brought us into places that don’t sell to the public, and specialize in designer lines. As part of the trip we had a once in a life time opportunity to tour the design studio of Nanette Lepore, an American designer who still manufactures the majority of her line within the 5 blocks of the NY Garment District. While the shopping and the tour were awesome, the only thing that could top that was sharing this experience with 40 other sewists. Dinner on Thursday night was a room full of ladies chatting about sewing and sharing experiences. Who knew that a room full of sewing enthusiasts could get so loud! Of course the night ended with a round of show and tell of our best fabric finds from the day. The fun of the companionship was certainly as much fun as the shopping!

Luckily for me, my roommate had been on several of these buying trips. She gave me the inside scoop on the places we would be visiting – where to splurge because you won’t have the opportunity to go back, what types of fabric to expect to find in the different locations, and where to browse. A high number of the ladies are repeat attenders, some have been coming since the first one! It’s easy to see that this trip is a great value for the price and a wonderful experience. For those who have been able to attend the Material Girls’ hosted SR Harris shopping trips – The Peggy Sager NY trip is like that experience on steroids. Unforgettable is the best way to describe it ; )

Pictures include: Peggy and friends shopping in NY, me with two bolts of amazing Helmut Lang wool

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JAY -lee, Jolly, how do you say Jalie?

The first Jalie pattern I made was the woman’s Twist Top, and although I liked the fit of the top I wasn’t a fan of the format of their instructions. Instructions are printed together with all construction pictures grouped together – not integrated into the text – and I won’t mention the small the type face… But in the end, the top was fairly easy to put together, the style is feminine and flattering. I’ve made two so far.

Last month I made the Scarf-Collar Top. I was able to put this top together in a couple of hours – and I quickly had a comfortable, fashionable top to wear to work. Jalie has an interesting method for sewing the scarf onto the neck line so that there are no exposed seams. Jalie hit the mark again – another fashionable, feminine, well fitting, easy top! (P.S. please excuse the wrinkles in my picture – my photo assistant wasn’t doing his job ; ) )

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Posted by Carrie Diamont

Expo Final

Sixty five people came for the Saturday morning Fashion Sewing Club and we added a microphone and more lighting and gave away 6 door prizes!

Another great day-more classes and finishing up purchases. Thanks to Debbie’s husband for all the hauling of stuff from our booth and thanks to Bernina and Hancock for letting us use the table and dress forms.

Club sheets and photos have been posted under “Club Sheets and Garment Photos” above for those of you that didn’t make it. Here are a few more pictures of the fun we had:

Material Girls Booth

Show and Tell-Schoolhouse Tunic

Material Baby

And to tempt you to go look at Club photos…

The vest Kristin copied...

Back view of vest/cape

Expo: Day Two

No Fashion Sewing Club today but plenty of people to talk to. This Expo is very well attended. Treadle got their second batch of fabric in at 4:30 and hungry sewists were hovering around it unable to wait for them to put it on the shelves! We heard that Thursday was the best day of sales, ever, for another vendor.

Peggy Sagers’ customer style show featured two sewing friends determined to win the New York buying trip prize. One of them sewed 23 garments and her friend-11!! Neither of them won the drawing but the winner had made five garments so it seemed a good outcome. And to think that there were only about three garments total last year (but our loyal Material Girl, Carrie Diamont, won so that was OK too.)

There are lots of sewing machines to test drive, unique purses made by tsunami survivors, fabric and notions, patterns and DVD’s to keep us creating for a long time. Many “Material Girls” were taking classes today too. I think our December challenge will be to incorporate something you learned at Expo into a garment.

Hope you can come to Fashion Sewing Club tomorrow at 10:15 in the Longfellow Theatre and make it a day for feeding your passion.

Day One at the Expo

Wow-are we glad we’re here! Fashion Sewing Club had over 70 attendees this morning! Lots of fun-here are a few pictures. What a great location. Easy to get to. I hear it’s a cold walk in from parking but I haven’t been outside yet today. Many people and vendors. Laurel just took the Vintage Details class and loved it.

Many of our regulars are stopping by and saying hi. Sooo fun. Thank you all. Treadle is right next to us with a stream of customers. The facility is very comfortable and pleasant. Low ceilings so it doesn’t feel like we’re in the Excel Energy Center. Thanks for changing locations, Original Sewing and Quilting Expo.

Gotta get back out on the floor. Hope you can come by and take it all in.


Wrap Dress

We’re told this dress looks good on everyone-here’s what Carrie, our California transplant has to say:

I’ve really been trying to hit on the best knit dress pattern for a while- but first I had to find the right knit fabric. I picked up that fun
animal print knit from SR Harris – great body, hand, and stretch. I really took a step out on the print – but figured what the heck-
animal is always in for Fall!

I had two wrap dress patterns to choose from – the easy Vogue 8379, and Debbie gave me the Christine Jonson wrap dress pattern. I did my research on PatternReview.com and it seems that there are several adjustments people have commonly made on the vogue dress – sleeve cap too puffy, skirt too voluminous, and neck facings not staying put were common call outs. By the time I got through the reviews – I’m not sure why this pattern gets such high ratings! The Christine Jonson pattern has very few adjustments noted on PatternReview, one of the most common being the length is very long. I decided to go with the Christine Jonson given the reviews. I also like that it has the knit stretch worksheet to determine the best size – I don’t know why the big 4 don’t mention the need to adjust for stretch on their knit patterns. I did like the collar and cuff styling better from the Vogue pattern – they just seem to have a bit more “style” to them. However, after trying to get a nice point at the end of my collar I realized knit fabric doesn’t really lend itself to these fashionable details ; ) In the end I’m very happy with my dress and will make it again. I do think I must have a bit of a sway back – I seem to have about an extra inch of fabric pooling at the dip at the bottom of my back. My ties are also extremely long – but not much to complain about really.

Here is my picture – now I just need some great accessories to finish it off!