Wouldn’t you know it quit snowing as soon as we decided not to meet in the morning!
Oh, well, we hope the roads are good enough for you to come tonight because we have a bit of spring for you in some of our garments.
See you soon in Chanhassen, we hope!
Old Man Winter is messing with us today! The reports of the roads sound pretty awful-Debbie would have to leave now to get to Chanhassen on time and we don’t expect any of you to spend that much time on the road. So we will be sewing by ourselves this morning instead of meeting at Make It Sew.
We will watch the weather and decide whether or not to meet tonight.
If you don’t see anything here at 2 pm we WILL meet tonight at Make It Sew. I’m keeping my fingers crossed 🙂
We still have Saturday morning at Treadle if that would work for you.
Just in case any of you are planning to be at Linda Lee’s lecture, “Great Style at Any Age”, tonight, we are meeting for dinner at School II Bistro which is just a few doors down from Make It Sew.
I’ll be there at 5 so join us if you can.
Debbie and I were so glad to be back with all of you and your inspirational sewing after our December “vacation”. Click on Club Sheets and Garment Photos above to catch up if you weren’t there. This month we took photos of the garments similar to what you see in Threads and other magazines to make us look in our closets and create an ensemble. Always trying to avoid creating closet orphans!
Check out the Sustainable Fashion exhibit at the Goldstein Museum. Treadle Yard Goods is sponsoring the exhibit that will be featured until May 26. Stay tuned for a group date-just thought we’d go as a group if anyone would like to join us.
We mentioned that Linda Lee of Sewing Workshop will be at Make It Sew for a pants fitting class. Those dates are Friday and Saturday, March 15-16. She also has a lecture Friday evening on latest style trends and using fabric to interpret them. Check out their newsletter for more info.
And here are a few photos-
Have a creative day!
So I miss you all very much. Today would have been Tuesday’s Treadle Club meeting, but as anticipated, I am up to my elbows in babies and wedding preparations. Being the luckiest grandma in the world, I am spending two weeks getting to know the new babies. But I haven’t been cuddling them ALL the time. Here are a few snapshots of what’s been going on. And Debbie misses everyone, too :))
The Dad pants are made out of a Norman Rockwell print I got at Eagle Creek. Mom said she almost cried when she saw them-all prints of dads and kids-so sweet.
Dad would have been modeling his baby-rocking pants but I thought I would be clever and make them low waisted like all the young women like them but that doesn’t work so well for the male version. I’ll be adding fabric to the waist so they don’t become “plumber pants”.
You might ask, “What will the mother of the bride be wearing?” We’d all like to know the answer to that question.
Yup, the fabric. I’ve ordered several dresses just in case my dream doesn’t come true.
Yes, her plate is full-overflowing, some might say. But then you look at two beautiful sleeping babies…
…and you wouldn’t give up a minute of any of it.
(Love that Treadle fabric.)
Just ten days till the wedding so plenty more to do but you probably won’t be hearing from me till after the New Year.
Happy Holidays and may all your dreams come true.
This is the one week birthday of my two new grandsons!!! I was lucky enough to greet them shortly after birth and hold them. The new family is doing great-no c section, no NICU and I just heard that they have both gained weight over the weekend. Benjamin was 6 lb. 10 oz. and Andrew was 4 lb. 8 oz. at birth.
Club sheets have been posted-we had a pretty good turnout considering the Expo was smack dab in the middle of it. We said goodbye to several snowbirds at Club meetings.
Thursday afternoon was our day to peruse the offerings at the Expo. It was OK and we heard from several people who had a great time at classes. A little updating wouldn’t hurt, though. Too bad the organizers don’t look at other offerings (Creative Connection for one) and the internet to see what we’re all up to and then attract vendors to feed our appetites. Maybe they’ll listen to constructive feedback??
We have two classes-Eternal Sergery and Sewing Cute Clothes for Kids, both at Treadle on Tuesday, Nov. 27 and then we will be done for the year. Treadle classes are still scheduled till the end of January and Make It Sew will come out with a new list of classes in December.
We hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas season and we’ll see you in January. Send pictures of what you are sewing and I’ll post them so that we keep in touch.
And I will be enjoying my daughter’s wedding and all that goes with it (and hopefully, the twins for Christmas 🙂
Cooler weather is here-a beautiful fall as I look out at my orange/brown yard thick with wet leaves. And that’s where sewing went-to long sleeves, corduroy, boucle, deep purple, dark blue and a bit of cleaning out the stash. The pictures and Club sheets have been posted for October (click on the bar above). We hope they are useful to you.
Sewing and Quilting Expo is right around the corner. We have decided to have Club meetings as usual. We’ll carpool up to the Expo on Thursday after Club at Make It Sew and be back in time for the 6:30 Club meeting. Let us know if you’d be willing to drive or want a ride. Saturday meeting will be held as usual. The Cute Kids Clothes Trunk Show has been postponed till spring. Tuesday’s Club meeting is unaffected by the Expo so we’ll see some of you there.
Babies, showers, wedding are all coming quickly so the sewing machines aren’t getting much rest. Hope you are inspired by what is going on in your lives.
Happy Sewing!
Photos and Club sheets have been posted under “Garment Photos and Club Sheets” above. It was another great month for show and tell and new people. The change in weather seems to be motivating us to sew.
At the Make It Sew meeting, Julia Olson wore a necklace she’d made and we were so impressed that Julia will be teaching us how to make them following the October meeting. If you would like to come and attend the class, please see the class description under “Classes-Make It Sew”. It isn’t on the Make It Sew website. There is some advance preparation-stringing beads so you can start crocheting in class-so please plan ahead. If you attend more than one Club meeting in a month-you only pay once.
A few cute items that showed up at Club:
Happy Sewing!!
Yesterday at the Treadle Tuesday meeting of Fashion Sewing Club everyone got their money’s worth-well, that is judging by the buzz created by Cathy’s shrug. Evidently some of you have seen it before way back at Stretch and Sew but the popularity demands that we remind you or show you for the first time.
The shrug shown here is in a wispy wool knit from Treadle. Cathy’s bag of goodies, however, showed many other possibilities for the shrug-double faced knits, silks, single knits, the options are endless. Cathy likes to keep at least one of hers wadded up in the car so that she always has something to throw on as needed. Debbie and I were so inspired that we splurged and bought the paisley Liberty of London wool to split down the middle and we’ll each have one.
Directions: Cut a rectangle of fabric 2 yds. by 20″. Fold in half so it measures 1 yd. by 20″. Beginning at folded end, leave a 15″ opening and then stitch together to the end. Hem edges or not as you see fit.
We also saw a great version of Kwiksew 3718. I went looking on the website and this is it-
Not a good picture, in my humble opinion. But this is the version that Barb made-
And Barb’s interpretation in a microfiber corduroy-
Great dress for fall, teaching, shopping, etc. Nice work, Barb.
Su Tucker had her first trunk show run at Make It Sew last week. She had made more great dresses for little girls. The appliqued faces and legs (so cute) that we saw at Treadle last month are available in pattern form now. I can put you in touch with her if you are interested in purchasing them.
You have one more chance to see Su and her trunk show, Saturday, Oct. 13, at 2 pm. Registration required-don’t miss it!
And one last item-if you are tired of seeing teenagers modeling the latest fashions, try these blogs for a refreshing perspective-Advanced Style (Sartorialist for the mature woman), The Women’s Room (“on line community created for 35 plus freethinking, intelligent, stylish women”) and That’s Not My Age.
Tomorrow is Fashion Sewing Club at Make It Sew at 10:30 and 6:30. Basic Sergery at 2. Catch us if you can 🙂
From our California Material Girl, Carrie, after the whirling in her head slowed down 🙂
(To see the first two entries, see The Art of Fitting-Before and The Art of Fitting-In the Thick of It.
So, how does one feel after being enmeshed in fitting muslins for almost 4 days? Tired!
My head feels full of information that I didn’t even have time to get into notes. And I’m excited by all that I learned about how to fit patterns.
I still need to find time to take the adjustments from my muslins and adapt my tissue patterns according to the changes.
I brought 10 muslins with me to the training and all 10 came home fitted to me – first by another student, then reviewed, adjusted, and modified by Peggy.
I’m very happy with what I learned and am also happy to have 10 patterns fitted to me that I can use as a baseline going forward.
The training schedule is 80% hands on fitting. The other 20% is direct explanation and training from Peggy. There is no magic formula for fitting. Each wrinkle is unique to each individual, but Peggy has tried to create a common sense approach that breaks down the most common sources or reasons for wrinkles. I like that Peggy is all about taking a simple approach to fitting – what’s the fastest, easiest way to eliminate the wrinkles? Let’s not create a new arm hole shape that would require a new sleeve. Let’s not make several modifications to one garment – maybe we have the wrong size to start with etc.
After Day Two I think most people in the class felt frustrated with the learning process. Most of what we were doing to fit the muslins was still “wrong.” We were able to identify the wrinkles, but not always what was causing the wrinkle, so therefore, not fixing the wrinkle in the correct way. Day Three Peggy came in with a new class format and, in general, I could tell that by the end of the class we were starting to “get it.” Day Four, the last day, Peggy offered to start early and most people showed up early, already jumping in with a partner before Peggy even arrived. Each fitting was reviewed and corrected as needed by Peggy. She would often ask what the fitter saw before making an adjustment, then review what should be changed and why.
Overall, learning the fundamentals of fitting and the hands on experience is totally worth the cost of the class. Leaving the class with at least 9 fitted muslins- more if you have time to make more – is totally worth the cost of the class. If you want to become a fitting trainer and offer sewing classes – you won’t walk away with a packaged program or curriculum to do that. In my class about half of the ladies were interested in teaching fit classes. Peggy does share experiences and what works or doesn’t work from her personal experience and the experience of previous students.
So, am I a fitting expert now? No, but I have a really good set of tools in my tool box. From what I’ve heard and now experienced, it takes practice, practice, practice and I’m ready to jump in!
Thanks, Carrie. To find out more about Peggy’s class fitting class, click this link.
Material Girl Sewing 