Sorry if I made you go from Facebook to website but my small knowledge of etiquette says that Facebook is for short and sweet.

If you didn’t come from Facebook, here are the pictures of the treasures Debbie and I found at Hancock yesterday:

So as we were wandering around the store between classes we saw the flowers on netting-in two colorways. Never seen anything like it before and at Hancock! I love treasure hunting and am usually rewarded at almost all fabric stores-some just have a higher occurrence of treasures and, needless to say, this is not good for my stash reduction program.

Anyway, I moved the fabric fold to check on the price of this unique fabric and it was $39.99 per yard! A rare price tag at Hancock.

And then, we realized that the very fabric used to make the flowers was there too. It’s the last picture. Another customer was in the next aisle while all of this was going on. I had to show her the fabric and explain our glee but I’m not sure she was convinced that I was not a crazy person.

I am the proud owner of this fabric, with the aid of a 40% coupon and am very excited to explore the possibilities of both the flowers on netting and the flat fabric used to make the flowers.

Just one more treasure-we were looking in the linens/seersucker and found a short bolt of something that felt like silk (the plum/wine in the last picture). The label said linen and as linen was 50% off and it was a color of mine, I bought the rest of it. After some online research I think it may be a silk linen, only 42″ wide-the label said 54″-and I got 5 yds. for $5 a yard. It’s in the washing machine as I write and I will still do a burn test just to see if I can firm up the identification (silk should smell like burning hair, linen like burning leaves).

All in all, a happy hunt. Now to make something equally wonderful to wear!

Have you found any treasures lately?

Another month of sewing and learning more about techniques and fit and which patterns work for us, individually, and which ones don’t. It’s always fun to add a new pattern or two to my “Favorite Patterns” box-a pattern I can just whip up now because I’ve made the changes I need to and the pattern fits great. I highly recommend Peggy Sagers’ fit webcasts to help you with the fitting process. Here’s the link if you are having trouble finding them.

At Treadle we saw an American Girl Doll Bed with all the trimmings. This was designed by Linda Swensen from Wilmar, MN.

Here are the garment pictures-anyone want to do some amateur photography?? Hope you enjoy them if you didn’t make it to Club. The Club sheets are on the website under “Club Sheets” in the bar at the top of the site.

Happy Sewing until July-

Debbie’s Garments:

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Laurel’s Garments:

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Kristin’s Garments:

Somebody knew what they were doing when they named the event “Confluence”! So many wonderful fiber arts things to do this weekend (this does not profess to be an exhaustive list-just what I’m aware of and had time to look up-feel free to add more):

First off-If you need an SR Harris fix, some of us are headed up there on Friday-arriving about 9:30 and then we’ll have lunch someplace. Call if you’d like to carpool-952-201-3863.

Katherine Tilton is in town for Confluence-this is from her email, “I’ll be showing my latest work – some great new pieces! – at the Trunk Show this Friday night, 6-10PM. See hotel location info below. There will also be 2 movies, the Vendor Fair and a DIY festival happening at the same time so it should be fun.

I am in charge of the Vendor Fair which is free and open to the public Thursday evening, 6-8PM, Friday, 8:30AM-2PM & 6-10PM (Trunk Show time too!), Saturday, 8:30AM-5PM & Sunday, 8:30AM-1030AM. There are amazingly beautiful textiles from Japan, Mexico, Uzbekistan, Southeast Asia, Kyrgyzstan, India and the US available plus many tools, yarns and accoutrements for textile makers and lovers.

All this is happening at the:
Radisson University Hotel
615 Washington Avenue
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55414
Phone: 612.379.8888

This link has information about getting to the hotel during the construction that’s happening on campus: http://www.surfacedesign.org/subpage/travel-lodging ”

Click here for more Confluence info.

And June Colburn will be having a Trunk Show at Treadle on Friday evening-spaces available. She’s also offering two classes on Saturday at Treadle but only 2-3 spots left. Call Treadle if interested-651-698-9690.

And Fashion Sewing Club is this Thursday at Hancock, Monday at Make It Sew and Tuesday at Treadle!

Hope to see you soon.

Having a great time in the UK. Not much use for sandals or shorts here. The standard uniform for my daughter’s age group is a short dress or shorts/top and black tights and boots and don’t forget a scarf.
My age group? I started looking and saw everything from jeans to dresses and travel clothes.
We’ve seen high fashion in Portobello Road and punk and goth in Camden Market.
The food is wonderful. People have been friendly. Got into London just after a big thunderstorm otherwise drizzly at times and partly cloudy at others.
V&A still on the list of things to do. Haven’t found Liberty of London yet either.
Having a wonderful trip.

Spring is finally here, slowly but surely. It’s fun to sew with brighter colors. For those of you who attended, we hope you were inspired. We discovered how quickly patterns can be removed from the catalogs so if anyone owns either Burda 8222 or Simplicity 2885, please let us know as there are a few who would like to trace them and they’re not readily available. It was a great dress, Laurel!

The Club sheets are found in the top bar of the website.

Happy Sewing!

Thanks for all the input we received-especially from those of you we haven’t yet met. After deliberating and going back and forth with Treadle and dates we’ve decided to try Saturday meetings at Treadle beginning in October. Good weather Saturdays seemed like formidable competition even for those of us who are sewing addicts. Maybe it’s just this year with the late spring. We hope that some of you who haven’t come to Club will find a summer evening to try us out.

So today (Thursday) will be the last May meeting. We’ll be at Hancock/Bernina/Southtown at 10:30 am and 6:30 pm. Remember, the first time is free!

Summer Schedule:

Thursday, June 9, Hancock/Bernina/Southtown, 10:30 and 6:30
Monday, June 13, Make It Sew, Chanhassen, 1:30 and 6:30 pm
Tuesday, June 14, Treadle Yard Goods, St. Paul, 10:30 and 6:30

Here’s a longer explanation of what we’re thinking of changing:
We know the difference in the energy in a room when there are more people. We’d like to see 10 people at each meeting. Our original thought was that a Saturday meeting was needed to accommodate those who couldn’t make it during the day or evening. At the April Saturday meeting we asked the attendees if they could come another time and they all said yes. Since we haven’t stumbled on the magic formula for attracting more new people to Club we thought it might help to shift a few people to other meetings, thereby increasing the average attendance.

In response to today’s email, the suggestion has been made to start a Saturday meeting at Treadle. A Saturday meeting may attract new Treadle customers. It takes away the travel and parking difficulties that some people are concerned about. The Tuesday morning group is happy meeting when it does and doesn’t want to split but the evening attendance is light and some of them may prefer Saturday to attending after a long day of work.

Attendance at Make It Sew is building slowly so a Saturday addition there is not in the works at this time.

What do you think? We’d really like to know because you are the reason we do what we do. Otherwise we’d just fade away in our sewing rooms under a cover of serger dust 🙂

A few options to get you thinking (same as what was on Facebook)

If you attended a Saturday morning Treadle Fashion Sewing Club would you:
a. Be a new attendee because nothing scheduled has worked for you before
b. Come on Saturday instead of Treadle’s Tuesday evening
c. Come on Saturday instead of your usual meeting at Hancock or Make It Sew

Wonderful month of sewing, pretty good weather. It was good to see so many people at the different meetings. That being said, the Saturday morning Club at Hancock is going to be discontinued at least for the summer. It seems that most people that come on Saturday could also come to an evening or morning weekday meeting. Unless we hear from some of you, we’ll try it for summer and reassess for fall.

Here are the garments. You can see the Club sheets if you go to the top of the webpage and click on Club Sheets.

Thanks to all who came to Club. Hopefully sandals will be the logical choice for May Club meetings 🙂

You Pick a Project classes are Monday, Apr. 18, 2-4 pm, at Hancock, Bloomington

and Tuesday, Apr. 19 and 26, 1:30 or 6:30 at Make It Sew, Chanhassen.

You can sign up online for the Hancock class if you click on Classes above. Call Make It Sew-952-767-0701 to register for that class.

At our last “Serging Beyond Four Thread” class there were a fair amount of questions about threads so here is an attempt to answer some questions and give you a (somewhat) permanent reference.

In general, you want to stay away from cheap threads. Look at a single strand of thread and see how much lint is attached. Compare it with regular sewing thread. It will be hairier than regular thread but you want to minimize lint as it clogs up your machine.

The major brands easily available are pictured here.

Maxi-Lock is pictured in the Babylock brochures but we were told not to use it when working at Sew Amazing. I’ve been using it all along and have had no problems. Their variegated thread can give you some fun options if more decorative threads don’t work in your serger.

JoAnn’s stopped carrying Maxi-Lock about a year ago and started carrying Toldi-Lock which is a Gutermann product. At the top of the display is Bulky Nylon-their version of Wooly Nylon. There is a good assortment of colors-they seemed a bit more up to date than the Maxi-Lock available at Hancock.

JoAnn’s also carries a premium serger thread by Gutermann. The color availability is limited-at least at the Yorktown store. I buy this when I have a good coupon.
Remember, you can always use regular sewing machine thread in your left-most needle or your coverstitch needles to get a perfect match for the color of your fabric. Contrasting thread is also an alternative that can look nice on the inside of your garment as overcast edges.
Thread prices range from $2.99 on sale to $7.49 for the premium, but it lasts a long time.