Taking a break from strictly garment sewing, we thought we’d try offering a Bag of the Month class for the new year. Here are the featured bags for January and February. Quick and easy with lots of design possibilities. Blue Take Along Tote Loaded Owl Version February Bag- Red Leather Purse-sonality January fits into February! Stash bags from leftovers
You can make either or both of these bags by signing up for a Serging and Sewing class on the website at either the Chanhassen or Southtown location on the following dates in February. Just let us know you will be making a bag so we can bring appropriate supplies and samples.
Thanks to more really cold weather, we are postponing the classes today at Hancock but will reschedule them for tomorrow.
Serging and Sewing With the Material Girls will be held Tuesday, January 28th from 10-12, 2-4 and 6-8.
We will also have After School Sewing from 4:30-6 on Tuesday.
As always, please sign up on the website, call or email so we know you are coming (otherwise we won’t be there 🙂
Trying to catch up before the new year begins-October and November sheets and pics have been posted. Click on Club Sheets/Garment Photos in bar above and see what you missed (or don’t remember 🙂
A few odds and ends:
October show and tell-
Sewing for the twins- Jackets Four mittens per boy and then some All dressed up and ready to go!
Whew! Apologies for taking sooooo long to get these posted but hopefully they are worth the wait. Without further ado, here are some photos from Show and Tell. Lucia’s Chanel Jacket Beautiful embellishment Marge’s version of Katherine Tilton’s vest Ready for rain-vinylized cotton Marcy Tilton shingle dressMesh tee-great for summer
As always, click on “Garment Photos and Club Sheets above and see what you’ve missed or remember what you forgot!
August photos will be up very soon!
The past few months we’ve been collecting empty thread spools to be used by school kids for spool races. Here is a thank you and an explanation of how they are used. We are done collecting spools for now 🙂
Good Morning,
Thank you for your generous donation of thread spools. Here are a few pictures of some 6th graders with their creations, a close up of a spool racer, and a picture of a race. The blurry spots on the table are the spool racers – ha! This is a great end of the year engineering activity to reinforce the concepts of potential and kinetic energy. The kids were very excited to take their racers home and had plans to continue their explorations. Nice to know they’ll have something other than video games to keep them entertained on that first rainy summer day. Thanks again for your support!
Well, there was no snow on the ground yesterday! That’s quite an accomplishment when April’s Club was cancelled because of a snow storm. We had a great turnout for both am and pm meetings. And Show and Tell was awesome! The evening group had 100% participation. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Cathy and Mary (Make It Sew and Treadle owners) for contributing the door prizes as that’s part of the fun. Speaking of door prizes, last month’s winning appeared this month as a finished tee! That’s a pretty quick turnaround.
Julia brought an American Girl doll dress that was machine embroidered. Several people wanted to know the specific name of the software (it traces the pattern pieces on the fabric while in the hoop). It’s Custom Keepsakes by Kathy Harrison. Julia has two collections-Gals and Dolls and Christening 2. Go to http://www.customkeepsakes.com
Amy, under the tutelage of Annette, made this beautiful First Communion dress for her daughter. Lots of dreams came true when she wore the dress. Amy’s husband said that sewing is the cheapest hobby because it took so long to complete. Who wants to burst that bubble?
And if you are mourning the end of this season’s Project Runway or if you never liked the fashion aspect/snarkiness of the show, check out the Great British Sewing Bee. Real life models, real sewing skills, construction, construction, construction (they even illustrate the process in drawings) and no adverts! You have to watch it on You Tube at this point but it was really easy and entertaining. Thanks for the tip, Cheri.
Debbie and I taught sewing to two groups of girls during their spring breaks these past two weeks. Wonderful girls, budding skills and lots of fun. At one point, Debbie looked over and noticed our personal collections of embroidery flosses that we had brought along for teaching hand sewing. She pointed out how much they reflected our personalities and I laughed till I had tears running down my face. Maybe it was the fact that it was also Debbie’s birthday or the last day of our classes, who knows-but it made us both laugh for a long time. Debbie and I truly enjoy each other’s company and we bring different strengths (and quirks) to the partnership. Is it obvious to you whose floss is whose?
Since we are getting so much rain, maybe it’s a good time to do some sewing before the good weather gets here. We have quite a few classes on the schedule for April. We are also teaching sewing and serger classes at Hancock in Southtown beginning this month. We will offer the classes through First Sewing which is the sewing machine store that took over the Bernina space but you will also be able to sign up on our website (give me a day or two to get the changes made). Since there are two of us to teach and we want to ensure enough students in each class, we are offering two classes in the same time slot. We also want to clarify that Sewing With a Pattern is a guided sewing time open to all levels so if you are an experienced sewist stuck on an certain technique or have never used a pattern, that would be your class to be repeated as often as necessary.
Hope you can join us for Fashion Sewing Club or a class!
April Fashion Sewing Club Dates:
Tuesday, April 9, 10:30 @Treadle Yard Goods
Thursday, April 11, 10:30 or 6:30 @ Make It Sew
Saturday, April 13, 10:30 @ Treadle Yard Goods
April Classes:
Streamlined Blouse, Tuesday, April 9 and 16, 2:00-4:00 @ TYG
Basic Serger, Tuesday, April 9, 6:00-8:00 @ MIS
Knit Skirts, Thursday, April 11, 2:00-4:00 @MIS
Beyond Basic Sergery, Saturday, April 13, 2:00-4:00 @TYG
*New at Hancock, Monday, April 15:
Learn To Sew 10:00-12:00
Basic Serger 10:00-12:00
Beyond Basic Serger, 2-4:30
Sewing With a Pattern 2-4:30
Learn to Sew 6-8
Basic Serger 6-8
Designer Tee, April 16, 10:00-1:00, @ TYG
Serger Club (napkins), Thursday, April 18, 10:30-12:00 and 6:00-8:00 @ MIS
Sew With A Pattern, Thursday, April 18, 2:00-4:30 @ MIS
Beyond Basic Serger, Wednesday, April 24, 10:30-1:00 @TYG
Eternal Sergery, (Knit Skirt) Wednesday, April 24, 2:00-4:30 @ TYG
Crash Course/Learn to Sew, Thursday, April 24, 10:30-1:00 and 6:00-8:30 @ MIS
Advanced Serger, Thursday, April 25, 2:00-4:30 @ MIS
Basic Serger, Saturday, April 27, 10:30-12:30 @ MIS
Project Runway Kids, Saturday, April 27,1:00-4:00, @ MIS
Duct Tape Double, Monday, April 29, 10:00-4:00 @ TYG
Garment photos and Fashion Sewing Club sheets have been posted for both February and March. Both months were much fun and we want to thank all of you that attend. Show and Tell is always inspirational and just in case you need a little something to get you going, here are a few highlights- Marge sports Claire’s original coat design for Hearts for Fashion show Center for Pattern Design Spiral Top
The cutest undies a grandma could make! Pattern by that *darn* cat
And, nope, I’m not making toddler underwear-yet 🙂
I can’t believe it’s only a week and a half until Club again, but I guess that’s what happens when the month only has 28 days (and other calendar events take up the days). So I was websurfing for new patterns and I noticed that Vogue has been featuring pictures of the back of garments that I hadn’t seen before. After some investigating it looks like the newer patterns from BMV (Butterick-Vogue-McCall’s) feature a straight-on photo of the back of the garment. Here are a few that caught my eye- V8805 V8875 V8875
(Here’s the link to go to BMV site-88758805)
See how straight-on the photos are? Older patterns have a back view but the model is usually standing at an angle and you don’t get a true back view.
The colorblock dress photo shows the lower seam a bit stretched out and allows you to see where it cuts the model (of course that may vary with body lengths).
The long green vintage coat (which I love from the front) isn’t too flattering from the back but as you look at the dress, her backside looks much better. Hmmm…we know it’s the same backside so maybe it’s because the skirt of the dress is straighter OR (and I have told myself that this is the correct reason) the coat waist falls too low on the model and makes her look frumpy. Agree?/Disagree? (Can you tell how badly I want this coat to look good on me?)
Simplicity/New Look/Burda only show the line drawings of the back of the garment. Too bad as it is half of the garment.
Maybe the BMV people listened when we all complained about the gymnastic poses of the Vogue winter pattern models and at least gave us one picture of reality. I’m happy they did-whatever the reason. Choosing the pattern is half the battle. Speaking of battles, I better get back to my scissors-
Here’s a little something to brighten the cloudy day:
Since I’m going through my stash so quickly (ha, you really can’t see a difference in my closet) I need to be sure I am getting rid of things in the right places. An added benefit is feeling good (!) about letting go of fabric that I spent hard-earned money on. Here are my benefactors-please share if you know of others:
Bundles of Love-quilters, sewists and knitters make layettes for moms who have very little as they leave the hospital
Knit fabric for gowns/sleepers
Fleece for buntings
Quilt fabric for quilts
Yarn for sweaters/booties
Serger thread
Flannel
sheet fabrics (cotton or cotton/poly blends, at least 45″ wide and 70″ long)
Quilt batting
Bring your donations to Fashion Sewing Club and I will get them to the group or go to website.
Family Resource Center, Minneapolis (Latino Women’s Group)
This is a group of women that meet and learn new skills
Fabric and patterns
Bring donations to Fashion Sewing Club.
Spool Racer Contest, Prior Lake Schools
Students build racers from thread spools for a science project.
Any straight thread spools (not serger cones)
Bring to Club or drop at Treadle or Make It Sew and ask them to save for us.
And then just plain recycling-
Fabric remnants and clippings (all leftovers from cutting out, too small to keep) USAgain, for profit group-green drop boxes found in parking lots-website has locations
Someone mentioned a place that accepts scraps for dog beds-anybody have a contact?
I keep a basket next to my wastebasket and then bag it up when full.
Paper from pattern cutting, out of style patterns
I keep a bag hanging on a lamp close to cutting table and empty into paper recycling.
And then if you’ve read this far, you deserve a reward-
the grandbabies in their fire engine pants. I’d like to say they are from scrap fabric but I bought the fabric just for them. But I had a friend once who ripped all her remnants into strips and sewed them into log cabin squares as she went. I think I might start sewing my remnants into clothes for the boys as I go-the machines will have the right color thread and can just have a few quick patterns like pants and tops. We’ll see…
Material Girl Sewing 