The first day of kids’ camp went quickly. Here are the pillowcases and their proud creators.
And for those of you that may be interested in the serger class on Thursday, July 22 at 2 pm and again at 6:30-here’s the rough draft of the placemat using the flatlock stitch. Email us to sign up or go to the class listing, $15.
Another month has flown by-hope you are enjoying the wonderful spring (for a day or two yet) weather and some fun summer sewing projects.
A big thanks to Kathy and Cheri for filling in for Kristin (China vacation) and filling in gaps for Laurel after her mother passed away. Our condolences to Laurel and her family.
Kathy and Cheri took a cue from our current Club challenge-mini wardrobe building-and showed us how easy it can be to have many outfits with just a few pieces.
Happy Summer Sewing! How about some competition for the Gingher Scissors (prize for the mini wardrobe challenge :))
We managed the subway from our Shanghai hotel to the airport with a little help from a local retired engineering professor. Now we’re in Shijiazhuang where my daughter has been living for almost a year. Quite a change from the wonderful hotels we’ve been in and the cleanliness of Shanghai. I have a new respect for her.
Wireless availability was spotty in our previous destinations. The Shanghai hotel decided to charge for Internet during the Expo.
I bought silk at the factory store in Suzhou, but it’s nothing out of the ordinary-just nice silk. Touched some great wool and cashmere at the custom tailor suit shop in the hotel.
Fashion here is interesting. I can’t say that I’ve been seeing the elite walking the streets of Shanghai. I have seen plenty of big name designer stores along the Bund. Chinese women seem to go for colorful patterns, sheer synthetics and metallic embellishment. Wearing sandals with hose (footies, knee high or rolled) are seen everywhere. And to be fair this is representative of the tourist class, but I guess that would include myself. Chinese women are usually dressed modestly as coverage goes and they don’t seem to perspire!
We spent our free Friday in Shanghai at the Expo from 9 am to 9 pm. Rode the special subway into the park-managed to see 10 country exhibits. It was a drizzly day-the ony one of our trip but only 70 degrees so quite nice. We figured the crowds would be smaller because of the rain but a record attendance of 377,000 was set that day! The scary part ish
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Just had another wonderful breakfast full of new things to try:
Lychee fruit
Hydroentangled eggs (custardy scrambled eggs)
All Kinds of Pickles
Black rice cakes
Yogurt with a straw to drink it
Yellow Knife steamed buns
Sushi
-and that’s only a partial list!
Alive and very well in China. I have eaten eighteen kinds of dumplings in one meal, climbed the Great Wall and seen more umbrellas (parasols, maybe) in the last five days than in my entire life. And the trip isn’t quite half over.
Wonderful people (my fourteen traveling companions are all wonderful) and beautiful placess to see. But enough words-here are some pictures.
For those of us that love to sew AND garden, we’ve been given a bit of a reprieve. This gloomy, cold weather makes it easy to stay inside and get creative. It seems I have lots of ideas and get things done but then when I go to my closet-there’s nothing to wear!
Sewing for Paris gave me great go-to outfits for winter but now with this new season it seems I’m starting from scratch. I sew something and finish it and then question whether the garment fits my lifestyle right now. Let’s not even talk about whether I have the shoes, undergarments, etc! How do people look put together all the time?
To that end, and because I am working on my travel wardrobe for China, we’ll be offering up a challenge for the summer months. Come to Fashion Sewing Club next week and find out the rules and regulations (or you can make up your own rules). And come with suggestions for how you put your sewn garments together so that you have things to wear.
For those of you with iPhones, Sara posted a comment about Pattern Pal. I uploaded (or did I download:) it and have been giving it a try. It costs $3.99 which is a bit on the more expensive side but I compare that with the cost of a pattern and you know where that gets me. The app allows you to take a picture of your pattern and gives you lists of pattern companies, notions, a place to enter yardage, etc. You have to add words (like 18″ zipper, shoulder pads) but then it will appear as an option next time so over time you accumulate a good list of options. The patterns can be sorted by number, company, type and a few others so that’s easy. You still can’t zoom the picture which would be good for seeing the back of the pattern envelope. You can enter two photos so you could also include the fabric you have used. I had a few problems with the app closing as I was entering data which was annoying. Otherwise it seems to be a good option. I think I’d still like it as part of Fabric Stash so it would all be in one place. If you try the app, be sure to go to the site and post your review of it. That way maybe they’ll give us what we want in updates.
We still have room in the Saturday, May 8, Beach Cover Up/Robe Class if you are interested.
That’s all for now, I’ve got to get back up to my machines! Happy Sewing and Happy Mother’s Day if it applies!
Seven Material Girls drove all the way to Chanhassen on March 12 to listen to Christopher Straub, a Shakopee resident, of Project Runway-Season 6 fame. He entertained about 30 of us with an informal question and answer format and had a great drawing for two of his handbag designs. None of the Material Girls won 😦
Christopher is now designing bags of all kinds and will also have a new line of garments to show at MN Fashion Week.
The Sampler will be hosting Valori Wells, a fabric designer for Free Spirit, on May 19th from 5-7 pm. Cost is $30 and they’re promising more great giveaways.
As I was listening to my fellow Material Girls at the March Fashion Sewing Club I wondered if we were becoming fabric snobs. Most of the fabric we purchase is from Treadle Yard Goods-but not everyone shops there or even knows of the store. Christopher Straub of from Project Runway fame hadn’t even heard of it, for goodness’ sake!
Anyway, in defense of our exclusivity, or just plain love of so many Treadle fabrics, it takes time to shop and since we mostly find ourselves at Treadle, that just happens to be where we buy our fabric. When we were teaching classes and holding Club at Hancock we also found fabric there.
However, an email from a frustrated Trench Coat Class student was the final nudge I needed to make a special trip to Hancock Fabrics at Southtown. That and the niggling feeling of fabric snobbery and hearing that the store had undergone some rearranging.
So here are my happy finds for trench coat fabric at Hancock. I’m not including prices because I didn’t write them down or even look in some cases. Most of the fabrics are in the upholstery section but the last picture of the solid color fabric is in amongst the regular fabric and is labeled as jacket or outerwear. The colors-a gold/brown, silver/gray and blue/black are especially distinct and appealing (to my eye, anyway). Let me know if you want more specific directions to the location of it.
There’s still room in the Trench class-see the class listings at the top of the site.
This Thursday, March 25, is our Love Your Serger Class day. The project will be Total Serger Tee Techniques and Tips. A mouthful and two hours full of how to put a tee together with your serger. We’ll bring a pre-cut American Girl Doll size t-shirt for you to work on or you can cut out a tee of your own and bring it to class to sew together. This means an opportunity to use your coverstitch if you’ve never done that before (you know who you are) or if you don’t have coverstitch, we’ll use the rolled hem lettuce edge to finish edges.
The class is held at Associated Sewing in Bloomington, March 25, from 2-4 or 6:30-8:30 and the cost is $15. Click on the class name to register and pay through PayPal or send an email to kristin@materialgirlsewing.com
Here’s a picture from the February class where we made a ruffled pillowcase.
After riding in an airplane and a shuttle van, I was dropped off at an unassuming corner across from the Puyallup (pew wallop) Fairgrounds. As I began a weekend of people watching it seemed that quilters were in the majority and garment sewists the minority at the Sewing and Stitching Expo. To add fuel to the fire I saw a woman wearing a hat which made it look like she had a scissors stuck through her head. But then I kept looking and slowly but surely I started to see people wearing clothes that were handmade. On Saturday I spotted two young designers.
Friday I took a class from Marcy Tilton about Paris influences in her sewing. Some of her slides were from our trip in November. Saturday noon I sat outside eating a crepe filled with Nutella just like in Paris. The cherry trees are blooming.
And then there were the many, many vendors and their displays. So much like what I saw in Paris.
Although no one would call it the Eiffel Tower, the old bridge that we crossed on our trips between the motel and the Expo reminded me of it. The runway shows were full of creativity and ideas and people! There was gorgeous fabric and must-have notions everywhere. I WILL fit into my suitcase and I can’t wait to get home and sew!
The fairgrounds had great food-fresh raspberry scones, BBQ, gyros and crepes. People were wonderful-all manner of sewing sisters, best sewing buddies, mothers and daughters and even the occasional husband/wife team.
I’m thankful for my sewing buddies, especially Cheri, who has been a great driver, Kathy, Sandy and Marcy and Katherine, without whom I probably would never have dreamed of attending the Expo in Puyallup.
It was almost like Paris-OK-there were some similarities.
But Paris didn’t have Mt. Rainier.
Enjoy the pictures.
Material Girl Sewing 