Weather is icky but that hasn’t stopped us before 🙂
Pictures will be posted as soon as possible for those of you that don’t want to brave the roads.
Be safe, everyone!
We will start a bit late to allow for travel time.
Treadle Article in St. Paul Paper
Just in case you haven’t heard about Treadle Yard Goods being for sale, there is a great article in the paper-here’s the link.
And while we’re on the subject-a few questions to think about:
How important is it to you to touch and feel the fabric you consider buying?
How important is the St. Paul address for Treadle-do you walk to the store or drive a distance anyway?
How important is it to you that there is a local store that carries quality garment fabric?
I realize this is nowhere near the importance of a professional sports team but in the world of sewists, not having a great store in a major metropolitan area is a disappointment, to say the least. Let’s all think inside and outside the box and see if there’s a great idea floating around out there that can be a good solution.
No Serger Club Thursday
Thanks to all of you who responded-looks like everybody is busy with holiday preparations so we’ll see you in January!
October and November Club Sheets/Photos
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-



Make It Sew Closes-New Class Location
With the closing of Make It Sew on Saturday (we wish Cathy and all of her wonderful staff the best of luck in future pursuits) we are pleased to move some of our classes to the Chanhassen Vacuum Center. Virginia and Mike have been very accommodating and hope you will have a wonderful experience learning to sew in the classroom they have set up.
The shop is located at 551 W. 78th St., which is halfway between the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre and Country Inn and Suites-the same place as the old Sampler store.
Rick Engel, the technician at Make It Sew, is also fixing machines through the Chan Vacuum Center so you can still bring your machines to him for cleaning and repair. We hope he can keep us supplied with good solid machines for us to use in class and also available for purchase.
For the month of December we are offering our After School Sewing class and any private lessons or group classes you might want to set up. We will have a more complete calendar starting in January.
Thursday Fashion Sewing Club will take place at Hancock/Southtown in the classroom (far back righthand corner of store).
As always, we welcome your feedback as things keep changing 🙂
August and September Club Photos Online and More

We’ve been chomping at the bit trying to get everything caught up after moving to a new (to us) house and a long weekend with the twins!


Show and Tell has been wonderful! We went over 50 people attending Fashion Sewing Club in September and new faces keep coming. There were 23 people at both the Tuesday and Saturday meetings! Make It Sew, look out as we try to increase numbers at the Thursday meeting also. Any ideas are welcome 🙂


These pictures make it look like we all sew children’s garments but the truth is, the children’s garments are much easier to photograph (and the models are much less discriminating:) We will try to do a better job of capturing the fashion garments that everyone is sewing so the inspiration can be shared online.
All three stores, Treadle, Make It Sew and Hancock have new calendars and they’ve been updated (whew) so help yourself around the website and keep that creativity flowing!
June and July Club Photos Are Finally Online
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.






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!
School’s Out, Sewing’s In
Wanted to share some of the fun we’ve been having with summer classes–


Our first summer sewing class for budding sewists was Jr. Project Runway-see end of post for more classes for girls and boys.
Maxi’s, maxi’s…




Summer Sewing for Kids
Beginners-for those new to sewing
Projects will be the same for all sessions of Beginners
Dates, Times, Locations for Beginners
Tuesday-Friday, July 30-August 2, 10:30-12:30
Make It Sew, Chanhassen
Tuesday, August 20 and Wednesday, August 21, 10:30-2:30
Bloomington Hancock Fabrics
Advanced Beginners-for those who have sewn but not worked much with patterns
Projects are different for all classes so students may take 1, 2 or 3 sessions
Dates, Times, Locations for Advanced Beginners
Monday through Thursday, June 24-27, 2:00-4:00 OR
Friday, July 30-August 2, 2:00-4:00
Make It Sew, Chanhassen: call 952-767-0701 to register
Tuesday, August 20 and Wednesday, August 21, 10:30-2:30
Bloomington Hancock Fabrics
Junior Project Runway-for those ready to tackle a project of their own choosing
with guidance from instructors
Dates, Times, Locations for Junior Project Runway
-Thursday, July 18, 1:30-4:30
-Tuesday, August 27, 1:30-4:30
Make It Sew, Chanhassen
For questions or more info:
http://www.materialgirlsewing.com
Call: 952-201-3863
Email: materialgirlsewing@gmail.com
To register for classes:
Make It Sew-952-767-0701
Bloomington Hancock Fabrics: call 952-201-3863
or register online at materialgirlsewing.com
Check out the listings under “Classes” above and come join us!
May Fashion Sewing Club Posted
Club sheets and garment photos have been posted. Thanks to all who attended. Show and Tell was awesome and inspiring. We’ve started having people walk out without paying so if you could make sure you do, that would be appreciated.
Tomorrow (Thursday) is Serger Club at Make It Sew. We have enough people to do both the 10:30 and 6:00 session. You can still sign up by calling the store-952-767-0701. The project is a zippered pouch using flat lock and optional coverstitch.

I’m a big fan of magnet pincushions so I thought the wrist magnet pincushions would be handy. Bottom line is: save your money!
I started with the Dritz version. The velcro rubbed against my skin so I took the velcro off and glued it to the top of my notions box.


Then I tried the slap bracelet version from Nancy’s Notions. The magnet kept sliding to the underside of my wrist so I put a piece of tape on the bracelet. But then I had to remember to take the bracelet off every time I tried on a garment. Many pins fell on the floor before I remembered!

Last but not least was the Gypsy Pin Pal. Sixteen powerful magnets that make it fold up like an accordion and propel any pins across the floor. It also took two hands to hold it open and velcro to my wrist. I haven’t figured out a second use for this one.

I’m going back to my magnet pin dishes next to each machine even tho they seem to be someplace else every time I need one 😛
Spool Racers
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!
Cheri Warmka
Science Specialist
Harriet Bishop Elementary


