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.
Pattern Surfing
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-
(Here’s the link to go to BMV site-8875 8805)
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:
How Do You Recycle?
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…
Have a great weekend!
January Club Photos Have Been Added
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!
Bits and Pieces
We’ve had three Fashion Sewing Club meetings and just Saturday morning at Treadle to go. It’s been fun to be back in the sewing groove. New faces showed up at Treadle and Claire came back after missing several months. She’s been bitten so hard by the sewing bug that she’s enrolled at MCTC and is taking classes in fashion design. We got to see some of her work in progress. She will be at the Hearts for Fashion style show at the Mall of America on Saturday, February 9th. The event is listed as 10 am-5 pm so stay tuned for further info.
Another face that we’ve missed showed up in these shoes-(fine, her feet were in the shoes, not her face!)
I hadn’t heard of John Fluevog (Fashion Sewing Club can be such an education :). Evidently he designs shoes for the likes of Alice Cooper and Madonna and opened a store in Uptown in November. Might have to make a trip just to see them all!
Pictures are slow in coming from the wedding but here are a few teasers-
We have one more class at Treadle before their new class calendar begins (so you can’t find this on their webpage but it’s still on ours). We call it Build a Basic Wardrobe: Casual Jacket and it will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 16 at 1:30. We define a casual jacket as easy to throw on, a bit more than a sweater or sweatshirt but less than lapels and linings. I’ve “pinned ” several jacket patterns on my “Patterns” board on Pinterest if you’d like to see them. Are you on Pinterest? It can be habit forming but it’s an easy way to keep track of ideas that you see online. Here’s the link to my board-Patterns
Serger Club at Make It Sew is next Thursday( 1/17 at 10:30 and 6:30). We will make pj pants with a wide knit band. This makes it easy to sew them for others when you don’t know where they like to wear their pants. Comfy fit and lots of options. If you need a pants pattern, Kwiksew 3980 also has the pj lace top that we’ll be using for the February Serger Club meeting. These same two garments will be the topic for Eternal Sergery at Treadle Yard Goods on Feb. 12 and March 20.
That’s enough for now. Hope to see you Saturday if you haven’t made it to Club yet. Enjoy your weekend. (Or one of my favorite quotes from the dowager in Downton Abbey, “What’s a week end?”)
Taking Care of Biz-Babies
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.
The Babies Are Here and Club Sheets Too!
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 🙂
October Fashion Sewing Club
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!
September Club Sheets
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!!
Shrug Pattern and More
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 🙂
Material Girl Sewing 