Old Man Winter is messing with us today! The reports of the roads sound pretty awful-Debbie would have to leave now to get to Chanhassen on time and we don’t expect any of you to spend that much time on the road. So we will be sewing by ourselves this morning instead of meeting at Make It Sew.
We will watch the weather and decide whether or not to meet tonight.
If you don’t see anything here at 2 pm we WILL meet tonight at Make It Sew. I’m keeping my fingers crossed 🙂
We still have Saturday morning at Treadle if that would work for you.
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 🙂
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 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…
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-
Talk about using every last scrap-American Girl doll got a purse too! Dress from Fashion In Harmony-can you see the bias lines? Christmas dresses for the grand-girls Life Without Music Would B Flat
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- The Shoes The Jewels The Dress (and the groom many years ago…)
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?”)
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 :))
First I made baby-rocking pants for both Mom and Dad.
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. Then I made gowns for the boys-for quick and easy diaper changes.
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”. Corsages for the important people at the wedding Wristlet flowers for the bridesmaids (only seven :))
You might ask, “What will the mother of the bride be wearing?” We’d all like to know the answer to that question. She has rockin’ awesome shoes. And the fabric for the dress.
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.
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 🙂
Material Girl Sewing 