Catching up on the past week
It’s been such a busy week, that I haven’t been able to post. Sorry. I just thought I’d do a quick second post today, to bring you up to date on what else we did in the studio this week. One student is making her first sewing project – a pair of pajamas. If you follow this blog, you know that oftentimes that is the first project. Another first-timer is making a skirt for her daughter. It’s nearly finished as it only needs to be hemmed. Great job ladies! Then, I had a private student come in this week, for her second lesson. We had made a zippered pillow for her first lesson. She had done two more at home alone. Any time you can do homework of repeating at home, what we have done in class, you will re-inforce the lesson, and be doing yourself a big favor. Even though she had done a near perfect job, she wanted to repeat the lesson, including the method used to do the cutting out. We completed that lesson in record time, with beautiful results, and moved right into a new lesson on making place mats. She had brought quite a few fabrics for making 2 sided bound placemats ,and two-sided placemats with a decorative trim approx 1/4″ from the edge. Both turned out well. Pictures are below:
Another student is working out of the book on packs and pillows and other practical projects. This week’s lesson for her was a firewood carrier. I generally make a mock-up of student’s projects before presenting them in class, so here is the one I did. I also did a few coffee cozies that will fit those take-out coffee cups.
Then, last and definitely not least, I got some new and very quiet companions for the sewing playroom. 10 new fish. They are doing well, and help maintain a calm and yet energetic ambiance to the workspace. 
Completion of the Thursday night intermediate class
Last night was the completion of this wonderful class. In the class the students developed their own patterns for bicycle related items. One produced a prototype for a racktop bag, another for a handlebar bag. Other students made stuff sacks, box cushion pillows, and boxer shorts! What a wonderful group of students. Lessons included, developing patterns, creating 3-dimensional objects from fabric, installing zippers, trimming edges with bias tape and more, that has escaped me. Because each student was self-guided with regards to the direction of their project, it kept me on my toes, moving rapidly from student to student;project to project. It was challenging to flow with the arising needs, rather than controlling the flow of the class with a more planned approach.
Here are some of the projects completed last evening: The boxers, before,during and after:
Then, Dale finished his handlebar bag: 
As you can see, he completed it and tried it on the bike, then decided to add a “hinge” which covered the gap created by using a separating zipper. He also decided to add a skeletal structure to the lid, as he had done for the bag, and created a panel to support it. Then, he began experimenting with the grommet tool to work on rivets. He did a nice job, and now has that skill in his skillset for later use.
Joe finished class with a lot of set of skills that will allow him to take his prototype racktop back to completion when his fabric arrives. There was some difficulty in finding heavy canvas in the color that he wanted locally, so patient guy that he is, he doggedly pursued the information on where to get it and the appropriate metal closures and is awaiting their arrival. Thank you to Joe, for providing me with the contact information for these items and information on getting the hardware to continue to develop our work tables, which are a constantly evolving project. How the evening escaped without me shooting a single shot of Joe’s progress, I don’t know. But he worked on installing zippers and creating boxed corners. The darn boxed corners, though easy to create when planning them for a simple grocery bag, eluded us repeatedly as we tried to put them in the corner of a pannier lid. Funny how something can seem so vastly different when approached from a new direction.
Lynn did her zippers for the box pillows and completed one side of one pillow on the serger. The cushions are looking great and I hope to get pictures of the completed project. Perhaps Lynn will even come over and continue to use the serger to complete it. Here she is framed by one of her zippered panels for the box pillow: 
The gripping question now, is “what to do with Thursday evenings”. If I can put something together quickly, perhaps I can get another class in before leaving on my next “big adventure” on March 6th. Classes will continue throughout February, as will private lessons. My January and February students are going to put their talents to use for a month, so that when I return in April, we can pick up with an intermediate class. New students wishing to get instruction in the studio should e-mail me at teachu2sew@earthlink.net or call me at 804.556.9875. There are many openings for private instruction in February and several openings for morning and evening beginners classes on Monday and Tuesday evenings in February.
Sew Joyfully!
Register now for February classes
There are still openings for the Class beginning January 30. It’s late for registrations through the USPS, but you can still register via Paypal. This is a beginners class in learning to sew using the a sewing machine. No experience is necessary. This is the perfect class for someone with no sewing experience.
Openings are still available in the Tues, beginners class. It begins the first Tues in February. So it meets on 2/7,14,21 and 28.
All morning classes for February have openings available. In addition, there is time available for private lessons on your sewing machine, or your serger. Hope to see you in the studio!
C.
Thursday evening sewing class progress
One of my private students shared some information with me on a book about making pouches and pillows and such. When she shared this information was very appropriate as I was just beginning a class with some cyclists. The guys were interested in making a variety of pouch/ pack type projects. In the attached photos, you’ll see Lynn’s correctly installed zipper, Dale’s Drab green handlebar bag, Joe’s trunk bag and Chip’s stuff sack. We had a very good time and I’m sad to say that this coming Thursday is our final scheduled class.
Serger instruction
Don’t Craigslist that serger just because you forgot how to use it! Get a refresher lesson. I offer lessons on using your serger. The difficulty for most people is threading it and I can help you with that. We’ll also shoot pictures to help you remember how to thread it. Here are some pictures from a recent serger lesson:
Belated book review – and “in the studio”
Sorry for the delay. We just got the kids out of the house and back to their colleges.
The book I’m reviewing today is “How to use, Adapt, and Design Sewing Patterns”, by Lee Hollahan. No one wants to read an entire book review and then find out that the reviewer isn’t recommending the book. It’s a waste of time. So let me say, up front, that the book is worthy of the shelf space it will take up.
As many good sewing books do, this book begins by identifying and defining what tools a sewist will need in the sewing studio. I will say that in my 40 years of sewing, I’ve never had nor needed a pair of serrated scissors. Perhaps once I’ve used a pair, I’ll feel that I simply can’t live without them, but at this point, that’s not the case and I do sew lightweight silks and fine knits. As a home sewist, you will need to make that decision for yourself. The french curves are essential. Even our local sewing/fabric shops don’t sell them, though. G-Street fabrics may have them, as will you local university, if they have a fashion/design dept. This author refers to toiles throughout the book. Many of us call them muslins. What she is referring to, is a preliminary “copy” of a garment that you sew from muslin, or other inexpensive, lightweight fabric, to determine what alterations you will need to make in the garment. If you are designing your own patterns, you will probably have a sloper and it will prevent you from needing to make the fitting alterations necessary with commercial patterns.
In addition, the book covers what styles are good on what body types/shapes and illustrates some fundamental sewing lessons that sewists who haven’t had one-on-one training will find very helpful.
The book has clear illustrations, blocks for designing your own patterns, clear instructions on how to use the blocks and how to alleviate fit problems. The book is very helpful, easy to understand, has good photos to demonstrate the concepts being taught. The book gets 4 of five stars from me. A fifth star would have been for a spiral binding, which is always helpful for an instructional book for hands-on work, allowing it to lay flat, while you progress step-by-step through a tutorial. This is a great addition to my library.
Another student recommended a book on making pouches, and packs and sacks. I’ll be reviewing that book next. The title is, “Sewing Packs, Pouches, Seats & Sacks”.
This week, I’ve been making more insulated curtains and window dressings
in an effort to make our house more energy efficient. Each curtain is lined with 100% blackout lining. I’ve also been making custom dust covers for my sewing machine and serger that I, personally, use, because they tend to stay out on the sewing tables where the dust is most likely to accumulate. 
Sew Joyfully.
Window Dressing, blackout lining and heat insulation
Well, I’ve been working on making window dressings for the house in an effort to reduce the power bill. All the curtains are lined with partial blackout lining. Tonight, we put up the first pair with total blackout lining. The lining is vinyl on it’s wrong side and woven on the side that is visible once the curtains or drapes are completely made. We put the curtain up over the bed in the master bedroom, where we have had a terrible experience with drafts, or apparent drafts from the cold penetrating the double-hung windows. It’s not flowing through as wind, but rather the coldness of the window is cooling the heat we produce with the heat-pump.
Within 15 minutes of putting the fully insulated window dressing up, we noticed a big difference in the temperature of the room. I’m frugal, and we don’t open the curtains often, needing to keep the house cool in summer and warm in winter. As a result, I only make one panel for each window. This gives a solid barrier from the heat or cold, and we simply pull the curtain to one-side during the brief evenings or mornings that we want fresh air to circulate through the house in spring and fall. In the more public areas of the house, we have double panel drapery, or roman shades.
It’s been a blast making the curtains, and I’m hoping to offer a couple workshops on window dressings this spring. Though we are past the final registration date, I have openings in the Tues. night, beginner sewing class. It starts this Tues and we meet from 6:30 – 9:00 pm. We will be focusing on the basics of sewing machine use and pattern use for construction of projects. If you are interested in that class, just e-mail me and let me know you will be coming and Paypal the fee to me at: maidensweaver@earthlink.net . I’m a professional weaver and spinner also, which is the reason for that e-mail address.
In addition to the current, January classes, you will also be able to book lessons for February as a beginner, but if you want to take the intermediate class this spring, you need to pick-up the February beginners class, as I will be teaching all the classes in March, and then won’t have classes available again until May 1. Once you take the beginners class, most folks want to go on, to the intermediate, so plan ahead. It’s just so much fun!
I finished the leggings and some alterations my daughter wanted in the clothes I made for her just as she was leaving to go back to school. She had mentioned that she wanted some cute boot liners also, and so we zipped up a pair of those, also. It was great to have my kids home for the holidays. This one, in particular, will let me sew for her, and she likes to get a specific pattern, and then the two of us talk about what’s good about it, and what she would like changed about it, and we try to create some unique items for her.
Personally, I’ll be working on window treatments for a few more weeks, so to keep you interested, I’ve decided to do a few book reviews. Tomorrow, I’ll be reviewing a book on using, adapting and drafting patterns for sewing.
Sew Joyfully!
Oodles of fun
What a great week in the studio. One student is coming every other day for private lessons that were a gift for Christmas. We are working on a dress for her. The dress is designed to be done in a lightweight fabric, but she planned this before she took sewing, and had a lovely wide wale corduroy cut out. Oddly, when we held the fabric firmly to rip a seam, the corduroy just came apart in our hands. We ran into some issues of not being able to match up specific pieces properly, so we looked again at the pattern and realized that I had used the wrong cutting lines when i cut our some pieces to replace the one I tore. Sometimes, it’s very hard to determine which line to cut alone, and the day I was doing that, I had a migrain, compounding the difficulty a little bit. Oh well. We all have a difficult day every now and again. I comped her a day of lessons, and we picked up again the next day. I was armed with 5 yards of muslin, and we cut out and sewed the entire shell of the dress (no lining) in 2 hours. Tomorrow, she comes in for her last lesson, before returning to school. I’m anxious to see what she’s accomplished!
Then tonight was the first night of the new Thurs night class. It was a BYO (build your own) class. We are working on a variety of pouches, bags and other 3-dimensional shapes. One of my private students just told me about a book on making such things, so I ordered that, and we may be using some ideas from there, but tonight, they worked on just making a open-topped “box”. Here are some of the results:
I also have been working on some clothes for one of my daughters. Today, I finished the cutest dress. It’s very drapey and soft. My daughter wanted a rayon/spandex blend and it was very lightweight. Using a combination of the serger and the sewing machine, it went together fairly easily, except the gathered inserts that give it such a romantic look. At the last minute, I realized I had some beautiful Chanel silk that would look great on it, and you can see that we used it for the yoke. She loves the dress, as do I. Those darn inserts were a bit difficult from such insubstantial fabric. Though the instructions were fairly clear, it was a little difficult to figure out how to do the inserts. Sometimes, it’s best to buy your pattern, read the directions, lay out the fabric and re-read the directions, take a break for a day and re-read the directions, then perhaps begin the project by cutting things out, and contemplating how each piece will fit with the rest, based on the instructions. I like to take several days to work on projects that have a concept that I haven’t produced before. This particular gathered insert was a new concept to me, so I had to work through it, over the course of a week. Finally, the dress is done and we do love the result. Please know that I would have loved to hem it, but my daughter and many others love these dresses left with raw edges. The 10-way dress I did last week was designed to be left unhemmed. Here are the pictures of the dress with the inserts and the Chanel yoke: 
Sewing after school class change recommended
There has been a suggestion that I change the after-school class to Friday afternoon. This would decrease/eliminate the stress associated with homework and other after-school activities. Additionally, I would like to open it up as a parent/child. So whether your child is the only one interested in the class, or if you want to take the class with your child, this is now available for both options. Class size is 4 students, so either way, the class is very manageable.
Children must be at least 8 years old for the class. Class begins 1/13/2012. Each session is 4 weeks long. Classes cancelled due to inclement weather will be made up on the Friday following the scheduled last day of class. Please be sure to read the Policy page.
Last day to Register for all January adult classes is 1/3/2012!
There are still openings in most classes. If you want to register, please know that I don’t have a “payment” button on the website.
You simply go to Paypal and login. Then you click on “send money” and send the amount required for the class. In the “notes” or “message” section of the form, make a notation whether the payment is for a beginner or intermediate class, and the day and time of the class. It’s a good idea to include your phone #, in case we have a snow storm and I need to contact the students about re-scheduling a class.
Happy New Year! Hope to see you in the studio.
Sew Joyfully
