School's out

For this session, at least. Last week was a fun and exhausting week as I gave a week-long personalized sewing class to Karen from London. Yes, London, as in jolly old England. One morning in April I opened my e-mail to her very interesting query.  I had read her very popular blog, Did you make that? a few times, but it took me a minute to put the name with the blog. 


She had booked a one week couture sewing class in San Francisco, bought her air tickets, paid for the hotel and then received notice that the class was cancelled due to unforseen circumstances.  Her plans were to do the class and then rendevouz at the end of the week with her boyfriend to travel around California and beyond.  I know Karen will be doing posts when she returns home so I will not make a long story longer, but due to the magic of the internet she found me and my blog.  After a few e-mails back and forth, I said yes and we started talking about her project, what she wanted to learn and all the logistics.  


Everything worked out fantastically, we even started planning a sewing meetup for one evening that week and I waited to meet her. (Plus cleaned and reorganized my sewing space - what a good motivation.)  And worried a tiny bit about the whole thing.  What if we didn't click? had a personality clash? she didn't like my teaching style? I can laugh now but I did think about those things.  

Beth and Karen

True confession - so did she.  We had a good laugh when we both revealed that we had that little doubt in the back of our minds.  Not to worry - we had SO MUCH FUN!

Photo above, a moment of relaxation in my backyard after lunch.  Karen is smiling but perhaps she is thinking I am a tough taskmaster. I so wanted her to finish her project, and she got through most of as she put it "the difficult bits".

I won't post much on her project (I didn't really take any photos, too busy powering through all the steps) but here is a tiny sneak peek including her beautifully completed bound buttonholes, basted closed after you finish them, so they maintain their shape until the garment is finished.  You know I must have liked her :) since I let her use my lovely vintage Belding Corticelli silk thread in a nicely contrasting orange . . . note to self, I need to haunt yard sales this summer and find more of those spools, a shame it is no longer made.

What did we cover in her week long session?  Here are a few things:

• Pattern fitting, in particular vintage patterns with those crazy darts
• Timesaving methods for pinning and cutting out
• Marking, both carbon tracing and thread tailor's tacks
• Silk organza underlining
• Darts - sewing and pressing
• Fusible interfacing - a lifesaver
• hand stitches - how and where to use
• Bound buttonholes
• Trimming seam allowances
• Collar and Lapels

Oh, yeah, we needed a beer on Friday night when we got through all that and more.

Here is Karen in the home stretch, doing some marking for her bound buttonholes:

On Wednesday of this marathon sewing week we met up with lots of other bay area  sewists at a wine bar in downtown San Francisco.  This image is from Amy's blog, Sew Well. It was great to meet Amy and she said the sweetest things! That is me at the back near the wine bottles, wearing a new Vogue DK pattern, which I will post soon.  Several who attended have posted about the evening, including Shams, Communing with Fabric, who I met last year when we arranged a meetup at the Balenciaga exhibit. (note to Bay area readers - Gaultier exhibit meetup getting organized now)

Karen also wrote a great post about the meetup and her general instruction to all potential visitors to SF (her advice, in all caps - DO IT!)

Christine of What's Up Cupcake also wrote and has some super photos. 

I know I am missing a few links to others who wrote about the evening but the consensus was:  FUN, and when are we doing it again?  

Back to sewing, Thursday and Friday Karen and I really motored through her "difficult bits" and she got a lot accomplished. I can't wait to see her finished outfit and I am so happy that she contacted me to get this whole adventure started.  The weather cooperated here in N. California, the garden was blooming and we could sit outside for our lunch breaks to chat about non-sewing topics.  Did we run out of conversation? Not likely.  She answered all my questions about British phrases that I hear due to my excessive PBS viewing, and shared with me that the movie "Pretty in Pink" made her dream of life as an American teenager.

Karen brought me two adorable gifts, a Queen's Diamond Jubilee Tea towel, hilarious, and this super cute Liberty of London pincushion. See the red pins, those came with Karen when she brought her muslin, and now they are mingled with my white and yellow pins.  So I will think of her sewing away in London when I reach for a red pin. 

One last photo of my new and forever sewing pal Karen, which I took just before she left.  She is holding the first fragrant gardenia of the season and wearing her very sharp Burda blouse.  Now she is off to enjoy some non-sewing vacation fun.  


Happy Travels !

Double the Sewing Fun

I started sewing at age 9 year and was lucky enough to have my Aunt Jo (really my great aunt) help me with my sewing projects. She was the great sewer in the family, she made beautiful clothes for herself and some great dresses for me and my sister. Starting soon after that I would go over to Marta’s house for sewing lessons and that individual attention made all the difference. Now I have the opportunity to pass on my love of sewing so I have a few students this summer for personalized sewing lessons. Some are really serious, some are fearless with the pins and scissors, but so far they have all been a pleasure to work with and have potential to be making their own prom dresses in no time.


Last week I taught an all day sewing lesson with twin 13 year old girls. From shopping for fabric and patterns at 9 am to the final pressing at 4 pm we completed their tops in record time, including a break at lunch for pizza. I was exhausted without sewing a stitch. My mother is a retired elementary school teacher, and every time I teach some sewing to kids I tell her I don’t know how she taught every day, all day, 25 children in the classroom and didn’t collapse on the couch at 3 pm calling for a martini. (for the record after school she did all the usual household stuff, made great dinners and helped us with our homework, no collapsing at all)


They chose Simplicity 3750 and used quilting cotton.

                      

Here they are in their finished tops.

Back view and their Next Top Model pose.

Here are some observations I have made about beginning sewers.


1)   Sewing in a straight line is a learned skill. Experienced sewers know that the machine feeds the fabric and only needs to be guided very lightly to keep a consistent seam allowance. New sewers tend to push and pull the fabric, and their 5/8” seam allowance is a bit wobbly.


2)   Since kids don’t drive - the concept of the foot pedal as a gas pedal that makes the machine go faster or slower is an alien idea. Again, practice on this is everything.
Once a sewer can control the speed of the machine with the foot pedal, everything
becomes much easier, particularly slowing down to create accuracy on curves, with
narrower seams, as well as removing pins before sewing over them.


I try to get my students to look at the fabric in front of the presser foot, about 2 or 3 inches in front of the needle. If you are staring at the needle going up and down then it is unlikely that you are maintaining the fabric at the 5/8” line.

The needle will go up and down whether you look at it or not, and if you keep your eyes on the fabric about 2” in front of the needle, lining up your seam allowance with the 5/8” guide on the sewing machine you will have a consistent straight seam.  If your sewing machine does not have a line along the flat part as mine has, then a post-it note is a good way to create the line. For kids I always put that on the machine, it adds a great visual guideline for fabric placement.  For myself, when sewing seams or topstitching at anything above 3/4” width I always use the post-it trick.


Today’s SunnyGal Garden photo
Jackson and Perkins Floribunda rose: Miss Behavin’