Spring Sewing Retreat!

My annual Spring Sewing Retreat was this past weekend and I think that it was the best one ever! Our projects included making Easter dresses, the ever popular Twirl skirt, a fabric flower, a sewing notions bag (or several!)  and a knit yoga skirt and/or leggings! As always, the menu was decadant and memorable ~ I do not think that I will eat now for at least a week! 

Friday Evening's Dessert

And, the accomodations . . .  pure elegance and homey~comfy! I hold our sewing retreats at the Southern Comfort Retreat House in Mineola, Texas. See how pretty it is!

Here are some photos of just a few of the completed projects:

This is Miss Lily by Samantha Caffe of The Handmade Dress ~ of course it was not handmade! ~ made on the sewing machine! I do not know why her patterns bear that name.  

And below is a little suit made using a pattern by Jackie Clark, the Baby Overalls. Isn't this a classic! And, monogrammed too!

Here is another cutie: this is a pattern by ModKid Designs, Isabel.

Many of the participants made themselves a Notions Bag:

And some people made more than one!

I’ll post more pictures tomorrow of all of our fun as well as a one of my favorite recipes from our retreat hostess!

Back Home Again!

SEWING EXPO Puyallup, WA
Janice manning the booth!

One market and three sewing expos and we are finally back home in Texas! A month is way too long to be gone from home and hubby! It is hard to believe that I left home a month ago today ~ first I flew to Seattle to attend the Northwest Fabric Show as well as THE Sewing and Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, Washington. If you have never been to this show, I think that all sewers should plan to go at least once! It is so awesome! This is one of the biggest sewing shows in our entire country. Its main emphasis is on sewing clothing as opposed to quilting; although there are a fair number of quilting vendors & classes.  I was privileged to be asked to teach again this year. I had two seminars; one on ruffles and the other one on shirring. The classrooms hold one hundred in each and all four of my sessions were full.  People come from all over the Northwest US as well as Canada to attend this venue. Lots of wonderful sewing sisters! It was so much fun ~ And, of course, our booth was super busy! I think that we are going to need more booth space next year and additional help. Janice, from the shop in Texas, joined me in Seattle for this Big show. It was critical to have someone who knew everything about our products other than me. Each year we get busier and busier in Washington.

A little over a week later, we both flew to Atlanta, Georgia for The Original Sewing and Quilt Expo. My dear sweet husband drove our truck - a twelve hour trek - full of goodies from Texas to Atlanta and even picked us up at the airport. Wow, the timing was incredibly perfect. We could not have accidentally "not planned" it any better! He even helped us set up the following day. It was wonderful to have an extra set of arms and legs to make the unloading easier. Then he returned home to rest and go to "work"! He says that my job in physically exhausting and the hours are too long! This was our second year to be in Atlanta, but this year I was contracted to teach two classes each day and do one stage presentation a day. Just like in Washington, we met so many wonderful people. The weather was better than Seattle as we went from snow, sleet and rain to Spring like temperatures! The flowers were blooming everywhere and it was so green. 

       

Savannah's Cane River

On Sunday, after the Atlanta show, Janice and I drove down to Savannah for a couple of days of rest and "playing tourist". Oh, my gosh, it was so beautiful!!! We walked and walked around town enjoying the gardens of flowers, the wonderful architecture, the ships, we did a little shopping and ate very well! We even got to eat at Paul Dean's restaurant! Every bite was incredible. We definitely went off the healthy eating plan that night!

Paula's 3 story restaurant!

Downtown Savanah

Then it was on down to Lakeland, Florida for our final and third show in just three weeks! By now, I had to go find some sandals as none of my shoes were going to work for temperatures in the eighties! Oh, I think that I failed to mention that I broke my baby toe three days before I left for this adventure. I only had one pair of loosely fitting boots that were semi comfortable. Or, should I say, bearable! And, suede boots in Florida would have looked ridiculous! 

Shopping in Savannah!

We have never done this particular show in Florida, so all was new to us. I had the same teaching arrangement, so we were plenty busy. There were naturally a lot more women who were retired that attended this show. They all seemed to be having soooo much fun! I guess not having to work anymore and living "on vacation" all the time will do that to you! Lucky ladies! Of course, not everyone who came to the show were in this group! We met so many wonderful sewing sisters in each city. We all have such a bond. Perhaps we should be called "Sisters of the Cloth"! 

Wow, was that a very full month! Will I do it again? Hmm . . . perhaps with a few adjustments! I really missed my hubby!

I'm here in Seattle!

            

          I made it to Seattle on Friday morning! Everything was shipped out this week to our storage unit in Puyallup. This is where the Sewing and Stitchery Expo is held every year. Just at the base of Mt Rainier! It is always a huge relief when everything is packed and shipped. Of course, this year, we've packed for 2 other shows at the same time. But I don't want to think about that right now!

       After I collected my bags and rental car (which almost did not happen!), I headed to Tacoma ~ see the Tacoma Dome?! I have always wanted to go to the Museum of Glass there, but never had any time, at least when they were open. It was fabulous! And, here is a picture of the famous Bridge of Glass at the Museum of Glass. These are all pieces by Dale Chihuly ~ ah!!! I'd go to any museum to see his work and I've gone to quite a few. Truly an amazing artist! His work is breathtaking.

         So, why did I almost not get my rental car? Because my Driver's license had expired! Can you believe it! I guess that I never did get the reminder letter and these days, hardly anyone ever asks to look at it. Of course, you cannot rent a car without a valid license. Luckily my husband was at home and fortunately I had renewed my license in person the last time. So, I was eligible to renew on line. Yeah! We subsequently emailed the document to the front desk of the car rental company. They accepted that as my renewal and then they finally rented me my little economy car! By then, I felt worn out! So, I headed off to have some fun! You might want to check your license!

           On Saturday I attended the Northwest Fabric & Notions Show in Renton, just outside of Seattle. I saw lots of wonderful new lines from Alexander Henry, Robert Kaufman, Riley Blake & Michael Miller to mention a few. Most of these are not even on their sites ~ they are that new! I did order lots of goodies  and they should start to arrive within 3 to 4 weeks. You would think that after so much sewing getting ready for these three big sewing expos, that I would not feel like looking at more fabric. Wait, what I am saying? I always want to look at fabric, buy it and then play with it! I found some incredible new fashion fabrics too. Stretch denim for jeggings, cotton burnouts, stretch sateen shirtings, silk voile, more european lawn cottons, some fabulous jersey knits and some wonderful rayons! Ah, I can hardly wait to have them in the shop and start designing!

          On Sunday, I treated myself and went to my favorite knitting shop in all of Seattle ~ Weaving Works. I love it. I spent over two hours there and looked at everything! I did come away with three small and easy projects and I even started one that evening. 

           Today was all work though. I have been on my computer nearly the entire day. I only stopped to eat. And, tomorrow I will be going into Puyallup to check on our shipments and drop my class handouts off at Office Depot for printing. I will be going back to the airport in the late afternoon to get my dear friend and helper, Janice. We are going to have so much fun ~ yeah and a lot of work!

  And, here is one last piece of glass that I fell in love with!

If it snows, I'll sew!

       

           Yes, we have snow in the forecast AGAIN! I can't believe that we are actually experiencing a real  "winter" here in Texas. Last week the shop was closed until Saturday due to ice and snow. That's not good for business. But, boy did I get a lot of sewing done! 

                 Everyone at Sew It Up has been working on lots of new kits for Spring. We try to post the new photos on the website every few days.  I'll be leaving in three weeks to go to three different sewing expos, so, naturally we need new goodies. It makes my head spin how much we have going on right now. But, here is one interesting observation. The more I design, the more I sew and the more ideas that come to me. I have a notebook that I carry with me everywhere.  In this notebook, I write down my ideas, sketch up my "visions",  and jot down "to do" lists each day. The only problem is that each item that I cross off this list, I add two more! So, I feel that I'll never get everything done. It's a delicate balance  of knowing when to stop and when you have enough . . . . and knowing when to rest. That last one is the hardest one for me. But, maybe it will snow again tomorrow and I will "rest" in my sewing room!

10 Miles of RUFFLES!

            Ever since my kids left to go back to school and the house was de-decorated, I have been locked up in my sewing room creating! It's getting pretty messy in here, but boy have I been productive. All of us at Sew It Up have been sewing like crazy! Naturally, we are getting a whole bunch of new stuff ready for all of the shows this Spring not to mention the shop. It seems that the more I design, sew and create, the more I want to keep going. I keep thinking that I am almost done for a while and then, pow, more ideas pop into my head - maybe I am afflicted! Perhaps its like an obsessive compulsive thing. Well, even if "I am" or if "it is",  I am having a lot of fun!

The other day I was focusing on making ruffles for a new skirt kits. I had to really psych myself up though because I wanted to hem them all with a rolled hem, BUT I have a new serger that I will have to teach myself to use first. I bought this last Spring, in April. I had trouble with one of my other sergers, so I thought that I could just take this one out of the box and zoom. Ha! I ended up in tears! You do not take a more complicated serger "out of the box" and intuitively know what to do. Sewing may be in my blood, but  . . .  Since then, I have sold my other two sergers so I was forced to learn and use this new one. 

First, I read the book - twice! I got a good night's sleep, woke to a good cup of coffee, dressed (minimally, I was not planning on going anywhere!) and went upstairs to my sewing room. I sat down, opened the book, turned the machine on, and started going through the book page by page making up my own little samples. By lunchtime, I felt like I was ready. I felt pretty good about it. So, I started my fist project. A four tiered ruffled skirt ("Stella" by Lila Tueller) - perfect! I moved on to three more projects - all good. Then, I plunged into making a new Nie Nie skirt by Pink Fig. This is a 6 tiered skirt for little girls and it honestly takes about 10 miles of fabric that you turn into ruffles. I sewed, serged rolled hems, etc. It was fantastic!

BUT, for the next project, my serger started messing up. So, what do you do? You go to the trouble shooting section of your manual and well, nothing fit the description of what my machine was doing ~ or rather failing to do. It did not matter if I wanted to do a flatlock or an overlock stitch, the tension was all off and each time I stopped to look at it, the needle was unthreaded. So, I stopped! I fixed dinner, watched show and then told my husband that I was going to figure this out. Lol - no way. An hour and a half later, no solution! So, what do you do then? Well, my advise to my students is always: stop, go get a good night's sleep. Then, come back and clean and rethread the whole machine -  carefully. Hmm. . . Something was missing . . . 

I talked to several of my sewing friends; no ideas, no answer. So, I called my dealer. Of course, they want me to bring it in to be serviced. Don't they know that will cost me a half of a day! We talked for a little while and suddenly my Bernina "genius" says, "Did you say that you have just made like 10 miles of ruffles?" (I failed to mention all of the other projects that I had completed.) "Yes", I replied. "Have you changed your needle?" she respectfully submitted. BINGO, that was the something missing!

So, I changed the needle and it worked perfectly!!! Such a pity that I am such a dummy and did not think of that! I wasted so much time! I still cannot believe that I did not even think of that. Needles do wear out you know. The tip, but also the eye of the needle loosing its integrity. 

Boy, was that stupid!

Brrr . . . its actually been snowing here in Texas!

The camisole!

        

                    I did get to wear my fabulous new "recycled" frock on Friday night to an awards banquet. Boy did I look good! ~ it was the shoes, of course! As I had mentioned previously, the jacket was just a jacket, so therefore it required something to be worn underneath. I really did not have time to make one "from scratch" and, after all, I did have some some of the silk velvet left over from the jacket. I was lucky enough to have a camisole in my arsenal of undergarments that actually fit. Unfortunately it was the right color, but was silk charmeuse print. This would clash with my skirt. Soooooo . . .  I cut out a piece of velvet from the back of my skirt ~ on the bias. I pinned this onto my ready made cami at t he top edge. Then I cut out a back piece. I could not cut this on the bias as there was not enough fabric. I was worried that this might be a problem and I was right. I went ahead and pinned it to the back top edge of the cami. I basted up the side seam on one side and then sewed it on the machine; I pinked the edges. Yes, this was being sewn right on top of the original fabric. I left it in place as though a lining. Next I had picked in the invisible zipper. Beautiful! I went ahead and hand stitched the top of the cami in place all the way around, BUT I added a little pizzaz! With each stitch I sewn on one tiny seed bead (left over from the beaded jacket). If you look closely at my photo you can see the beads. So, what did I do about the cami being cut on the straight of grain on the back. Well, it was a little tight. I measured to the center back and bravely cut straight up through the velvet to about 4" from the top edge. Then I added a godet from the left over netting from the lining of the beaded jacket. Voila! It looked so cool, fit the mood of the garment and it fit. Can you ask for anything more?! Well, I am going to get to wear my new ensemble again this Friday night for my birthday!

Day Two & Three: "A Date with Killer Shoes"

Wow!

      

        I have been busy sewing and cutting and sewing and beading! I must really have my head examined ~ I could have made something from "scratch" I think in less time. But, it is really all about the "Journey", right?

I have finished the skirt - or so I thought. I tried it on and the length was correct, but the waist was now way too big! I really did not want to rip it out and start over. You know that feeling! So, I had to get creative in "fixing" the problem. I finally decided that I would sew a pretty ribbon on top of the waistband as embellishment. Then I threaded a narrow strip of elastic through the ribbon, but only on the back of the skirt's waistband. Voila, it worked ~ & I even added a little bow!

Now for the top of the outfit, I have two jackets, shown below:

                       The beaded one on the left is a gorgeous color and has incredible beading. The entire jacket is lining in a stretch netting (remember this!) The jacket on the right is a silk velvet which also have a matching tea length a-line skirt. My first daring act was to measure down the back of the jacket to where my waist is, measure up 2" and mark this point in the center back. On the side seams I measured  down from the underarm 3". I drew a curve from one of the side points to the center point and then back to the other side. I ripped out the side seams up to each of the side points. Then on a flat surface, I carefully cut along this curved line and removed this portion of the back of the jacket. From the matching velvet skirt I cut out a flounce ~ near the hemline. The resulting flounce was a little wider than my curved cut off piece and about 8" long.  I sewed a stabilizing row of long stitches along the top of the flounce. I pinned this to the back of the jacket. The sides matched the sides of my jacket. The flounce, being wider, I gently gathered it in the center back for a little extra fluff! The only tricky part was getting the side seams and the flounce to miter into each other without a bump. Ah, it worked!~ just as I had envisioned it.

                     My second daring act was to cut into the beaded jacket. I cut along the straight beaded sections in the center front up about half way up and then started rough cutting around some of the heavier beaded motifs. I pinned this section to the front of my new jacket and sat through several inane police dramas as I hand stitched all of this beading to my jacket. It was very labor intensive and required really good lighting and very sharp embroidery scissors to trim between the motifs  but so worth it. It looks great. 

                   Now for a hem . . .  I was stumped. I did not want a regular hem. It had to be soft and elegant. So, I started cutting long strips from the stretch netting left over from the lining of the beaded jacket. They were about 3-4" wide. I folded them in half lengthwise and finger pressed them. I ran a gathering stitch along each near the cut edges. I ended up with four of them. I gathered them softly and pinned these to the bottom edge of the jacket ~ overlapping the raw edges when I needed to add another strip. Wow, it was looking good. I sewed my ruffle to the jacket, but, of course it still needed something!

I told you that I should have my head examined. Whenever I design for myself it always becomes far more complicated and time consuming than first estimated. This is why I am so conscious of ease of design and simplicity of construction when I choose to design a kit for the store.  Ah, why can I not keep this in mind ALL the time! So . . .  I decided to do some beading all along the hem right above the ruffle.

 So, the jacket is done. The skirt is done. But what am I going to wear underneath the jacket??? Hmmm . . . I have a couple of ideas and this requires a trip to my closet 

 and another adventure in my sewing room!

I have to have this ready to wear in about 6 hours, so I will post tomorrow what the "camisole" will be.