All of this led to a phone call I received this morning so I thought I’d put in a plug for a duct tape dress form-wrapped by yours truly, of course. Just kidding, I am linking our instructions so you can do it yourself. Either way-purchased dress form or duct tape, some work has to be done to get the form to look like your body so you can use it to fit garments. This was the reason we started doing the duct tape dress form to begin with. No matter what price I pay for a dress form, I have to do some shape shifting to be accurate and that takes time and probably another pair of eyes.

So here’s the deal, for $125 you come to class (or we can come to you and 3 of your friends in your home), we have the supplies and you bring a tight fitting garment that covers the part of your body that will be wrapped (neck to thighs). We wrap you in three layers of tape, cut it up the back to get you out and after lunch we will tape it back up and stuff it. You will go home with a body double that will hang in your closet or sit on the floor or a table. We take measurements as we go to keep things accurate and draw helpful points on your double to aid in fitting.

We don’t guarantee that it will be exact but you would be surprised at how the duct tape captures posture, etc. If you put close fitting garments on the dress form you will be able to see how tight or loosely you will fit garments as you make them.

It isn’t my intent to suggest that you shouldn’t buy a dress form from Silhouette Patterns, merely that there are other options. The next Duct Tape Dress Form class at Treadle is Aug. 1 or you can email Material Girls and set up a taping party at your convenience.

Joann Fabrics in Shakopee is open!!

Those of us that live on the southwest side of the Cities have been watching and waiting for the opening of the brand new store. I had to go today-the first day they opened-just to check it out. I was very happy to see a well-lit, visible classroom right inside the front door. There’s a Viking/Husqvarna dealership in back and the whole store is basically divided in half by a center aisle with fabric on the right half and sewing machines, patterns, notions and crafts on the left. Yes, about 3/4ths of the store is dedicated to sewing!

I talked to the manager and she is excited about offering classes-the old store had no visible classroom-neither does the store in Yorktown and the buzz among customers was one of excitement at the opening of a new place for sewists to shop. Everything was neat and tidy, the displays more at eye level-not much bending over to see things. The handicapped parking spaces are right outside the door so you don’t even have to cross traffic to get in the store-how thoughtful.

As I drove home I thought of one thing the classroom needed-a changing corner for trying on garments as you sew

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and then there were shoes

and if one pair isn’t enough, here’s an article featuring the ten best low heels you need to own.
and wonderful garments (and not all at Treadle either but I didn’t do a very good job of capturing them on camera…

We promoted Bundles of Love and would like to pass on a quote from Opie, who never quite seems to make it to Club but is a faithful online follower (the May Club Sheets and Garment Photos have been added to the website.)

“Re “Bundles of Love” – as a nurse in one of the intensive care nurseries at Children’s Hosp of Minneapolis, I can attest to the wonderful benefit of these contributions – the mothers are truly touched – for many babies, these will be the only new – and certainly the only handmade – items they will ever receive! On behalf of the other nurses, I want to say Thank You to the women (and men?) who make this possible! Opie”

Thanks to all who attended Club and happy sewing!!

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Treadle attendance on Tuesday morning hit a high of 28 and the Saturday morning meeting has caught on with 14 attending.

Here are a few highlights from Show and Tell. We also saw beautiful garments but they’re not as easy to catch on camera. I’ll try to get better at that.

Wool Coat Class Participant

What to do with husband's old football jersey-a bag!

Amy Butler Barcelona Skirt made 3 times!

Many of you are sewing for babies

Happy Sewing!

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Dear Sewists,

Here are a few examples of how I use Pattern Review (patternreview.com).

I’m having a great time experimenting with making knit tee’s in a non-bias fashion using the bias Burda pattern 7509. I wondered if there’s a simple men’s tee pattern…not that I want to switch gears to make something for my husband at this time. So, I looked at Pattern Review during my coffee break from sewing.

I found this posting that has directions on how to make a design on freezer paper, iron it to the shirt, and spray paint. Now, how cool is that!

I noticed that this sewer has 85 reviews, so I took a look to see what other creative things she has:

Then, THIS Amy Butler bag took my eye because MOST Amy Butler bags are made with colorful quilting material. This had wording and looked different! Turns out, it’s made with rice bags, plus there’s an inside insulated pocket for refrigerated items when using for market purchases. (This is a very creative sewer!!)

Weeks ago, killing time looking at Accessories on Pattern Review, I came across this Obi Bag from Sewing Workshop. Turns out the pattern is OOP, but by reading the reviews, I think I can duplicate it. I found material and it’s in the hopper, waiting to be made.

This sewer has 60 reviews and here’s more inspiration to tack onto my “to do” sewing list:


As I’ve mentioned before, daily (usually!), I scan the Review Gallery (under Sewing Reviews on the home page, 1/2 way down the left side) for inspiration. Pattern Review has a variety of garments and you never know what will be posted.

I look at other websites/facebook, too, such as Tilton and Sagers, which are wonderful for ideas especially on different looks for one pattern; how to change things up to get the most out of one pattern. To me, this is extremely important because the pattern work of fitting is the most time consuming. Once something fits (darts in right place, shorten/lengthen lines adjusted, etc), then the fun can begin!

Coffee break done – back to sewing!

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Good Morning, Ladies!

Thank you for the announcement of the Textile Center Garage Sale! Otherwise, I would not have known anything about it!

Yes, I did go and spend the whole day there, subsisting on the mere rations I brought along (2 granola bars and a water bottle…who knew that the years of scouting, alongside my son, were the training grounds for the Garage Sale?!). I thought enough ahead to bring ex-large and ex-small reusable shopping bags…and a strategized list of items to focus on – no willy nilly purchases today!! This would be a good place to look for those OOP (out-of-print) patterns as seen on my late night browsing on Pattern Review, fabric for those upcoming designs, notions of needed things, and reference materials.

I arrived around 8:00ish, paid a buck for parking and received a $2-off coupon for the Garage Sale and $3-off for the Reuse It Center. Stuffed those in my wallet and forgot about them…onto the Sale!

There were tons of things everywhere-in boxes on tables, under tables. I rummaged through tables (and under) of patterns dated from today back to the 50′s. 10 patterns for a buck! Likewise for books and magazines in display and price. Unbelievable heaps of fabric in every type of fiber content possible…expensive silks, wools, to scraps of leftover craft projects. Honestly, it got easier to look through the material after folks picked the top layer off. Some fabric came from a loving home as it was carefully wrapped in ribbon or string to endure the strains of the Garage Sale. (I had notes attached saying the fabric was machine washed and dried before storage!) Other fabric seemed to be happily rid of the previous life of some gone-wrong project as it was only circumferenced in masking tape and nearly falling apart. The notions were an extravagance of a multitude of junk drawers with everything possible co-mingling in boxes, on tables and underneath.

I slowly went through patterns, books, notions, fabric-once. Then, after a granola bar/water break, dove in for a second time!

At 2pm, I made it through checkouts and s-l-o-w-l-y hauled my overheaped, over weighted bags to my car. Since it was so close to the 3pm $1-bag sale, I was off to join that line. I overheard the party of 3 ahead of me (looked like an older-than-me couple with their college-aged daughter). The mom instructed strategy assignments to the other 2 on the impending break-loose bag sale and distributed HER OWN brown paper grocery-sized bags (no need to waste time stopping for bags!). “Okay, stay away from UFO’s, unless they contain LARGE balls of yarn!” Wow, what a good tip!! I had passed by the UFO’s (unfinished projects) because why would I want someone else’s bad karma projects?? Who thought to look through them for goodies??

Standing there for almost an hour, I realized there was a $2-off coupon in my wallet that I’d forgotten about! In the spirit of strategizing as did the threesome ahead, I decided to limit my fabric intake to the two bags covered by the $2-off coupon. I didn’t need to become a hoarder. I didn’t need to take ANYTHING that fit into my bag just because it was a buck. What I really wanted was 4 yards of Treadle silk fabric, originally priced $120 for $40, that everybody walked passed, unnoticed. I couldn’t decide if the mustard plaid gorgeous fabric would be the right color for a coat. Since I couldn’t decide when the fabric was close at hand, I thought to wait until the bag sale to see if fate was on my side.

Fate was not on my side. I’m still mourning the loss, but still can’t decide if the color was right. (Sounds like a bad teenage relationship….)

But, I did find some wonderful fabrics!! Since I didn’t really know what to take, I started going for the large yardages thinking, if nothing else, they would make good muslins. After going through the frenzy of gathering, I carefully packed my limited 2 bags and presented the $2-off coupon to the cashier. Yes, he accepted the coupon and the bags were FREE!!

Some of the things I ended up with, costing $25:
- 13 patterns, including a Marcy Tilton and a Silhouette;
- 17 books and Threads Magazines;
- 25 pieces of fabric yardage, including the free $1-bags;
- 4 packages of sewing machine needles, including twin and spring;
- 1 spool of ribbon;
- several sewing machine presser feet (some fit my machine, some didn’t)

I spent the evening pouring over the Threads Magazines, ripping out “valued” articles at a coffee shop in St. Paul until 9pm, then in my car until 11:30pm. Who knew that I was the ride for my son and his friend to a metal concert, to enjoy 3 bands I never heard of…. Yes, it took that long to go through the stack of Threads!

Sunday, everything got laundered, ready for sewing. When I pre-wash, fabrics go through a machine wash (regular cycle with soap) and machine dry. After the garment is made, they never see the dryer again as does the RTW in the house (except jeans). Each fabric is cataloged on a 3×5 card, including measurements pre- and post-washing, and post-drying. It’s a good indicator for fabric content. (Oh, I also toss a dye-catching sheet in the wash to give some sort of indication on the amount of dye lost in the wash.) The dry-clean-only got the washer treatment, too, because I don’t want to dry clean. The fabric is folded (and some cases, ironed) after the dryer. Surprisingly, it took all Sunday to do just this! (Thank goodness, I stopped at TWO $1-bags!)

Today, I’ll pick up my pin-head-sized sewing studio (nobody has a “sewing room” anymore….) of past project fabric laying around and incorporate the newbies into storage. The stack of my current project focus (t-shirts, blouses) grew immensely. I can hear the call to create!

Again, thanks for sharing info on the Garage Sale!

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Or maybe you want to send me a picture, Margo, and I can put it in the blog

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This idea started after I went through my fabric stash and started categorizing by color. I found a nice gray knit and another knit that was gray with purple stripes (Debbie had given it to me-some of her scraps). The two fabrics just looked great together but both were only about 1/2 a yard or so. I’m not very creative when it comes to color blocking so I wanted to find a pattern that basically offered me the creativity I wanted with out having to think about how to do it myself.

I found Kwik Sew 3842 awhile ago and loved the lines in this pattern -I think this pattern can be used for a great slimming affect. I decided my two gray knits would be a great muslin opportunity to try out this pattern. I admit I have a phobia of wearing anything with horizontal stripes – even very thin stripes! So to counteract any girth that could be added by the horizontal stripes, I kept the solid gray on the outside to create a column effect. The pattern went together quickly-very simple- the triangles were not difficult to sew on my serger at all. I made no adjustments to the pattern. I’m very pleased with the result and I hope to play around with some other color block combinations in the future. The pattern also comes with an attractive v-neck, long sleeve option.

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I got through the stitching and made friends with my 1/4″ foot which had the added advantage of being a straight stitch foot. That meant that when I did my few back stitches at the end, the fabric didn’t jam down in to the feed dogs. Previously, I thought I just had to live with that irritation. (I just have to remember not to try zigzagging with that foot.)

One other new technique I tried was using the knee lifter that came with my machine. (Is that what going on vacation does to you-make you want to try new things-disturb your status quo?) You will only understand the humor here if you know that I have an old Singer with a knee lever that pushes against the foot feet clamped inside the machine cabinet. This means that on the Singer, when I press my leg against the lever, the machine stitches, but when I do the same motion on my Babylock, the presser foot raises. Needless to say, late into the night as I stitched my 56 pleat seams there were times when my machine was so confused-oh, that’s right, only a person can be confused-the machine was just doing as it was told. Many times I waited for the feed dogs to move fabric but the only thing that happened was that the presser foot lifted. I tried different techniques-deliberately taking my foot off the presser foot, actually trying to think while I sewed (what a concept), but ultimately I ended up using my left foot to make the machine go and my right leg to lift the presser foot. I’m confused, my legs are confused but I feel like I’ve learned a lot AND I love how the skirt turned out.

I went outside and sat in the sun, clipping (black!!!) threads off my new garment. A perfectly zen ending.

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PS-March Club pictures and sheets have been posted under Club Sheets/Garment Photos.

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I used McCall’s M6044. It went together easily. The only adjustment I made was to lengthen the cuff (and shorten the sleeve accordingly) so it would fit three snaps. Well, Dave’s excited to wear this shirt when we go see Garth Brooks in March!

Late breaking news!!! What Carrie doesn’t say is that she entered the shirt in a Pattern Review contest and won 2nd place!!! Check it out here.

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