Sit and Sew Preparation - Will I Ever Avoid Crisis Sewing

On Wednesday I head to NYC for my class with Susan Khlaje and Kenneth King! Beyond excited! But, as usual, I'm in crisis sewing mode! My pesky real job always seems to get in the way of my sewing and other parts of my life!

Anyway - here is my plan for the class......

I will have a muslin of a basic dress sloper completed and ready for Susan's and Kenneth's magical fitting touch. I hope to use the sloper as a stepping off point for designing and constructing a variety of dresses (both work and casual). Our first lady offers me some fashion
inspiration --
and Michael too -



I hope to begin work on a garment using this sloper while I'm in NY - which, likely, will require that I stumble into several fabric stores!! Tragic!!

I am also hoping to have a muslin completed (or nearly completed) of this jacket (this task is the source of my current crisis sewing state):
in the hopes that I will have a jacket like this one some time this fall/early winter:
I will look to Susan for any sage wisdom about Chanel construction techniques (I have read and re-read her Threads article a bazillion times!).

And in the times that I am sure I will have between discussions and fitting and fabric shopping I have tucked away this pattern in the hopes that Kenneth will share with us some of his embellishment and millinery tips:

I also have a "life list" of techniques and embellishments that I would love to finally have the time to sit and practice - you know all those things like welt pockets, bound buttonholes, the PERFECT zipper application, finishing sheer edges, etc!

Yikes, sounds like I am going to be there for a month instead of 4 days!

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This I love.....

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But can someone explain this to me???

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The First Mum's Batiks - The Textile Museum

A Lady Found a Culture in its Cloth: Barack Obama's Mother and Indonesian Batiks
August 9-23, 2009

For two weeks only, textiles from the collection of Ann Dunham, President Obama's mother, are on view at The Textile Museum. This marks the final stop on a national tour of the exhibition A Lady Found a Culture in its Cloth: Barack Obama's Mother and Indonesian Batiks.

Early in her life, Ann Dunham explored her interest in the textile arts as a weaver, creating wall hangings in earthy shades of brown and green for her own enjoyment. After marrying Lolo Soetoro and moving to Indonesia in the 1960s with her son Barack Obama, Ann Dunham was drawn to the vibrant textile arts of her new home and began to amass the collection from which the exhibition objects are drawn. The wide variation in the batiks reflects the range of colors and of patterns, both classic and contemporary, that captured her imagination, and provides a window into the rich culture from which these fabrics originated.

Don't miss this unique glimpse into the First Family and Indonesian textile traditions! A Lady Found a Culture: Barack Obama's Mother and Indonesian Batiks will be on view August 9 through 23, 2009 only.

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DC Threads Gets Some Press!!

Here is a Post article by Holly Thomas about the Sewing Lounge......Thanks Allison for helping to make it happen!


Join us in September!!!!

Wishing you the most serene of birthdays: A Quilted Buddhist Prayer Book

Here are some photos of the quilted Buddhist prayer book that I designed and constructed for some very special peeps in my life! I wanted to get the photos up as soon as I could. I will add commentary AFTER VACATION (no electronics allowed - except a sewing machine, of course!)













May you all be filled with loving-kindness!
Peace
Laura

Ah Bueno!!!!!!

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Next DC Threads Sewing Lounge - July 11th! Summer Livin'!

Celebrate your creative liberties at the next session of the DC Threads Sewing Lounge! We invite you to join us on Saturday, July 11 from 1-4pm at the North Michigan Park Recreation Center for another great afternoon of creative sewing!

In response to your terrific feedback about the types of projects you'd like us to have available we have a great line-up of projects from which to choose! We have two fashion garment projects this month: a breezy summer blouse and a tie. And our eco-friendly project is a reusable shopping bag (designed with a self-storing pocket).

The "Easy Breezy Summer Blouse" was a hit at previous lounges and is a perfect garment for these hot summer months - and sooooo easy !
The "Tie One On" tie is a terrific way to express your fashion point of view with only a yard of fabric!!!
And finally, in our effort to keep DC green and to rid our city of plastic bags, we offer our favorite reusable shopping bag.
We'll supply the patterns, the machines, and all the notions you'll need for your afternoon of creating - all we ask is that you bring the fabric! Just click on the projects for information about the type and amount of fabric required (we do have a modest "fabric stash" available just in case!).

As always, you can bring your own project or browse our library of patterns for other ideas. We’ll also have tutorials for first-time and beginning sewists and plenty of fantastic people to share your threaded thoughts with.

If you haven’t done so already, head to the DC Threads website and respond to the poll - let us know if you'll be joining us. This helps us get a headcount so we can plan accordingly. And of course if you’d like to volunteer as an assistant for beginning sewists, please let us know.

Looking forward to seeing you on the 11th!!

Laura and Allison

Round Two - DC Threads at Artomatic

Here are a couple of pics from DC Thread's Quiltomatic Lounge at Artomatic!Many thanks to our resident quilting experts, Shirley and Charlene from Wee Bee Quilters from North Michigan Park, Jules from Columbia (the country not the city) and a couple of other drop ins who stitched up a storm!

Theme Dressing - ISO an Intervention or 12 Step Program!

Okay, OKAY - I admit I have this odd need to try to construct garments for many of the events I attend. Oft times the garment is an appropriate fashion chioce but then there are the times (not infrequent) when I find myself "theme stitching". Usually, I hope, the final product is "appropriate" (whatever that means) - age, taste, theme! But really - is any theme sewing/dressing appropriate? Really? You decide. Here are some examples of last year's "theme dressing":

The Fourth of July "Save the Baby Skeets" T-shirt (BTW - we won a case of wine for that event! - not sayin' my T-shirt had anything to do with it though!)

And there's my fav - the Obama Dress! Sorry - THAT one was TOTALLY appropriate!


And my most recent (and probably the genesis of this self-absorbed post) - the Alohoa Paddling Pants for the NCA Monumental Outrigger Canoe race - - -

Here's the back story on the paddlin' pants:

Here are my FAVORITE hiking and paddling pants.

I desperately wish I had bought 2 pair! Didn't! So I have wanted to try to "rub" a pattern from them forever. So, Saturday morning before the race I decided I would try to make a copy and, as theme sewing chance would have it, that I also NEEDED to make something to wear to the race (see - I definitely need that intervention - who gets up at 6:30 am the day of a race and decides to make a pattern and a garment to wear by 10:30?)

So here is a photo of the muslin pattern on the fabric. So the fabric has a story too. Sis, Sue, left us all for 2 years to live in Palau - another story - and she sent to me some fabric she found at a local shop. I have waited for the perfect garment to present itself and, well, I think it speaks for itself!

Here are the finished pants. I love how they look lying flat - however, they don't fit as well as the original pair (granted I only had about 20 minutes to fit them as I didn't really get started cutting and sewing until about 2 hours before I needed to head out). The closure is just an opening for the draw string waist. I added about 4 inches of elastic in the middle of the drawstring - that seemed to help avoid the typical drawstring sack look. I don't have a photo of how they look "on" but it wasn't too awful as I wore them in public!



Got a bunch of compliments on them - mostly due to the print of the fabric - an objective measure of success for us theme sewists!!!

Here is our team - DC PoWeR (Paddlin' Women Rock)


I gotta say - not my best fashion statement but then again - the homies from the boat house are all 'bout fun in the water and nuttin' 'bout the fashion!

Peace out!