80 Talented Women in One Room!!!

Just in - photos from the 2007 ASG Maryland Chapter's Annual Meeting. My first ASG annual meeting event - and what fun it was! Great program, seamless organizing, remarkable TALENT, and - of course - the delightful company of the awesome "Sew What" group!!! Enjoy the pics!!

Restylin' - Shirts to Skirts

I'M A LUMBERJACK AND I'M OKAY......

Thanks to Leigh Miller, a rising senior phenom, for giving me the opportunity to try out a great idea that I found on the CRAFT magazine blogsite for restyling men's shirts. Leigh's keen sense of style, her superb eye for color and texture, and her all-around-wonderfulness are truly gifts to all of us women sewists and crafters who were blessed with solely male offspring - thanks for indulging me, Leigh!!

So here is the story - it's a simple one!
You turn old shirts into way cool, great fitting skirts with only a seam ripper and 4 straight seams!

And here's how we did it!

Visit your local Salvation Army or Goodwill thrift shop and buy (for less than $3 each) 2 or 3 men's long sleeve button front shirts. Living in Juneau Alaska, Leigh chose cotton flannel shirts in a variety of solids and plaids (the CRAFT site used cotton oxford cloth shirts for a more summery look)


Detach the sleeves from the shirts as close to the armhole seams as possible. The wristbands on the sleeves will be your skirt waistband. To determine how many sleeves will be needed to make you skirt, measure your waist or hips (depending on where you want the skirt to rest on your body) then measure the length of each wristband. Using your higher math skills determine how many wristbands you will been to fully circumnavigate your waist (or hips). Pin the sleeves (wristband to wristband) around your body and adjust the seams to fit.


Stitch the seams together and - voila - you have a skirt. No need for a closure as you simply unbutton one of the buttons and slip on your finished skirt! The last step is to finish the hem. You have two great options here - have the bottom of the skirt retain the curvy shape of the armhole or trim the skirt for a straight hem.


And here is the finished product! I am waiting for a photo from Leigh on the first day that she wears her restyled work of art!


Ever clever and resourceful - Leigh fashioned this very cool clutch from the remaining shirt fabric, the shirt pockets and the button plackets!

Thanks to Leigh and CRAFT magazine!

(Leigh on the lake)

Blogged on Craftzine.com

Check out this mention of Leigh's masterpiece on Craft Magazine's blogsite! Woo hoo!

Click on the skirt

American Sewing Guild - July 2007

Wow, these women are talented! Another great American Sewing Guild meeting at G-Street on Sunday. Rejeana Tinsley shared her expertise (and I mean EXPERTise) about creating and fitting a sloper. I, happily, was her human mannequin! Now my task is to complete my new well-fitted sloper by September (I feel another crisis sewing project coming on)! And then came "Sew and Tell" - my favorite part of the meeting! So much talent!!! Enjoy!!

For Warren – For Phyllis - For Me!

So my fabric postcards are CELEBRATIONS - of someone, something, some event! I love to make them because I'm creating a tiny piece of 'art' for someone else and because, in the process of designing the postcard, I have the luxury and pleasure of reflecting on that person and how that person has touched my life! Creating my most recent postcard, crafted for my friend Phyllis' brother Warren, was really a gift to me! Phyllis, my freshman year college roommate, is a remarkable woman (a blog in itself!). We were friends at school but we really didn't spend alot of time together and we haven't really seen each other much over the years - but we always have a great time when we have the chance to reconnect. Phyllis, to me, is the human embodiment of CELEBRATION. She has the rare gift of finding - in all things, events, and people - something to CELEBRATE! And I love her for that!

Back to the postcard ---- Phyllis' brother Warren was diagnosed with prostate cancer that rapidly progressed despite aggressive therapy. As his birthday approached earlier this summer, Phyllis enlisted her huge circle of friends to send Warren a birthday card - just a quick note to CELEBRATE his 50-some years! A wonderful "Phyllis idea"!!! The minute I received her email I knew that a fabric postcard would arrive for Warren on his birthday. Phyllis was great to provide me with lots of insight into Warren - who he was as a human. Music, literature, the Yankees (Go Nationals!), movies, golf, his Buddhist religion, etc! I also asked Phyllis for a photo of her as a little girl to include on the postcard. She laughed and insisted that I use a photo of me, not her – "Laura, he knows what I look like"!!

So I crafted away, designed and created the postcard, and mailed it so it would arrive on his birthday. Well, Warren died a few days before the postcard arrived! When Phyllis wrote and told me that Warren had died and that he had not gotten to see the postcard but that she would treasure it, I realized that I had crafted the postcard not only to CELEBRATE Warren and his life and struggle but, and probably most importantly, I had crafted it to CELEBRATE Phyllis, for whom I have always been in awe! Seems just right that the photo I chose is a great pic of Phyllis and me slugging down a glass of chard and CELEBRATING!! Perfect!

Another Swap! Tea Towels

Here are a couple of photos of the tea towel(s) I will be sending to my "swapmate" for the Tea Towel swap! Crafty Daisies organized the event - you create a tea towel and send it along to the person with whom Crafty Daisies pairs you! So I decided to add a twist to my swap - I made an apron from a very cool tea towel I purchased at Anthropologie (thanks to "Tie One On" for the inspiration!!! ) and then made and embellished a matching tea towel from scratch. See the photos below!! I'll mail my package this week and I will await my tea towel swap from whomever received my name! A fun way to spend a Memorial Day afternoon! (And special thanks to Barb Spillane for taking me to Anthropologie on my recent shopping trip to Fabric Row in Philadelphia)!

Here is the 'matchy-matchy' ensemble

I added a 2 yard length of pink webbing for the apron ties

I loved this tea towel because it has the recipe for banana bread on it!

I purchased the cotton toweling and the cheerful rick rack from G-Street Fabrics

I look forward to the next swap with the Crafty Daisies!!! Thanks ladies!

Sew What? - American Sewing Guild – May '07

The "Sew What?" group of the American Sewing Guild met at G-Street Fabrics for our May meeting. Alisa gave us a TERRIFIC demonstration about diagnosing and resolving fitting challenges and Micki shared with us her latest "fair-worthy" garments that she has entered, or will likely enter, in the Montgomery County Fair! The meeting was jam-packed with expert advice and creative inspiration! Thanks to everyone for making the meeting a success! See you next week for our June meeting (Sunday June 24th at 2:30 at G-Street Fabrics) when we will learn how to copy ready-to-wear garments!

"Please Sir, I want some more (fabric)"

So, I never thought that I would EVER be an advocate for on-line fabric shopping, especially after the long conversation I had with Mr. Chadick (Rosen and Chadick's in NYC) who said, to my complete horror, that, "These types of stores will be non-existent in 15 years - even in New York City!" PANIC! Rosen and Chadick, Mood Fabrics, Metro Textiles, etc. are like the old G-Street Fabric store (for those Washington DC denizens) when it was housed in a seven story building in downtown DC on G Street! Ah, the good ole days!! Alas, even in its modern day setting, the thought of losing G-Street is paralyzing!

That said, I have found two websites that are bringing me closer and closer to on-line fabric shopping: Gorgeous Fabrics and retrodepot.com. These two virtual fabric stores have very different approaches to fabric but I love, love, love their inventory! And an added bonus - the Gorgeous Fabrics site comes with the famous "Gorgeous Things" blogspot – a must read!!!

Soooooo, this is my weekend to take the plunge and actually order my first bundle of cyber-fabric! I will, of course, have to immediately go to G-Street and spend an equal amount of money there! Oh what a burden!!!!

Anyway, hop in your car and drive to you nearest fabric store and/or log onto your favorite site - but just keep buying that fabulous fabric!!

Have fun!

I'm dreamin' of a tropical vacation – Aloha!

I received my tea towel swap package today! I love love love it! Lynn made me a perfect pre-summer tea towel – Hula girls, palm trees, and hibiscus! She crafted a terrific towel with a great cotton print and then hand embroidered a WONDERFUL hula girl on the back! Even the reverse is exquisite! Thanks so much Lynn! I hope you are on that cruise to a tropical island right now!
Best,
Laura

A Study in Stripes

I am trying to move forward and polish some skills that have gotten a tad rusty as a result of my long sewing hiatus. During a recent open studio I had a discussion with a young sewist about matching stripes and plaids - I explained the need to think about the plaid/stripe when choosing a pattern, the need to spend time planning the layout, and the need for meticulous pinning! I realized that it had been quite some time since I had had to match a stripe or plaid! So, needing a new summer work skirt and having an ancient piece of cotton stripe in my fabric cache, I began my summer self-study program! Using a favorite skirt pattern (New Look 6413), I decided to add interest by running the stripes on the center front panel vertically and the side and back panels horizontally. In general, the stripes are aligned (depending on your degree of compulsiveness); however, my darts caused me the most problems and, ultimately, I was unable to match precisely the stripes at the darts. Frankly it seems to me a virtually impossible task.
Here are the photos....

Side seam alignment

Dart alignment

So any help with the dart issue is greatly appreciated!!!
Laura