ASG Sewing Blog – Page 76

January 25, 2019

The Dior Exhibition

Dior On a beautiful, sunny day in January, the Colorado Springs ASG garment group toured the Dior exhibition held at the Denver Art Museum. I had heard glowing reviews from other friends who had attended, but I was not prepared for the scope of the offering. A selection of more than 200 couture dresses was on display, along with many drawings, mood boards and accessories. The exhibition was even more fantastic because of the way the garments were presented, having been designed by the internationally renowned architect Shohei Shigematsu.

The first room of the exhibition had the viewers walking through a dimly-lit passage filled with toiles made up in a flat black fabric (even the mannequins were black). Something about stripping the designs of all color allowed the viewer to see the beautiful structure of the garments.

We were able to see design boards and garments by Christian Dior, who was head of the house for a short time before his death. The exhibition then showed garments and their inspiration from all the lead designers who have followed, including Yves St. Laurent. Each of these designers has contributed his or her own design esthetic to the Dior line.

Another striking room was filled with traditional toiles in white. The room was probably 25 feet tall and the toiles were hung on the wall at least four garments high. We were told that Dior drew his sketches without a lot of thought as to how they were going to be constructed. He expected his workers to be able to translate his designs to finished garments, the toile being the first step.

One room of about 20 ball gowns featured a video display above with images of celebrities in some of the same gowns. While we definitely couldn’t touch the garments, we were able to get quite close to some of them.

Part of Dior’s genius was to design and create accessories, even perfume, so that a woman could be clothed head to toe in Dior. One display had colorful columns that held hats, headpieces, jewelry, shoes, bags and what looked like doll clothes. It was a bold presentation that captured the breadth of the line.

In many cases, the designers of the House of Dior were influenced by what was happening in the greater art world. This influence showed up in fabric creation and garment silhouettes. In many rooms the Denver Art Museum showcased actual art that served as inspiration.

The final room of the exhibition was an extensive display of Dior around the world. The room was enormous with the garments standing on tiered discs. With almost 50 garments, the visual punch was intense.

We all agreed that once through this exhibition was not enough to take it all in. Perhaps we’ll be able to go again before it leaves Denver and makes its way to Dallas – the only two cities in the US to house the exhibition.

~Thank you to Cecelia Harris from the Colorado Springs chapter for this post.

January 7, 2019

An Easy and Precise Technique for Hand Quilting

This easy technique for hand quilting requires limited skills and mimics the precision of machine quilting.

YLI Wash-A-Way Thread — YLI Wash-A-Way Water Soluble Basting Thread

1. Load the machine, both top and in the bobbin, with water soluble thread.

2. Set the machine stitch length for the desired hand-stitch length. For the stitches to show up in this demonstration, the stitch length will be set at 4 mm. If hand-stitching for a quilt were to be done, perhaps a stitch length of 10-12 stitches per inch would be used.

3. Cut the quilt sandwich (back, batting, top) and mark the design on the top fabric. For this demonstration, simple straight lines were used, but you can use any design of your choosing.

4. Stitch along the marked design lines with the water soluble thread. Optionally, you can mark and stitch the design on the top only, then layer the quilt and stitch through all layers during the hand-stitching process.

5. For straight stitching, use the quilting guide that comes with your machine. Set it for the distance from the center needle position and allow the guide to follow along the previous line of stitching.

6. The stitching lines provide a guide for the hand stitching. Thread your needle using either hand quilting thread or a colorful embroidery floss (using as many strands as you’d like).

7. Following the stitching line, insert the needle in and out the holes created by the machine stitching. Mak sure the stitching goes through the back side, catching all layers.

8. Complete all the rows of hand-stitching, following along the machine-stitched line.

9. Spritz the water soluble thread with water and the thread will dissolve away leaving only the hand stitching.

The end result is beautiful, straight and consistent hand stitching.

Adapted from an original post by Ramona Baird

April 2, 2018

Sew Fun Tour: Go to Hong Kong? Are you kidding me?

I’d never been to more than four states and I was thinking about going to the other side of the world, all by myself. Was I crazy? The caveat was that I ‘d be with other sewers and two experienced guides. What was the worst that could happen? Maybe I’d get lost in a foreign country—oh, wait, they speak English there.

I ordered my passport early and when it came, I thought “this is for real.” And it was…fast forward several months and I met Linda and Pauline at the San Francisco Airport, ready to take off on my big adventure. It was a long flight but, alas, that’s the only reasonable way to get there and anticipation was building among all the group members as to what we might find—certainly silks couldn’t be far away.

ASG's Sew Much Fun Hong Kong Tour — Sign up for the next Sew Fun tour to Hong Kong

We had an effortless trip from the airport to the hotel, and some much needed sleep, only to wake to a sumptuous breakfast buffet with foods from Japan, China and familiar American favorites… and we could eat all we wanted. Wow!

Our orientation meeting covered everything we needed to know, from money conversion to local customs, food, etc. I still couldn’t believe that I was half way around the world! Our sightseeing tour showed us the city highlights, including Western Market—a mecca of fabric vendors—some marketplaces and shops, and notable city sights. It was exhausting, but I thought I’d retire early that night to catch up. Oh no, several people wanted to go out for dinner, so I went along. I didn’t know them, but it didn’t matter, as we all sewed and that was a common bond. And, we didn’t get lost!

One of the things I most looked forward to was our visit to the costume shop, where Disney characters came to life and we learned the ins and outs of inflatable costuming. And, oh, did I mention the big remnant sale?

As the week progressed we learned how to work the MTR system (underground transportation) so we could get around the city on our own during the free days. Easy-peasy with the Octopus Card that’s used everywhere. All the maps were in English, so no worries. OMG, I’m traveling around a huge city in a foreign country.

The highlight of my trip was visiting the garment district—like NOTHING I’d ever seen before. With both street vendors and stores, most of us couldn’t drag any more purchases by the time we met back at the bus. (OK, true confession–I headed back there with a group of fellow tour participants on one of my free days, as one day wasn’t enough.)

Our dinner cruise to Lamma Island was a treat, as we ate family style at a restaurant frequented by locals (not tourists), so we had the “real deal.” On the boat ride home, we watched the laser light show on Victoria Harbor.

I was never apprehensive about the city and Linda and Pauline told us everything we needed to know—not just about the tour activities, but also about optional things to do and places to go. I was a master of the MTR system by the time we left this wonderful city. The tour was wonderful and I fell in love with Hong Kong. I’m hoping to go back on my own soon.

ASG Member – KT, Portland, OR

Visit the Sew Fun Tours page to learn about all the tours offered by ASG.

March 23, 2018

Make Your Own “Sampler” Pack of Sewing Favorites

Like most sewing enthusiasts, I have sewing and embroidery supplies that I use over and over because they work well for many different applications. This is especially true for interfacings and embroidery stabilizers. To keep track of my supplies, I normally take the label off the outside of the roll and insert it inside the tube so I know what the product is. I have actually ordered a couple of things on the recommendation of a sales person and found I didn’t care for them and I want to be sure I do not re-order them—that is just as important to know as what I do like.

This morning when I reached for the rolls of my favorite fibrous water soluble and poly-mesh stabilizers to grab the tags to re-order, I found that one roll was missing its label – horror of horrors! I searched the distributor’s website and still couldn’t find the product so now the search is on through packing slips and websites to try to identify the product. I even tried to locate a sample pack, hoping I may find my beloved stabilizer within it, but no luck.

That action though, gave me an idea. Right then and there, I vowed to prevent this sewing malfunction from happening to me again by making my own sample pack. I cut large pieces of each product and stapled the label to the corresponding sample. While I still have to find the one product with the missing label, luckily it is not something I need to re-order immediately.

I also plan on doing the same with my favorite interfacings. I’m working on two series right now that require a lot of interfacing and, because I use so much, I tend to purchase my favorites by the bolt. Of course, there are no labels to peel off packaging to save so I can do one of two things:

Take a photo of the label, print it, and staple it to the sample I cut off the bolt, or
Wait until I get to the end of the bolt, save a final piece, and then peel the label off the end of the bolt and staple it to the sample piece.

Knowing me, chances are by the time I get to the end of the bolt I’ll forget to save a piece and keep the label so I’ll probably opt for option 1. Another good thing to do is save a piece of the instructions that come on the interfacing bolt. Read and check them each time you purchase the product. Occasionally, as technology is updated, products may change slightly (think better glue) and instructions will be updated. If the interfacing is a specialty item like Hymo, then also attach information about where the product was purchased and any other identifying information

We always think we’ll remember what we did or where we purchased something, but we often don’t. Start making another type of reminder for sewing. Put information in a binder or even just clip things together like in this sample pack. Save yourself a lot of remembering and searching time which, of course, leaves more time for our favorite pastime—STITCHING!

Sew ‘til next time….enjoy the journey of sewing!

~Ramona

January 2, 2018

Learn to Sew: What Does Right Sides Together Mean?

What does it mean when a sewing pattern says to place the “right sides together”? Watch this 2 minute video to learn the meaning.