Chapters – Page 2

February 11, 2021

ASG Board Member: Carolyn Chen

Welcome to Carolyn Chen, our newest member on the ASG National Board of Directors!

Carolyn has been an ASG member since 2001 in the Nassau-Queens, NY chapter and held offices of President, Newsletter Editor, Treasurer, and Secretary. More recently she served as president of the Salt Lake City Chapter.

Carolyn learned to sew as a 4-H member in Long Island, New York. Having the solid foundation with the 4-H training, she additionally credits the many classes she has attended through ASG Conferences and various stitching expos with elevating her skills and creative pursuits.

On her day jobs, Carolyn has held engineering and management positions which gave her experience in project planning, meeting deadlines, public speaking and communicating with team members. Over the years of living through roller-coasters of company buyouts and mergers, she decided to explore alternative professions as a backup and signed up for two semesters at the Maison Sapho School of Dressmaking and Design in New York City, in 2008. There, she studied French dressmaking, design by draping, and hand embellishment techniques in the European traditions. The curriculum was demanding and educational, yet was an exercise in intellectual submission.

At the Maison Sapho School, I quickly realized that the headmistress expected work to be done by traditional methods, so all of the nifty tips picked up at ASG conferences had to be ignored for class homework. For example, the use of fusibles was forbidden and passionately demeaned.

Carolyn retired to Salt Lake City, Utah in 2011 where there is very strong crafting and DIY community. Joining the Salt Lake City ASG chapter, as well as the Knitting Guild, and Wasatch Woolpack Handspinners (yarn spinning) made the cross-country move very enjoyable for her and she now enjoys sharing creative ideas with others. A trivia joke amongst her friends is, “How many guilds does Carolyn belong to and how many offices does she hold?”

Coming out of retirement in 2016 to support her nuclear family (husband and dog) when an in-law became terminally ill, she found that working cut back on her social daytime craft networking and neighborhood group participation. However, it was nice to have more disposable income for Stash Accumulation. The problem now is that it isn’t just fabric, it’s yarn, raw materials, and dyes to make yarn. You have all been asked, “How many sewing machines do you own?” Carolyn also has to answer, “How many spinning wheels and looms do you own?”

For Carolyn, every bit of fiber training comes in handy as there is crossover in all of her craft disciplines. Understanding ease in garments, taking measurements, pattern drafting, piecing, fabric characteristics for intended use, and construction for stability get put to use in sewing, knitting, weaving and spinning a finished product.

Carolyn’s second retirement was welcomed at the end of 2019 which gave her more time to work on that SABLE: Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy, and more time to devote to the American Sewing Guild on the Board of Directors. With all of her talent, she is sure to be an asset to our national board.

We’re glad to have you with us, Carolyn!

June 8, 2020

ASG Sensitivity Statement

ASG has a long-standing commitment to inclusivity. During these times of change, we publicly reaffirm our commitment to diversity and welcome all to our sewing family.

Click here to view our Sensitivity Statement

December 13, 2019

Spreading the Skill of Sewing in Kansas City

We love sharing stories from ASG chapters!

This wonderful article came to us from the Kansas City chapter. It offers inspiration and shows, once again, how generous ASG members are with their knowledge and time.

The Kansas City North Neighborhood group found a great audience for teaching sewing at the North Kansas City library. With funding help from the Rotarians, the NKC library had created a maker space with a dozen sewing machines, cutting tables, irons and cabinets of fabrics and other supplies. After one of our members, Barb Lea, started teaching a bimonthly quilting class at the library, group leader Jan Letkowski had the idea that teaching others to sew would be a challenging and worthwhile endeavor in addition to our efforts of sewing quilts and other items for charity.

In the spring of 2019, Jan, Melba Nicolaisen and Phyllis Carlyle visited Amy Brown, director of programming at the library. The library had been teaching projects twice a month, plus offering open sewing times and Amy was thrilled to learn that skilled sewists were interested in outreach education to their patrons. We were happy to see a well-equipped space with quality Janome machines, Oliso irons, task lamps and a box of tools at each sewing machine.

Getting Started

We initially committed to teaching three classes, July through September. Each class would be taught by a team to involve as many of our members as possible.

Phyllis Carlyle volunteered to lead the first class on fused machine applique for clothing, accessories and home dec. Ten students showed up to hear about the materials and techniques for successful machine applique. With the assistance of Bonnie Anderson and Sandy Cahill, the students made test samples using provided patterns from a 4 page handout. It was gratifying to see some of the students go beyond the basics and at the end, director Amy Brown asked for the class to be taught again. We were so excited!

For the next class, Sharon Lair and Linda Gregg presented a workshop on making snap bags. Patrons enjoyed sewing these small bags using printed cottons and metal measuring tape pieces for the closure. It was a perfectly sized project for an evening class with lots of gifting possibilities.

Then, in September, Jan Letkowski and Vicki Portwood presented a class on sewing basics: seam finishes, gathering techniques, making a perfect patch pockets, and learning to read patterns and follow instructions. Once again, attendees loved seeing samples of our favorite tools and supplies. This class was so popular, the participants begged Jan and Vicki to return so they took Holiday sewing projects to the open sewing session the following week.

Sewists Want to Sew

Library patrons at these sessions range from teens to seniors, mostly beginners, with a variety of sewing skills. For some, this is their only access to sewing machines. Our experience has shown that the patrons at the sessions WANT TO SEW! We are mixing in skill-building during each session, but find we need to take at least one project or sample for them to try. In addition, some of our members are attending the scheduled informal open sewing sessions to offer assistance to anyone who shows up.

More Community Outreach

In addition to teaching at the library, the group also volunteers at The Sewing Lab, a non-profit community resource center providing classes and jobs training in sewing-related arts in the KC urban community. Melba Nicolaisen, Linda Gregg and Vicki Portwood have been assisting with teaching classes to immigrants. The students from the Don Bosco center are hard workers who are eager to learn and they appreciate our help. Manager, Linnca Stephens, loves having volunteers who relieve the class teacher of many mundane tasks such as problems with the machines so they can concentrate on instruction. There are many teaching, learning and donating opportunities all over and we encourage members to get involved in sharing the life skills and creativity of sewing that we love.

~Phyllis Carlyle, Kansas City Chapter of ASG

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.