sewing – Page 14

June 7, 2019

10-Minute Table Runner

It’s always helpful to have a quick project idea in your toolkit for those times when you need a quick gift or when you’ve finished a difficult project and you just need a simple win. This ten minute table runner is the perfect gift or pick-me-up project.

Material Required

Theme Print: 10″-12″ (1/3 yard) of theme print, width of fabric (WOF).
Coordinating Fabric: 18″ (1/2 yard) of coordinating fabric for back/border (WOF).

Note: If the fabrics are different widths, cut to match the widths.

Instructions

Place right sides together. Stitch along the long edge with ½ inch seam allowance.
Repeat, stitching the seam along the other long edge.
Press seams away from center fabric. (see Image #1)
Turn the right side to the outside. You now have a long tube.
Lay flat, press so the theme print is bordered evenly on the long side by the coordinating fabric. (see Image #2)
If necessary, trim the short sides to even them up.
Fold in half lengthwise so the theme fabric is facing out.
Sew a ¼” seam allowance across each short end. (see Image #3)
Press the seam open.
Turn the seam to the inside, forming a triangle, with coordinating fabric on the front of the triangle. (see Picture #4)
Finish with topstitch and buttons or other embellishments.

If you can’t quite visualize how these steps will work out, don’t worry! Just take one step at a time, referring to the pictures. Soon you will have created a quick new look for your table!

~ Akron Chapter

May 31, 2019

Alabama Chanin, a Pioneer of Slow Fashion

We have grown used to getting everything we want as fast as possible. Even in the fashion industry, fast fashion – otherwise known as inexpensive clothing made quickly and, typically, with lower quality – has become the norm. However, there is a burgeoning group of talented artisans who are fighting against bottom-barrel quality and prices through what has been tagged the Slow Fashion movement.

Slow Fashion Explained

Slow Fashion considers the quality of the clothing being produced, as well the processes and resources used to produce it.
Slow Fashion designers strive to make garments from high-quality, sustainable materials that are locally sourced whenever possible.
Slow Fashion clothing companies typically release fewer collections throughout the year than traditional clothing producers.
Slow Fashion garments are usually sold in smaller, boutique-style stores rather than department or big box stores.

The American Sewing Guild loves the growing momentum of the Slow Fashion movement. Who knows better than our own members that sewing your own clothing is the best way to ditch fast fashion and bring sustainability back to your wardrobe? And, inevitably, when discussion turns to a specific Slow Fashion company, one always comes to mind for beautiful and sustainable garments…

Alabama Chanin

“I became interested in the Alabama Chanin techniques about five years ago,” said Cathy, a member of the ASG St. Louis Chapter. “A local instructor was a skilled fashion designer who encouraged creativity and spoke of how the fashion process enriches our interests in sewing and the needlecraft process. She introduced us to the Alabama Chanin techniques and we were all immediately engaged.”

You’ve most likely already heard of Alabama Chanin but may not know the incredible back story of Natalie Chanin, the company’s founder. Natalie grew up in Florence, Alabama during a time when the cotton and textile industry was booming in the area. After finishing school in North Carolina, she moved to New York then onto Europe to pursue a fashion and design career. Unfortunately, during the years she was gone, the textile mills and production factories in her hometown closed and moved offshore.

Natalie’s first spark of inspiration for Alabama Chanin occurred when she was invited to a party in the late 90’s and created her own tee shirt to wear. She cut and embroidered the tee and arrived at the party to a wave of interest and requests for information about its source. She knew then that she had hit on the style of garment she was looking for; however, she still wanted her clothing brand to have more of an impact. Natalie wanted to bring jobs back to Florence. Alabama Chanin was officially launched in 2000 as a lifestyle brand with a focus on handmade clothing created from 100% organic cotton jersey and was created under the concept of Slow Fashion. As a Slow Fashion pioneer, Alabama Chanin also takes into consideration the working conditions and pay of factory employees.

In addition to pre-made garments, the brand provides open source information to creators interested in creating similar garments. Patterns and techniques are available for use through books, workshops and their School of Making which sells full projects kits via their website, as well as in stores around the world.

ASG Members Embrace Slow Fashion

Many ASG members have been motivated by the School of Making. Like Dian from the Nashville chapter:

“Creative, relaxed, rewarded—these three words describe the feelings I have when embroidering on my Alabama Chanin items. I love having a different concept of embroidery in my repertoire which I did not have previously. For me, doing something unusual is always a plus.”

Dian had been unable to join in when her chapter took a road trip to visit the Alabama Chanin factory and the School of Making. She was familiar with the brand but, at the time, didn’t believe it was her style. It wasn’t until she and Mary, the chapter’s President, connected with Cathy on the way to ASG conference that she finally understood the range of resources available under the brand. Cathy’s enthusiasm for Alabama Chanin projects changed Dian’s thinking and was further captured in a top Cathy created and wore to class. Dian instantly fell in love with the top and realized the open source style of education the brand encouraged meant that she could create the projects, then complete them in the style of embellishments that she favored herself. What a fantastic concept! Since then, Dian has been practicing her stitches and began work on a project that she fully expects to love.

Cathy shared her thoughts:

“I had never been interested in hand sewing before but found the process really charged my creative side,” said Cathy. “During the class, I started a long dress from one of Natalie Chanin’s books which I cut out, stenciled, and stitched. It took months to complete the dress but since then, I have been making hand-sewn garments continuously and always have an Alabama Chanin project waiting for my attention.

“I have made seven tops, three swing skirts, several pants, and two ponchos since that first dress. Although I have not mastered many stitches, I have done the running stitch, backstitch and cretan stitch (my favorite binding stitch, perhaps because it is one that I seem to do fairly well and love the results). Some tops are made using embroidery floss for the backstitch. Others have stenciled areas, some of which are cut and other areas are left uncut. The variety of looks you can achieve by changing the colors, stenciling, stitching method, and cutouts offers endless possibilities. It is always great to continue to learn new things.”

Dian is thankful not just for the resources and inspiration she’s received from Alabama Chanin, but for bringing business back to her area as well:

“I am fortunate to live only an hour from the studio where I can go to sew with other like-minded sewists. I extend my thanks to Natalie Chanin for bringing her talent home to Florence and for the opportunities and jobs her studio provides.”

My Personal Thoughts

Alabama Chanin is truly a unique company that puts as much focus on education and product quality as they do on selling their garments. I know I join many other sewists who are happy to have found the brand and learn from the resources they provide. Is is my hope that this blog post inspires you to jump into your own Alabama Chanin project!

~ by Rita Johnson

May 17, 2019

My Welcome to ASG Membership Shirt

Proud to be a brand new member!

For 15 years, I had been a vendor at the Puyallup Sewing and Stitchery Expo; however, this year was my first time attending as a sewing consumer and a brand new American Sewing Guild Member. Imagine how excited I was when I was invited to appear in the local ASG chapter’s Fashion Show at the Expo! I decided to sew a blue silk taffeta shirt and proudly named it my Welcome to ASG Membership shirt

Like you, I simply love to sew and have been sewing since I was a small child. My mother, also a sewing enthusiast herself, taught us on her Singer Feather weight machine and I still have that machine to this day. She learned to sew from her mother (my grandmother), whom I unfortunately never met but was a dressmaker. Grandma made everything from fine cotton batiste lingerie — as well as the lace used to trim it — to baby doll clothes that I dressed my own dolls in almost 25 years later.

Sewing memories

The process of making this shirt for the Fashion Show was a wonderful reminder of all things I love about sewing. I think that sometimes it is just the powerful “need” to be sewing that drives many of us to take fabric to machine. In this case there were a lot of things that happened easily and just added to the joy of sewing the shirt. I was thrilled with the fact that I could shop my fabric stash for the fabric. I had a Katherine Tilton shirt pattern, Butterick B6521, in mind and once the fabric made itself known, I was in business. Changing the serger thread — all three spools — successfully is always a bit of trick, but I managed it on the first try and I was ready to go.

I had not spent a full day sewing for a very long time. And while I did not complete the whole shirt the first day, I did manage to get the body and the collars stitched together. I was so happy to just be in that zone, where your hands know the next steps to take without thinking.

I believe that this is why we are here. Why we are a growing a vast community of people of all kinds who simply love to sew. Baby boomers, young girls and boys, grandmothers, lawyers, actors, people of all ethnicities and genders. Our faces, our reasons, styles and skills, are as diverse as the items that we stitch together. But the common thread is that we create something, and that connects us all.

Deborah Kreiling | Deborah will be the Keynote Speaker at the 2019 ASG Conference

Deborah’s almost forty-year career at Simplicity Pattern Company began as a sewing instructions writer and evolved through the years to having responsibility for ensuring that the designs created could be produced to meet manufacturing and packaging standards as well as be created successfully by home sewing enthusiasts. After establishing the first Quality Control Department at the company, she moved on to become Design Development Director, the position she held until fall of 2018. Deborah’s unique insiders’ view into almost four decades of pattern development and the company whose patterns we all know and love – the producer of the ASG patterns featured in our annual Anyone Can Win contest – is sure to entertain. Deborah is a dedicated garment sewer, an avid cyclist and holds the rank of 5th degree Black Belt in Seido Karate.

April 19, 2019

Me Made May Challenge

Depending on where you’re from, May brings to mind the smell of spring, the taste of mint juleps while watching the Kentucky Derby, or the colors of Cinco De Mayo. But when you’re a sewing enthusiast, it might remind you of something else: Me Made May!

If you haven’t heard of Me Made May before, it’s a challenge created by Zoe of the So Zo, What Do You Know? blog. She launched the project in 2010 as a challenge to herself to see if she could wear an original article of clothing each day of the month. As it turns out, it was a pretty appealing challenge! When she brought the idea up to her readers, she had 80 challengers sign up to join her. Since then, she’s added hundreds more.

This year’s challenge will actually be the 10th challenge that Zoe has hosted. There were two “Me Made” challenges in 2010: One in March and one in May. Zoe found it challenging to do the challenge in the cold weather, so she tried again when the weather got better.

So, what are the challenge rules?

The beauty of the challenge is that there aren’t any rules. In general, the challenge is meant to help you appreciate your handmade garments and think about the goals you want to achieve when it comes to your sewing. The most common “rule” that challengers follow is to wear a self-made or repurposed garment every day of the month. But if you only have a small collection of clothing you’ve made for yourself, you may instead choose to style one item differently each week or to share one amazing item you’re creating and document your progress. It’s a challenge that works with your skill level or your personal collection of handmade clothing.

While many challenge participants choose to share their progress on social media, it isn’t a requirement.

Those who do wish to share their challenge on Instagram can used the hashtag #MeMadeMay2019. When you add this (or any) hashtag to your post, it is included in a feed of Instagram posts with other creatives taking part in Me Made May.
And while you’re hashtagging your challenge, remember to tag the American Sewing Guild headquarters at asguildhq on Instagram. We’ll be reposting some of your progress all month long!

To officially take part in Me Made May, you can share your pledge on Zoe’s blog. It’s simple, and Zoe gives more ideas on what to do for your challenge.

Now it’s time to brainstorm what YOU will me making this May!

April 5, 2019

How have you used your ASG fabric?

Calling all members!

What have you been making from our ASG fabric? We are currently looking for original designs that our members created from our very own unique fabric—the one with the dress forms and the ASG logo.

We were thrilled when we received nearly 1,300 submissions for our 2018 contest. Despite the great response, many members told us they wanted to participate, but they just couldn’t think of how to use the fabric. So if you designed, or are willing to design, something made with our own ASG fabric, we would love to share it with our ASG family and inspire others to show off their ASG pride with a unique item just for us.

Your creation must feature the ASG winning fabric from MyFabricDesigns.com (no longer in business) — the fabric with the dress forms and the ASG logo.

You may use any of the colors featured and can modify the size of the print right on the site. You have a choice of over 20 fabrics, from cotton to silk to French terry and many more.

While the ASG winning fabric must be used, your design can also feature other fabrics as well. These may be the coordinated prints from the site or something of your own choosing.

The fabric is printed to order and takes about 10-14 days to be printed and shipped.

My Fabric Flash Drive Holder

To kick off this new undertaking, I am including a simple pattern for the Fabric Flash Drive Holder I created for protecting my flash drive, and we are debuting it for National Flash Drive Day. The little pouch was created to hold a simple flash drive, or even the larger specialty one that I use for my embroidery designs. Of course, you can use yours for all kinds of small objects. I’ve used a technique I saw recently that allows the pouch to be created easily with no exposed seams on the inside. Check it out and see what you think.

If you have a design you would like to share:

Please use the format I have used to create my design. A sample Word template can be downloaded here to use.
Write up the instructions and be sure to take pictures in jpg format.
Submit your project instructions and images using this form in the Member’s Only area.

We can’t wait to be inspired!

~Contributed by Rosemary Fajgier