The Fall Schedule begins

It proved to be an interesting week leading up to our 1st day on the Nicolet Campus.  Our new coordinator is Jodi Fox and poor thing she is scrambling a bit to understand the needs of our sewing group.  We are not the ordinary lecture class, but after several e-mails and phone calls, she managed to arrange a room for us with electricity, tables and our ironing equipment.  The room is a little small for our needs but we are all sewing bravely forward while she tries to find a larger space for us.  In the end I know we will get the kinks all worked out, but its an adjustment for us all. 

We have a nice group in the morning, with Candy, Chris, and Michelle, and then in the afternoon we are joined by Elizabeth, Paula, Lisa and a new student Sheila.  You can see her in the background of the above picture, sewing away on a piece of pre-quilted cotton for a jacket.

 Sheila makes some gorgeous quilted jackets and art to wear pieces and has joined us to learn how to make them fit her correctly.

 Chris drafted himself a pant pattern which we then made up a muslin for and we did a fitting.  There was very little correction to be made, just some fullness out of the thigh.  He has purchased some old Amy pants and will be re purposing the wool for his pair of " life in the outdoors" pants.  It is always fun to problem solve with Chris on his specific needs.  An introduction for us all in the requirements of extended outdoor living.  I suppose Chris is accustomed to roughing it...and this is not the first time I have seen him cutting out on the floor, but this is determination baby.

Michelle, I am sad to report will be leaving us soon to move to Connecticut. We will miss her wonderful story's, her fun and exciting color choices, her fantastic jewelry, and her general joi' d'vie.  She is pushing through some UFO's and on Friday free motion quilted a wall hanging she had pieced.  On Saturday she wrapped up a quilted tote, a gorgeous item in warm purple and blue batiks. 

It was great to have Paula back..poor Paula who has had no time for any garment sewing this summer at all!  Shocking!  Her 1st project upon her return....alterations for a bridesmaid dress...hmmm...not exactly what she had spent the summer dreaming about returning to class for...but she managed to do her good deed and get it accomplished by the end of Friday.  This left her free...yes free to launch into a lovely Sandra Betzina blouse.  I am afraid I made her a bit nervous, as I was skeptical about an "Easy" rating on a blouse that has tucks off of the grain!  This is a technique that often works for me....the "Oh..this is going to be so difficult....to Wow, look at that, its all done, not so bad after all huh?  At least this technique works with Paula, because in reality she loves a challenge although I think "she doth protest to much"  She is doing a beautiful job on her blouse and our next challenge will be her 1st sleeve placket. 

Elizabeth brought an idea inspired by the fabric at left...now to be known as the "Judy Jetson" dress.  She also brought along several different patterns that she thought might achieve the look she was going for although none of them were exactly correct. After discussing the pro's and con's of each, we settled in to a discussion of the pattern changes required and Elizabeth took to her pattern changes like a duck takes to water.  Some people struggle with pattern making, but Elizabeth just "gets it"  it makes sense to her and requires little explanation from me before she is off and running.  Its fun and rewarding to watch. 

Lisa is making good progress on her roman shades, plotting out all of the ring placement and learning how to sew them all on. Her sister in law has decided on and purchased a fabric for a chair she wants to be slipcovered. Now Lisa has already made the pattern for this slipcover and once the shades are complete it will be time to make lots and lots of cording.

Of course none of this has even touched on Saturdays class where we were joined by 4 new Learn to Sew students, but more about them later.

Now it's time for me to do some sewing, 

Lynne