As Seen At The American Sewing Guild National Conference

Photos contributed by President Connie G.

The American Sewing Guild National Conference was held in Los Angeles this year. Eleven of our Chicago chapter members attended and filled their days with learning new techniques and meeting old and new friends. Below are some pictures and tidbits that our President, Connie G. sent back.

Running In Stitches Neighborhood Group leader Celeste wrote about her ASG Conference experience on her blog. Be sure to take a peek at her jeans-to-skirt reconstruction with the pretty machine embroidery.

Sights and Thoughts From Connie

Gel-bleached jacket

Linda MacPhee Transforms Fabrics
In Linda MacPhee‘s class, a denim jacket was transformed with dishwasher gel bleach. Use a squeeze bottle to control your lines. Save your squeeze ketchup bottles and use that or buy the squeeze bottles at your local craft store.

Linda is also know for her “beggar fabric.” But, beggar fabric is not easy to find. So, Linda made her own by cutting holes  in a top fabric and laundering. Then the fabric is backed with a dotted sheer fabric. Beggar fabric doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, it’s a great way to use up scraps and remnants.

Embellishments
Think that twin-needle is just for heirloom sewing? Try this: thread up some colorful thread in that twin-needle and wander your fabric. You’ll create a fun stipple that is perfect for quilting or embellishing a plain fabric.

Use fleece as inserts to mimic bias to add texture to your piece. Since fleece doesn’t fray, you don’t need to worry about turning under tiny edges…just cut and sew. With fleece, you can also bend it any which way you desire without worrying too much about grains. Although, keep in mind that some fleece have a nap.

Fleece inserts

Button embellishments

Add dimension to your machine embroidery with buttons! Don’t have an embroidery machine? Use your decorative stitches in rows with variegated thread. Or maybe even try hand embroidery.

Upcycle

Do you have a bunch of sweaters that need a new life? You’re either tired of them or they might not fit as well as they used to? Gather them all up and upcycle them into a new sweater. Don’t worry about matching; the idea is to create a patchwork. Use your serger for quick construction…and leave the serged edges to the outside of the garment for additional texture and interest. Go ahead and raid your husband’s and children’s closets…because you’re fabric shopping!

Tip: Try to use similar fiber content within one garment. If you mix an all-wool piece with swatches from a cotton/acrylic sweater, you may end up with a shrunken, felted panel at the next wash.

Learn From the Experts

Sandra Betzina

One of the many advantages of the American Sewing Guild National Conference is having access to many wonderful teachers who are known thoughout the sewing industry. Some classes are hands-on, while others are lecture. Sandra Betzina and Linda MacPhee were just a two of the instructors that were at this year’s ASG National Conference.

Did you go to the ASG National Conference this year in Los Angeles? Tell us your experience, we’d love to hear from you!

Eve Kovacs Wins ASG Creativity Contest Honorable Mention

This month, our Sew-lebrity Spotlight shines on Eve Kovacs. Eve Kovacs is not only the group leader for the Wearable Art special interest group of our chapter, but she is a recognized and award-winning wearable arts sewist. There is probably even a secret fan club judging by this person’s blog post declaring Eve as her hero after seeing Eve on Sewing with Nancy.

We’re celebrating Eve today because she has won the Honorable Mention in this year’s American Sewing Guild Creativity Contest. Congratulations, Eve! We’re very proud that our Chicago chapter was so well-represented with Eve’s beautiful jacket and pants.

Eve’s ensemble was made from Simplicity 2288, and uses a combination of several different fabrics: a handwoven silk ikat from Thailand, three colors of silk dupioni, and a cotton sateen.

“The jacket design incorporates a number of panels that provide opportunities for combining fabrics in innovative ways. My goal, with this ensemble, was to use the silk ikat as an inspiration for the color, the surface design and the styling of the pieces. Since I had only a single panel of about one yard of the ikat, a good solution was to use it for the center front and back panels of the jacket. With careful cutting, I had enough left to make cuffs to accent the sleeves,” explains Eve in her contest description.

“The colors in the ikat inspired the selection of the purple sateen and the magenta, olive and light lavender silks. The geometric pattern in the ikat inspired the design of the patchwork on the middle-front panels of the jacket. I paid careful attention to the proportion and position of the colors so that the patchwork complements the style of the ikat by mimicking the pattern in the weave.”

Eve machine quilted all the jacket panels to give a subtle texture and to unify the design. She used diamond shapes on the ikat and zig-zag shapes on the patchwork panels. The side panels and sleeves are quilted with diagonal lines of double-needle stitching. (Love how many techniques Eve Kovacs was able to incorporate!)

“The jacket panels are accented with piping to give the ensemble an oriental look. This necessitated changing the collar to a cut-on shawl collar to ensure that the piping flowed smoothly around the edges of the jacket. To complete the Asian styling of the ensemble, I cropped the pants and added a piping embellishment at the hems.”

One thing that you appreciate about Eve Kovacs’ wearable art is that it truly is wearable. It may take a bolder personality to wear the garment, but it’s definitely wearable in everyday life.

All the winners and honorable mentions can be viewed on the national American Sewing Guild contest page.

[edited] You can find more of Eve Kovacs’ beautiful creations on her webpage.

Congratulations on your beautiful outfit, Eve!

Sew-lebrity Spotlight: Debora Davis Land

In the March issue of the Cutting Edge newsletter, we started a new feature to spotlight ASG Chicago members. We’re a big chapter and cover a large area, so it’s hard to meet every member in person. So, in the newsletter and the blog, we’ll be turning the spotlight on YOU, our members, to get to know you better.

Debora Davis Land is a member of the Sew Chicago Neighborhood Group. Debora splits her time between the U.S. and Germany, shuttling her family and her sewing across the ocean. She keeps in touch with her NG through the blog, Facebook and email, but when she’s in the U.S., she’s easily back in with her ASG Chicago Neighborhood Group.

Debora sews a variety of things, including a pair of skinny jeans. Debora recently started a new business named Debora’s Custom Stitches.

Congratulations on your new business! Tell us a little about Debora’s Custom Stitches.

Debora’s Custom Stitches is a home-based embroidery business I started in December, 2010. Monograms, names, logos, and designs, stitched on most anything.  Unlike many larger embroidery shops, we have no minimum order – if you want 1 or 2 pieces, no problem!

How did you get started in the embroidery business? Was it a natural progression from one of your other interests?

I have been sewing for years. First curtains, then occasionally apparel. Then, when my youngest daughter was born nearly 6 years ago, I started seriously sewing because anything I bought RTW for her had to be altered, so it just became more efficient to sew all her clothes. And then I started sewing for myself, and by this time was seriously addicted! I can sew better fitting clothes than I can buy RTW most anywhere.

I’ve accumulated several machines and quite a large stash, and at some point my husband asked me if I couldn’t earn some money to offset some of my sewing expenses. In the area we live in near Frankfurt, there are lots of alterations and tailor shops and the prices are so low you couldn’t make any money just sewing. So, I pondered and pondered until when we were in Chicago last November for Thanksgiving… then it hit me. The opportunity was Personalization!

We’re part of a large expatriot community here, and many of the moms complain about missing Pottery Barn Kids and other similar shops in the US where you can get almost anything with a name or monogram. It simply doesn’t exist here! There are a few large embroidery businesses in the area, but they want to serve the sports teams and work uniforms markets, and probably wouldn’t take on single items. When we returned to Germany in December, I did some “market research” at the American Women’s Club Christmas luncheon, asking if people would be interested in the kinds of products I could customize if I got into the business. They were all thrilled and immediately encouraged me to pursue my ideas further.

I had been following a blogger, Kristine of kbdesigns74.blogspot.com, who runs a similar home embroidery business in the U.S., and so I e-mailed her to tell her of my interest and to ask what type of machine she used. She replied within a few hours, not only telling me what machine she used, but also giving me tips and pointers about what software I should use, where to get good technical support, and which yahoo-groups would be really useful. She was a real treasure trove of information!  I find that other embroiderers are so helpful!

What a great network and support! In person and virtual. Tell us a little about your “baby,” your embroidery machine. Was it hard to learn? Your samples were beautiful from the beginning.

I have a Brother PR650 embroidery machine. This is a 6-needle, semi-commercial machine.  I bought it new in Germany from a very large sewing machine dealer.  The deal included the machine, PE Design Version 8, training at their site on my machine before I took it home, and software training. The machine is “portable”, but at 37 kilograms (81 pounds!) it really takes 2 people to safely move it. It just fit in the back of my car to take it home. The prices for the machines are less in the U.S., but I wanted local support and it was clear that this machine was too big to fit in luggage from our next trip home to Chicago.

It was actually quite easy to learn the basics of how to use the machine. I spent about an hour and a half with the instructor, and we covered the basics of machine set-up, stabilizer selection, framing, and design modification. We did many different materials, from knits to terrycloth to vinyl (faux-leather).  In addition to the training, I ordered a few books from Amazon.com about machine embroidery and digitizing, and subscribed to “Designs in Machine Embroidery” and “Flair” magazines. I also joined the yahoo group for the Brother 6-needle machines, and have learned so much reading the posts each day.

In general, I would have to say that it was surprisingly easy to learn. It gave me great confidence to see that the samples looked good from the beginning.I started with kids t-shirts and branched out to more complicated projects from there.

Where do you get your inspiration for your designs?

Sometimes I want to create something for someone specific, and sometimes I’ve been surfing on some of the many machine embroidery websites for ideas and see something that really catches my eye. In addition to the yahoo group for machine owners, I joined the yahoo group of planetembroidery.com, which talks not only about designs from that site but many others as well. It’s great to see what other embroiders are making – the creative community is a great source of inspiration!

I was so thrilled when I heard that your business got to a great start…within hours of creating your Facebook page, wasn’t it? Did you expect to get to such a quick start?

I had read from the yahoo groups that several people were using Facebook to market their businesses. Since it doesn’t cost anything to set one up, I decided to give it a go and set up pictures, both on my personal page as well as a page for Debora’s Custom Stitches.

One of my first projects was a baby blanket and bib set which I donated to the American Women’s Club for their spring charity auction in March. I posted pictures of the bib and blanket, and within a couple hours I received an order for a pair of bibs like the donated one but with different color schemes. She was so happy with the bibs when I delivered them that she sent out a note to the Mother’s Corner group she runs here in the Frankfurt area, which is a group of several hundred moms. From that note, I have already received another order for 3 projects! I have been blessed with many people encouraging me, and the social networking really works!

Ladies –
I wanted to make you aware that Debra Land (AWCT member and former MC) has started her custom embroidery business. She can basically personalize anything you want from baby things and t-shirts to pillows and towels… and everything in between. She just made me two adorable bibs for my friend who is having twins… “Spit Happens”.

If any of you are looking for a personalized gift…check her out! She is very reasonable and can pretty much personalize anything! She is on Facebook and her email address is above if you want to contact her with questions, etc. Phone is 0173 675 2934 Website will be http://www.deboraland.com (it is under construction).

Enjoy –
Leanne

Your business is based in Germany; as someone who travels between continents, what are some similarities or differences in sewing trends or tastes between the U.S. and Germany?

Most patterns here in Germany have to be traced, and they are quite expensive. There is no Joann’s or Hancock Fabrics who discount the patterns. I think most women who sew here are tracing from Burda magazine or one of the other magazines which comes out less often. It’s probably a little more “fashion forward” than the US Big 4.

Wow, so tracing out of Burda magazine every time you want a pattern? That’s patience. Is the selection of fabrics easily available in Germany? Or how is the fabric shopping experience different than it is in the U.S.?

The shopping experience here is quite different than in the U.S. Fabric stores here tend to be small, specialty shops. For example, one shop near my home specializes in Italian designer fabrics, while another one only stocks quilting fabrics. Although there are occasionally bargains to be had, in general it is much more expensive to buy fabric here than in the U.S. Since I do a lot of kids sewing, I find it quite difficult to find any cute kids fabrics here which are not quilting fabrics. I do most of my fabric shopping in the U.S., either in person when I’m in Chicago or through the internet, unless something just grabs my attention when I’m browsing here.

Another big difference is that fabric is sold at fabric stores, but notions are sold at notion stores. So, when I want to buy zippers or thread, I have to visit someone who specializes in notions. Luckily I found two really good notions shops in downtown Frankfurt, so I can get most of what I need.

So, if someone, either in North America, Europe or even Asia want to contact you about a project, how can they contact you and what kind of information do they need to send you?

The best way to contact me is probably by e-mail. I can be reached at stitches@deboraland.com.  I’m in the process of building my website, but it’s not published yet. Although I expect most of my business to be local to the Frankfurt region, I would also welcome the opportunity to bring beautiful projects with me on my trips home to Chicago. Custom work has to be paid in advance, but we take Paypal.

So, with the new business and keeping up two homes, do you have time to sew for yourself?

Yes, I still sew for myself because things fit so much better. Since I started embroidering I’m sewing less, but I still managed to get 20 yards sewn for the patternreview.com stash contest this year!  Normal sewing is so relaxing – a great battery charger for me!

You’ve said that you’re able to keep up with the Sew Chicago group via their blog. How’s the sewing scene in Germany? Anything like the ASG there?

If there is anything like ASG, I haven’t found them here yet. Anyone who is professionally involved in sewing or related crafts has to be a member of the Handwerk Kammer (Guild), but I don’t think that they offer any support and encouragement like the ASG. My sewing colleagues here are generally the people I know who work in the local fabric stores. We always compare notes on projects when I’m in the shop. I learn most of what I know about embroidery from my “colleagues” on the internet…

What’s your favorite sewing tool? Besides your embroidery machine?

I’ve become good friends over the years with my seam ripper….

Last question: Do you listen to music when you sew? If yes, what kind?

I’m thinking about listening to music when I sew ( I moved my ipad dock into my sewing studio), but I’m still sewing in silence…

Well, I don’t expect things will be quiet long. Thanks for sharing so much with us. Good luck with the business, Debora, and safe travels!

To see more of Debora’s collection, visit Debora’s Custom Stitches’ website or visit Debora’s Custom Stitches’ Facebook page.

Note: By the time this hits press, Debora will be showing her collection and samples at “fashionbreakfast mit Debora´s custom stitches” hosted by fashionbreakfast. Good luck at the show, Debora! We can’t wait to see you when you return to the States.

Images source: Debora’s Custom Stitches

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Nominate the next Sew-lebrity!

Every sewist in the American Sewing Guild has a special gift and talent. We’d like to share that person with the rest of the chapter…and the blogsphere. What a great way to get to know the members of the chapter without traveling to each NG! To nominate the next ASG Chicago Sew-lebrity, send an email to either Flo Schneider or Tina Wong and watch for the next Sew-lebrity Spotlight in the blog or the next newsletter!

Not part of a neighborhood group? Toot your own horn and send us an email telling us about yourself! Don’t be shy! We’d love to get to know you.

March is National Craft Month

Image source: Burdastyle.com

Yikes! Where did the time go?

Sorry, dear readers, for being so silent on you — but part of the reason that I’m so late about talking about National Craft Month is that I’ve been prowling around other sites looking for ideas to share with you…and before you know it, it’s 2am and I’m too buggy-eyed to write. So, I’m back in the saddle and have several things to share over the next few posts.

National Craft Month

Ok, if you haven’t heard, March is National Craft Month. Some people think of crafts as something less than serious…that’s ok. Why not use this month to explore other types of sewing to add to your repertoire? Free yourself from rules; play a little…or play a lot. If you’re not a quilter, try a quilting technique to add to your next project. Ever made plush food? They can be fun to make as well as calorie-free! Or maybe you’ve been admiring an embellishing technique…give yourself the freedom to explore and play this month!

Just make something!

Here are some idea starters in case you don’t already have a When-I-Finish-This-I’ll-Try-This list:

• Make a quilted coaster set, all the fun of trying quilting without the commitment of making a lot of squares
• Use up your orphaned socks with a fun Knitwit kid’s toy
• Make a Bicycle Top Tube Protector for your favorite cycylist
• Play with sequins, beads and embroidery floss for new embellishments
• The Knitwits too cute for your taste? Then explore the book of Zombie Felties
• Accessorize with a silk and bead necklace

Pincushions NG make pincushions.

Don’t be afraid. Just try something new. Most of all, making a craft is about having fun! As should sewing be! If you make something, be sure to post it to our Flickr group of Members’ Projects. Or email me a picture and I’ll be sure to post it for you. Maybe you’ve already made something for St. Patrick’s Day?

Happy Craft Month!