National Sewing Month at Area Libraries

Some enterprising ASG Chicago Neighborhood Groups organized displays at their community libraries to celebrate National Sewing Month. We have pictures of displays at the Oak Forest, Illinois Library, prepared by the “Bobbin Along” group and a northwest Indiana library prepared by the “Thread Heads” of Valparaiso. Don’t they look great?

Are you ready for the Sew Spring Fling 2013?

It’s that time of year again. Time for Spring Fling 2013! This year’s fling takes place April 27th at St. Isaac Jogues Church, 8149 Golf Road, Niles, IL 60714, 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Admission is free. Feel free to bring guests. Members can buy, sell or donate fabric, patterns and sewing books. Whistle Stop Demos are a wonderful opportunity to learn new sewing techniques. Everyone is welcome and we look forward to seeing you there.

Members interested in selling fabric please click here for information and to obtain fabric inventory forms.

ASG Chicago Member Wins IPCA Ticket to Paradise Contest

The 2013 Ticket to Paradise Grand Prize went to Eve Kovacs of Woodridge, Illinois, who used patterns from Saf-T-Pockets to create a skirt and jacket ensemble.
Photo: Charles Islander, C Islander Graphics and Photography

Courtesy of Threads.com …

At the International Textile Expo in Las Vegas, March 18-20, the Independent Pattern Company Alliance presented its annual sewing contest fashion show and awarded the top prizes to the contest winners. Each year, the IPCA’s contest challenges sewers to select patterns from one of the IPCA member pattern companies and then unleash their imaginations to create garments inspired by the contest theme. The 2013 theme was “Ticket to Paradise”, and contestants were encouraged to make garments that express their idea of “paradise”. The winning garments were selected from a field of finalists during the Sewing & Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, Washington, earlier in March.

The 2013 Ticket to Paradise Grand Prize went to Eve Kovacs of Woodridge, Illinois, who used patterns from Saf-T-Pockets to create a skirt and jacket ensemble…

Click here to read more.

ASG Chicago Presents: Traditional Bargello Jacket Workshop with Joan Derylak

The Chicago Chapter of The American Sewing Guild presents A Traditional Bargello Jacket Workshop with Joan Derylak of Figure Flattering Quiltwear. This 2 day workshop takes place Friday and Saturday, June 21-22, 2013 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM at Fabrics Etc, 1105 South York Road in Bensenville, Illinois.

In this class students will create their own unique bargello jacket using 7 different fabrics, choosing from the Straight Bargello or Purple Garden. You supply the fabric and bring your machine, we supply the kit, which includes 4 copies of the pattern you select, lunch and snacks.

We will learn the basic techniques for creating bargello with tube construction and how to use this to design for our own uniquely beautiful Figure Flattering Quiltwear. Joan loves to see the creativity and enthusiasm, when a student first puts on her garment and looks in the mirror.  Most are surprised at the great fit and how the colors come together.

Friday morning:  Jacket fittings/alterations and marking our muslin. Students have 34 muslins in five styles to try on and choose from, bust sizes 32”-57”

Friday afternoon – Saturday:  Students will learn the basic techniques of bargello design, and how to apply this to a garment.  We will then sew, sew, sew.  Lastly will be a finishing/tailoring techniques demo.

Pre-class preparation required: Supply list and pre-class prep directions will be sent to you after you register.

Skill level: Purple Garden straight bargello jacket Beginner; Midnight Glacier slant bargello jacket Intermediate

Basic sewing skills are required.  Garment construction skills are helpful.

The Early Bird price for ASG Members who register by May 13, 2013 is only $135, which includes lunch, beverages, snacks and multiple copies of the pattern so you won’t have to do any tracing. The non-member price is $170.  Click here to register online or download a paper registration form. Don’t delay – space is limited!

Workshop Alert: Don’t Miss Piecing with Silks, Satins & Other Fun Fabrics

Hope Quilt by Judy Zoeler

Workshop alert!!! Are you a quilter who feels your repertoire is limited to only cotton? Then we have just the workshop for you. Join us for Piecing with Silks, Satins & Other Fabrics with world-renowned quilter Judy Zoeler. For one day only Judy will conduct a hands-on workshop, Saturday, March 16th at the Holiday Inn Express in Palatine, Illinois.

Judy will introduce 20 students to the joys of quilting with silks, satins and other fun fabrics. Using her patters and fabric kit, Judy will help students create a fan-themed quilt square and learn special techniques for working with these beautiful yet delicate fabrics.

Space is limited and early bird registration is still available; $60 for American Sewing Guild members and $75 for non-members. Early bird pricing ends this Friday, February 15th. The workshop pattern, kit and lunch are included in the registration fee. To register and for more information click here.

You don’t want to miss this all day workshop. Sewing friends, quilting and good food – what more can you ask for? Hope to see you there!

Float Quilt by Judy Zoeler

Jennifer Stern Workshop Weekend

Jennifer showing students how to raise the rise of their jeans. To see more photos click on the pics.

The ASG Chicago Chapter hosted Jean & Tee Fit Workshops with instructor Jennifer Stern. 35 attendees gathered for the all-day hands-on workshops held this past Saturday and Sunday. During Sunday’s workshop with Jennifer’s patterns and expertise attendees demystified the dilemma of denim to alter patterns and construct their own custom fit muslins for jean construction. On Saturday attendees created custom tees.

Alice Smith traces her jean pattern

Chicago Chapter President, Wendy Grossman, shows off her new tee

Join us for our next educational event, Piecing with Silks, Satins & Other Fun Stuff with Judy Zoelzer Levine on Saturday, March 16^th at 10 AM at the Holiday Inn Express in Palatine. Early bird pricing is still available. For more information and to register click here.

Sewing Circles Around Chicagoland

Here’s a quiz for you. If you were to tell your friends how frustrated you are with a sewing challenge, such as keeping your bias bindings from rippling, would they:

a.  Ask what you’re talking about?

b.  Roll their eyes and ask why you spend your time on such things when you can buy ready-made?

c.  Give you a great suggestion, draw a diagram to explain it, offer to email you a link to a blog that gives a step-by-step tutorial and tell you to call them if you have any questions?

If you answered c, you’re probably an active member of ASG. If you answered a or b, see what you’re missing!

When I finish a project (a pretty rare occurrence for someone suffering from Paralyzing Perfectionism), there is nothing like the feeling of showing it to my sewing friends, who appreciate all the work that went into it. When I’m stuck on something I just can’t get right (see the reference to Paralyzing Perfectionism above!), I know I can count on my sewing friends to come up with helpful suggestions, offer encouragement and, yes, even suggest ways to turn mistakes into design details. Where did I get all those great sewing friends? Do you have to ask?

Walking into a an ASG Neighborhood Group meeting or Chicago Chapter event is always a treat. We come together as a community. We inspire one another. We learn together. We share our knowledge freely. We encourage one another. We enable our mutual obsession. We reassure one another that there are worse fabriholics out there, or someone else has more UFOs (white lies are absolutely acceptable). We speak a common language. And many of us become lifelong friends.

In almost any given week, at least three ASG Chicago Neighborhood Group meetings are held in and around Chicago. Each of these groups has its own unique personality. Each is a sewing circle that welcomes newcomers and long-time members; those who quilt; those who sew home dec and crafts; those who sew garments; and those who think about sewing more than they actually sew. If you are already a member of ASG, you are not limited to any one Neighborhood Group. If you are thinking about joining, you are welcome to attend two Neighborhood Group meetings as a guest before joining.

For the most part, sewing is a solitary pursuit. For those of us who participate in ASG, that solitude is balanced with a strong communal experience and unbreakable ties to others who share the same passion. I look forward to strengthening those ties in the coming year (and, yes, to overcoming the Paralyzing Perfectionism long enough to complete a few sewing projects).

Giveaway Winner…umm, Winners!

We ran our first giveaway a couple of weeks ago. We asked our readers:

If you were to write a memoir about you and your sewing, what would be your snappy, marketable title and tagline?

The Random Number Generator selected entry #1 for “Pressing Matters”! With only two entries, I ran the Random Number Generator in a best of 5, just to be fair. Congratulations, Marie!

Pressing Matters

Trying to buy an iron has become an adventure over the last several months! Who knew there was so many systems to select from. And the price range started at $100 and went up to the cost of a used car! I really don’t need to drive my pressing system on the road!!

Marie wins the Sew U and Making Handbags & Purses books, zippers, buttons and fold-over elastic.

Since we only had two entries, I just couldn’t let our other fabulous entry go without merit. So, for the hilarious memoir titled “I Came, I Sewed, I Conked Out”, CKSewist will also win a prize. CKSewist will win a yard of blue-green ombre mohair and two altered couture magazines to continue her sewing (and conking out).

I Came, I Sewed, I Conked Out

A woman of a certain age goes to her local ASG chapter’s retreat where she eats too much pasta, drinks too much wine, stays up all night finishing UFOs, and passes out on a cutting table as all around her are women packing their machines into attractive wheeled carrying cases for the trip home.

Email me at tinawong[at]asgchicago[dot]org to claim your prize! Send me your mailing address and I will ship it to, so you can continue your sewing journeys!

Giveaway! What’s Your Sewing Journey Memoirs Title

Image source: U-handbag extreme sewing on Flickr

Hello, dear readers! We’ve reached a milestone…well, actually, we reached it a while ago. We have been on Twitter and have 265 followers and have sent more than 2,000 tweets of tips, news and tutorials. That’s a lot of stuff to share. Now in standard Twitter-quette, I should have had a giveaway when we hit our first hundred followers as a thank you (THANK YOU!), but that slipped by me, then 200 slipped by me. Then my 1,000th tweet slipped by me. Then National Sewing Month slipped by. But, I still wanted to take the opportunity to thank our followers on Twitter and of this blog, so WE’RE GONNA HAVE A GIVEAWAY!

You don’t have to do anything crazy, like sewing in the ocean (but that does look like fun, doesn’t it?)

I’m inspired by America’s Test Kitchen blog post Silly Question of the Day: Faux Food Memoirs. America’s Test Kitchen asks readers what the title to their food-centric memoirs. I thought it was so much fun, so why not ask you, dear readers, to give a thought to your sewing adventures or your sewing journey and share your self-titled tome. Or maybe it’s a novella!

Would it resemble any of these?

• A Tale of Two Stitches
• Mary Poplins
• Prairie Points Home Companion
• War and Piece
• Project Runway Called, But They Didn’t Leave a Message

Tell Us Your Story Title To Win

If you were to write a memoir about you and your sewing, what would be your snappy, marketable title and tagline?

Feel free to expound on the general theme, plot, and (juicy) narrative.

Leave your silly answer in the comments section below! Let’s see what everyone’s story is for the next two weeks. Entries have to be in the comments section by midnight Central Time on Saturday, October 15…the day of the American Sewing Guild Chicago chapter’s annual Fashion Show! Have you sent in your reservation, yet? Don’t forget we’ll have raffle prizes and our fabric sale and the great bargains of the Pattern and Book Sale!

After having a giggle, we’ll use the Random Number Generator to pick the winner.

The Giveaway Prize

Of course we have to have a prize! For this giveaway, we’re focusing on garment and handbag sewing. No worries, future giveaways will have something related to quilting, heirloom and other types of sewing.

• Sew U Home Stretch: The Built by Wendy Guide to Sewing Knit Fabrics by Wendy Mullin
• Making Handbags & Purses: 50 Patterns & Designs from Casual to Corporate by Carol Parks
• A 22″ handbag zipper that opens from the center out with two zipper pulls
• A 16″ Riri zipper…“It’s Not a Zipper…It’s an Embellishment!” This metal zipper has a full stop part way up the zipper, then the leftover zipper tape is used as piping; and
• 4 yards of fold-over elastic in shades of blue. Use this to edge knits (perfect for your new book)
• A card of vintage buttons in shades of green.

So leave us a title, a plot and have fun telling us your sewing journey! Good luck!

Edit: Due to postage, the giveaway is limited to U.S. mailing addresses. But, if you’re not in the U.S., we’d still love to read your sewing memoir title.

Celebrate National Sewing Month!

September is here! On the one hand it means a melancholy feeling because summer is coming to an end and we’re heading to cooler temps. But on the other hand, September is a CELEBRATION OF SEWING! September is celebrated as National Sewing Month and is co-sponsored by the Sewing & Craft Alliance and the American Sewing Guild.

A Brief History of National Sewing Month

In September 1982, President Ronald Reagan signed Proclamation #4976, declaring that September as National Sewing Month. The proclamation recognized the tens of millions of Americans home sewists and  “the skill and the self-reliance which are so characteristic of this Nation.” This was followed with successive annual proclamations by President Reagan during his terms. But in 2005, the request for a proclamation was not accommodated. However, even without a Presidential proclamation, September continued to be supported and promoted as National Sewing Month by various organizations.

In  2008, the American Sewing Guild joined forces with the Sewing & Craft Alliance to continue the promotion of National Sewing Month and provide a central location for the distribution of National Sewing Month information and materials to organizations, educators, sewing enthusiasts and anyone else interested in promoting and/or participating in activities for National Sewing Month.

Celebrate With Sewing: Sew For The Love Of It Contest

National Sewing Month is celebrated with a contest to showcase and encourage sewing creativity and imagination. This year’s theme is “Sew For the LOVE of it!” 

The contest runs through September 30, 2011. Official rules and entry can be found on the National Sewing Month website. Here’s what you should be thinking:

“Show us what YOU love to sew! You choose the project, whether it’s an article of clothing, a toy, something for your home, an accessory, a quilt, or even an item for your car or boat. Whatever you decide to create, show your love with a within the project. It can be heart fabric, a pillow shaped like a heart, heart embroidery, heart-shaped pockets – it’s completely up to you. The item you enter must be hand-crafted and utilize fabric, thread and sewing machine and there MUST be a visible heart somewhere on the project itself. Whatever you choose to sew, just make sure we see the expression of your love of sewing!”

Think about using National Sewing Month in your neighborhood group challenge this month. If you have pictures, be sure to post them to the Members’ Projects album or email me to post them.

Follow National Sewing Month on Twitter

The National Sewing Month is on Twitter, @sewingmonth. Watch their tweets for daily giveaways and tutorials posted to the National Sewing Month website.

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, @sewchicago. Watch for our special National Sewing Month tweets with the hashtag “#NatSewMo”. We and other sewists around the Twitter-sphere are using the hashtag to share our enthusiasm for sewing!