ASG Conference Classes

I took several classes, but I've learned since my first Conference not to take a class for each and every time they're available. You'll run yourself ragged, and it's information overload.

This time, I took the following:

• Louise Cutting, "Cutting It Apart": This one was an optional class that took all day Thursday. We made a bunch of samples under Louise's direction. Awesome class!! I think I learned a lot about Louise's approach to sewing, things that can be applied to other patterns as well.
  


• Louise Cutting, "Cutting and Pasting": This one was a short class that was more oriented specifically towards Louise's pattern line vs. techniques. I enjoyed this class because she talked about ways to play around with each pattern to develop unique looks.
  


• Susan Lazear, "Domino Design": Susan is a bit of a sleeper, in that she isn't a big hype sewing "personality." On the other hand, she does teach college level classes in fashion design, so she does know what she's talking about from a technical standpoint. The Domino theory is "to begin with one fabric, and as you add a piece to the wardrobe, you introduce a new fabric to the mix. As each subsequent fabric is added, a new fabric is introduced and and an existing fabric is dropped. This is the domino effect." OK, so I'm not going to apply this to each and every item I buy/make. But it was an interesting approach to wardrobing, so I'll give her that.
  


• Susan Lazear, "Armholes and Sleeves: Solving the Mystery": Sleeves are usually a mystery to most sewists. Susan provided a lot of detail on how a sleeve is developed, where bust shaping is incorporated into the sleeve, and finetuning of various sleeves and armholes.
  


• Mary Ray, "Designs in Details" Mary is a contributing editor to Threads Magazine and was formerly on staff. Beautiful sample garments, but she had to fight the skinny/deep layout of the room. The details were beautiful, but I wish she'd had some slides to give close up views.
  


• Jacque Goldsmith, "Adapting Vintage Patterns": Jacque is a younger sewing professional who has worked in the industrial and home sewing aspects of the clothing industry. Fearless about working with all kind of vintage patterns. I enjoyed the class and look forward to working with some of the vintage and vintage-reproduction patterns I have.
  


• Fred Bloebaum, "What's New With Knits": Fred is very organized and always provides an outline of her talks. Plus loads of samples that she passes around the room so you can experience what she's talking about. Look forward to seeing knits in unusual fibers for the foreseeable future. Anything that can be spun will be knitted.