Sew Creative Club: Linda Lee and Project Sewing Workshop

This post is sort of a continuation of the last one. In addition to sponsoring the class on Monday, Ann Silva's also had Linda Lee at the monthly Sew Creative Club meeting on Tuesday. So of course, I also went to that!

For Sew Creative, Linda showed many garments from her pattern collection, but she also spoke about Project Sewing Workshop, her other endeavor in conjunction with Bernina. She introduced Project Sewing Workshop last year at the ASG Conference. Since then, she's done a lot of development work on the program. The kits are still the main part, but there's more.

• There's an Artist Series of patterns specifically designed for PSW: the first one features quilt artist Yvonne Porcella. This series will feature a new fiber/quilt artist twice a year. There will be special embellishment kits as well as fabric kits associated with each pattern so you can create the look. Linda said the embellishment kits will feature buttons and other embellishments that you can't find anywhere else.
• There's a whole swatching service that sewing stores can participate in, without having to stock thousands of additional yards of fabric. I really liked the viscose knits that were available. She will have standard fabrics that will be available only through participating stores, as well as special ones that will be available at the stores and online. Of course it would be great to have a quality local independent fabric shop, but face it, that's not going to happen. This is another option that's quasi local.
  
• The kits: PSW plans to offer kits featuring patterns from other fabric companies, so there will be additional options. The fabrics and patterns will change several times during the year.
  
• Accessories: buttons have been added to the PSW line, as well as fasteners. I bought some buckles that will be used on the Soho Coat I've had in the planning stage forever.

Sewing Workshop Techniques Class

This post and the next one will probably be very boring for anyone who doesn't sew. Just don't say you weren't warned. I also didn't have much opportunity for picture taking, so this one is text heavy as well.

I took Monday off and spent all day in sewing class with Linda Lee and my fellow sewists. Linda is the owner of the Sewing Workshop Pattern Collection.



What a fabulous time! The focus of the class was learning the fine points of quality garment sewing. Linda believes if you're going to spend time, you should make as high level garment as possible. Emulate high end RTW, not Walmart, in other words.

Some general principles:

• The fabric dictates the seam finish.
• Use different seam finishes for different areas of your garments.
• Make samples even before cutting into your fabric. You may need additional seam allowances, etc. that may need to be accounted for when cutting out the garment.
  
• 80/12 Universal needle 90% of the time.
• Use a short stitch length, 2.2 or so.
  
• Preferred thread is cotton, specifically Metrosene. The exception is sewing with knits, where you should use polyester.
• Marking: very important. Use tailor tacks, an old technique but the most accurate way.

Most of Monday morning involved sewing samples of seam finishes, including French seams, Hong Kong finish, flat fell seams, and turn and stitch. There are many options other than just serging the edges and you may want to use more than one seam finish in a garment.

After lunch, we made hem samples: mitered hem, Linda's knit hem technique, and a handkerchief hem. The final sample was installing an invisible zipper without pinning.

Through the class, Linda discussed garments from the Sewing Workshop Pattern Collection:

• Lotus Skirt: it has come back in style and popularity. She's now making it 4" shorter than the original. Several samples were shown.
• Mixit: 3 tops in this pattern. The princess seamed shirt can be made up as a top or jacket.
  
• Trio T: Linda went in depth with this one, discussing how to make this t on the sewing machine. So yes, you can sew knits without a serger.
  
• Trio Top: Linda was wearing this one as a blouse under a Zig Zag Shirt. It was made in a lightweight georgette. Very cute and different than other versions I've seen before.
  
• San Diego Jacket: many sample garments. Linda used this pattern to discuss the importance of marking.
  
• Valencia Jacket: This is somewhat similar to the drape-front knits Donna Karan has been showing but shorter. She had several samples in both wovens and knits. Definitely requires a drapy fabric
  
• Liberty Shirt: Linda used this top as jumping off point to demonstrate setting in a sleeve, using the sewing ham to shape the sleeve cap, ideal ease in sleeve cap (1.5 inches or less), pinning sleeve to garment to build in ease.
  
• Plaza, Valencia, and Urban Pants: all are built on the same block. Linda has submitted an article to Threads that explains how to make variations to a basic pant pattern.
• Oh yeah, and the famous felted wool Zen Shirt from the most recent cover of Threads. FYI, Linda has put the instructions for how to make this shirt/jacket on her blog.
  

Linda provided a lot of information during the day. It was a challenge to keep up with it all but now I have techniques that I can use on my own things, and samples that will help jog my memory. Linda also mentioned a lot of reference materials that we could make use of later.