I know there are others posting about the Expo, but I wanted to connect with the garment sewists who attended and read this discussion area. My experience is based upon attending for four days. And it was my third visit! And this was my most organized experience: I carefully chose the teachers, left time for shopping (!), bought heavy things at the end of the day, and attended the fashion shows.
By using the internet to find out about some of the speakers, I signed up to hear Katrina Walker. This young textile educator was speaking about taming silk. Although it isn't her product, she had high praise for a Palmer Pletsch product called Sew Perfect. It is designed to be a spray on fabric stabilizer, but she uses a small amount, teaspoon, in a bowl of water. After it dries, she can iron it and do anything, including perfect rolled hems on Georgette. She also uses it on those pre-finished scarves from Thai Silks . Her pleats and tucks were beautiful and slightly stiff. When washed, they were back to soft and flowing. Naturally, I bought a lifetime supply! The larger screw top bottle made more sense than the spray bottle! Luckily, I was flying an airline with two free bags.
Many of the garment speakers were praising the Schmetz double eyed needle.( eyes are vertical). It is great for edge stitching. They must have been mentioned by several lecturers because they were sold out, but they are available om the internet.
More later, but I was really touched by Patti Palmer's excitement about her daughter's patterns for the twenty somethings for McCall's. And for the Red fashion show, Patti wore her daughter's design and daughter wore one of Patti's suits. At both classes and fashion shows I kept hearing that women buy too many patterns! Diane Erickson is even an advocate of using just one pattern all year! Get the fit right and then challenge yourself to be creative. Her personal interpretations were each unique. I didn't even recognize her repeated use of Skylines and Snap Dragon. And those patterns do exist in my library!
The fashion shows were crowded, had skinny models, but not all young! Linda Lee (SW) combined with Louise Cutting, Sandra Betzina showed with Marcy Tilton. It was great to see the garments move, be combined and often shown with some new Vogues to come this spring.
Linda Lee is also working with Bernina to help the firm return to garment sewing, Project Sewing Workshop. Some of her design are offered prepackaged with pattern, fabrics, and notions. Bernina sponsored a fashion show for young designers: they were to use some or all of 6 SW patterns and some of the preselected fabric. And more rules: sew on a Bernina and with lots of feet! At the ASG Seattle sponsored dinner, Linda as guest speaker, commented that some of the garments were perfect inside and out and others were fashion forward! It is still hard to accept steam a seam instead of sewing and raw edges and exposed zippers, and at times all at once! The garment sewists just need to encourage the creativity! I think that the Bernina show will eventually be available. Mentally, I am getting the Red Fashion show (Heart Association) and the Bernina Show overlapping! Many of the vendors modelled red garments from their pattern lines for the Red show. And the audience was a sea of red too!
In other posts, I see the comment about a lack of young sewists, but a group (?) called the Threadbangers (
www.threadbanger.com) drew a large crowd of enthusiast creative recyclers. The site has some pics of the submitted clothing!
And I think that Janet Pray and Rosebud from Margaret Islander have finally convinced me to try sewing with no pins. Position those hands and you can even do a no baste, no pin zipper. And plaids can be perfectly matched too! but it will be practice time.
You come home with your head spinning, your feet sore, more stash, some duplicate patterns and a wonderful time for very little money to get in and for classes. Now why did Visa have to call my house to confirm that the purchases were actual! Because the vendors are from everywhere and Canada, they were sure the card was being used. My fault, I should have called them first!
And other sewists? And I haven't even mentioned the fabric! Kaaren
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