It's about exploring and sharing my creative adventures (mostly sewing these days) ~
~those activities that sometimes obsess, usually inspire, occasionally frustrate
~and always provide a delightful maze to wander through.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

When Sewists Gather....

....in my experience, it's ALWAYS a good time!   Fun, educational (we are a creative and curious lot), inspirational, and sometimes even unusual.

I've had the good fortune to meet up with other bloggers a couple of times recently - Elizabeth of SEWN and the delightful short one she lives with, and last night badmomgoodmom and Shams and I all got together.  (more about that below)

First I want to spread the word about an event coming up next month that sounds very intriguing, definitely educational, and probably a lot of fun as well!  Britex Fabrics is partnering with Laurence King Publishing/Chronicle Books to present an evening class on draping techniques, celebrating the launch of Karolyn Kiisel's upcoming book, "Draping The Complete Course".  I'm so looking forward to running my hands and eyes over this book - check out the cover, and a couple of pages of the beautiful illustrations inside - it looks quite promising:




The class will include a demonstration of how to drape Audrey Hepburn's classic "Breakfast at Tiffany's" sheath (do you really even need a photo to conjure up this image?), plus info and some materials to help us get started on our own projects.


My mother worked from patterns, but she always draped the clothes on me as she altered and fitted, and I've always loved to do that sort designing; my favorite creations often come from a draping type of inspiration!  Now that  I'm close to getting my dress form to actually match my body, I can't wait to start playing with draping on it; so the timing for this class is perfect!  I hope to see you there!  :)  The date of the class is September 19, from 7-9, at Apparel Arts; cost is $25.  (reasonable, I think!) The book will also be available at that time.

As for blogger meetups, I'm a bit late on this one, but I had a delightful brunch with Elizabeth of SEWN, and her sidekick Jack, a few weeks ago - here we are at Stonemountain (oops, did I say brunch?   Well, yes, brunch and just a bit of fabric shopping.....).   She is much braver than I in terms of exposure to our Bay Area summers - I never leave the house without layers!  Jack was being a real trooper while we shopped, and quietly sat at the pattern table with his iPad.   What a great kid!

And yesterday, I finally got to spend some quality time with badmomgoodmom.  The 5-second meeting we had at PR Weekend really didn't cut it, so after a few dozen emails and phone calls and planning and re-planning over the past few days (she aptly called the process "Space-Time Tetris" in her blog post here), we got together for some snoop shopping in Hayes Valley (Hayes Street in San Francisco - a rather fabulous area to snoop shop in - I needed an out-of-towner to show me how much the area has changed over the past 20+ years - I definitely need to go back for a deeper exploration!)

We made it into a total of 3 shops (that girl can talk up a storm with any interesting stranger on the street, I swear!) before meeting up with Shams, who also blogged about our gathering in her post here.  We spent the next 4 hours engrossed in tea and delicious food and conversation at Caffe Delle Stelle (Italian, of course, and recommended for great service and very good food, at reasonable prices).


badmom made a vociferous point about theoretical physicists not being nerdy & geeky (per Big Bang Theory, which shams and I both love and badmom hates).  When good-dad joined us for a second round of food, badmom turned into goodsexyflirtymom and proved her point quite well.   ;-D

It was a delightful evening!   The more sewing bloggers (and sewing non-bloggers) I get to spend time with, the happier I am that I re-joined the sewing world, and keep getting connected with some of the most interesting and creative people around!  Don't you agree?

14 comments:

SEWN said...

So nice to see you that day. I can't believe it's already been a month since then. And in my defense, I was driving to hotter Napa after our excursion. ;)

Unknown said...

Wish you were closer and this class was BEFORE I made my granddaughter's junior bridesmaid dress for the wedding last weekend. I had to try it on her several times and it worked out just fine, but it would have been a lot easier if she had been closer!

glorm said...

This may never happen again: in my Google Reader was the same pic on two different blogs, yours and Shams, one below the other!

Because of the way you style garments, draping should be just perfect for you. :)

Mary said...

It sounds like the best times! Enjoy the draping class and share your impressions, ok?

badmomgoodmom said...

It was fun, but too short. Next time, let's reserve more time for snoop shopping!

Don't forget, I may live in LA, but I grew up in SF and went to Cal (Berkeley). I have explored more nooks and crannies of the SFBay Area than most people who live there today. Field trips with field biology and art history classes gave me a head start. My own curiosity and a former boyfriend studying civil engineering impelled further exploration. I can run "explore CA tours" with plenty of stops for fabric and yarn shopping.

Alison said...

How I wish that I lived near the Bay Area, instead of up here in Portland. I can only dream of how much fun a blogger meetup might be, as my contact with other sewing obsessed folks must remain simply virtual. It sounds like you had a fantastic time, and I look forward to hearing about the draping class...

velosews said...

Badmom is great for fabric shopping. I can attest to that and she and Gooddad are great company. So glad you had a great time!

Jillybejoyful said...

I saw one other blog with the same lead picture on the same day - it would have been too much to think the 3 would all be stacked in someone's Reader!

Jillybejoyful said...

I will definitely share! :)

Jillybejoyful said...

Absolutely more snoop shopping time next time! And yes, you would be an awesome tour guide :)

Jillybejoyful said...

True about Napa....the experienced know it's all about layers here :)

Jillybejoyful said...

I still don't have all the fitting issues down on my own body, let alone trying to fit a fitted garment on someone who isn't standing right next to me every sewing moment! You did great!

Jillybejoyful said...

I put several hours of driving time in every month for various sewing obsessed meetups - it's worth it!

Jillybejoyful said...

We didn't even make it in to a fabric store....I suspect she might be a terrible influence lol!