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| Door gift |
A little more than 2 weeks since the Sewing and Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, WA concluded. Since then, a lot has happened in my world that made me forgot a lot of the details (felt like it was ages ago now :( ). So before the sweet memories totally wiped out from my aging brain, here are the highlights for my own documentation NOT in a chronological order:
- As mentioned in a previous post, I went on the 2 final days from morning til late afternoon :)
- Attended 2 fashion shows:
- Fashion Trends for 2014 for Vogue, McCall's, Butterick and Kwik Sew (Pati Palmer, Marta Alto & Nancy Seifert)
- Distinctive Styles and Delightful Details (Louise Cutting and Linda Lee)
- Attended a few one needle ($5) classes (45 mins of lecture/demo seminars):
- Interfacing for Fashion Sewing (Connie Crawford of Fashion Patterns by Coni),
- Fitting Sleeves & Armholes (Connie Crawford),
- Sloper Savvy (Lorraine Henry of the Two Easy Tape Co),
- Couture Finishing Techniques (Lorene Bonewitz of Sew It Up)
- Industry Insider (Louise Cutting of Cutting Line Designs)
- Make It, Sell It, Profit! (Connie Spurlock of Sew Wonderful Dreams)
- I enjoyed all my classes, and visited the booths of Connie Crawford's, Lorraine Henry's and Lorene Bonewitz's. I also stopped by Cutting Line Designs' booth, and got the Balboa Shirt and Topper pattern that I liked from the earlier fashion show:
- Had Lorraine Henry show me how to use her two easy tape! :) Thanks Lorraine!
- Bought Connie Crawford's Patternmaking Made Easy book, had a fitting session with Connie herself!!! and got 2 of her patterns in the sizes she recommended for me (with her notes on additions/altering for moi on the woven top!!!). This weekend I made 2 knit tops/tunic based on the CS1207 knit sloper all on the serger. Regular readers of this blog will know that a sewing project usually took me a week to more, so 2 tops in a weekend is definitely highly productive. 2 tops that are in my eyes perfect for me? Out of this world awesome! Pics of them in future blog posts.
- Due to a car tire situation on Saturday morning (1st day i went), I missed THE fashion show I wanted to attend most: Vogue and Butterick's Creative Closet with Marcy and Katherine Tilton. So, I visited Marcy Tilton's booth on both days and ogled at everybody's outfit there ;) (Marcy posted pics of what they wear at the expo on her website.
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| Top is a knit, Bottom left is Japanese cotton and right is linen |
- I actually went around solo this year without a sewing buddy, but there were so many people I met and talked to...
- Met/saw some ladies from my sewing meetup circle. One + daughter I sat with at the fashion show like last year :) She's so kind and gave me a copy of my first Burda magazine (with patterns!) Shout out to Sherry: If you read this, ola!
- Another sewing meetup lady I got to say hi to and attended a couple of classes with, while some I just saw from afar :)
- Also chatted to a few (while lining up to enter fashion show, during solo lunch, at the booths) of ladies who've traveled far to attend (North Carolina, New Mexico, Canada) and also ladies who've been going to this Expo the past 20 years (one every year without fail with her sewing circle from out of state, and a local lady who missed one year (out of 20) but can't recall at that time why that was so. Also kept bumping into this kind lady from Bellevue, WA on both days but we didn't exchange information (I'm too shy to pass my business cards out! LOL. I only gave one the whole 2 days and to my sewing meetup leader who already knew me but don't have my number). I hope I'll bump into her again next year!
- Met with a couple sewing bloggers based in Seattle: Amy (plus baby girl & husband) of Sew Well (whose blog I've followed since before her move to the city) and Leah of Away I Sew! (whom I just met through Amy's Sewing in Seattle list) and together we went to visit the American Sewing Guild booth (before I said goodbye and left the SewExpo :) ).
- Prior in the day I bumped into them outside a class we all took but I had to rush to my fitting appointment with Connie. Then later I saw Leah at Lorraine Henry's booth (which I was so glad for and we agreed to meet back at Vogue Fabrics' booths after the class she's taking along with Amy. Leah was also responsible for sending me to visit The Wool House and a Washington-based fabric store that I can't recall the name of at this early morning hours but apparently carry great fabrics... :)
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| A knit that might become leggings, once i figure out leggings! How difficult is it? I botched my first leggings in December and it was too baggy throughout.... |
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| The Wool House loot: Alpaca wool and cashmere wool just enough to make something with no sleeves |
- over the 2 days, I also got me some supplies:
From Sew It Up booth (buy 3 free 1 end of expo deal, score!)
- And my favorite booth must be the Vogue Fabrics booth (just as it was last year). I stopped by and touched and check out the fabrics so many times both Saturday and Sunday :)
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| L-R: Rayon challis, cotton print, heavyweight cotton/linen blend, silk/linen blend, silk charmeuse and a fancy knit |
Conclusion:
- There's no doubt that I had a superb me time
- I will now restart my sewing from the stash only effort which saw a glitch since Black Friday fabric sales...
- I only really visited apparel sewing related booths and maybe stopped by a couple of quilting/crafting booths. I did attend one class related to my now sewing (crafts only) for selling venture though.
- I didn't see anything that I would rather purchase for my business/craft sewing than the ones I got for my own selfish garment sewing... ;)
- I felt like I needed a deep tissue massage (still does), but I'm too broke for that now...
- I'm wondering if I should "get my colors" done. Or just get a book on it.
- Lastly, I must thank my husband and the lil Bean for driving a total of 8 hours that weekend just so I can indulge on my passion, and for not commenting on the loot of sewing stuff I lugged back and litter in our tiny abode ;)
That's it. Short on content, long-ish on the journal part.
