New Adventure…

I tried something new this week.

It was a blast.

Backstory… My favorite workshop to teach is my five day intensive, no matter where I’m teaching it, I love the challenge of all levels of students interesting in constructing better garments from their cloth, no matter what type of cloth it is.  I have handweavers, and quilters, and surface design enthusiasts and felters, and people who just want to sew regular cloth.  The great thing when I return to a place year after year, is the repeat students.  I watch their skills mature, and their projects increase in complexity until sometimes I wonder why they continue to take the class since they have developed skills on par with mine.  I feel like in those cases I’ve given a student wings and it is such a joy and privilege to watch them fly.

I have two students who have taken a number of five day intensives with me, and for some reason, the timing didn’t work for them to take a five day with me this year, at one of my regular venues.  They are from Vermont and I adore both of them.  One thing led to another, and in a frustrating fit of, “we can’t work this out, and are thinking of parking ourselves on your doorstep…”, I sat back and thought, well why not?  Both were really enthusiastic and game, and we set a date for this past week.  They would arrive  Wednesday at lunch, be responsible for their own dinners, and we would work non stop from Wednesday through Sunday morning.  We made a brief exception for yesterday morning, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

I have two bedrooms that are empty, vacated by children who are semi-launched.  The studio is right across the hall, and I thought it could work.  It is an overfilled and cramped space, but I spent the earlier part of the week hauling stuff that I really didn’t need on a regular basis up to the attic, and made more room.  I have two sewing machines, but they each chose to bring their own.

My one fear was the cutting space, having two students layout fabric simultaneously meant I needed two full size cutting surfaces.  My dining room table with all the leaves in place and a portable floor OTT lite, made a great second space, Carole took the dining room, and Amy stayed in the studio.

Both women had chosen to make the same jacket, a difficult Vogue designer pattern 1293, with 37 pattern pieces.  Both women had handwoven fabric.  Amy’s layout wasn’t complicated, but we spent an enormous time on Carole’s trying to get the stripes symmetrical using a fabric that wasn’t woven that way, and being incredibly careful how we selected what went next to what.  We rearranged the pieces many times throughout the cutting process.

Both women elected to make bound buttonholes as their closure on this jacket.  Bound buttonholes need to be done right up front, right after the stay stitching so once the fabric, interfacing, and bias strips for the Hong Kong seam finishes were cut and stacked, they set their machines up and dove into the toughest part of the jacket.  Both did an amazing job.  There were four buttonholes each.  I was so proud.

It was great to watch the jackets progress over the last few days, I was there to help, and to rip out when necessary, it kept things moving and me busy.  Because I was able to be in my own studio, I could attend to business, check email, and keep up with some of the minor tasks, and in the evenings, Amy and Carole were able to escape a bit by walking into town, where there were a number of dining choices, and they seem to enjoy the adventure.

I loved the whole experience.  I loved using my own well equipped studio, it worked efficiently and better than I could have hoped.  My house is fun, and we took advantage of a couple of glorious early fall days and sat outside in the gardens while they pulled basting threads and tailor’s tacks.  We shared wine in the evenings.

Yesterday morning, we took a side trip, to Silk City Fibers which is about 15 minutes from my house, which is fiber mecca, a wholesale supplier of weaving and knitting yarns.  Silk City opens their warehouse outlet once a month, the second Saturday, and Amy, whose birthday was yesterday, noted when we planned this whole private session, that they would be down in NJ during the second Saturday and could we plan a trip to Silk City?  I drove them over.  And of course I did what any self respecting fiber enthusiast who has more yarn and fabric than they know what to do with would do, I bought more.  What could I do?  It was too tempting…  Amy and Carole did damage to their credit cards as well, and I was thrilled to run into the owner David, whom I haven’t seen in many many years, and it was great to catch up with him.  I think Amy had a pretty decent birthday.  We celebrated last night with an excellent meal at Bistro 202, it is a bring your own, which we certainly did, and we were able to walk home and continue the celebration.

The jackets are lovely.  Both fit really well, and they packed up and drove home this morning, with about 20 hours of handwork remaining, but I know they are happy.  I would do this whole thing again in a heartbeat.  I do have the space for it, and the dogs were very cooperative and my husband stayed out of the way, and actually left Friday to head up to UMass to visit my daughter for family weekend.  If anyone is interested, rates are posted on my website and I can take up to two students at a time so two students can split my fee.

I did get to work a little on my inkle loom while Amy and Carole worked, it was portable enough and easy enough for me to put down when I was needed, and I will write about that in a follow up post.

Meanwhile, I now have to spend the next three days furiously prepping looms and printing handouts, and packing for the last trip of the year, NY Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck.  I have seven classes to teach, and there are still a couple of spots remaining in most of the classes.  The link should be in the events calendar in the sidebar on the right.

Stay tuned…