No place like home…

I spent last week teaching a five day intensive right here in my own studio.  I had two private students, and my lovely daughter came home from Massachusetts and joined the group making things a bit crowded but really fun.

My two students were actually people who are very close to me, my sister Marta who learned to sew with me when we were really young, and my dearest friend and former College Textiles Professor Carol.  Why you may ask would they want to spend a week taking an intense garment construction class?

My sister Marta is typical of my workshop students.  Well trained in garments early on in the Home Ec years, she was actually a Home Ec teacher for a brief time before becoming an architect.  But a lot of time has gone by since she made garments for herself and her body is not shaped like it was back in her 20’s.  The skills are there but they are very very rusty.  It was the perfect week for her to jump start her passion once again for making cool stuff to wear.

And my beloved college professor Carol, just wanted to be around creative people and make a garment or two.  It has been a really long time for her as well.  And she was determined to learn how to knit socks.

My daughter Brianna kept us all amazed by what she came up with, starting with a vest from a discarded beach umbrella from her beloved camp which closed at the end of last summer.

She made a muslin from my junk fabric bin for a cute top, and liked it so much she went and finished it.

She cut a motorcycle vest from a roll of black Pleather I had in the attic.

And she started on a pair of stretch denim pants in purple…

Marta made a vest from the pattern I used for my linen vest with Inkle trim.

She also made a muslin from some of my junk fabric for a jacket.

She kept us all laughing…  The bubble mailer made a nice hat.

And Carol brought a gorgeous wool knit and a classic Donna Karan Vogue pattern from her archives.  I know she will enjoy the comfort of an easy knit dress.

And then there were those socks…

We dined every afternoon and evening al fresco…

We celebrated my birthday last Thursday night at Jose Tejas with Margaritas and a couple of great gifts.  The large box was a new Cuisinart, since my old food processor died last Sunday in the middle of grating two pounds of carrots for carrot slaw…

And we ended a fantastic week with a trip into Manhattan to see the Charles James retrospective at the MET.  OMG!  This is a must see exhibit.  The animated images with each of the garments showed how the flat pattern shapes molded into these architecturally inspired garments.  I could have stayed in this exhibit for hours.

We made a final stop at Mood Fabrics.  Of course.

I bought this beautiful Cotton Jersey print.

I’m still trying to recover from the week, but there is work to be done and time’s a wastin’…

Stay tuned…