One down, three to go…

I am teaching four garment construction retreats this fall, the first is finished, I just returned from a six day class in Harrisville, NH, home of Harrisville Designs.  I love teaching there, I had a particularly delightful class, they all got along well, helped each other, were supportive of each other, and all pledged to come back next year.  And they really really worked hard.  One of the advantages to places like this and like Sievers in Wisconsin (trip number 3) is that students can work well in to the night.  Some of my students are early morning risers, and they can start at 6am, and many of them don’t get cranking until after dinner.  It wasn’t unusual for me to stay and cheer them on until 11pm at night.  

Anyway, I had 12 students, four of them were repeaters, so they kind of worked on their own agenda.  Carole and Jane made garments from my patterns…  Both from handwovens…  Jane tried the new button down placket version of my tunic, with in seam buttonholes.

Amy and Rita brought their own patterns and Amy’s 1st jacket and both of Rita’s jackets were from handwoven.  

Tracey is a felter, and brought some felt laminate (wool felted onto silk) panels she made, and created a swing coat using the “living” edge of the felt as hems and borders.  I always called it the organic natural edge of the felt, but I like her term better.  She also had time to create my new swing dress/jumper from a commercial raw silk she brought along as plan B.

Sally and Polly made swing coats.  Both are handwoven, and Polly was a little further behind because she brought a plaid.  A handwoven plaid, and of course in a handwoven plaid, nothing matches up even though it was woven thread perfect.  She spent a lot of hours at the cutting table.  I cannot wait to see this one finished.

Leslie and Roberta made regular jackets, Leslie of course spent many extra hours cutting out her commercial plaid, she did a wonderful job, but ran out of time for things like bands and sleeves!  Roberta worked well into the evenings and was able to mostly finish hers. Roberta’s fabric is a gorgeous handwoven from Tencel.

And I had so much fun with Dee-Dee.  She wove a gorgeous mock leno wool fabric from combining Harrisville Shetland and Highland yarns.  There were a few challenging moments, and she added a very cool design to the pocket, but her tenacity showed and she got most of the jacket completed by the sixth day.

Betty turns out, worked for me many years ago, in the 1980’s when I did craft fairs, it was good to reconnect with her.  She brought commercial wool and made a terrific version of my collared zip vest, with a little assistance in the evenings!

And Peggy, I’ve known for many years, she regularly exhibits her work at conferences and is a pretty terrific garment maker and a heck of a weaver.  She brought a whole box full of things to work on, from tweaking the fit on garments she had already made, to creating one of my collared zip vests.  It was a joy to work with her as well.

And so  here is the class of Fall 2019 at Harrisville, taken a day early because a couple only stayed for the five days and didn’t need to take advantage of the extra sixth day.  The friendships that developed really showed, and I was very proud of this class.  

Peggy took a fun shot of me teaching during one of the lectures, I almost never have photos of me!

And for those that are interested, my five Handwoven Magazine webinars on Garment construction have found their new home through Long Thread Media.  Links to each of the five webinars can be found on my schedule page.  

And my latest video is up on Threads Magazine.  This one is included in their free essentials video series, it is all about stay stitching, something every weaver should memorize and anyone who sews garments should be aware of and be proficient at…

Trip number two of four is coming up fast, this one to the opposite corner of the US, Whidbey Island.

Stay tuned…