The Sievers Achievers…

I’m back!

It didn’t make sense to throw up a post while I was away, first because there wasn’t a whole lot of down time, and second, the internet wireless was so slow I would still be uploading photos.  This is an island, where people get away from reality.  That’s the way it should be and the way it should stay…

I just returned from another fabulous 8 days or so on Washington Island, WI, home of Sievers School of Fiber Arts.  This is my seventh year.  If I gave up teaching and retired, I’d still want to go teach at Sievers.  It is truly magical.

Last year I had a horrific time getting there, between flight cancellations and general United angst, I ended up arriving about 15 minutes after the class officially started.  So as not to repeat that scenario this year, I traveled up to Door County Wisconsin a day early.  One of my long time students, dear friend and fellow NYC fiber shopper Ginnie met me at the airport and drove me to Whitefish Bay Farm Bed and Breakfast where we spent the night before the trek up to Washington Island on Saturday.  Of course, since I anticipated flights from hell, the universe laughed and I had the most perfect flights making all the connections with ease both coming and going.  Should all of airline travel be that lovely. (Both coming and going I had less than a one hour connection time in O’Hare which made this trip truly remarkable.)

Ginnie and I spent a couple hours wandering around Whitefish Dunes State Park and then had wine on the porch at the B&B.  A great start…

This year I had a really small class.  And it was delightful.  There were six students, four of whom were repeats which is really fun for me because I get to know each of them and their bodies and the cloth they make and we develop a mentor type of relationship instead of teacher/student.  Three of the students took the five day option, and the remaining three, the die-hards, stayed on for the seven day intensive.

First there was my delightful new student Carol Riedner, who also teaches at Sievers.  Carol has been exploring Nuno Felting, laminating wool and old silk clothing for a creative cloth that had us all coveting…  She made a jacket from my basic pattern and spent a lot of time laying out the individual pieces and focusing on the natural organic edge from the Nuno Felt process.  Her jacket is amazing.  I think she was happy!

Judy Yamamoto took the class for the second time, Judy is also a teacher at Sievers.  She made a jacket in class with me last year, and came back to make one this year in her handwoven fabric.  She called this her garbage warp, take everything off the shelves and create a warp using up small cones of things.  The colors were beautiful and fit well with her personal palette. Finishing up a little ahead of schedule, she started making a bias vest from the pattern one of the other students Terry was using. She stole the leftover bias trim from her daughter-in-law’s jacket.

And Judy brought along her daughter-in-law, a first time student both at Sievers and with me.  Marian was probably one of the most entertaining students I’ve ever had in class.  Marian and her husband spend their lives in late 1500’s costumes, they frequent Renaissance Fairs around the country, and live in the Mid-Atlantic region.  Marian brought in a couple of large totes to show us some of what she does.   Seems Marian has a fantastic wardrobe she has created of garments from the 1500’s and a lot of t-shirts and sweats and nothing in between.  Marian wanted a jacket she could wear and not look like she was meeting Queen Elizabeth I.  Though Marian has the perfect body for Elizabethan garments, she struggled to find ready-to-wear that fit.

The highlight of the week was Marian and her husband dressing up in their costumes (each weighed more than 25 pounds and took them both more than a half hour to dress).  Marian’s husband entertained us with a Ren Fair tale of the Miller, the Miller’s daughter and their ass.  So guess which part I played…

Oh, and Marian actually created a jacket from a lovely commercial cotton, she still has hand work to do, but I don’t suspect that will be a problem.

Anyone who has ever taken a class with me knows about the “Daryl Alert”.  It is my way of managing a class where everyone needs me and I avoid running around the room like a crazy person by using this system.  If you need me, your name goes on the list.  This one was particularly colorful…

And then there were my Sievers Achievers.  Ginnie, Terry, and Cindy have been coming to my classes for many years, we’ve all lost count, probably more than a half dozen times each.  We have all become great friends and I’m starting to mix up their names the way I do with my children (particularly embarrassing since I have a boy and a girl).  Especially since all three end in a “y” sound!  All three women stayed on for the Seven Day Intensive, yet we all found that the days and nights were not intensive but the most perfect blend of music, fiber, friendship and stimulating conversation (and here I shall not post the main topics of conversations except that there were a lot of jokes pertaining to the Jockey Bra fitting kit that we all tried on for size and plan to order.  Something about a chip and dip set…)

Cindy always comes with handwoven fabric and makes a fantastic jacket.  This year she sent me a photo of a co-worker’s Ann Klein jacket and said she wanted to copy it.  I copy a lot of ready-to-wear, and didn’t think it would be too difficult.  Until I saw the jacket.  The design of the jacket is gorgeous.  But trying to copy such a non standard garment and then resizing it to Cindy’s body was a bit of a challenge, but I have to say, it is a testament to how far Cindy’s garment construction skills have come that she worked very independently for most of the process.  This was a tough one.  We fitted and tweaked and fitted and tweaked some more.  There were a lot of pattern pieces that went together in odd ways.  It was great fun for both of us to analyze the construction process.  She did a super job.  The last photo shows the original jacket on the right, and Cindy’s version on the left.  She found almost the same fabric at Jo-Ann’s and we decided to cut the welts and pocket flaps on the bias.

Ginnie brought a stack of projects as always, and jumped in head first.  There was the silk striped top, cut on the bias,  with a mullet hem.  If I remember, this was one of the fabrics she bought when we were shopping in NYC in April.  She matched the stripes perfectly.  It still needs buttons and some handwork but it is super cute.

and for a snack one evening she made an adorable Ponteroma knit summer skirt.

Ginnie brings her dressform with her to help with fit and designing, and we just couldn’t seem to get the chest measurement above the bustline correct.  So we took drastic measures.  Having no electric knife, which works best on foam, we used a long serrated knife and I spent some time one evening carving up her dressform.  The photo immediately went up on Facebook titled “Daryl’s new method of pattern alterations…”

And then we worked on the pattern for a Today’s Fit Vogue jacket (7976) with three bias darts down the front all of which had to be resized for her body.  Ginnie used her cotton and variegated tencel handwoven fabric for the jacket, and trimmed the interior with bias strips from the leftovers from Marian’s jacket.  The match was perfect.

And last but not least, Terry.  Terry it should be noted, just did a five day class with me last month in Asheville.  Terry has grown so much in the last few years in her fitting skills, her garment construction skills and her general confidence.  I love working with her.  Her first project was a vest, which seems simple in its lines, but fitting this pattern and re-engineering it for her handwoven tencel fabric was a real challenge.  We wanted to line it with the orange sari fabric you see on the left, but not restrict it, so only time will tell how successful we were.  She also has a lot of handwork still to do…

Terry also restyled a piece she made in another Sievers Workshop with a different instructor.  It is made from her handwoven fabric but never quite fit her correctly.  We took apart the front and added a dart and now the vest fits well.

Then Terry brought with her a tote bag and some patterns and wanted to make totes for gifts from the handwoven leftovers from her jackets from previous Sievers classes.  I showed her how to copy the tote, and make a pattern and gave her some pointers in simple bag construction.  She had fun.  And it shows.  And the lining is so perfect!

Terry tried on one of my sample garments I use for teaching and loved it so much it is going home with her.  This one is from my archives from 2003 and appeared in Handwoven Magazine.

We only had one “oops” moment when a mirror came crashing down after the heat wave broke and we opened the windows.  And in true Sievers fashion, the response from the Sievers crew was, “That’s OK, Butch has a shop vac”.  I love Mid-Westerners…

And so at the end of every Sievers class, there is the infamous group photo, and we took our own of the extended seven day class, my true Sievers Achievers.

There are still a couple spots open in the Peters Valley Garment Construction Intensive and the Harrisville Designs Class, both in August if you want to join the fun!  Check the calendar on the side bar.

And here is a shot of me knitting in the car, sitting on the ferry as we leave Washington Island.  Life is good…

Stay tuned…