Sewing Lessons Monday

Emily, Sarah and I had a very productive sewing day today. We covered two more applique techniques, reverse applique and needle-turn applique. We kept our instructional time a little shorter because I really wanted the girls to make some solid progress on their projects today.

On the project front, Emily completed the cutting on her Project Runway Style Mystery Assignment coat. You can read about that adventure here. This is a "repurposing" project. She will be turning a chenille bathrobe into a lined jacket with hood. We will share before and after pics when we get done. Besides the cutting, she also experimented with a little beginner-level pattern drafting, figuring out how to make a "powder glove" for her jacket. We got a successful draft on almost the first try. She was ecstatic. The powder glove muslin soon turned into a frenzy of making 80s style fingerless mitts. I think she went home with enough mitts to wardrobe an octopus! She also got her first lesson on a serger. It went pretty well, but...well,,,let's just say it's gonna be awhile before I turn her loose on anything that matters.

Sarah meanwhile was wrapping up her vest. This has been a looonnnnggg project and Sarah's fortitude has amazed me. I would have wearied of this thing about two weeks ago. Sarah is a bit of a perfectionist. She and her seam ripper have become fairly inseparable as the slightest wobble in a seam gets the pointy end of her ripper. However, the vest finally passed her rigorous standards. She is probably about one hour from completion. We have a little work on side seams and the buttonholes left to do. Buttonholes are always a bit of a gamble. Especially on a slightly stretchy and napped fabric like moleskin. I'm a littie nervous for her. It would be quite disheartening if, after all her painstaking efforts, things went south from here. So keep your fingers crossed for her.

And a little business...thank you for the emails and comments from those of you wanting to help with The 100 Skirt Project. I am getting some weird error message on my computer. The thing is barely crawling from page to page. So I'm a little behind on getting emails out and questions answered, but I'm doing major computer maintenance tonight and I hope I'll be back up to speed tomm. Thanks for your patience.

Charity