Puget Sound Sewing & Craft

Sew Fun = Sew Stylish Jackets in June

Nothing sparks admiration like a beautiful, custom-made jacket.  This month in Sew Fun, you will learn how to take an ordinary sweatshirt and turn it into a stylish jacket.  In Nancie M Wiseman's latest book, Start with a Sweatshirt, Sew a Stylish Jacket you will be inspired to add couture style to an ordinary sweatshirt by combining your favorite palate of fabrics.  These jackets are easy to make. The illustrations and instructions will guide you through the process.  Once you complete your style of jacket, embellish it with dimensional flowers made from coordinating fabrics.  Learn to create new and exciting flowers using "old-fashioned" methods including prairie points and various ruching techniques. Use the flowers to embellish quilts, wearable art or make a decorative pin for clothing or accessories.  Add embroidered buttons and your creation is complete!

Remember, you do not need to register in advance!  Come and join the fun!

Sew Fun Seminars at Quality Sewing:

• Everett: Monday: 6/1: 1p & 6:30p

• Everett: Tuesday: 6/2: 10a

• Kirkland: Tuesday: 6/2: 6:30p

• Kirkland: Wednesday: 6/3: 1p & 6:30p

• Alderwood: Thursday: 6/4: 1p & 6:30p

• Alderwood: Friday: 6/5: 10a

• Ballard: Monday: 6/8: 1p & 6:30p

• Northgate: Tuesday: 6/9: 1p & 6:30p

• Bellevue: Wednesday: 6/10: 1p & 6:30p

• Issaquah: Thursday: 6/11: 10a& 6:30p  

• Tacoma: Monday: 6/15: 1p & 6:30p

• Tacoma: Tuesday: 6/16: 10a

• Federal Way: Tuesday: 6/16: 6:30p

• Federal Way: Wednesday: 6/17: 10a & 1p

• Silverdale: Thursday: 6/18: 10a & 2p & 6:30p

• Burien: Monday: 6/22: 1p & 6:30p

• Puyallup: Tuesday: 6/23: 1p & 6:30p

• Puyallup: Wednesday: 6/24: 10a

Create a New Look With Simply Beautiful Seams

I love to use a variety of seams.  Not only for adapting to a particular construction challenge, but especially for decorative purposes.  When you have a pattern style that is flattering and you've perfected the fit, it's nice to be able to create multiple versions without simply duplicating your work.  Using decorative seams can give a whole new look to a project.

One of my favorites for visual impact and ease of sewing is the bundled fagoted seam.  A traditional fagotted seam has threads bridging a gap between two fabric pieces.  In the bundled fagoted seam, the threads are stitched down the middle with a triple straight stitch, creating a look of little tied 'bundles'. 

The secret star of this technique is: the fringe foot!  We're all familiar with using the fringe foot for fun textural effects.  But it also makes sewing a perfectly spaced fagoted seam a piece of cake.

Here's how it's done:

Step 1:  Using the fringe foot and decreased needle tension, stitch at least a 5/8” seam, right sides together, using a zig-zag that just clears the fringe bar.

Step 2:  Pull seam gently apart and press the seam allowances away from the seam on the wrong side.

Step 3:  Use the triple straight stitch (regular tension) to sew up the center of the fagoted seam, pulling fabric taut to the sides to keep seam open as much as possible.

Step 4:  Use decorative stitches (Angie Spong 9mm stitch shown here - available at this month's Sew Fun presentation) up the sides of the seam to hold seam allowances to the side and give additional decoration.

That's it!  If you'd like to see more of this fun technique, come to a Sew Fun club presentation.  You'll be amazed at the many ways you can add a little more oomph! to your next project.

Sew the Puyallup!

A Sewing and Fiber Enthusiast's Guide to the Puyallup Fair

Yes, indeed - it's that time again.  Time for the tacky Fair Theme Song to invade our TV sets and radios on a regular basis.

What you might not realize is that the Puyallup Fair is a great field trip for a sewing, craft or fiber enthusiast!  In fact, I'm a bit nostalgic because I bought my first Pfaff at the Fair 10 years ago.  No matter what you're interested in, there's a little something for everyone, and here's a guide to help you to make the most of it.

Daily:
The Pavilion Building (Gold Gate) is the host for not only the Washington State 4-H Fair sewing, craft and photography exhibits (and more), but also the Puyallup Fair's Open Class Quilts, Garments, Knitting and Crocheting exhibits.  Downstairs in the southern area of the building is where you can see exhibits created by youth from across the state.  Upstairs (there is an elevator in the southwestern corner, or escalators in the center of the west wall) is an incredible display of quilts, garments and much, much more from local artisans who have entered their work to be evaluated by the Fair judges.  There are often artisans performing demonstrations as well.

Under the Grandstands (Red or Gold Gate):  At the northwest corner of the Grandstands building is the Artists in Action store.  This is a fabulous place to stock up on roving, yarn, handwovens, pottery, jewelry - always an amazing selection of beautiful locally produced items.  I've found many 'gems' here over the years.  You can also get a contact list of the various artists for future mailorder reference, which is very handy.  Various artists are on hand demonstrating their crafts.

Showplex (Blue Gate)and Expo Building/Under the Grandstands (Red or Gold Gate): See the latest sewing, quilting and embroidery machines at the Quality Sewing booth!  If you haven't seen what the latest in sewing technology can do, prepare to be amazed.  I always find myself drooling over the multi-thread embroidery machines - I love just watching them stitch out a design.

Weekends:

4-H Fashion Revue competition: Saturdays and Sundays at 3:00 pm on the Education Stage.   Not to be missed:  Washington State 4-H Fashion Revue Championship, Sunday, September 21 at 5:00 pm on the Education Stage.  The competitors in Fashion Revue must make and model their own garments and be interviewed by a judge regarding their clothing construction and sewing knowledge. My heartfelt thanks as Superintendent to Quality Sewing for continuing to be a major sponsor of the State Championship!

September 5 - 7:  Open Class Sheep Show and Fleece Show.  Ongoing through the weekend.  An outstanding time to see many different breeds of sheep (and Angora goats as well) and their fleeces.  Not to be missed -The Puyallup Cup on Sunday, September 7th at 6:00 pm.  This is the 'circle of champions' for the show - the outstanding exhibits from each breed compete for the overall 'best of the best'.  One of the largest displays of sheep breeds in the U.S. - all in the same arena at the same time.

September 12 - 16: 4-H Sheep Show and Fleece Show.  The actual sheep show will take place on Sunday.  Fleeces and sheep will be on display (not to be handled) throughout this time.  At times 4-H youth will be demonstrating fiber skills and working to prepare their sheep for show.

September 17 - 21: Animals of the World.  An exhibit of exotic animals from around the globe, including some fiber producing animals such as yaks.  My favorite: the Tennessee Fainting Goats.

For much more information, including a terrific Fair Planner with daily calendars, visit www.thefair.com.

If you still haven't found what you're looking for, just remember that the Puyallup branches of Pacific Fabrics and Quality Sewing are just up the hill!  Conveniently located right next to each other, across from South Hill Mall.

--Katrina

Project Runway's Jillian Lewis at Brother Convention

Earlier this month I was in Las Vegas at the Brother Convention. It was super fun to see the new products and the unveiling of the new top-of-the-line sewing, quilting, embroidery and crafting machine, the Brother Quattro 6000D - creativity times four. The machine is absolutely amazing - with more features than I could have dreamed up. Some of my favorite new features are the InnovEye built in positioning camera, runway lighting, jumbo embroidery frame - 12" x 8", super wide angle HD LCD screen and the new larger workspace is truly magnificent. There are 100 new features on this machine - WOW is all I can say. For a sneak peek of this new machine in person be sure to attend one of Quality Sewing's New Product and Brother 6000D Unveiling Parties later this week.

If the excitement of this new machine was not enough - the keynote speaker was Jillian Lewis from Project Runway Season 4. She was one of the 3 finalists and really one of my favorites. She spoke to us about her love of sewing, designing and Brother sewing machines. She got her first sewing machine, a Brother Pacesetter,  from her local dealer when she was 15. This was the same machine she used all through design school and even to sew her entire collection for the Project Runway final show at Bryant Park. Brother gave her a new Quattro 6000D and she created the dress she is wearing in the photo on the right. The dress is covered with a beautiful floral embroidery designs on fabric that she hand dyed. (And yes, that is me with Jillian - so fun to meet her!)  The thing that really struck me about Jillian was how genuine her love of creating and designing is.

To find out what Jillian is up to now - check out her website at www.jillianlewisny.com.

Last week I was so busy I didn't get a chance to see what happened on Project Runway. I have it recorded and hope to watch it tonight before the show tomorrow! What happened? Who can fill me in? The week before was pretty fun with the Olympics tie in. I felt like most of their designs needed to be a little bit more sporty and less fashion - particularly since what looks good on a rail thin model, probably doesn't flatter an athlete. I did like Korto's design, it seemed to be a nice mix of sporty fashion with the vest and fun pants. I think that I would have liked Terri's design better if I had seen the tube-top. She does get super props for creating so many pieces, making it pretty versatile. Let me know how you feel about season 5 so far - does anyone have a favorite designer yet?

-Carmen
carmen@qualitysewing.com