Sew Worth It Retreat

November 11,12 &13th 2014

Firstly, I want to thank Janet for carrying the blog the last few weeks with no contribution from me. As has been said before, I live in Venice, Florida and Jan in England so it is rare we actually get together.  I am thrilled to say I have just had coffee with her as she called in on her way back from her holiday in Florida on route to the airport.  I think she was expecting me to be collapsed in a heap after 3 solid days teaching at the above retreat.  Instead she found me so excited and unable to stop talking trying to share with her all the fun I had.

I taught two classes. 

 The first was a project on the Serger making a beach cover up (Kimono robe) that I had designed taking into account that there was a harsh time limit and people who had never worked on a serger or made a garment. The real challenge was they had to complete it in 3.5 hours!!!  There were 40 students each day and they were all super smart and industrious and all robes were finished although a few preferred to take theirs home to hem.  The rest used a coverstitch to complete the hem.  As a teacher I view success as everyone finishing and loving what they have done.  I was beyond thrilled! 

This pattern for the Serger is available as a download from the store on this site

 

 After lunch we began our second project `Playing with Scraps` which involved cutting out shapes and patterns in the fabric and making a fused fabric picture which could be turned into a working clock.  I encouraged people to really `do their own thing` and play.  For those that felt more comfy working from a pattern they had the option to make a `Fish Fuse Clock` which I designed but even then many added their own touch.  Some made elephant clocks, sewing machine pictures, vases of flowers....so much creativity.  I think being `arty` is such a difficult thing for many people. I see it as just playing with no rules but I think many find it very difficult to be confident about it.  I know I did when I was younger.  I had one lady say, `I love doing this because it reminds me of when I was a little girl and played with paper dolls`. I loved that comment.  It was a very relaxed class after the Robe and I still cannot believe we got two projects done in one day.

I used the `Silhouette` cutting machine to cut out all the numbers for everyone.  No fun cutting out detailed numbers!!!

 As  I said at the beginning, it was a `brilliant` three days.  Thank you to all the class participants
who were so much fun and so lovely.  I am still excited!!!!!!

Also, a big `thank you` to Sue, the owner of `Sew Worth It` Sarasota, for inviting me to teach at the event and to her staff.  Especially Donna and Pam who helped me throughout.  I could not have done it without them.