Leather Workshop

We have just finished another leather workshop here at The Academy. The students are close to finishing their garments. Sue from Belwood made a beautiful cowhide jacket with shawl collar for her daughter. The pattern was from an old Burda magazine. Elizabeth from Hamilton revised a Vogue pattern for this supple suede jacket. Juanita from Chicago used a Simplicity pattern to make a red lambskin dress. Dorothy from Buffalo copied a ready to wear cape, made her own pattern and completed this beautiful cape lined with cashmere. She used the raw edges of the skins as a design detail. Mary Ellen of Buffalo had the same blue leather and used a Vogue pattern for her jacket. Mary from Buffalo used the same leather as my green jacket in a nice red/orange variation to make this Vogue jacket.
A great class with a wonderful group of students!

Shearling Vest Workshop

I have just completed a shearling vest workshop at Creative Styling in Westport, Ontario www.creativestyling.com
During the 3 day workshop participants worked on a vest of their own design. You can see from the photos that shearling comes in all different lengths, textures and colors.

Jewellery

Here are some photos of necklaces made for Ce Podolak by her friend Susie Montgomery of California. The colorful one is made from pieces of bakelite that had been a baby rattle of Ce's. Notice the extension that allows the wearer to decide on the length of the necklace. The other two are full of interesting trinkets. I saw all of these while I was teaching in Vancouver.
Susie shows her work at the Mingei International Cultural Art Museum in San Diego, La Jolla Fiber Arts Store, and Earth Spirits in Palm Desert, California. She has sold over 60 necklaces in the past 10 years.

Vancouver Leather Workshop

I have just returned from teaching a leather workshop in Vancouver. We used the facilities at a local high school. The facility was amazing! There were industrial sewing machines, big cutting tables, a wonderful pressing station and large windows. It was a pleasure to teach in such a wonderful setting.

The students had a great time learning to sew with leather. Sue Brown, from Victoria completed a 4 panel skirt in a wonderfully soft aubergine colored leather. Louise Neveu of Vancouver Island completed the Fearless Jacket #108 in a gorgeous pewter colored metallic leather. Cindy from Vancouver completed a very cute short dress with built in foundation. She used a denim blue/metallic gold leather. Jacque from Seattle designed/drafted her own jacket pattern and completed it out of a nice soft brown leather.

All participants did a great job and I will post more photos once the projects are finished.

Leather Needle Case

This is the leather needle case which is included in the Sewing Leather CD. You can print the pattern and instructions for the needle case from the new CD. It is a great little project to give leather a try. You will have the opportunity to try sewing with leather, insert a zipper, create a bound buttonhole (the easiest one you will ever make!) and cover a button. The needle case is perfect for carrying to class or stashing in your knitting bag. There is a zippered pocket, a pin cushion and a ribbon tie to hold your scissors. It was designed by Kathryn Brenne.
I am off to teach a leather jacket workshop this week in Vancouver. Next week I will have photos of the student's creations!

Color Vie Silk screening

I have been on vacation this week and had my nieces from Calgary visiting. I introduced them to silk screening using Colour Vie products. I picked up the starter kit at the spring festival in Toronto.

It is easy to mix the dyes. A few drops of pigment and resfix are added to the base. Colours can be mixed together to create any colour needed. The girls cut their designs out of newspaper and placed them on some muslin as a trial. We placed the blank silk screen over top of the design and used a squeegee to pull the paint over the design. After the initial trial printing, the newspaper will stick to the screen and it is easy to reprint the design over and over.

The supplies are all water soluble and non toxic so it is easy to clean the screen with soap and water and start again. Once the fabric is dry, the design is heat set with an iron.

After the girls were finished silk screening, they customized their T-shirts by cutting up the sleeves and necklines.

All of the supplies are available from www.colourvie.com

Next I am going to try sewing up the Material Things T-shirt out of a plain rayon jersey and silk screening my own design onto it.

Classic T-shirt & Picchu-Picchu Sweater

I finished off a sweater this week that I started earlier this year. It was a free pattern from www.berroco.com/exclusives/picchu/picchu.html

It is made from Berroco Ultra Alpaca a blend of 50% Alpaca and 50% wool. It is a wonderfully soft yarn! Skill level is rated as intermediate. I made it in size Small.

The T-shirt is made from a Pucci inspired print that I found in New York during our Springtime in NY trip. I used Cecelia Podolak's Classic T-shirt pattern #109. It is one of the best fitting T-shirt patterns I have found! I have now made several master patterns with various scooped necklines traced off of my ready to wear favorites. This T-shirt neckline is scooped more than the original pattern. I like this pattern so much that I am offering a 10% discount and free shipping until Aug. 14. E-mail me at kathryn@finesewing.com for this special offer.