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.