I'm Back!

Whew.  That last month of the summer crushed me.  But as of yesterday Belly is back in school and Moop is back at daycare and I am back in my routine.  So glad to be here.

I've got a bunch of finished projects and tutorials and teaching moments to share with you from the six weeks.  I'm excited to start writing (and reading) again.  In the meantime, I have a bit of fun for you.

I taught two week-long camps with my friend Nancy Sidman of Miss Nancy Schmancy at The Little Bits Workshop in River Forest  The first camp had 12 girls, age 9 through 11.  The second camp had 11 girls, age 9 through 13 (the big range led to an interesting social dynamic).  In both camps, a bunch of girls with little or no sewing machine experience sewed a garment and a tote bag in just one week and then walked the runway.  It was crazy fun!  You can watch a video of the first runway show here and see photos here. 

2013: Some Numbers and Favorites

I've really enjoyed reading all of the 2012 review posts around sewing blogland.  I particularly enjoyed Liza Jane's fancy excel charts and Ginger Makes' Top 5 Posts (and I know these ladies got the ideas from elsewhere, but I found the ideas because of them).  I'm still a bit exhausted from my end of the year sewing marathon, so this is just a half-a**ed version of what these ladies have done in full.

A pie chart!

I completed a grand total of 145 sewing projects this year.  This includes

• 89 garments (22 for myself, 8 as gifts, and 59 for clients)
• 24 handbags and wallets (2 for me, the rest for clients/Etsy shop)
• 20 random projects (scarves, flower pins, softies - I think I kept two of these)
• 10 alterations or refashions (2 for me, rest for clients)
• 2 things for the home (mine all mine!)

I have no idea how many hours that is, but I since I usually sew around 20-25 hours a week, I think it's a lot of time spent with fabric, needle, and thread.

When I think about my favorites, they usually involve learning something new.

1) Corsetted Pencil Skirt - I based this design on an Ann Taylor skirt and it was fun figuring out how to do it.  I also wear my personal skirt A LOT.

2) Flower Button Coat - my first coat, and while I know it has problems, I'll always love it because it was my first.

3) Gertie pencil skirt - I made four of these this fall, two with boning and two without (I still need to take pictures of one of the skirts and write about my experience with the pattern).

4) Beginning to sew with jersey/knit fabric - I love it and look forward to improving this year

5) Camp Runway - I loved this week and can't wait to work with more young sewists this summer!

I've got some specific things I really want to make in 2013, but mostly I just look forward to more time with fabric, needle, and thread, more teaching, and reading about all the lovely things that my fellow sewing bloggers create!

Camp Runway

Wow, now that was fun.  Nancy Sidman, another local seamstress, and I led a camp at The Little Bits Workshop in River Forest.  We had eight girls (mostly age 10-11), eight different patterns, six sewing machines, twenty-five hours, and one handy assistant and from this motley mix we helped the girls make the clothes for their own Runway Show.  The challenge we gave the girls was that whatever they made had to go with at least two items that were in their closets already (I did this so that they could walk the runway twice and to stop them from making something completely impractical). 

I started to get nervous that we wouldn't be able to pull this off a few days before camp started.  We had met with the girls at our local Hancock Fabric's store to help them pick their patterns, fabrics, and notions.  About half of them had some sewing experience but at least three of them didn't really have any sewing experience going into the week.  I'm not sure any of them had made something from a commercial pattern.

And it was a crazy week.  We kept a running theme about the importance of making mistakes, and by about Day 4 we had the girls exclaiming proudly, "Hey!  I made another mistake!"  Unlike the real project runway, there were no tears or meanness, but we did have the last minute sewing on of buttons and repairing of seams.  The girls were a ton of fun to work with, although I did vastly underestimate the challenge of reading a pattern while eight young girls chattered constantly in the background.  And we all worked hard, VERY hard, to pull this off.  I don't have pictures to show, but you should absolutely check out the video of the Runway Show on Little Bit's website (it's the QuickTime link in the middle of home page).  It comes complete with music, a runway carpet, and revving fire engines (the workshop is across the street from the fire station in River Forest). 

Here's a snap of the certificate (printed on cardstock, no less) we gave them after the show:

And now I have some dreams I'm trying not to indulge in for the moment about taking this show on the road.  I'd love to do this with other girls (taking into account all I learned from the week), and I wonder if Nancy and I could get a grant to do this with girls who have fewer advantages than those from River Forest.  We will definitely do it at Little Bits again next summer and I know a few girls who will be back with us!