You know you need one! For the last two month’s we’ve been having PJ Parties at Stitch. These usually include sewing pajama pants, pizza, dancing, lots of sugar consumption, and more sewing. It is a blast to get together with other sewers in the area and make new friends!
This month we are hosting a Girls’ Night Out… September 17 from 6 – 9pm. We’ll be making pajama pants and perhaps enjoying a few beverages of the adult variety… so this time it’s grown-ups only. Class is $45 and you’ll need to register ahead of time to reserve a space. This class is open to beginners and advanced students… It’s a great opportunity to meet some other like-minded individuals and enjoy some relaxing and fun sewing time!
You’ll leave the party with a completed pair of PJ pants that you can wear around your friends and make them jeal.
As with any of our classes, if you do not have a machine you can lease one from our collection to work on during class!
Tomorrow River Colors and Blackbird Bakery will be hosting the Cleveland Craft Coalition. This is a great group of Cleveland crafters that work hard for their craft! The Coalition will be highlighting 21 of their crafters during this afternoon event. Sounds like it’ll be fun!
The Cleveland Craft Coalition is not your typical craft bazaar. Why? Because there are plenty of those and we want to offer something edgier. We recognize value in all forms of craft and art, but we wish to highlight the crafters and artists on the fringe.
Will we still work with lace and dolls and jewelry and needlework? Hell, yeah! That lace will simply be attached to a kick-ass apron that you’ll wear while baking from your vegan cookbook, those dolls will have horns & may be chewing on a bone, that jewelry will have an eastern Asian influence or resemble tattoo work, and that needlework potholder may cuss at you.
Stop by and buy some stuff from someone local. The show runs from 12 – 6pm on Saturday the 17th at the corner of Sloane and Detroit (our old place). I’m looking forward to ending my diet – both yarn (at River Colors) and regular (at Blackbird), as well as getting my Tarot cards read by PJ at
Harmonizing Energy, a good friend and student of Stitch Cleveland and fellow Cleveland crafter!
Etsy Craft Party is a global initiative to energize your local community, make art together, and throw a party in your neck of the woods. We want to celebrate crafting together on June 18, 2010 (which just happens to be Etsy’s birthday) with as many celebrations across the globe as possible.
Help us celebrate Etsy and stop by for our bash! We’ll have some demos (paintsticks, stenciling, and patchwork artists’ canvases), some snacks, and some fun. If you are an Etsy-ite come in and share your craft… it’s a great way to broaden your customer base and get familiar with some other local Etsy artists!
If you’ve always wanted to check out Etsy but have been too nervous to jump in and create your own site, use this opportunity as a creativity boost! Over the years we’ve heard a lot of questions and hesitation regarding Etsy… why not get some advice from Etsy artists in our area and a little bit of moral support?
Let’s celebrate our community’s creativity together! June 18th from 6 – 8pm… be there!
Hi all! We’re so excited that the Amy Butler trunk show has arrived. During Church of Craft we took a sneak peak at the goods. We were interested in how the laminated fabric looks since we’ve had a hard time getting it in. Wait until you see it! Hope ours comes soon!
We’ll be hosting an Amy Party on Friday, June 4th from 6 – 8pm. We hope you can join us. Since she will be unable to attend, Ms. Butler sent some great prizes for us to give away and we’ve gotten in some cute new things, too (this photo is a hint)! We’ll be doing several drawings during the festivities and oohing and aahing over our Student Trunk Show as well!
Just like last year, you can bring in your Amy Butler items for us to display in the shop with the Student Trunk Show this week and get a cute little prize! Bring them by during our regular hours anytime this week and we’ll keep them on display throughout next week. It can be anything Amy… something from one of her patterns, something from her fabric, or something from her pattern and fabric! Last year we had some great items. I can’t wait to see what you can cook up this year!
We’re looking forward to seeing you Friday for our little party! Come help us kick off our third year as Stitch Cleveland and a whole month of customer appreciation surprises!
I’m so impressed! One of our weekly students came in tonight for studio time (we rent out our space if you need more room to work then what you have at home) to work on her new venture… she has started her own business!
Last week Claire came in for her usual classtime and decided to work on some awesome t-shirts… she’s upcycling logos and letters to create her own Claire-Wear. She’s started a blog (can’t wait to see what else she writes about) and a great website to sell her work.
By the way, those adults that are always complaining about today’s youth better eat their words… Claire is in 7th grade!
Just wanted to give you another example of how productive you can be with your artistic talent and creative abilities!
I love the Heather Ross prints but always felt shy about sporting them on a garment. I see that Ms. Ross created some cute little Keds for sale at zazzle.com. These sporty little numbers are just the right amount of unicorns for a grown women to wear… You can even customize the trim colors! Just another way to be crafty. Just yesterday Heidi and I were saying we wish we could make shoes… now we’re one step closer!
I love to make things for people as gifts for the holidays. I’m always trying to think of what I’ll make for the guys. Girls are easy… they can always use a shoe bag, necklace, cosmetic bag, or purse. Handmade ideas for guys are what I struggle with.
For Easter I made all my guys ties. They turned out great! I chose colorful fabrics and prints – not your average masculine ties. They were good sports and wore them to Easter dinner… so sweet! I used an old Butterick pattern but I have some changes I would make to it if I were to make it again so I’m working on a pattern of my own. Even little Rex had a tie to match the big guys!
I think this may be a fun project for the next BurdaStyle Club… all four ties only took me about 2 hours to make!
Have you been keeping yourself up to date on all the goings on in the fashion world… that is, outside of Project Runway? It’s hard to keep up with everything but I recently viewed this show online at Women’s Wear Daily.
There are some awesome elements that I’d like to recreate in some ‘inspired’ items for myself. I love that Margiela carried the hoop theme through the entire collection. The heavy hardware-feeling jewelry goes well with the oversized knits. Love the giant cable!
A few of my students and I were in awe of the stand out pants and skirts that are suspended by hoops. They’re not something for the everyday woman but they sure are interesting!
How’d they do that?
Don’t forget that we teach fashion design and patternmaking! Many of our students take their inspiration from the runway and recreate a look that is all their own! You bring the ideas… we’ll help you make them happen. Tim would be proud.
A concern we hear from many sewers is regarding the lack of patterns available for boys and men. We agree! Think about your last visit to a website or pattern book. How many unique or fashionable garments did you see for the guys?
Sure, you can usually find the old button up and possibly a traditional suit… but who makes (or wears) those anymore?
A few months ago I was on the look out for some new resources for boys’ fashions that I could make. There are lots of boys on my shopping lists – two teens, a husband, and a toddler. I like to sew for all of them but I also want to make them things they will wear and not just hang in their closets!
In my searches I found Ottobre design, a company in Finland that caters to subscribers worldwide. I really like their take on fashionable kids’ clothes. The boys’ clothing is current without looking too trendy. I also love that the magazine provides resources for the fabrics they used to create the samples! In a recent blog post they revealed that they will be launching an online fabric store so that we can get our hands on the fabrics they use in their samples! The blog is fabulous. You can download free patterns, subscribe to the magazine, and even preview issues before ordering!
The attention to detail is what really makes these patterns unique. Each piece has a unique detailed pocket or closure. The patterns come folded in the center of the magazine. Each pattern is printed in a different color and gets traced (I use butcher paper) then cut out. This is great… you can reuse the patterns over and over and also trace several sizes of one garment.
Right away I subscribed to the magazine and received a free women’s magazine with my order of four children’s issues. When the first magazine arrived, I hurried to make a little bunting for Rex (my toddler) to wear in the cold weather. The directions in the magazine are short and to the point. I didn’t find it difficult to follow along but, a beginner should expect to need a little help. General knowledge of garment construction will be necessary. The finished product was adorable. Unfortunately Rex grew so quickly… I don’t think I even got a chance to photograph him in his cute little bunting. Oh, well, better get my sewing machine ready for some spring weather sewing!
I’ll fill you in on what I found in menswear later this week!
what’s everyone saying?