Every summer the American Sewing Guild gets together for its national conference which consists of 4 days of sewing ladies gathering for sewing classes, fabric shopping and talking about sewing machines.
It’s a blast.
Well this year the presidents of the Albuquerque chapter of the sewing guild couldn’t make it to the conference so they offered to send me in their place (cause I’m the vice president). And I said,
“you want to pay to send me to Atlanta for the conference?”
And they said, “Yes.”
So I said, “I’m in!!!”
I’ve never turned down a free trip in my life.
So that’s how I ended up in Atlanta, in August.
One day I played hookie from the conference and rented a car and ended up here:
Gail K Fabrics is my new favorite fabric store. It was jammed packed with fabric from floor to ceiling. I bet I could have spent a week in there and not seen all the fabric. And their button selection was to die for.
Well I picked up these little numbers.
The birds are going to make a cute little flowy blouse.
And this is gona be a great little sundress.
But I can’t decide which side I like better!
A?
or
B?
I will just have to design something that uses both sides.
And this silk will be the lining to a coat at some point.
The Mama Hart got some good stuff too.
She picked up this silk dupioni for me to make her mother of the groom outfit out of.
And this quilted silk dupioni is going to make a great little tailored jacket to wear over her mother of the groom dress.
And then she got this basket weave wool for me to make her a coat.
As well as this lace:
And we got these buttons:
As well as these:
And these:
I also picked up this fabric from Linda Lee who had a booth at the conference.
For those of you who are not familiar with Linda Lee, she makes the Sewing Workshop patterns and is sponsored by Bernina.
Check out her website.
She also has a thing for lime green which is why when I showed this fabric to the ladies at the Bernina store where I teach, they all knew exactly where it came from.
Then it was time to get back to conference because I was signed up to take a
class from her:
And I didn’t want to miss it.
If you have never taken a class from Coni Crawford you should remedy this immediately. This lady knows her stuff and she is HIL-ER-IOUS. Plus she calls her dress form Miss Perky.
She has a line of patterns that you can find in the Butterwick catalogue, and while I’ve not used any of them, I hear they are amazing to work with—especially if you are of the fuller figure body type.
I also recommend you check out her book Fashion Sewing.
She has really clear, easy to fallow directions and shows some tricks other books leave out.
Her pattern drafting
and draping
books are also handy to have around.
Anyways I was taking a class on bustiers from her and the class started out tamely and then Coni got onto the subject of draping/ drafting a bustier pattern and one lady asked what to do for a large busted woman.
Well apparently Coni has a weakness for full busted women who cannot find patterns that fit so she stopped class and pointed to one woman in the middle row.
“Do you wear a G cup?” she asked the unsuspecting woman.
“Um, Yes?” replied Madam G Cup timidly.
She was silent for a moment and then said,
“my husband doesn’t know my cup size and now I’ve told a room full of strangers!”
I giggled.
Meanwhile, Coni Crawford had pulled Madam G Cup to the front of the classroom, ripped her shirt off and within minutes had draped a custom pattern on her.
Don’t worry, I have Madam G Cup’s permission to use these pictures.
Then Coni took the completed pattern and laid it on the table and said,
“now you can see her laying down.”
To which a rambunctious classmate replied,
“That’s her husband’s view!!!”
And this is why I enjoy hanging out with sewing guild ladies.
Anyways this lead to the downfall of the class and before long all the larger busted ladies were stripping off their shirts and standing in line to get a custom Coni Crawford draped pattern. And those who weren’t in line for a custom draped pattern where stripping off their shirts to show off the bras they had made in the bra making workshop.
I just sat there and quietly observed.
Meanwhile, Coni had talked her assistant into modeling this bustier top for us.
Well it turns out the assistant had worn the top to a fancy dinner the night before and had been informed by a strange man that she “Made him salivate.”
So what did I learn form this class?
A. You can make a bra in a couple of hours
B. Bustiers are fun.
C. They make men salivate
D. I need to go home and make a bustier dress immediately.
And then conference was over and I headed home to sew.
Happy Conventioning
~Melisa & Cordelia
Someone has a thing for teal.
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