New Class! Working with Knits: The Perfect T-Shirt

"Without the proper equipment, sewing with knits can be frustrating to say the least. Our newly expanded department is excited to offer a class completely devoted to knits and stretch! During the class students will become familiar with our new sergers and coverstitch machine by making their own custom fit jersey t-shirt. Instruction will also cover sewing with a range of other knit materials, designing for knits and troubleshooting issues as they relate to projects. Sample material provided; students will provide material for their own projects. Prerequisite: First-Time Sewing or basic sewing experience. This class authorizes students to use advanced equipment for open studio use."

10weeks, Saturdays 10am- 1pm, Starts April 6th. Sign up here!

I'm not sure I've done the best job promoting this class... It's going to be awesome! A lot of people think of "knits" as big, chunky sweaters with cables, etc., which, while being accurate, does not fully encompass the nuanced world of "knits." Knit fabrics include:

Jersey (t-shirts, long-sleeve shirts, dresses, skirts, jumpers, underwear)

Sweatshirt fabric (sweatshirts, cozy skirts)

Stretch poly (dance wear, leggings, athletic wear)

Fleece (slankets, snuggies)

Terry Cloth (rompers. ROMPERS.)

The class will start with a t-shirt but we should have plenty of time for students to work on a second project of their choosing. (DID I MENTION ROMPERS?)

Another great thing about sewing with knit is that the fabric is forgiving: it's drapey and a little stretchy (which is what makes it a little bit more difficult to work with) but it also has the tendency to hide mistakes. Hence: it's super rewarding! 

And here's the other thing. I love making real stuff. I know that's maybe a weird thing to say- or maybe just a weird way of saying it... but I love making something that looks professional; like I could have bought it at a store, like something that already exists in the world. The new machines we've got in the studio are magic for making professional stuff. I just want to share that feeling with as many people as possible.

So come take  my class!!! And sign up quickly! If we don't get a few more students enrolled in the next few days we might not have enough to run the class! 

THINK OF THE ROMPERS.

Winter Session Come and Gone

Let's be honest: everything I do these days worth blogging about is at Lillstreet. Thaaat... or... their required blog schedule is the only thing keeping me up to date these days. One of the two!

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I can't believe it's already July! Wait... March? What month is it?! It's jarring to say that we just finished Winter Session but, there it is. I had a great time with my classes! Here are some highlights from the past 10 weeks:

First Time Sewing:

Bags!

Aprons!


First Time Quilting:

Log Cabin Variations!


Multilevel Sewing Projects:

Clay ponders his epic messenger bag...

So epic!


Meagan's skirt: with zipper and pockets!


Susan's American Girl Doll Sleeping Bag!



Whew! Good times! And the Spring Session is shaping up to be just as exciting! Hope to see you in the classroom!

xoxo
Nora

Quilting Boot Camp: Days 2 & 3

Although I had every intention of blogging our progress every day, boot camp took over our lives! The rest of the week flew by in a blur! I'm going to put it up in two batches, though, so as to not be overwhelming!!

Day Two: Creating the Nine-Patches

The disappearing nine patch pattern starts with, you guessed it, nine patches! We spent the better part of Tuesday sewing our preliminary blocks.

Day Three: Laying out the quilts

Once the nine-patches are finished, they are cut into quarters; these smaller squares become the building blocks for our finished quilts.

It seems like this part would go pretty quickly but, since you're going to be living with this quilt for the forseeable future, all of those little decisions about what color sits next to what takes on a much grander importance.

Each quilter in the class started to create sets of rules for their design; a kind of logic to guide the process depending on their colors and personal styles.

Eeeh! The quilts are coming together!! This is the stage at which I start getting really excited... :0)

Quilting Boot Camp: Day 1

That's right: BOOT CAMP! Five days, three students: come with fabric, leave with a quilt. (Or that's the goal, anyway...) I thought about dressing in camo and combat boots today and wearing a whistle-- "that's a generous quarter inch, not a scant quarter inch: drop and give me 20!"-- but instead I decided to go with a playlist that was 3 hrs of Eye of the Tiger.



HA. Just kidding. I only made them listen to it once. (So far... bwahahaha.)

Day 1: Cutting the fabric

We are making a disappearing nine-patch pattern, for which we need a total of 108 8" squares.

Our three brave recruits... I mean students: Christine, Jordana and Karen.


Less chatting, more cutting! Drop and give me 20!
HA! Gotcha again, it's all cool. :0)


Christine's color palette is phenomenal! All Merimeko prints purchased at the Crate and Barrel outlet. JEALOUS. I can't wait to see how it turns out!



Tomorrow we'll start piecing the squares together!

What are other good montage songs I should download for my montage mix? We're gonna need all the 80's-stye adrenaline pumping we can get come basting day!

Happy Holidays from Lillstreet and other ways to shop!

This past weekend we invited friends, co-workers, students and members of the Lillstreet community to join us for the second annual department Holiday Sale. Much fun was had by all!

We had ten vendors this year! Some of them were craft fair pros:

James and Jordana of Qualaar.

Heather Bella of Spills Her Coffee

And, for the first time, we invited students to apply as well. They did great!

Caryn

Amy

(More pictures from the event in my flickr!)

A few months ago I decided not to prioritize making crafts to sell. Instead, I was going to spend my precious little extra studio time to re-vamp my portfolio. Well.. then I had even less studio time than ever so I pretty much ended up doing neither. But the Lillstreet Holiday sale is one of my favorite events of the year! I definitely wasn't going to miss out.

Is it even possible to feel prepared for craft fairs?! If so, I definitely haven't figured out how. I pretty much had to build my whole collection from the ground up in the three weeks leading up to the event. (Y'know, since I had stopped making crafts.)


I even designed some new products!

I've got birch bolsters and birch/brown wood pin cushions! They're pretty adorbz, if I do say so myself.

All in all, I'd say my booth came together quite nicely.

I'm doing one more fair this season: this SATURDAY! If you're in the Chicago area, come by and check it out!

Happy holiday crafting, everyone! 'Tis the season to buy stuff made by your friends. :0)

Last Session's Sew Your Own Hoodie Class!

The fall session's Sew Your Own Hoodie class was a complete success! Check out these amazing sweatshirts made by the students!

Christine's Cool Hood

Katie's Asymetric Zipper (still in progress!)

Erin's Pro-looking Sweatshirt: with Thumb-holes!

Aliza's Dual Colored Creation

Lara's sweatshirt will be the most complicated of all! I can't wait to see it when it's done!

For more photos from the hoodie class and other past Lillstreet classes, check out my Lillstreet Flickr folder!

xoxo-- Nora

My Life in Teal

The great thing about being able to propose classes to teach is that then I get to make the things I want! Which is how I got to teach my Sew Your Own Hooded Sweatshirt class at Lill St in the fall! Everyone made amazing sweatshirts! And I got to make...

My ideal sweatshirt.

Like ever.

In the world.

That's right. I printed gold woodgrain onto teal sweatshirt fleece.



The sweatshirt has a cowled neck, front pockets, brown ribbing and... wait for it...



Gold woodgrain buttons! Swoooon!

I'm thinking of selling custom sized versions of these on my etsy. What do you think? Click on any of the photos to see the rest of the pics over at my flickr!

If you're interested in learning how to print and sew garments (or bags or hilarious objects) come on over and take my print & sew class this summer at Lill St! It's gonna be a blast!

Sewing Classes at Lill St Arts Center

Here's a blog entry I just threw together for the Lill St Textile's blog! So much good information over there...

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Hi everyone! Nora here...

Just finished another round of my First Time Sewing class this past week: my Tuesday night class had a blast putting together our tote bags and eating tequila-flavored chocolates...

Lindsey wearing her completed apron.

The class with their finished products!

Don't you want a great tote-bag/ apron set? Come and take a first time sewing class with me!

Meanwhile, on Saturdays my Garment Construction class is working steadily on their projects:

Emily tracing her paper pattern shapes onto the fabric for her dress.

So pleasing!

(Check out some more studio photos at my flickr stream.)

There are new classes starting next week- I'd love to meet lots of new people and see tons of familiar faces in my upcoming classes! Hope to see you there!

Priestly Robes in the Church of Prince

First there was the Clanket.... and then there was...

The Prancet

That's right, friends... a PRINCE THEMED SLANKET. Made to order for my good friend, Lisa Giokas!

NRR: So Lisa, I take it you are something of a Prince Fan. When did you first know you were going to fall in love? For example, what was your first album?

LG: Let's see- well the first Prince song I really remember is "1999". I loved it instantly and at the time (1983), 1999 seemed way far off in the future. Soon after I got hooked on "Little Red Corvette". The first Prince album I bought with my own money was of course "Purple Rain" and yes it was vinyl!

NRR: Prince has had some pretty spectacular fashion moments over the course of his career; what do you think was his high-point? His low point?

LG: I think we all know about the famous ass-less yellow pants he wore- I think it was to the MTV awards? Definitely a low point. I've never really liked his hair long and straight either. I think it looks much better short. The past few years he's been wearing some amazing custom made suits. And we can't forget the killer shoes he wears!! I read once that Prince has all of his shoes custom made for him by a cobbler in Spain. I don't know if that's true or not but it certainly sounds fancy :D No matter what Prince is wearing, he looks pretty damn good for a man about to turn 53.

NRR: What made you first interested in having a Prancet?

LG: I saw the awesome "Clanket" you made for your roommate Lucy and thought it looked so cozy and fun. My mind just started brainstorming and I came up with the Prancet idea. Having seen your work before, I knew you'd do a great job at constructing this very special garment. I think it's pretty cool that Prince has created a symbol that is instantly recognizable as his. It's like his own personal hieroglyph. I still think you should make a reversible black/white swan blanket which would of course be called The Swanket!

NRR: You've just gotten all your Prancet desires fulfilled; what are you gonna do next?

LG: That's a good question. I have some sewing projects of my own that I'd like to start working on (a long neglected counted cross stitch project, a jumper and a gift for a friend). Then I'll be doing a little traveling this spring and summer (NYC and Oregon for a friend's

wedding).

My closing thoughts on Prince- if you ever get a chance to see him play live- do it. I promise you won't regret it. He is truly one of the most talented musicians living today. He's always on those lists of most underrated guitarists. Check out his solo on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".

Thanks again Nora for collaborating on this project! It was a blast.

A hearty thanks and your welcome to you, too, Lisa! I love working on crazy awesome projects like these- especially for friends! I hope you get many cozy winters' use out of your Prancet!

Many more photos over at my Flickr stream; go check them out!

My parting thoughts on Prince? I think this video of Prince on The Muppet Show pretty much sums it up. There's something all too fitting about seeing him with muppets after spending so much time with polarfleece that was that shade of purple...