Gertie's Inaugural Beacon Sewing Retreat

I have returned from Gertie's Inaugural Beacon Sewing Retreat, deliriously happy and flush with fabric from New York's Garment District! As promised, I have many photos to share with you, several borrowed from my new friends! Here I am with the woman herself.

Here's the whole gang! All the women were such a pleasure to spend the weekend with. Sewers really are the nicest people. I will steal a line from Oddfellow Orphanage that sums it up quite nicely, "It surprised her that people she just met could make her feel so special."

Photo from Gertie. Left to right: Marie, Blanca, Jenny, Jacky, Fleur, Me, Alison, Joanna, Kim, Kristen, Annelieke, and Emily

In particular, I got to meet the delightful Jenny of Cashmerette. I will add my voice to the chorus of sewing bloggers that proclaim how wonderful it is to meet your virtual sewing friends in real life. It was grand sewing with Jenny all weekend, and she kept me in stitches (if you pardon the pun). Upon meeting, we promptly hugged and took a silly-faced photo like old friends.

Photo by Jenny, @cashmerette on Instagram

We spent the long weekend at a lovely hotel in Beacon called Roundhouse overlooking the Hudson River. Here's a snap of us at breakfast by the fire.

Photo by Jenny, @cashmerette on Instagram

We got a sneak peak of Gertie's book coming in September, which is going to be sensational, and got to look in detail at many of her handmade masterpieces. Gertie also did several demos, including sewing gussets, bound buttonholes, and how to add boning to your garments.

Since I knew we'd be working on boning, I brought the Bombshell Dress from Gertie's Craftsy class. Here I am in my second muslin, once all the fitting was done! I'm posing by Gertie's dress of the same pattern.

Photo by Jenny, @cashmerette on Instagram

I intend to construct a bustier for the finished garment out of a retro glasses print. I got everything cut and prepared for sewing before we had to part ways, spending most of the retreat on fit. I decided to match the pattern at the seams, and I was getting a little loopy after so many hours of cutting cross-legged on the floor!

Photo by Fleur, @frau_fleur on Instagram

The weekend came to a close far too quickly, but my adventure wasn't over yet! I took a train into Manhattan next to take the Garment District by storm. I was armed with suggestions from Gertie and Fleur, local pros, as well as tips from other sewers.

I felt like a kid in a candy store! I managed to make it to Mood, Metro Textiles, and B & J Fabrics before my wallet and hunger overcame me. Here I am, staring bright eyed at my choices at B & J.

In the end, I did quite a bit of damage, and I'm pleased as punch with it. I wish I could have gone back a second day for more! I must go again. I know I barely scratched the surface.

There's some Liberty in there, double knit, some great cotton stripes, a seafoam green wool suiting, and a total splurge of an embroidered black organdy that is the exact fabric Gertie used in her strapless party dress from her first book. I stared at it longingly all weekend at the retreat, and when I saw it in the store, I knew there was no turning back!

Source

Here's the handmades I wore from the photos above:

• Hawaiian Shirtwaist Dress from Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing. I actually made this on a retreat with Gertie last year, and it was my first blog post! 
• Simplicity 2195, a 1950s blouse. First and second.
• Plaid Hallettsville Shirtwaist Dress, pattern drafted by me. 

If you just can't get enough of this glorious weekend, you can find more photos on Instagram with the tag #gertieretreat. I'll be looking at them longingly for weeks! I'm so glad she plans to host many more of these retreats!

Quiltcon!

Quiltcon was a few weeks ago here in Austin, and I stopped by for a day to see all the fun.

I've only made one quilt, one for my mama out of scrap fabric I found at my grandma's. I really enjoyed doing it and since have been working on a manly quilt for my brother. It's a nice change in pace from sewing garments.

My rail fence quilt. 

All the quilt winners in each category were displayed all around the show floor, and it was like walking through an art exhibit. I could have stared at the stitches and details for hours.

There were also all sorts of vendors that let you play with their neat gadgets (nothing like getting to toy around with one of the giant long arm machines!) and some fabric stores with booths that had great selections. And there was a fun photo booth!

I love a good photo booth! My friend Andi was a good sport.

I so wished I would have been able to attend  some of the classes, but they booked up so dang fast! Thankfully, Craftsy is offering the lectures online for free! I'm doing the Bombshell course with Craftsy right now and really like the platform.

I've poked around a few of the lectures and found them really interesting. There's a lot of great inspiration in there. It definitely inspired me to pick back up the quilt for my brother!

A Magical Sewing Weekend

I am diving into this whole blogging thing at last! I spent last weekend at a sewing workshop with Gretchen, from Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing, the whimsical and talented fabric designer Heather Ross, and 24 other seamstresses. How could I not talk about it!?

The Workshop

The workshop was a three-day affair at Asilomar in Pacific Grove, CA. It was idyllic and rustic and just perfect. It was also the first woman's camp in the country, I learned from Ranger Roxanne, where they taught women sewing and typewriting skills. So it was pretty spot on for this group. 

That's a picture from hotels.com because I was too busy sewing to take proper pictures of the venue.

The Pattern 

Since Gertie was going to be in attendance, I wanted to sew something from her new book. I selected the Shirtwaist Dress because (a) I love shirtwaist dresses, and (b) the elastic shirring and fit of a button down made me feel nervy.  I will tell you after the fact, though, that shirring is not hard at all (just put elastic thread in the bobbin) and it has the added bonus of making your dress feel like sweat pants without looking like them. 

A few weeks before the workshop, I found out that Katrina, of Susie Homemaker MD, would be joining us and sewing the pattern as well. So we helped each other out with the muslin as we went along. It was so nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of! 

I ended up doing two drafts of the bodice in muslin form. Fitting patterns for sewing is such a testament to me of the importance of a good fit. 

Draft 1 (your right) and 2 (your left). Moving those pleats down and adjusting the darts made me look like I lost 15 pounds! So I went and ate another girl scout cookie. 

The Women 

All the women were just so wonderful. My mother came along for the trip to read and enjoy the scenery, and she just kept saying, "Sewing people are such good people." 

Gretchen was so sweet and such a great teacher. She kindly brought along her shirtwaist dress, and it was damned exciting to get to look at her construction details. Heather Ross was an amazing host and equally exceptional teacher. We also had a professional seamstress in our midst, who put the loveliest details on her clothes (oh the ric rac edging!). It was also so wonderful to meet Katrina and sew with her in person as well! I find it's always good to meet people in person that you've given all your measurements to.

Now I'll Stop Gushing and Just Show You More Pictures

 Drinking champagne and sewing by the fire. Can't complain. 

 With Gretchen! Sewing is fun and funny. 

Completed shirtwaist dress. I got the fabric on a recent family vacation to Hawaii. So bright and cheery!

Now comes the crucial question - what to sew next?!