CONCENTRATING
OBSERVING
This was our first 6 DAY
(3+3) event, but won’t be our last!
STAY TUNED FOR AUTUMN SESSION
Sheila MacDonald, our long-term Atlantic Sewing Guild member is known for her organizational skills and persistence in finishing projects to high standards. She has graciously given us the list of items that are included in her sewing luggage for those wonderful times when sewing away from home – at one of our classes; “SIN Saturdays” (Sew It Now), or longer sewing retreats. We know that if we’ve forgotten something (other than the sewing machine – & yes, it has happened), Sheila probably has “several somethings” to help us out! Following is the checklist she reviews when heading out (rather like an airline pilot, she is!). It would be hard to think of something that Sheila has forgotten. For those of us with upcoming Seaside Sewing, this will be a great help – thank-you Sheila for keeping us up-to-date!
So many of us already follow Margo’s blog Creating in the Gap that we knew it was going to be a very special evening with her in our midst. No question that Margo♥ will have more devoted followers after her presentation this fine evening of February 13, 2018.
At the door we found her smiling face and just beyond, spied a colourful riot
of her creations. We could see made up some of the very fabric that we’ve been holding onto in our own “Stash Closets” – a substantial spur to put scissors & thread to languishing potential. No doubt we’re all members of the same “Fabric Petting Club”! (good concept BTW, Margo)
She began sewing buttons at the age of four, later graduating to a pink Kennie & clearly flew from there. Margo obviously enjoys the sewing & producing her gorgeous clothes, but also believes in working hard to make progress. She frequently moves the goalpost further out for herself. “Do more work. Do more work” – a good mantra to remind us that the final garments we see on her blog are lovely, but are the results of mindfully putting in the elbow grease. She might make it look effortless, but Margo assures us that she too has “wadders” & has no qualms in throwing them out. Hurray for that – let’s all get rid of those albatrosses! And while we’re at it, we can put to rest that the idea that “selfish sewing” is anything other than perfectly fine.
ASG loved ♥ Margo’s visit (thank you so much) and we also enjoyed meeting her dressed-up “friends”.
Thanks as well to Fabricville (see Margo’s feature) and to the Halifax Hair Design Centre for the best door prizes evah.
Suzanne♥ continues her fast & furious output with the ASG fave: her funky Jalie Helene cardigan; a Joy’s Find navy in Grainline Morris blazer and one of Margo’s faves (seen above), the True Bias Ogden cami
Marg♥ shared her grandson’s new quilt with us – which seems to coordinate nicely with the Map of the World behind. May he live in health with happy travels!
Bev♥ sewed up the Loes Hinse Euro pant pattern for her classic cords, trying out instructions in the latest Threads mag for the waistband and in-seam pocket
♥Pat’s latest Jalie pants
♥Nasirah’s OOP Simplicity 5463 beautiful paisley shirt
Edgar♥ in a new McCall’s 6044 shirt & his first foray into trousers, Kwik Sew 4045
Wearing her Cecilia Podolak Fearless Tee Anita♥ pulls from her deep “bag of tricks” a new collection of her cozy felted hats & mitts.
♥Norma‘s Jalie 2682 with the interesting folded neck
& creamy cozy Silhouette’s Nina top #211
Eltee♥ is one of our most joyous new ASG members. She cuts without having to use patterns & we may be privileged in a future meeting to have her do a presentation on her methods. (cross your fingers)
RingMaster Christina♥ created her own Fantastic Menagerie – how gorgeous are these guys?
Special relaxation & enjoyment time with ♥beautiful sewing friends♥ !
Angela♥ tells us about the Refashioning Class she and Lorna♥ are doing on March 22 & 24. ASG Refash Class info
I thought you might be interested in the final tally of our Community Sewing Day. I can’t express my thanks enough for the wonderful effort put forth by our Atlantic Sewing Guild sewers. Our first round of items, based on donations of items like socks, mittens, etc. was already delivered and from what I understand was immediately depleted.
Our latest, and final delivery included 47 pairs of sewn sleep pants; 3 pairs of pyjama sets suitable for females; 18 scarves; 1 knit hat; 1 knit scarf;1 XS pair of waterproof gloves; 1 woollen embellished shawl.
An impressive delivery!
We have the fab, fun and fresh Margo Bergman making a presentation to us! Margo is quite the sewing celebrity in these parts with her popular sewing blog, Creating in the Gap. She will be bringing us tales of adventure in blogging and in creating her lovely (& colourful!) wardrobe, showing how the process fits into her life.
Margo is our kind of people! She loves clothes and is a self-declared fabric addict, a pattern hoarder who just can’t stop making things. The sewing projects she does are many and varied. Margo is a good example that it is indeed possible to produce beautiful clothes using, typically, local sources.
Right now Margo’s doing a crazy brave thing in her life & she serves as an object lesson for those who tend to hold back: it can be wonderful to take a step into the unknown. She has “secret skills to break out when a situation calls for it”, like so many of us who don’t necessarily acknowledge this in our daily grind . Maybe she’ll even explain how to back up a truck & trailer or more importantly what she’s created using a Christmas tablecloth!
The day before Valentine’s Day will be a marvelous time to join the Atlantic Sewing Guild to have a close up look at both the clothing and the Gal Creating in The Gap! (See Margo’s quote from Ira Glass here.)
A Note from Faye MorrisonI would like to thank all the members of the Atlantic Sewing Guild for the tremendous outpouring of support enabling us on February 3 to produce so many sleep pants for those who are homeless or on the fringes. Through the auspices of Mobile Outreach Street Health (MOSH), these garments will be used by those who will be laundering their clothing.
While I organized the day, I could not have achieved it without the donations of fabric, elastics, cording, and funds to purchase additional elastic. The volunteers who donated their time should be given accolades because our production was the result of their substantial efforts. We were able to achieve lots of sleep pants and many of the larger scraps made wonderful scarves/hats. Above is a photo showing some of their wonderful efforts because all of it could not be shown on one table and some are still out with our volunteers for to finishing with elastic when we ran out.
MANY STARS MADE LIGHT WORKOn Saturday February 3, 2018 Sewing People from the Atlantic Sewing Guild met to sew PJ pants for a homeless shelter in Halifax. Fabric was donated by members and while some volunteers cut out the PJ’s, others worked as an assembly line to complete the pants.
At earlier meetings Guild members also donated hats, mitts and scarves to include.
The Atlantic Sewing Guild is a group of garment sewers that meets on the 2nd Tuesday of the month (September – June 2nd Tuesdays of the months at St Agnes Church at 7pm).
Once a year the group picks a group to benefit from the community sewing day. Past projects have included fidget muffs for Alzheimer patients; pillow cases for the IWK; warm fleece booties & lapghans for Vets.
Thanks to Norma Horne for the write-up.
We have a special guest lined up to speak at our next meeting – hints will be on ASG facebook & email to come!
Atlantic Sewing Guild started the New Year right – with something completely different for us. We were joined by Jackie and Joseph Clairmont who are a wonderfully creative sister/brother duo. As soon as they started the presentation about their Cos-Play adventures, they were inundated with questions from Guild members. This was a particularly good result, as several of the most interested questioners had been self-confessedly totally uninterested in hearing about something so far from their usual experience as the world of fantasy creations!
Joseph started making his costumes way back in high school and Jackie thought this was a very peculiar pursuit – until she was later also bitten by this particular creative bug. Now Joe fosters Jackie’s costume-sewing explorations & her studies in the Nova Scotia Community College Entrepreneurship Programme. He approaches his work like it is “foam smithing”.
Joseph sculpts, casts & moulds many different types of materials into fanciful costumes & characters, with (and in) which he travels across Canada and as far afield as New York, where he attended Comic-Con with 200,000 other aficionados
! (Comic-Con is a pop-culture conference phenomenon for people with interests as diverse as comic books, card & video games and which crosses genres as diverse as horror, animé and independent film.) Can you even imagine being there with so many other people also enrobed in their fantastical dreams?
Once Jackie got interested in creating her own Hallowe’en costumes in high school, she began to see in Joe the perfect older brother guru, who introduced her to this world of most intriguing characters. Joseph sculpts while Jackie sews.
She drafts and alters her own costume patterns and after NSCC is hoping to begin a costuming clinic. Both are inspired by the challenging aspects of creating characters who exist first in the mind or from far-gone eras, then bringing them to life as interpretations with their artistic vision. Jackie & Joe have met new friends from far & wide while also contributing to various charities through their participation & guest appearances.
Questions didn’t stop throughout the talk & beyond, members learning many new terms and concepts. Before this evening, who of us could discuss the use of materials like ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), or the upcoming Geekquinox in April? We even got to meet Ed Head, who serves as a base for Joe’s scupting.
All in all, this was a fascinating glimpse into a new world for ASG. And who could fail to be impressed with the obvious regard and respect for each other that Joseph and Jackie Clairmont shared with us this first meeting of 2018? (and yes, they sometimes do commissions)
filling up more boxes with materials for our community sewing day on February 3 *(SEE BELOW). We are collecting warm hats, scarves and mittens for the homeless of our city. And we will meet for a group sewing day to make pyjama pants from the warm donated fabrics.
We were able to glean some warm fabrics from Joy’s Finds 
for our PJ purposes. And this last grouping of Joy’s fabrics was again gratefully received by many members.
Janet kept her hands busy & Carolyn enjoyed the goings-on,
while Karen kept track of us and Sheila kept up with notes for us.
Wait a sec – who’s that?
Edgar shows us how to successfully mix it up in his Christmas shirts (& he actually used real buttonholes for these!) McCall’s 6044
Tory also shows us how to mix it up, adding fly-front, pockets & waistband to her Jalie jeans. In October, she gave her popular class to sew the Eleanore pattern in a day (seriously – one!). Tory’s Jeans in a Day Class
Pat is ahead of schedule with her self-imposed 2018 quantity sewing. She showed iterations of Jalie’s Marie Claude 3667 in some lovely knits from Mill Yardage of New England.
Nancy‘s raglan dress was cozy & just perfect for winter (although we did miss her Twirly-Whirly) Butterick 6494
Anita, with one of her most favourite TNTs: the Jalie Helen cardi
Leanne showing us she is not being accosted by her clever neckpiece creation & in stitches as we discuss her very sharp Colette Phoebe dress
Nasira shows us another pattern she has recently been happy to complete (great job with Simplicity 5463!)
We wrap up the evening with Carolyn in her Love Notions slims with their Sloan sweater; and our President Lorna taking a bow in her version of the Jalie Jean.
