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MARCH 13/18 ASG MEETING CANCELLED
SADLY, WE CAN’T BE TOGETHER TONIGHT
STAY SAFE EVERYBODY!
HOPE TO SEE YOU SOON
FEBRUARY SWEETHEARTS
On the day before Valentine’s Day, who better to greet ASG members than the lovely Margo Bergman?
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
Dresses ♥
Tablecloth jumpsuit!
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.
WITH MARGO’S WARDROBE A FITTING BACKDROP,
WE SEW & TELL
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?
Margo thought she might be missing out on a monthly party with ASG and we think she’s right – it’s all about fun!
Special relaxation & enjoyment time with ♥beautiful sewing friends♥ !
Planning upcoming ASG events…
Angela♥ tells us about the Refashioning Class she and Lorna♥ are doing on March 22 & 24. ASG Refash Class info
Cindy♥ and Nancy♥ hatching plans for double-barrelled Seaside Sewing May 1-3 & May 4-5.
DON’T MISS our next meeting featuring “ALWAYS BIASED”
ATLANTIC SEWING GUILD
TUESDAY, March 13, 2018, 7PM
Campbell Centre (BEHIND ST. AGNES CHURCH)
CORNER OF MUMFORD & CHEBUCTO
Warm Clothing Appreciated
UPDATE FROM FAYE MORRISON
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!
FEBRUARY 13 MEETING GUARANTEE
ASG Members are guaranteed to shake any February blues at our next meeting
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.)
NEXT MEETING OF THE ATLANTIC SEWING GUILD
with MARGO BERGMAN
TUESDAY, February 13, 2018, 7PM
Campbell Centre (BEHIND ST. AGNES CHURCH)
CORNER OF MUMFORD & CHEBUCTO
COMMUNITY SEWING DAY 2018
A Note from Faye Morrison
ASG Treasurer
& Community Sewing Day Organizer
I 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.
ASG COMMUNITY SEWING STARS
MANY STARS MADE LIGHT WORK
On 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!
NEXT MEETING OF THE ATLANTIC SEWING GUILD
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2018
7PM AT THE CAMPBELL CENTRE
(BEHIND ST. AGNES CHURCH)
CORNER OF MUMFORD & CHEBUCTO)
FANTASY FOR THE NEW YEAR 2018
Friends catching up
JAN 9, 2018
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.
Meet Ed Head
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)
ASG had a propitious start to 2018,
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?
SEW AND TELL
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
Is that you Pat?
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.
*NOT TO FORGET*
Community Sew Day is Saturday Feb. 3, 10 – 4
HALIFAX CHRISTIAN CHURCH
51 Farnham Gate Rd., Halifax
Atlantic Sewing Guild on Facebook
We have a special guest lined up to speak at our next meeting – hints will be on ASG facebook & email to come!
NEXT MEETING OF THE ATLANTIC SEWING GUILD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2018
7PM AT THE CAMPBELL CENTRE
(BEHIND ST. AGNES CHURCH)
CORNER OF MUMFORD & CHEBUCTO)
REFASHION CLASS
REFASHIONING
With Lorna McKillip & Angela Gladwin
THURSDAY, MARCH 22 6-8pm shopping
SATURDAY, MARCH 24 10am-4pm sewing
This class is an introduction to refashioning clothing, using pieces purchased on the shopping trip to Value Village (Bayers Lake location) or pieces from your own closet (your husband’s, your kids – whatever). You will need to bring a measuring tape and know your own basic measurements. The shopping trip is to help you find useful materials, understand what the possibilities may be for refashioning a piece or several pieces of clothing and/or other textiles into a garment. We will talk about where to find raw materials, what you can do with them and help you start to visualize various ways of combining them. This shopping trip is optional and set a couple of days ahead of time so that you will have time to launder and iron the items and perhaps even do some preliminary work on them if you know what you want to do on the sewing day. You may decide to just bring some items you already own as your raw material and that is okay as well. Our sewing day will be when you create your unique garment, with the help and advice of two people who have some experience with this type of sewing and creating! Prior to our shopping trip, we will provide you with some references to look at which may help develop ideas as to what you would like to accomplish. We hope you will enjoy this opportunity to create a one-of-a-kind garment for yourself that you will be proud to wear!
For further information, please see: ASG Classes page
HEAD & SHOULDERS KNEES & TOES
Never listen when you hear that sewing
is a sedentary or solitary craft-
-Because it’s really really fun when it’s
THE ATLANTIC SEWING GUILD
Pre-holiday hijincks
& strenuous exercise
At the December meet-up, Barb Emodi exercised our brains with a fabulous presentation on the many ways to approach pattern manipulation for your very best fit. (And a reminder to “Control yourself, People: do one alteration at a time!”) She distills to the sensible axiom of using differing methods, depending on the preference, comfort, location & size requirements of the Sewer/Seamstress/Sewist. This brought up another interesting thought of what we call ourselves in 2017 – soon to be 2018 – my personal fave is Sempstress, a lovely Victorian & dignified term – probably not generally loved for the same reasons. However, the funniest has to be her blog’s Sewing on the Edge accidental moniker “a serial sewing sexist”.
Barb made clear the differences among the many methods – we could see lights beginning to go on as members nodded & “aha’d” throughout her presentation. We look forward to her book coming up for publication in Spring 2018: “Sew The Garment-Making Book of Knowledge. Real-Life Lessons from a Serial Sewist“.
Sew & Tell added to the usual hilarity, made all the more so by a sweet & savoury repast shared by our talented bakers.
Rhea‘s using reversible knit for Love Notions Origami
Which hand is it in?
Get thee behind me!
Anita‘s also using a Love Notions – Trendy tunic; And McCall’s slippers with leather bottoms & fabric from VV
Marilyn completed the coat she was working on at SSS with a panel of pretty scarf & Japanese appliqués; a clever bag to match from scraps; a beach bag towel combo for gifting.
Sheila using some of our bounty of Joy fabric for OOP Vogue 8335. Her Summer Challenge (3 visible fabrics) in OOP Vogue 1363
Suzanne‘s very painstakingly & beautifully sewn Vogue 9267, which she plans to alter & adjust further to her satisfaction; Kathleen‘s dress that started with OOP Vogue 8582 & ended with Joy fabric & some salvaged golf shirt collars
Pat made many oven mitts for gifts, using jelly rolls (so pretty!); We celebrate with Nasirah‘s first use of a commercial pattern Simplicity 5463; Norma‘s Silhouette 709 which she also started at SSS & found needing significant lengthening, along with coordinating Silhouette Yoga Pants
Angela‘s creative use of a tunic with interesting & colourful border detail, which she fashioned into coordinates, with top tied in with embellishment.
Our very own comedy troupe, Julie, Lorna, Linda & Carolyn, showing their Jalie Jeans made in Tory‘s Jeans in a Day Class
Edgar‘s festive McCall’s 6044 slim shirt
Our generous Atlantic Sewing Guild members filled 2 bins already with warm socks, mitts and fabric for our upcoming Community Sewing Day (February 3), when we will sew up warm pyjama pants for the homeless of Halifax.
Here’s a bargain you can scoop up, if it fits your machine better than it fits Rhea’s embroidery machine. $69. Contact her: eggbert.coolen@gmail.com.
Please remember to bring donations to the next meeting of warm hats, socks, mitts or warm fabric cuts for PJ bottoms for our upcoming ASG Community Sewing Project
