tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-168665162011-04-21T14:49:49.380-07:00My thoughts on my favorite things: sewing - mostly garment sewing with some cycling thrown in.Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05703831304731186268noreply@blogger.comBlogger11100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16866516.post-1127063398303401472005-09-18T09:54:00.000-07:002005-09-18T10:09:58.306-07:00Have you ever been to the San Mateo sewing festival? The official name is the Sew-Quilt Embroidery festival but I remember in the early to mid-90's when the focus was on garment sewing. The fabric chain store New York fabrics hosted a huge fashion show and all sorts of demonstrations of notions and techniques. These days there are 2 or 3 garment sewing related booths among all of the quilting, crafting and food booths. It makes me ask the question "Why are fewer and fewer people sewing their own clothes?"<br /><br />The attendance at the San Mateo sewing festival was disappointing. There were very few garment sewers and very few attendees. I went to the festival to go to Sandra Betzina's jacket and pant fitting hand's on workshops. Sandra Betzina is fabulous! She knows so much and she knows how to teach! The hand's on fitting class that I took on Friday morning was a jacket fitting class. The style is a classic Chanel jacket - Vogue 8043. The jacket looked great and because of the way that Sandra designed her patterns, there were very few alterations that I need to make. At Sandra's booth, I bought 3 of her DVDs (Anatomy of a Jacket, Pants Fitting and Copying Ready to Wear). I also bought a couple of books and some notions. She is very inspiring. Do you read Threads magazine? The latest issue has an article on techniques for making a Chanel-style jacket. The techniques aren't hard, just a little time-consuming.<br /><br />I was thinking that maybe someday there will be a trend towards home sewing again in the same way that home-cooked food with fresh and unusual ingredients became a trend. In my opinion, there is a big barrier to people sewing their own garments. A person needs to buy a sewing machine and some basic tools whereas everyone has a stove, oven, refrigerator and a few basic tools for preparing food. The typical household doesn't own a sewing machine or basic sewing tools much less know how to use them.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/16866516-112706339830340147?l=bayareasews.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05703831304731186268noreply@blogger.com2