Dust off your sewing machine and jumpstart your skills.  Make this simple lined vest, custom fit, guaranteed to look great, and teach you the basics of garment construction.  Great for handweavers, felters and surface designers, this vest looks good in all fabrics.

Sat. & Sun. February 2 & 3, 2013 9 am to 5 pm

Creekside Inn, 3400 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, Ca.

$200 Guild Member, $230 non-member

Signup with Paula Dennis at the Guild Meeting or send your deposit of $100 to Paula Dennis, P.O. Box A-51, La Honda, Ca. 94020. Email your questions to Paula at lahondaknitter [at] gmail [dot] com.

This three technique workshop will have your hand woven garments looking like it was made by a professional.

First we’ll explore all the different ways to make seams. Don’t have a serger?  Not to worry!  There are lots of alternatives.  Learn how to finish the inside as well as the outside of your hand-woven garments.  This class will cover French, Hong Kong, bound, felled, welts, and serged seams; piping, cording, binding, and more. Lots of terrific ideas!  Learn professional and couture finishing techniques appropriate for use with hand-woven fabrics!

Then we’ll move on to Closures.

Give your jackets and vests knock out closures.   Triangular bound buttonholes, machine and hand-worked buttonholes, buttonhole facings, fabric cords for loop and button closures,  and other suggestions for closing up those jackets and vests will be shown, step by step through digital slides. 

And lastly we’ll be working on fit.

Do you know the difference between design ease and wearing ease or semi- fitted and very loose fitting garments? Did you know that commercial pattern companies and ready-to-wear designers don’t use the same industry standard measurements? The mystery behind fitting and altering patterns is unfolded right before your eyes! Taking proper measurements, grading techniques, and a tutorial on draping are all part of the agenda. 

Monday, February 4, 2013

$100 Member, $130 non-member

Workshop is going to be held at the Creekside Inn, 3400 El Camino Real, Palo Alto

Signup with Paula Dennis at the Guild Meeting or send your deposit of $100 to Paula Dennis, P.O. Box A-51, La Honda, Ca. 94020. Email your questions to Paula at lahondaknitter [at] gmail [dot] com.

EXPLORING THE DESIGN PROCESS WITH TIEN CHIU
NEW DATE – JANUARY 19-20, 2013
Location – Amazing Yarns

Summary: This two-day workshop will cover a design process for exploring ideas and translating them to practical designs.  Topics covered include:

• Exploring techniques and materials to inspire ideas
• Creating a mood board/idea board to collect your thoughts
• Translating ideas into design
• Designing samples to test your design ideas/questions
• Creating and evaluating samples

Because this workshop is about the design process, you should not expect to leave with a completed project; instead, you should expect to leave with a completed design for a new project, and an expanded understanding of design tools and process.

What to bring:

• Loom (preferably two shafts or more, but rigid heddle looms can be used too), pre-warped  in white or some other neutral color.  Needs to be at least 6″ wide but can be as wide as you like.  Suggested yarn is 10/2 cotton, but can be another weight if you prefer. Sett for twill or plain weave, your choice.
• Two or more shuttles, including a stick shuttle if you have one
• Colored pens or pencils
• Sketchbook or notebook to record your designs
• 1-2 fiber-related magazines or fiber arts catalogs with lots of photos, that you would be willing to cut up OR fifteen photos of fiber arts related stuff that you like (must be willing to cut up the photos, so print on something cheap).
• Double-sided or regular Scotch tape

Cost:

• Black Sheep Members: $50 plus $10 materials fee.
• Non-Members: $80 plus $10 materials fee.

Sign-up:  Teddie Guenzer (teddie [at] guenzer [dot] com)

We are pleased to announce a workshop with Karen Miller on the art of Japanese Stencil Dyeing.

Dates: July 14-15, 2012
Time: 9AM – 5PM both days
Cost: approx. $175 + 35 materials fee / student (depends on number of students)
Location: Amazing Yarns, 2559 Woodland Place, Redwood City, CA

Japanese fabrics have been made for centuries using intricate paper stencils and a resist paste made of rice flour.  Authentic Japanese fabrics using this technique are very expensive and almost unobtainable in this country. You will learn how to make these lovely fabrics yourselves, dyeing them with indigo and/or colored dyes. On the first day we will carve two stencils from Japanese paper, and apply silk mesh to strengthen them.  While the stencil is drying we will make the resist paste.  We will use some of my stencils to apply paste to fabric so it will have time to dry overnight. The second day we will learn how to use a variety of traditional pigments, to produce multicolored images on silk or linen. Students will use their own stencils to paste silk scarves to dye and take home.

Please contact Ann McDonough for more information or to sign up for the workshop.

A $100 deposit is required to hold your place in the workshop.