Verena wanted to work up some simple modern clothes for the baby she’s expecting but wanted something gender neutral and clean. She found a copy of Esprit Kimono pour les Petits and, as a palate cleanser between all of the high-end and beadwork she’s gotten herself into lately, ran out some ADORABLE baby kimono tops in cotton prints. These will make even the grumpiest grump smile.Read More →
We bought a copy of Early Victorian Men by R. L. Shep to help round out our menswear books at the workroom a while back. Amazon describes it as: “The end of Men as Dandies & peacocks! Fashions did not change much since they were set by George IV and Beau Brummell except they were less extreme. This book is a good look at what they were between the 1820s up to 1850 and how to make them. After that they got more drab and less interesting. George Walker’s rare “The Tailor’s Masterpiece” of 1838 is paired with the full text of “Hints on Etiquette” 1836Read More →
A sweet little wrap skirt from the unposted archives…Read More →
Fashion and design generate TONS of waste. If taken in the aggregate, we are talking hundreds of thousands of tons every day. We fight against this in a couple of ways: recycling, composting, and reuse. Chicago doesn’t have a robust recycling program, so we do what we can with paper and plastic. We use all absorbent scraps of fabric generated from cutting up here by turning them into rags and dustmops. What doesn’t get turned into a dustmop or rag is then composted, as are the rags and dustmops themselves. Our compost is packaged every week and set aside to be taken to special compostRead More →
Our former assistant Ashanti moved to Los Angeles but needed a space for a photoshoot for her line of t-shirts. We are always happy to oblige.Read More →
So the nebulous answer here is: “Well… Yes, but…” The longer answer is that in the off-class time, the workroom is a place that adapts to what we are doing at any given moment and that is a hard visual to get over for the visitor sometimes. The best example is this: Alec needed a space to stage a video adaptation of Sartre’s Huis Clos and couldn’t find a space already adapted to his needs, so it ended up getting built out here. We built this out in one of the long workrooms to really get that sense of eternal foreboding. It is a farRead More →
One of the things that happens up here when people are sewing tough or rigid fabrics is that they can’t get a good professional press. If you have a tailor’s point press, anvil, clapper, and some clamps you will be able to get that thing to lay flat as a flitter. Get a lot of live steam and heat in the seam, then clap it between two pieces of wood and fasten. You can take the clamps off when it cools and move on to the next section. It is especially helpful when you are doing belt loops or complex junctions in heavy fabric. ItRead More →
Hear the majestic trumpet of the workroom’s own elephant! Read More →
We found this post lingering in the drafts folder and couldn’t have felt worse. Too cute os a project to be left in a server’s memory banks without showing it to everyone! Three types of knit and a LOT of handwork. We get a lot of requests for knit up here, and with the caveat that sewing knit is different form woven in terms of the applied skillset, we are always down for some knit sewing!Read More →
Maynard’s a dynamo in the sewing world showing you how to finish things right!Read More →
We purchased Handsewn: The Essential Techniques for Tailoring and Embellishment by Margaret Rowan to help give some direction to students who were learning hand sewing and tailoring. We needed something that was comprehensive but wasn’t an embroidery book specifically. Amazon says of it: “Take handsewing to the next level! Sewists are developing increasing interest in heritage handsewing techniques that add beautiful or couturelike finishing touches to the final project. Small handfinished details can quickly become a testament to the style, creativity, and skill of the sewist. Handsewn offers step-by-step instructions for a comprehensive collection of hand-finishing and embellishing techniques, including hems, edges, buttonholes, cuffs, tacking layersRead More →
Verena wanted to work up some clothes for her baby so that it has some cute modern non-gender specific stuff to wear when it gets here, and started looking for a copy of “Esprit Kimono pour les Petits” by Peggy Goyer-Roussel and Zazo Bouzi. It is a French children’s pattern book that can be hard to find, but she found it and worked up some of the cutest little kimono-inspired tops. The instructions are all in French, but the sequence and layout will make this easy enough for the non-French speaking intermediate sewer. The shapes are simple and if you do read French, the directionsRead More →
Hey! You wanna take a class? You wanna sew? Registrations are going to close in 3 days! Get it while the getting’s good!Read More →
Hey everybody! We just wanted to put out a little note that we are starting to really fill up at this point, so if you are following along on this little adventure… well, come and get it!Read More →
… Because there is every chance that your instructor is practicing and can write your name…Read More →
A short video Tchad did a while back where he talks about what you want to think about when you buy a new machine. Read More →
We’ve been hard at work putting together a new series of Summer workshops for July & August and one of our best (although they are all great) is Ying Xue’s 2 day bra making seminar. The Bra making class is scheduled to run 30 & 31 July 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Tchad workrooms in Chicago. To make it as easy as possible for you, we’ve put together this quick FAQ to help you decide if it is right for you! • When is the class session? The class will be 30 & 31 July from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. • WhatRead More →
Quick video tutorial about replacing a button. Quick and easy, and if you pay attention you will be able to beat any dry cleaner’s job hands-down:Read More →
A short video that Tchad did for Geobeats a while back. He talks about the way you want to think about approaching sewing and how you want to start to think about your first projects. Read More →
There was a question recently over on Metafilter about how to fix small holes and tears in a set of sheers that the asker didn’t want to let go of yet. They looked something like this: The answer is that you can’t really repair the holes or recreate pristine fabric, but you can mend them so they are as inconspicuous as possible. Here is the best way to do it without driving yourself crazy. Get some sheer fusible interfacing. Nothing too heavy. You are looking for something like Pellon SK135 by the yard. Get a yard or two of it. Have an iron, a pair ofRead More →
Zoë needed a diversion from her lab wok at the University of Chicago, so she thought she’d work up four looks for a fashion show…Read More →
We talk a lot in class about specific creative things and how to make them work. This is the very functional part of the class: The how and where of things. But there is a side of creative classes like this that students don’t always talk about – the why of things and the ways that we think as we develop something. So this little square on the blog is going to be a little more philosophical and less technical – a little less about the pins and needles and a little more about the thoughts behind things. So many times we forget that groupsRead More →
Camille smugly mugs with her first projects.Read More →
Fall class registration is underway! Read More →
