Sewing classes in chicago: tchad: omoleye: skirt: copy : knit: pattern making

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In: 1st Projects, Basic, Drafting, General, Sewing classes (general), Student Projects
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Omoleye came to us with a basic sense of sewing and wanted to work up a duplicate of a knit skirt she already had – so we dove in and ended up with both the hard pattern for a mid-thigh knit skirt with a waistband and exposed zipper as well as the skirt itself! We don’t always start with these duplication projects, but if you keep it simple and take your time, it almost always works out great!  Read More →

Sewing classes in chicago: tchad: drafting: workroom: final dress project: red silk: black buttons

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In: 1st Projects, Drafting, General, Intermediate, Sewing classes (general), Student Projects
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We get a lot (dude.  a LOT) of requests for first time projects up here.  Sometimes there is an automatic veto, sometimes there is a warning or caveat, and sometimes we are ON BOARD from the start.  This post is about one of the times we had no doubt. She came to us at first with just a rendering of the dress: We didn’t want to take the time to draft the sloper from scratch – it would have taken too long and eaten into our class time.  She was more interested in using the sloper to rough out the shape and work on herRead More →

Sana's first draping project at tchad workrooms

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In: 1st Projects, Basic, Draping, General, Intermediate, Sewing classes (general), Student Projects
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Sana came to the States having worked under a designer before and wanting to know more.  Over the course of the class, she draped this multi-sized grey floor length dress in georgette.     And then once she was done, she got a model to go out for a late-Winter photoshoot:  You can follow her on Instagram and watch her go go go!Read More →

Laura models off her shift that she made in the tchad workrooms!

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In: 1st Projects, Basic, General, Patterns used in class, Sewing classes (general), Student Projects
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Laura worked up this cute shift, New Look 6261 view B, as her first project.  It is always nice when we don’t have to do much fitting, even if her shape and how fast she took the project on makes for less reading for you guys! She did a great job with the finishes and the whole thing looks great!Read More →

Finished smocking on Duree's final dress at tchad workrooms

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In: 1st Projects, Basic, General, Patterns used in class, Sewing classes (general), Student Projects
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When we get beginner folks up here who want to start off with something other than a basic pattern for themselves, we give a couple of caveats about technique and fabric.  Sometimes the things you will learn from a project that is slightly outside of the main will be SO specific that you don’t ultimately get what you need. Duree came to us wanting to work up a smocked pattern from a children’s pattern book and, with the caveats that we always give, we went ahead. She was working from the Girl’s Style Book by Yoshiko Tsukiori. We reviewed it over here. Japanese sewing booksRead More →