A list of questions that Carson brought to his first day of sewing classes at the Tchad workroom sewing studio in Chicago.

Carson’s list of questions the first day of sewing classes…Read More →

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

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: workroom: studio: netta: pattern placement: lace: under

A quick tip if you are either having trouble placing you pattern on top of a lace or sheer or you want to be able to mirror or otherwise position the pattern on the piece nicely: Put the pattern itself under the fabric you are using and then either gingerly cut from there or throw a few pins in to keep it from sliding.  If you cover the table with a flannel or textured fabric that contrasts to the fabric you are cutting, even better to see what you are doing.  We use this all the time – especially for decorative placement.Read More →

Sewing classes in chicago: tchad: workroom: studio: chudidar pant front: upcoming: indian clothing: tutorial

We’ve been working out the details for a chudidar pant pattern for a while. So… Coming up this Spring we’ll be presenting you guys with a way to turn a regular pants pattern into something like this modified more modern version of a traditional Indian chudidar.  A traditional chudidar is gathered at the waist, but we’ve had some questions in class over the years about modifying this so that the waist in general is flatter and more flattering while maintaining the fullness through the mid-hip and thighs. We’re looking at early May. Stay tuned.Read More →

Progression of pattern manipulation from straight to flare

We’ve recently had a ton of students telling us that A. We don’t update the blog enough (and seeing as how we have 72 stored drafts in the draft folder, we’d be inclined to agree).           and B. They want to know how to do specific stuff and want tutorials. So, to keep the revolutionaries in check and anarchy at bay, here is our first update in a while to walk you through turning a straight skirt pattern into a flared pattern.  A little shout-out to Sophia here (Thanks Sophia!) for making the classes worthwhile for us and off we go!Read 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 →