Can you believe it’s (almost) Spring? February melted into March a bit for me but I’m finally rolling out the Spring Calendar and I’m very excited about our class offerings!
Taylor and Steph standing outside of Patchwork and Heirloom holding up a finger for the number 1.
Steph and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary last month with a ton of fun classes and workshops and it was a blast. We’re excited for things to come as the weather starts to warm up, including some special events around the various Spring holidays.
I’ve been keeping myself busy with a wide range of projects, including some fun casual clothes and some wild and wacky costumes for an upcoming project. It’s been so fun to dive into sequins and piping and machine embroidery. I get a lot of satisfaction from sewing practical things, but sometimes a glamorous garment project is just what I need to get my creative gears turning!
In this newsletter…
Spring Classes ✤ In the Studio ✤ Machine Embroidery ✤ AI for Sewing ✤ Strange Sewing Things ✤ and of course the monthly Studio Playlist!
Spring Classes
Three upcoming class photos from left to right: a partially finished quilt top, a pair of black jeans having belt loops sewn on, a muslin garment mock up with notes and adjustments in colorful marker.
We’ve got some super fun classes for all levels this Spring! Things kick off with our beginner quilting class Make a Quilt starting March 19th. If you’re curious about quilting, this class is for you! Make a crib/throw sized quilt and learn about color selection, piecing, and quilting.
If you’re keen to sew some clothing, you’ve got some great options. Bring a pattern of your choice to Make it Fit starting April 8th and learn how to alter the pattern for a custom fit. If you’re an experienced sewer who struggles with getting clothes to fit well, this is the class for you!
We’ve also got another session of Make Your Own Jeans starting May 11th for those who want to take their skills to the next level with a pair of professional looking jeans. We’ve got a bunch of deadstock designer denim and all the supplies you need. We’ve even got an optional Make Your Own Jeans: Fitting Session on May 8th before class begins so you can fine tune the fit of your pants. (You could also take Make It Fit if you really want to focus on creating the perfect fitting jeans!)
Three upcoming class photos from left to right: a greeting card with a fabric collage in earth tones, a white canvas tote bag with a green and blue checker pocket, a white baseball cap with a Patchwork logo embroidered on it.
For those with a little more sewing experience who want to level up their skills and try something new, check out Sew a Baseball Cap on April 7th. In this class, students will make a custom cap and even have the opportunity to add custom embroidery to the front.
If you’re a total beginner, why not take our one day Learn to Sew: Patchwork Tote Bag class on April 27th? It covers all the basics of using a sewing machine and you’ll leave with a beautiful and useful tote bag.
Beginners and more experienced sewers alike can get scrappy and creative in our Fabric Collage Greeting Cards class on May 8th! Stitch together your favorite scraps into beautiful, one of a kind cards to share with friends and family.
And of course…
If you’d like to get some one on one instruction and get help with a specific project, you can sign up for a private lesson! You can also learn how to use your Serger in Serger Skills or work on a project of your own choosing in Open Sewing Studio.
In the Studio
Here’s a few snaps of what’s been happening in at Patchwork lately:
Prints from our most recent Cyanotype on Fabric class (which runs again on May 11th)! Everyone worked with such different materials and they yielded excellent results: Dried pressed plants, film negatives, cut paper, buttons, and more.
9 year old Hannah (with a little help from me in the pattern making department) worked on her first quilting project: A black lab pillow for her dad!
I carved some pasta themed stamps and created this block printed bandana in our Block Printing on Fabric class.
We had the first meeting of our Miniatures Club and I taught folks how to make miniature plants using wire and interfacing.
Machine Embroidery
The embroidery machine in action and finished embroidery.
I recently purchased an embroidery machine for the shop and I’ve been having a blast playing around with it! It’s part of what inspired our Sew a Baseball Cap class happening in April (see above!) and has been a fun new skillset to develop. And guess what? You too can use our embroidery machine to embellish your clothes! The embroidery machine, as well as our other sewing machines, is available to rent for $10 an hour.
I’m also offering digitizing services for your designs so that you can embroider them using the machine! If you’re interested in learning more, get in touch.
AI for Sewing
Have you ever thought about using AI image generation for sewing? Neither had I until recently (thanks for the inspiration, Jordan!). I have my concerns and criticisms about AI and the way that it can be be use to sidestep artists when it comes to content creation. However, it’s clearly here to stay, so I’m increasingly curious about ways it can be harnessed to help artists with their creative process.
I decided to try using AI to generate images of things I’d like to sew to see what they might look like. The process is pretty fascinating. It gets it wrong a lot of the time (in hilarious, reality defying and often creepy ways) but it’s also a really interesting way to jumpstart your creativity and see proof of concept. Here’s some fun examples I made using Openart, which is free for the basic version. I included the prompts so you can see how the AI did interpreting them.
I definitely have some critiques of this process, but overall it feels like an effective tool for visualizing ideas without sketching. What do you think? Would you (or have you) ever used AI to play around with sewing ideas?
Strange Sewing Things
A general store themed dress from the 1920s, a red drop waist number featuring paper cut outs of products as well as physical objects arranged like a store with prices, via @strangedesires_ on IG.
Ever wondered what happens when you combine sewing and synthesizers? Artist Love Hultén created a synth that incorporates toy singer sewing machines and the results are fantastic.
I’m obsessed with this bizarre ‘General Store’ themed dress (IG link, pictured above) from the 1920’s featuring objects and paper cutouts. I wonder if somebody made this for a fancy dress party, school play, or just to be a weirdo walking about town?
Intersections between sewing and tech are great, but it’s usually a tech application of a sewing concept. This glitch quilt, which flips the trend and renders something tech in fabric form, is brilliant.
This Month’s Studio Playlist
Here’s the playlist for the impending Spring. Nothing too conceptual, just a collection of tunes I’ve been enjoying during the thaw. Enjoy!
I hope you enjoyed this newsletter! Feel free to share with a friend.