Making a Difference

Last Saturday, October 22, members of the Hudson Valley Chapter of ASG did their part to make a difference for someone less fortunate.  Once again the Poughkeepsie Plaza graciously hosted us, letting us use an empty store space.  The staff at Sew 'n Vac lent us sewing tables and chairs, and later a vacuum to tidy up after ourselves.  Quite a few people spent part or all of the day pinning, pressing or sewing to make pillowcases, caps, neck gaiters and scarves to be donated to local shelters.  Here are a few pictures from the day, showing only a few of the many folk who helped out that day.

Getting Ready to Make a Difference

At our October meeting, the Sewphisticuts zoomed through a stack of fleece, cutting it up into the strips and circles that will be stitched together into fleece caps and scarves.  The Charity Chics group already did much of the preparation for making pillowcases, so when our Make a Difference Day event rolls around on Oct. 22nd, we'll be ready to sew.  Speaking of that event, we need folks to sign up for that day.  The event runs from 10 am to 3 pm, but however long you can stop in to help is appreciated.  Set-up will most likely be done on Friday evening.  If you can help out that night or anytime Saturday, please contact Connie Pennisi and let her know.  Help at the end of the event is especially appreciated as it takes a bit of work to restore the room to an empty, clean storefront.

In chapter news, there is a Serger workshop being planned for next March.  It will be limited to 8 people, but if many are interested a second one may be scheduled.  More information will be forthcoming about that.  The annual meeting and luncheon are coming up on Nov. 6 at Hudson's Ribs and Fish.  You should have already received an email about that.  Please note the deadlines for sending in your response and ballot.

Our next meeting in November will be a sewing meeting, with Pat M. helping us to make the nifty lined bag that can be used in a multitude of ways.   A list of necessary supplies will be sent out ahead of the meeting.  We will also discuss scheduling of the December dinner meeting.

We had a few Show and Tell items; pictures follow.

Connie's quilt in pretty pastels

One of Peggy's napkin rings

Judy's shawl - finished after MANY years!

The story behind Judy's shawl is that many years ago she had it almost complete, but disliked the fringe that the pattern had called for the finish the edge.  After our program about crocheted edgings, she thought about replacing the fringe with a crocheted edge.  Peggy helped her find a pattern that might work with the design of the shawl, and Judy proceeded to finally finish her shawl!

When being biased is a good thing

The program on Wednesday night was "Bias Binding", courtesy of Judy, who showed us a method to make a continuous strip of bias binding.  First she had us try it with a piece of paper.  We cut it along a diagonal, then taped the pieces back together as directed to make a parallelogram, then marked the width of our binding.  Then we wrapped one side around to meet the other, slightly offsetting our marked strip ends, and found we had made a tube.  The strip we marked spiralled along the tube, forming the continuous bias piece.

The next step was to try this with fabric.  The hardest part was matching up the marks to form the tube, but with a little help from Judy, everyone got their samples sewn up.  They began to cut them apart just far enough to see how the strip would form, but left them unfinished so as to have an example for later reference.

Two examples of bias binding on a neckline.

Bias binding can be used to finish quilts or any curved edge.  In home dec sewing it's often used to cover cording to make piping.  Judy showed us some examples of using bias binding to finish necklines of garments instead of a facing.  Since a bias edge will not ravel, the raw edge of the bias on the inside of the garment can be left as is.  She also showed us an example of piping used in a child's garment to accent the seam of a bodice and skirt.

So think about using bias binding in some of your next sewing projects!


There are lots of events coming up soon, from the Dear Jane trip, the East Fishkill Library reception, Banksville Fabric trip,  to the annual meeting.  So check the chapter calendar and mark your own accordingly.

Make A Difference Day is fast approaching.  Connie has been taking the lead on organizing it and has the Poughkeepsie Plaza booked for Saturday, Oct. 22 from 10 am to 3 pm.  This year's projects are  pillowcases, fleece hats and scarves to donate to local shelters.  Our October meeting will be used to prepare for this, so we plan on doing a lot of cutting and pinning to have things ready to sew that day.

Our November meeting will be a sewing program led by Pat M., who will help us as we make a handy fabric bag with handle.  Originally sized to be a trash bag for your car, it can be customized for other uses as well.  More detailed information will come out about that later.

December is our dinner out.  Venue yet to be decided.  Suggestions and ideas are welcome.

Show and tell pictures follow. 

Pat's rug made of scrappy strips.

Tanya's bags made of cork fabric (yes, cork!)

Peggy's sleeveless tops

Peggy's capris and blouse

Sue K's Challenge piece

and the try-out piece.

Sue K's Circle quilt

Using left-overs from the circles

Even more of the circle scraps!

Free-form crochet bags from the April workshop
left, Maura's bag; right, Cyndy's bag

No New Resolutions!

For the past two years, the Sewphisticuts have declared sewing resolutions to start the new year, hoping that making a list (and declaring them publicly) would provide impetus to really get to those projects!  Well, that didn't happen very often - fun while it lasted, though.  So we tossed last year's resolutions right out the window and moved on.

We used this month's meeting to do some brain-storming.  Everyone contributed some ideas and wishes and we were able to block out a schedule for the upcoming year.  We have some pretty interesting stuff coming up!

For next month's meeting we are going to explore knitting and crocheting, specifically as decorative edgings added to items we've sewn or purchased.  Everyone is invited to bring books, patterns, samples, or directions related to this topic.

Judy agreed to do a program on making bias binding.  Date to be determined. 

Several of us want to know more details about making handbags, such as interfacing choices, to achieve a more professional look.  We hope to find someone with experience to do a program for us.

Ronnie suggested an exploration of crazy-quilts, so I agreed to present some research on these at one meeting (probably in March), with the following month being devoted to sewing some samples.

June will be our sewing room tour - Peggy volunteered to show hers again since it has been redone since we were last there.

July is planned to be a Pillow Project sewing meeting to make pillows for the hospitals and rid Connie's attic of donated fiberfill.

Everyone wanted to return to doing Make-a-Difference-Day;  Connie volunteered to organize it.   We made a list of possible groups to benefit and Connie will get back to the group soon about projects.

Also on the table - some field trips in the nicer weather, most likely on a Saturday, perhaps to FIT's museum in NYC.   Suggestions for any other interesting places are welcome.

We had some Show-and-Tell also.  Pictures follow.

Kathia made a portable ironing pad.

Kathia made a "waste can" for sewing scraps.

One of 4 placemats Maura made to match her inherited china.

A machine-embroidered quilt by RoseAlice

RoseAlice's paper-pieced quilt

Judy's slacks made of brushed twill.

Maura's fake mink vest, not quite finished

Maura's corduroy slacks - fabric from last May's tag sale.

Hot pads and other stuff

At our pot-luck dinner last month, Peggy had brought along a trivet that her mother had made, using the folded-star method.  Quite a few of us liked it and asked her if she would be willing to show us how it was made.  So our July meeting became a small workshop in making this intriguing hot pad.  Peggy showed us one way to make it, where all the pieces are made from circles.   She had a sample of another method that used squares to start off.  A few of us had brought along pre-cut circles and we made up the trivet as Peggy showed us each of the steps.  Here's my finished project:

Folded star hot pad

Aside from the workshop, we discussed some project ideas for Make A Difference Day.  Thompson House in Rhinebeck can use some aprons and walker bags, and Hudson River Housing would appreciate fleece hats and scarves.  The CAB will discuss it at the upcoming meeting and see if there is anyone willing to organize the event. 

There is no meeting in August.  Our September meeting topic is free-motion embroidery.  This is a previously scheduled program that had been postponed (due to weather issues, I think).  It will be a hands-on session so plan to bring your machine with free-motion foot.  More specific information will come out closer to the meeting.

We ended with a variety of show-and-tell items.

One of Connie's quilts for a co-worker

Another of Connie's quilts for a co-worker

Sue's quilt with 2" strips

Sue's topographical quilt

Child's quilt by Kathia

Table pads almost complete

Ronnie's luggage tag

Little Red Riding Hood by Ronnie

Peggy's wrap-top dress

Embroidered fishing fly

Maura's seersucker shorts

Fabric Manipulation

The topic for the Sewphisticuts in our March meeting was Fabric Manipulation.  Several of us tried pleating, tucking, or poufing fabric in various ways for different effects.  We also experimented with felting wool and new ways of binding edges, with varying degrees of success.   Whether you view less-than-hoped-for results as "happy accidents" or outright failures, you still learn something from that attempt.  So we shared some of our non-successes as cheerfully as our successful attempts.

Maura brought a sample of plaid fabric that was pleated and sewn so as to make a more solid-colored fabric, imitating a technique she saw on a vintage dress in a show at the Metroplitan Museum of Art several years ago in which a purple and white  striped fabric was pleated to appear as solid purple.

She also experimented with felting, repeatedly washing and drying some wool swatches.  Since they were woven wool, and only washed 3 times, there wasn't much change.  But the lesson she took from this was that woven woolens could be safely preshrunk in a home washer.

Connie had a frustrating experience trying a new technique to attach binding to her table runner.  She found it made mitered corners lumpier, so her lesson was that a new technique isn't always better than the old way.   This runner was also her show-and-tell, the first paper-pieced project she had done.

Pat tried a method for tucking squares of fabric so that poufs formed in the center of the square.  Buttons were fastened in the center and the squares then could be sewn together for various decorative uses on purses, tote bags, quilts, etc.

Peggy investigated tucking and pleating, as well as using strips of fabric (similar to binding) in a woven pattern.  Some of the techniques had potential as insets in clothing (yokes, epaulets) or as decorative elements for bags, we thought.









In other business, we began to think about Make A Difference Day.  Connie agreed to reach out to a contact at Hudson River Housing to see what their needs might be.   By the next meeting we hope to have some ideas for a project for October.  Also next month we will have a presentation from Peggy and Maura on two different methods for sewing stained-glass quilt blocks.

Oven mitts

And of course we had some show-and-tell:

Bag made from vintage tablecloth

Easter basket

Pat's bed runner

Connie's quilt

Another quilt from Connie

Collapsible waste can for sewing

Hot pads

Peggy's shirt

Flowing blouse from Peggy