Blog Winner and Preparations

Hello Everyone!

It's Hannah writing to you today. I'm home from school for the weekend and returned to a bustling little Thimble! We have so many guest instructors coming and events coming up that my to-do list was quite long. I love to see the calendar filled with events and classes!

Firstly, I would like to announce our blog giveaway winner from the previous post. Congratulations to "ga447"! Please contact us to tell us what color theme of vintage linens, fabrics and trims you would like us to send you! Our contact information can be found here. Thank you so much to everyone who participated in the giveaway!

In addition to guest instructors such as India Flint, Nicola Brown, and Leiko Uchiyama coming to teach at the Thimble, and events like the Fourth Annual Student Art Show, and our Six Year Anniversary Celebration, I am so excited to announce that Emma and I are planning events for the Third Annual Fashion Week and the Summer Handmade Wardrobe Fashion Show this week! This event will take place July 9th -13th, and Emma and I will have the week's festivities posted here by the end of the week.

I have started thinking about the show and started matching some of my favorite patterns and fabrics! I'm not sure if I'm more excited, or more overwhelmed by this assortment of projects...

Emma is working on a lovely pair of Colette's "Iris" shorts out of a stretch pique. They will be beautiful  addition to her wardrobe and the fashion show when she completes them!

200th Post and Vintage Linen Obsessions

Hannah pointed out to me that our next blog post (this post) was going to be our 200th post and wondered if maybe we should do a little giveaway to celebrate.  I thought this was a fine idea and so we set out to turn a few things from this cabinet:

into some crisp little pretties.  And these are what beckoned:

We spent the last day of Hannah’s vacation sewing and it was a good day.  All of these adorable little aprons were made from salvaged linens, vintage fabrics, vintage trims and a few vintage aprons that were in need of some sprucing.  Isn't that aqua and red printed tablecloth above BEAUTIFUL!!  It had so many holes and stains and I loved it so much!  It was wonderful to see it turned into something new and fancy!  

Here at the shop, we all have such a soft spot for vintage linens.  Especially the damaged ones.  We know about all of the hard work, stiff necks and pricked fingers kind of work that went into these linens and then to see a pile of them in a thrift store or even worse, in a dumpster!!  We love to make up happy little stories about the women who worked on the linens as we rescue them and breath new life into them.  It is always a heart warming process.

SSOOOOOO.......  the giveaway, I'm sure you're wondering about the giveaway.  :-)

Hannah and I are going to put together a wonderful little bundle of vintage linens, vintage fabrics and vintage trims to that you can be a part of the linen rescuing as well!  We hope that this little bundle will inspire you to create a little, crisp pretty for yourself!  I'm going to wait until we have a winner and you can tell me what colors you would like and we'll do our best to match!

TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT (PREFERABLY APRON/VINTAGE LINEN RELATED) ON THIS POST (NOT ON FACEBOOK) AND WE WILL CHOOSE OUR WINNER AFTER 3:00 PM FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8th.

A Sea of Machines

I swung by Auburn Sew & Vac last night to pick up six sewing machines.  Yes, SIX!  Plus there was a seventh that needs an engine overhaul that I didn't get to take home AND I dropped off an eighth.  Our machines were in desperate need of some TLC plus Lisa and I rescued a few machines from the bone yard at Paul's (Whistlestop Junk Shop on Nevada Street).  This is not the point of my story though.

THE MOST EXCITING part of going into Auburn Sew and Vac was the SEA OF SEWING MACHINES that I found there (I wish I'd taken a photo).  Joseph and Julie had told me that they had been swamped with repair work but I had figured it was mostly vacuums.  But, judging from the number of machines that were, well, EVERYWHERE in the shop I'd say sewing is going strong!  I'd love to know if they were mostly quilter's machines or if there were garment and garment repair machines in there too.  I found it very exciting.  :-)  Hannah would have too.  We love our old sewing machines - do you?

It's patchwork! It's bright! It's a quilt!

Hello T3 readers. It's Hannah writing to you today. How is everyone?! It's been a while since I wrote a blog post for the Thimble. I'm home for winter vacation and am thoroughly enjoying my time here at the shop. Stop in and say hello! Yes, yes indeed that IS a quilt. Mom, Emma and I love the line of fabrics called "The Woodlands" by Anthology fabrics (available on our Etsy shop, here, for those of you interested!) Inspired by the very chilly weather and the longing for summer warmth and color, I decided to make a small quilt with those cute fabrics.

With that decision made, the rotary cutter and I decided to be on agreeable terms, I saved up some patience, and painstakingly cut out 216 5"x 5" squares. The logistics went something like this: 1/2" seam allowances, little (to no) concern over matching corners, a flannel middle, cotton backing, cotton extra wide double fold bias tape, and embroidery floss used to tie the quilt roughly every other square.

I am not a quilter. I've never claimed that, nor do I ever plan to. I want to make this clear to everyone: quilting can be fun and finicky-free. Sometimes customers come into the shop who are so concerned that their quilt will be judged if the corners aren't matched perfectly, if the colors don't match exactly, and if it's not a fancy pattern. Ladies (and gents, if you're reading) take that quilting stigma, crumple it up and throw it away with those precision laser-cut squares. Quilting is a beautiful art form that doesn't have to center around perfection. Look closely! Do my corners match? Nope. Does my binding twist a little in some areas? Sure does. Is it sized precisely for a twin bed? I dunno. Probably not. 

Long story short, if you've never tried quilting you really should. It's fun! It's a great way to use up fabric and you can make endless color combinations. Don't get caught up in worrying about the perfection or complexity of it all. Some of my favorite quilts are a jumble of mis-matched fabrics that have been sewn together with no rhyme or reason.

Melissa Arnold and Embellishment Machines.

We are thrilled to have Melissa Arnold returning to The Tin Thimble Classroom to teach "The Embellishment Machine Unplugged" in February.  Here in the shop I must admit we've all been a bit skeptical of embellishment or felting machines - go ahead, you can call us felting purists.  ;)  Melissa assures us that our skepticism isn't completely warranted - that an embellishment machine can allow you to felt onto fabrics that you wouldn't usually even CONSIDER felting with.  You can felt onto recycled sweaters, silk charmeuse and a plethora of heavier fabrics that would take HOURS to hand felt onto.  Once you've used the embellishment machine to do the hard work, Melissa will teach you how to apply wet and nuno felting techniques to the fabric to give it that finished, hand felted look.  Below are just a few examples of what Melissa has been doing with her machine.  

The Embellishment Machine Unplugged with Melissa Arnold OR How to Create Couture Art Wear and/or One of a Kind Textiles Using the Embellishment Machine- Saturday, February 9 - Sunday, February 10 10:30-5:00

Through a series of samples we will uncover the myriad of possibilities this little machine has to offer. Come prepared to play, experiment, and to be very pleasantly surprised! Day one will introduce you to the many possibilities thru sampling and Day two will be used to design and create a finished scarf or a piece of fabric to be used as part of a garment. A materials list will be available upon registration.

Melissa Arnold has been creating textiles for the last 30 years. She has been collaborating with Fashion Designer Catherine Bacon professionally for the last 10 years. She is a master dyer, felter and surface designer. You can see her work at www.melissaarnoldtextiles.com

Instructor: Melissa Arnold

Class Fee: $250

Melissa wants each student to have their own embellishment/felting machine (and they need to be a specialized machine, not a sewing machine with a felting attachment).  Please give us a call at 916-652-2134 if you would like to register or have any questions.

Dragon Pants!

I recently learned that How to Train Your Dragon is currently my 5-year-old nephew's favorite movie so I just couldn't resist making him these pajama bottoms for Christmas:

Made from the above vintage pattern.  It was SO much better than any of the new patterns that I looked at.  I wish I had time to make him the robe too!  I loved my robe when I was his age.  I used Ed Emberley's Happy Drawing organic cotton fabric.  Now I'm off to make a pair (not dragon) for his 2-year-old sister!  

Felted Fashion Show 2012

We are thrilled to be hosting our first Felted Fashion Show!  Mom, Lisa, Carin and a number of our students will be struttin' their felted garments down the catwalk.  The fashion show will be part of High Hand Gallery's Awards Night for the Art Stock show.  We hope you can join us!