The Sew Expo Adventure, Part 1

What an amazing week we had. The next few blog posts may be longer than normal just because I have so much to cover and I want to do it while everything is fresh in my mind.

The Sewing and Stitchery Expo—shortened to “Sew Expo” by most attendees—is an annual event sponsored by Washington State University. It is held at the state fairgrounds in Puyallup, Washington, near Tacoma. Attending Sew Expo has been on my bucket list for a couple of years. DD#1 is a 2014 graduate of Pacific Lutheran University, so I am familiar with that area. The Expo was held virtually in 2021 and 2022 because of the pandemic. When I found out it would be in person again at the fairgrounds this spring, I mentioned it to Tera, and of course she was all in. Everyone needs a friend like Tera.

We were able to get tickets and spots in our first-choice classes, made all the necessary travel arrangements, and waited impatiently for the end of February. We left for Puyallup last Tuesday morning. Getting out of Flathead County was a bit dicey as it was snowing heavily and the plows hadn’t been out yet. It took five hours instead of the usual four to get to Spokane, but around Ritzville, the weather cleared up nicely and we had a smooth drive the rest of the way. We arrived at the Airbnb, checked in, then headed to a local Indian restaurant for dinner. I’d eaten there several times when DD#1 was in college.

I was surprised to see how busy the restaurant was for a Tuesday evening. We had to wait about 20 minutes for a table, and the only dining option was a buffet. Tera did order some naan to go with the meal.

When it came time to pay for our meal, the restaurant only charged us for the naan and told us the buffet was free. Back at the car, Tera did some quick internet research and discovered that this restaurant offers a free buffet on the last Tuesday of every month in honor of health care workers, EMTs, law enforcement, military, and their families. Tera works at the hospital in Kalispell and the husband was an EMT for many years, so we didn’t feel too bad about taking advantage of the free meal. We headed back to the Airbnb and turned in for the night.

Unfortunately, I woke up Wednesday morning with a very upset stomach. I don’t think it was the Indian food—Tera ate exactly the same food I did—but I must have picked up a bug somewhere. (I do remember feeling a bit of indigestion after dinner, but I thought it was because I ate too much.) Wednesday was our big class day and I didn’t want to miss anything, so I sipped water and chewed peppermints and powered through.

Tera’s Wednesday morning class was Pattern Alteration Boot Camp. She said it was very good. My morning class was Serger Stitch Savvy. I went heavy on the serger classes because I wanted to identify (and close) the holes in my knowledge base. I thought I might also pick up some class ideas.

Next year, when I register, I will pay closer attention to the teacher names as well as the class topics. It turned out that our class was taught by Katrina Walker, author of this book:

This one is on my bookshelf and I refer to it often.

All machines are provided in class. Students need only bring basic sewing supplies. Local sewing machine dealers bring in the machines for students to use, then offer them at hefty discounts at the end of the show. (My Janome 6600P was a show machine when I bought it 10 years ago.) All of my serger classes ended up being on the Bernina L890, although I did not plan it that way. I have the Bernina L860. The only difference is that the L890 has coverstitch capabilities.

Katrina is an excellent teacher. Each student received a notebook full of pages—one for each stitch—complete with notes on suggested fabrics and usage. (I give my students a similar handout so that they can compile their own notebooks.)

We systematically went through all the serger stitches on the machine, made up samples, and pasted them into the notebook. Going in, I was still a bit weak on the two-thread serger stitches, so getting to work through those was very helpful. At the end of four hours, I had a notebook full of stitch samples.

I managed to keep down half a sandwich for lunch. Afterward, Tera and I went to our afternoon session on making and fitting a bodice sloper.

We hit the jackpot with our bodice sloper class. The woman who was supposed to teach the class had an emergency. Our substitute teacher turned out to be Joe Vechiarelli. (!!!!!!!) Joe works for ABC and Disney. He has done costuming and fitting for Dancing With the Stars and most recently dressed Rihanna for the Superbowl. He is a BIG NAME in the industry and he taught our class.

[Picture me fanning myself.]

Joe is such a nice guy. Not every teacher could have walked into a class of 30 women and done what he did. We submitted measurements ahead of time, so each of us had a draft sloper—courtesy of Garment Designer by Susan Lazear—waiting for us. He checked a couple of measurements on each of us and compared them to our slopers, then told us to trace a copy of the sloper to work from. (I had to lengthen my sloper by an inch right off the bat.)

Joe said that roughly 65% of the class needed a full bust adjustment, so he walked us through the process. I’ve done them before so this wasn’t entirely unfamiliar territory. I did the FBA and had him check it, then made the muslin to test the fit. He checked each of our muslins on us, marked adjustment lines, and had us re-sew them if necessary. We then transferred the changes to our slopers.

Here is Tera working on her sloper:

Late yesterday afternoon, after unpacking all my stuff, I re-traced my bodice sloper once more for a clean copy. And I had an epiphany.

Tera mentioned that one of her teachers had made a distinction between a “full bust” and a “prominent bust,” which has to do with how the breast tissue is distributed on the body. Whenever I have done an FBA on a pattern, I can get it to fit across my body, but I always have excess fabric at the upper sides and underarm and I’ve never known how to get rid of that. I’ve tried shortening the length of the armhole and/or pinching out a dart in the armscye, neither of which is a satisfactory fix.

I think I fall more into the prominent bust category. Most FBAs are intended for women with full busts. Those women need the extra fabric at the sides and underarms to cover their breast tissue. I don’t, so I get those goofy folds of extra fabric.

I looked at my bodice sloper after I re-traced it and it was staring me right in the face:

See the part I’ve circled in red? That angle and the resulting shape of the armhole—which is shorter and shallower—is the fix I think I needed. I will still get the coverage I require across the front, but there should be much less fabric at the sides and underarm. I’ll have to make up another muslin to test out my theory, but this is promising. What I needed was someone to help me fit a bodice properly and I got that with Joe. That class alone was worth the cost of the entire trip.

I still need to lengthen my sloper by another inch. Apparently, I have a very long torso, which is why tops are always too short for me.

We decided to swing through the Panera drive-through for dinner so I could get a bowl of chicken soup to take back to the Airbnb. Our Airbnb was very comfortable. It was about a mile from the fairgrounds in a small subdivision. We had use of the garage so I didn’t have to park on the street.

I’ll post about our Thursday classes tomorrow.