Best Sewing Vacation Ever, Part 3

Sunday at BU was a light day. I had only two classes. The morning session was another make-and-take-teach-this-at-your-store class where we made a zipper pouch with a vinyl window. We were using the 770 PRO and 790 PRO machines.

Ashlee and I were in that session together. Our teacher was exceptionally good. Becky was next door in the same session with a different teacher who was not so good. ☹️

I am no stranger to making buttonholes. I did them on my Janome 6600P. I had not yet made buttonholes on a Bernina, however, and that was a life-changing experience. I now want to make buttonholes on All The Things:

I may teach this zipper pouch project at the store at some point.

My afternoon class was called, “Guiding the Garment Customer Journey: From First Impression to Your Bottom Line,” and it was taught by Maggie Smith, who owns a store called Pintuck and Purl in North Hampton, NH. I said to Ashlee afterward that it was gratifying to see that our store is ahead of the curve. The Quilt Gallery has been carrying apparel fabric and offering garment classes for the past couple of years. Most stores are frantically playing catch-up as they try to attract former Joanns customers.

The class discussion was lively and informative, with an emphasis on how to be welcoming to customers who might belong to a different demographic than the store’s regulars. In other words—“Don’t be a snob.” I think our store does a good job at being welcoming.

[In related news, I have eight people registered for my “Learn to Sew” pillowcase class at the end of the month.]

I appreciated having a lighter class day in the middle of the weekend. Four days of intensive learning is a lot.

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I’ve been catching up on paperwork now that I’m home, but I’ve also been sewing. I had a pile of flying geese units left over from making the quilted jacket, so I assembled them into Sawtooth Star blocks. I ended up with nine 9-1/2" blocks and seven 3-1/2" blocks. They went into the orphan blocks bin until I decide what to do with them.

It began raining Friday night and rained for much of yesterday, so I spent the day tracing patterns. I’m going to make the Icaria pants from Itch to Stitch:

I’ve had this pattern for a while. These pants are dead simple—three pattern pieces and a length of elastic—but I have some great fabrics in the stash that would be perfect. I lengthened the rise by an inch after watching Karina’s video at the Lifting Pins and Needles YouTube channel. She is about the same height as me, so if she has to lengthen a pattern, I make the same adjustment.

I need to get the Remy Raglan pattern printed while I am in town tomorrow so I can make a muslin of that top. I’m going to use worn-out linen sheets. Target was carrying linen sheets a few years ago and I bought some for our bed. They have developed holes, so now they will be repurposed as muslin fabric for the Icaria pants and the Remy top. After I check the fit with the muslin, I’ll make a top out of some linen I bought at Pacific Fabrics in Seattle.