Our Trip

I should really have titled this - SLC-ASG (Salt Lake City - American Sewing Guild) Presentation, Moab & Leggings...all wrapped into 10 short days.

Some of you know that we were gone on a road trip and waited very patiently for my return so that I could answer your questions.  Thank you.

For all of you, I thought you might like to see some photo highlights of this trip. We started off with a fabulous tour of the BYU Broadcasting Bldg, which had latest of latest video technology and equipment.  Of course our videographer (and my husband, Wes) was blown away.  And on Sunday, we had a once-in-a-lifetime experience of being present for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir...something I've wanted to do forever.  What magnificent voices!

Saturday I gave a Sure-Fit Designs presentation to the Salt Lake City Chapter of the American Sewing Guild.  Photos follow.  Sorry that Wes didn't get more, but the facility was too dark to really photograph effectively.

They had a great turn out and fun was had by all.

Then, the lady who organized this function, offered us their condo in Moab, UT - an offer we couldn't pass up.  On Moab's doorstep are 2 uniquely different National Parks: Canyonlands and Arches.  The terrain is so different from where we live in Oregon - absolutely stunning and beautiful.  I know this is different from my usual blog...and I don't want to bore you...but here are some photo highlights:

 Cactus just coming into bloom.  The color of red was especially stunning.

 Famous view of the Colorado River - 2,000 ft below the mesa we are standing on.

 

Blue sky but chilly!

 

 The La Sal mountains frame the background.

 Canyons forged by weather - 2 to 3,000 ft below.

 Pushing the boulder off the steps!!

 Fiery Furnace viewpoint.  These rock formations come alive with the evening sunset.

 Wes climbed up to this magnificent arch.

 Spectacular scenery and rock formations.  This is why they call it Arches National Park.

 Balanced Rock - a much photographed sight.

I'll end this part of the tour with another awesome flower - simply perfect and growing quite contentedly out of the crack in the rock.

And while watching the rock climbers of all ages (we'd never seen this before...these folks are braver than we are),

we saw these 3 brothers in their colorful leggings. 

 

They're right in fashion!  The more colorful and bold the fabric pattern the better.  By the way, their wives sewed their leggings.  Now if our fabric stores would just catch up with the ready-to-wear trend, we can sew our own.  

(PS the ladies Leggings Fashion Leaflet is downloadable and can be found by Clicking Here.)

 

 This is the middle brother on his way up the sheer rock face.  More power to him!  Looks like 'Spider Man' to me.

I hope you've enjoyed this short photo journey.  We definitely enjoyed our trip, sharing Sure-Fit Designs with the SLC chapter of ASG, and our few days of R&R at the end, which we both needed.

Kindly,
Glenda...the Good Stitch!

You Look Fab

Every now and again, I like to recommend good blogs to you - particularly on different topics that I typically don't discuss.  You Look Fab is one of those blogs.

Even though I have my own ideas of what looks good/best on various figure shapes, I'd rather leave this topic up to experts who specialize in this topics.  You Look Fab helps you to identify what figure shape you are.  There's lots of information if you simply click here.  Here you'll find extensive discussion on the Apple, Pear, Rectangle, Hourglass, and Inverted Triangle body shapes among other great topics to help you choose the best style for your body shape.

And then you'll find great clothing combinations to get you started on coordinating what's best for you.  Here are some examples from You Look Fab:

Remember - half the battle of looking good in your clothes is wearing garments that fit.  That's why we love SFD!  The other half, of course, is choosing styles best suited to your body shape.

Have fun browsing around the You Look Fab blog.

Kindly,
Glenda ...the Good Stitch!

March Retreat Photo Highlights

Everyone achieved well-fitting pants and bodices.  Here's a few photo highlights

 

Students came from Australia, Florida, Pennsylvania...along with 2 local Oregonians.

 

Perfect neck, shoulder & upper chest width.  Darts needed slight repositioning.

 

 Set-in sleeve demo.

 Discussing design details.

 Drawing the pattern.

 Fitting the pants pattern.

 Adjusting the neckline for a forward thrust head.

 Moving the entire shoulder seam forward.

 Princess seams help shape the fabric for body contours.

Transferring fit changes on to the trial 'muslin'.

6 days of fitting experiences - 3 days for pants and 3 for the bodice.  They go quickly.

Glenda...the Good Stitch!

Vest Success!

I always love it when you ladies send me photos of your finished projects.  Most of the time, I help you with your fitting muslins, and then never see the finished fashion garments you sew.

Marlene, (Wovenflame), is a relatively new customer, who I've recently helped achieve an excellent bodice fit.  She went immediately on to a finished garment and has just sent me photos of her first project.  Needless to say, her fleece-lined vest fits beautifully.

Here's a series of photos with comments from both me and Marlene so that you can see what she did.

 

The vest front is fitted with this lovely princess line.  Since the photo is a little dark, I used Photoshop to show you exactly where this design line is.

Her muslin needed a back shoulder dart to accommodate for her rounded shoulders.  Since she didn't want the dart in the vest, Marlene designed the back yoke and incorporated the dart into the yoke shaping.  Again, see my 'white' lines.  This was an excellent option to give shaping where needed, but not use the standard dart.

These two show the back princess line going into the armscye.  I know you can't really see it on Marlene, but there is no side seam - it wraps from front around to the back.  The instructions tell you how to do this.  Marlene also says she added 2" extra in length so that the vest would hang just past the fullest part of her hips.

And even though you can't see it up close, she's trimmed it all with hand-made black bias binding.

Didn't she do an excellent job?  If you'd like to read Marlene's blog comments about her experiences, please click here.

And if you're interested in obtaining this relatively new downloadable Fashion Leaflet - the Reversible Vest, you can click here.  In case you don't remember, this is what my version looks like.

 

Marlene, thanks so much for sharing your accomplishments with all of us.

Kindly,

Glenda...the Good Stitch!