Pati Palmer – Tips

February 12, 2008October 26, 2008Leave a comment

Pati Pati Palmer, president of Palmer/Pletsch Publishing, has been teaching sewing techniques for 37 years. For the past 15 years, she has done seminars throughout North America and Australia, traveling almost half of each year. In addition to teaching techniques to those who want to improve their sewing, she also trains teachers to demonstrate those techniques to others. She designs and writes patterns for McCalls pattern company, and has also contributed to Vogue patterns. Her books and patterns have been featured in several major sewing publications.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, Pati was the instructor at a Sewing Seminar I was involved in over the weekend. After the seminar was over, Pati was gracious enough to offer a couple of tips for you – my readers. If you are interested in the product she mentions, you can find them at her website: Palmer/Pletsch.

Tip One – “If you are making a shirt out of a print cotton, silk, or a poly silkie, fuse to both the under and upper collar with PerfectFuse Sheer interfacing from Palmer/Pletsch. If it is a print, fuse another layer over the first on the upper collar. PerfectFuse Sheer is crisp, though lightweight, a 60″-wide polyester weft, and doesn’t need to be preshrunk. It comes in black and white. However, if you are fusing to a cotton, preshrink the cotton.”

Tip Two – “If you want to add stability behind buttonholes in a shirt, PerfectFuse Sheer is wide enough that you can cut the crosswise direction the length of the shirt. This way the stable lengthwise direction will be under your horizontal buttonholes, stabilizing them.”

If you are going to be in the Des Moines, Iowa area in April and are interested in learning more about Pati’s techniques, you should consider registering for the upcoming Sewing Seminar in that area. Click here for details and a registration form
The teacher will be Marta Alto, Marta is very involved in the creation of CDs and books from Palmer/Pletsch Publishing. If you have seen any of the CDs from Palmer/Pletsch, Marta is the person doing the actual sewing. She works side-by-side with Pati in creating her educational materials.
There’s still time to register for this seminar, so check it out!

Or, if you are interested in seeing some of the other coming events, please check out the Events Page which always appears at the top of the blog.
Sheila Reinke, Heart of Sewing
Sheila

Yo-Yos Everywhere!

February 8, 2008October 26, 20081 Comment

I’m still finding things to do with my yo-yos, I’ve made up so many as demonstration models recently that I really have more than I need. But they do add such fun to a project!

My first idea was to find something I could do with tiny yo-yos, once again these have been made using the Clover Yo-Yo maker (please see my earlier posts on how this great tool works). While I was searching for inspiration, I came across the pattern at the right. You may not be able to see the detail well in small scale, but if you click on it you’ll see what the pattern is. Basically, small aprons for a doll, bottle of dish soap, or other application. The retro style appealed to me, and I knew that at least some of my tiny yo-yos had found a home! Pattern number is Kwik Sew 3596.

2 Aprons Closeup
The apron fits onto a bottle of 30 oz. dish soap, and I discovered that one brand (the name starts with a “J” and has only 3 letters), comes in enough colors to let you coordinate your apron to the soap!

On the left are the finished aprons – each with coordinating dish soap. And on the right is a closeup of one of the aprons. Can you see the yo-yo embellishments used? There are three yo-yos at the bottom of the blue/yellow apron, and the red apron has yo-yos that have been used on the shoulder straps.

Imagine giving one of these as a housewarming gift to a student moving into their first apartment – or just as something fun to give to your neighbor who loves the look of these retro aprons! I am thinking about making them with a summer theme and giving one to all the ladies that come to my house for Easter this year. This would be a fun project to have an apron for every holiday – and they dress up the kitchen a little bit.

Now, what could I do with the large yo-yos? Once again I turned to the pattern books for inspiration, and I found McCall’s #5441. I used yo-yos instead of the large buttons that were suggested in the instructions.

I thought this would be a great idea for someone who buys lots of greeting cards in advance of birthdays or special holidays. You could have up to three month’s worth of cards in easy reach – one month to a pocket. It would also be great for those who make their own cards, or even for scrapbooking enthusiasts as a place to stash photos until everything is ready to create that new page in the book.

If you made this up in Christmas colors, it would be a nice place to put all the cards that come in.
Or, a variation of an idea I’ve just seen for this time of year – assign a pocket to each member of the household. Make this their ‘mailbox’ where notes of encouragement, love or praise could be left. The kids will soon get excited to check and see what type of message has been left for them!

I yo-yo, do you?

Check back with me next week to see what I’ll be doing next – the yo-yos have been fun, and we may return to them later in the season, but there is so much more to talk about! Oh, and a special treat tomorrow – check back!

Sheila Reinke, Heart of Sewing
Sheila

Ideas for the Yo-Yo

February 6, 2008October 26, 2008Leave a comment

Those who make yo-yos seem to make them by the dozens (if not by the hundreds) at a time. Next comes the dilemma – what to do with them all? As I promised on Monday’s post, here are some ideas that I’ve made up recently.

A darling purse that the bride can carry with her on her wedding day. This purse was made using a bridal brocade that was lovely to look at – but very slippery to sew! To solve that problem, I pinned the fabric down with flat flower quilting pins (see my DYK sheet on Dritz Pins for more information on these pins). Ruler The quilting pins helped to stablize the fabric while I was cutting the pattern pieces. Since the pieces for the purse were all rectangular, I decided to use my rotary cutter, and the flat pins worked great for that – the ruler lay over the fabric nicely and my pattern pieces came out perfectly.

After you cut out all the pieces you baste on a heavy sew-in interfacing to each piece. This really makes it nice to work with the fabric – now it’s stable. The pattern I used was McCalls pattern #4794, view B. I ironed the purse using the Dritz Sleeve Roll, which was great for the size of the purse. The sleeve roll could actually get inside of the purse, so I was only ironing one layer of the purse at a time (rather than both front and back).

After completing the purse, I added 7 heart yo-yos that were made using two layers of chiffon. This gave the hearts a nice delicate look. The hearts were attached by sewing through the centers to attach them to the bottom of the flap of the purse. I then added a gold bead to the center of each heart for accent. Here’s a close-up of two of the hearts.

Need another idea? How’s this? Here is a jacket and skirt that have been embellished with yo-yos and pearls. It gives a whole new look to this outfit. The skirt and top were made using McCalls Pattern #5542. Hancock Fabrics Demonstrator Carol Prettyman made the outfit and added the embellishment. Heart yo-yos have been used to accent the bottom of the jacket and down the front . Hearts have also been added to each of the sleeves. And if you look carefully at the close-up picture, you’ll see that circle yo-yos dangle from the hem of the jacket to add a little extra movement. Using fabrics that matched and coordinated with the skirt pulls this entire outfit together. The pearls add just that little touch of flash that we all like to see in our clothing from time to time.

Sheila Reinke, Heart of Sewing
Sheila