Pati Palmer – Sheila Reinke

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

Pati This weekend, I attended and assisted with a two-day seminar in Minneapolis, MN Feb. 8-9,2008 We had a full house – 82 women attended this sewing seminar! Hancock Fabrics staff in the area worked with their local American Sewing Guild to jointly bring in Pati Palmer for the event.

Pati is highly respected for her knowledge of the sewing industry. When you look through McCall’s, Butterick, and Vogue patterns you will see her name on many as the designer of the pattern. Pati has been involved in this business a long time, and has some great tips and suggestions on ways to make patterns fit properly. One of the attendees was willing to get a personal fitting in front of everyone! This allowed Pati to show us the steps she takes in fitting a pattern to the person. She took the pattern tissue and pined it together for fitting a person. She then walked us through the fitting step-by-step.

One of the sessions she did was her “20 top twenty tips for sewing”. If you ever get a chance to hear Pati Palmer at a sewing expo, etc make sure you take the opportunity – you won’t be sorry. Pati’s instruction included proper uses of interfacings, tips on tailoring, and more.

We all had a great time, and I have to admit, I personally got so caught up in Pati’s presentation (even though I have seen her speak before) that I forgot to start taking pictures until near the very end of the seminar!

Check out Pati’s website for more information on her work and to see where she will be teaching next!

Full House!