This year, many members of the Baltimore Chapter are participating in the chapter’s evaluation program that was developed in 2001. There are 5 levels, 3 of which members are currently working towards: Dressmaker I and II, and Master Dressmaker. Consequently, most of the year’s programs are related to the requirements needed to successfully complete each level. A number of our members shared their expertise and tips for such topics as seam techniques, thread carriers, darts and gathers, invisible zippers, collars, cuffs and plackets, and hems. It seems like no matter how much experience we have, there are always some new tips to learn to make constructing these things easier, faster, and better!
Our May meeting had a little different format. One of our members, Kathy Sack, has been making skating costumes for the last several years and gave us lots of good info about the process and the differences between sewing these and regular clothing. The members in attendance don’t have much experience with this type of work, so it was all new to us! Keeping with the costume theme, Andrea Hoover, who got her costuming degree from Penn State University, presented the second half of the program on how to build the costumes for a theater production and all the people involved in the process. Using some Elizabethan sleeves as an example, she explained all the steps from going through the design stage through the pattern-making to the muslin to the finished garment. Then we got to have an up-close look at Debby Spence’s winning (Most Successful Application) Challenge garment as she explained how she put it all together. Susan Khalje, who judged the Challenge, was at the meeting and it was interesting to hear a judge’s perspective of the garment.
A highlight of our year was an all-day workshop to learn Sashiko stitching, lead by Nancy Long, from Lancaster, PA. She has extensive knowledge of the art form and of Japanese textiles, so she had lots to teach us. It was a fun day, and greatly enhanced by the presence of some members of the NJ chapter who drove several hours to take the workshop!
