Pop Quiz with Needlework

Liz – I really enjoy when our regular customers come in and take advantage of our sew-by-the-hour space. I love that this crafty resource exists in my city, and to see it in use makes my heart swell with happiness!

 

Who are some other artists or businesses in the Hamilton craft scene that we should know about?

K- Good question! There are lots. I’ll mention a few that are located on our street (James Street North). There’s White Elephant, which is a really adorable and amazing store that sells handmade and vintage goods. It’s run by our dear friends Hollie Pocsai and Jane Labatte. Our pal Roisin Fagan has a textile studio called Bespoke Uprising, and she makes the most adorable tea towels, scarves, zippered pouches, etc, with great screen printed designs (mason jars, farm scenes, donair!). She also sometimes teaches natural dyeing workshops at our store, which is great. Mixed Media is an awesome artist supply shop that also carries great magazines (like Pure Green, Kinfolk, Uppercase, Anthology), cute greeting cards from a range of artists, inspiring books, and other great stuff.

 

 

How long have you been sewing, and how did you learn to sew?

K- I’ve been sewing on and off since I was in gr.5-ish. My mum made a lot of clothes for me and my siblings when we were little, and I come from a pretty crafty family, so sewing was naturally thrown into the mix. My mum taught me with her old machine, which was avocado green and weighed a ton. I started off by altering my old clothes, turning t-shirts into tanks, old jeans into purses, etc.

L – My mother is a super talented seamstress. She made all of my clothing when I was young, wedding dresses for her friends, drapery for our home, etc. and I feel like that had a huge influence on me. While she’s shown me a few things, I learned the majority of my sewing tricks skills and trick reading books/blogs and tackling patterns. I’d say I’ve been seriously interested for the past 6-8yrs. There’s still so much to learn, though!

 

At Sewing School, we’re all about learning new things. What is one technique or project that you want to try out?

K – I’d love to try making my own bathing suit. I haven’t worked with stretch material that much, so it’d be neat to give that a whirl.

L – I’d like to try my hand at making my own undergarments — that would be super cool. I also have very limited experience working with leather, so I’d like to incorporate that into my future sewing projects as well.

 

As owners of a fabric shop, choosing which fabrics to stock must be really difficult. Who are some of your favourite fabric designers?

K – It’s actually not that difficult. Liz and I have very similar taste, and when we choose fabric together we know almost instantly whether we want to carry something or not. The difficultly is more in holding back and not ordering EVERYTHING we love! One of our favourite fabric suppliers is Cloud 9 Fabrics. They have great new designers working with them all the time, and everything is printed on organic cotton. Thumbs up!

 
Finally, we have to ask, how big is your personal fabric stash?

• Tweet This
• Facebook
• Digg This
• Bookmark
• Stumble
• RSS Feed