Sewing for Tall People

Last weekend was a great weekend. It was National Quilting Day or something like that on Saturday. In honor of the day, my favorite shop, Cloth and Bobbin, in Narberth, offered a beginner’s free motion machine quilting class.  It was a 3 hour, very intense class packed full of helpful information. Not only did the instructor cover machine quilting, but she also covered such details as needle and thread choices and basting techniques. I will begin this week employing what I learned to finish up the Chaos Theory quilt top, hopefully in time for the show and tell in April. 

I've enjoyed sewing since I took Home Ec in 7th grade, back in 197?. But most of my sewing projects through the years have focused on home décor needs and very little fashion sewing except for occasional repairs, or Easter dresses when my daughter was a young one. I don't have much knowledge to share in that category at all. It has been a long time wish of hers to learn how to sew so that she can design her own clothing. At the tender age of 13, this young lady is already almost 5’8 and has the hardest time finding pants that are long enough for her. She probably has a couple more inches to go before she is done, so learning how to sew her own clothes is pretty important to her.

You can imagine how grateful I was when Johanna at Cloth and Bobbin offered her a class to learn how to make pajama pants.  It was a perfect first project and now she has a pair of pajamas that actually reach down below her ankles. She’s already on websites looking for a pattern for slacks so Johanna can teach her how to set a zipper and construct a proper waistband.  She left the store very happy and with more knowledge than I ever had on clothing construction.  See that smile on her face? See all those bolts of colors in the background? Can you see those children in the back corner sorting through a basket of scraps for their own project? I'm not the only one who loves visiting her store.  It is so inspiring!