sewing construction class in Santa Cruz.

When I am not in my studio  teaching I travel to other sights , groups,  or individuals homes to teach.
I am excited about a  cool tunic  my student Sheila is sewing.
This tunic has a stand collar ( a stand  collar is a regular collar but with an additional pieces added at the neck line to add shape and cripness ie: mens button down dress shirst have stand collars). Also this tunic has set in sleeves darts front and back for shaping and a slight flare, skirt  with side vents, a very flattering fit. The pattern we used is the "liverpool"

SHEILA chose a fantastic cotton batik .

Last month we cut it out and worked on learning about collars , espically stand collars. Sheila's first collar with a stand came out wonderful.
Warning Amy butler's patterns leave a lot to be desired in the directions end so it was appropriate that I was there to fill the gapping voids of information. We moved bust and front darts around and changed the 3/4 cuff design to be more flattering.

Fitting the tunic in this photo .We added side vents to the hem as well. It is looking very good!

 buttonhole placement.

 We took a tuck in the sleeve and place a button to add interest.

With the aid of a great  Bernina machine ,which has a automatic computerized button hole foot ,she sewed 8 button holes in 10 mins, perfect!

All that hard work made us peckish and sheila served a yummy snack of fantastic olives and sparking water.

 A charming "sewing goddess" watched over us. And I am sure helped us solve problems as they came up.

  Her sewing studio is  so lovely with a spool rack containing a rainbow of colors to choose from And  also a handy place to hang her scissors.

More in a few weeks on her finished tunic , she will sew her buttions on and hopefully be done in a few days. You know the finishing things... the pressing, clipping etc. before you can hang it in your closet and introduce  a newly sewn garment to the others . They will be whispering  behind the closed closet doors about the " new girl tunic" , hanging  out  right next them on the same rod.
GREAT SEWING SHEILA!

Peaceful Sewing
Jill Nickolene

www.saorisantacruz.com

Saori zen weaving day,and two new saori weavers

Up here in the Santa Cruz mountains of California Saturday was a rainy under the redwoods perfect Saori weaving day.
Jess  came from out of town came for a full day of weaving , a self directed Zen day. Which is another term for relaxed fun self paced weaving for 7 hours.
She had her own special weaving space in the weaving gallery at the Saori studio. When the weather permits students or groups can weave outside under the trees , or on the deck under the pergola or in the sun as well.

Jess enjoyed weaving and by mid afternoon had woven enough yards  to make a shrug out of her woven  piece you can see before we cut it up .

First fitting and a few nips and tucks yet to perform. Isn't this a fantastic piece of cloth she wove?

Her textures and color choices are amazing.

Cutting the alterations

WE used every scrap, so there was 0 waste. Jess is deciding at home how she will finish the front edges. twist fringe, knot?  hand sew a turned over edge? etc.

What ever she choose it will be stunning! I love this shrug Jess.




Meet Claire and Keith  weaving for the first time in the studio. Keith was 6'2" so he used the saori sx60 H{2"higher} loom.( the 60 non folding loom has height adjustment options but the sx60 folding looms have a metal frame so you need to use  either a taller loom  if you are over 5'10", or use the  saori 60 loom. It is very easy to adjust the glimakra weaving benches as well, weaving comfort is imperative and  that you have the right ergonomics when you weave as well.

Beautiful Keith!

Beautiful Claire

CLAIRE will go home and wash her weaving then she is going to make a chalk bag from parts of her weavings ,lined in felt,  with drawstring, because she is a rock climber.
When she does and sends me photos  I will post photos of her chalk bag, I can hardly wait  to see it.

Keith is a woodworker  and a friend of Claire visiting form another state. He is very is excited  and can't wait to introduce his two teenage children to saori weaving .Claire is a knitter and loves fiber and is very excited about coming again with more of  her friends for another class of saori weaving .
there comments, "never had so much fun, and excitment, and laughter, we love saori weaving and your studio is beautiful and magical thank you!"


peaceful Saori weaving
Jill Nickolene

www.saorisantacruz.com
etsy shop

Linda's Saori woven bags and jacket

Linda  started weaving 3 1/2 months ago here at the studio. She bought a saori loom soon after and has been weaving non stop since!
Here are latest pieces.
A very cool wool pieced jacket she sewed in wool neutrals, and two  lined purses with hinged closures she wove with wool yarns and felted them in the washer and dryer, then designed and sew them. The is  green one is hers the other is for her daughter, who chose the colors she wanted then linda wove them .

Just check out the wonderful jacket with a front and back yoke and the fringe on the sleeves. magnificent .

With Saori weaving there are no mistakes, all the humanness come out to play

don't you love her bags too? 

 Here is the bag she wove and made for her daughter .What looks grey/off white  is actually a pale aqua.

 We met  at our local market . Linda  needed some suplies from me and we both needed to shop. The parking lot  for a Saori weaving photo shoot! Works for me.

PEACEFUL SAORI WEAVING
Jill Nickolene
www.saorisantacruz.com

SAORI weaving sewn into a new jacket

In February I challanged my self to weave a yard day for 30 days . so just a few weeks past till I got down to cutting and  sewing from my saori woven yardage.

This is my mostly blues warp .

 I cut into the yardage yesterday and started sewing a jacket  using a design I created  last year and that I always love.

What I love about this cut is that the front can be tired to close, or left open, or opened out flat , overlaped to a squaish neck line.  The curved hem and the bagged pockets are fun, I adore pockets.

peace in weaving and sewing and......

Jill Nickolens Sanders
 www.saorisantacruz.com
etsy shop

Woven Saori collaboration blanket

 Some of my Ravelry weaving group members  wove and mailed me their Saori weaving pieces for a group collaborative baby blanket for our member jadzeea who is pregnant with her first baby. She generously volunteered and spent many days last year editing photos members  of their Saori woven banners and photo shopped them into an amazing photo .It is  posted on our main ravelry group page to greet all who read our threads and posts  if you are a ravelry mamber go to this link weaving in the saori way group


Here is a photo diary of my journey to turn the wonderful hand woven pieces sent to me  into a colabrative blanket for her soon to be new baby boy. I hope I did justice to everyones lovely contribution.

It all started with me receiving puffy envelopes in my mail box over about two months.

 Then I needed prewash and dry then iron  the weavings twice.

 Then I spent a week playing musical chairs with the pieces and placements

  Then the day to start sewing them to a cotton  muslin backing.

Two of the pieces that were sent did not  pass the machine washable test and shrank and felted. But they were lovely and and nicely done so I decided to use them in other ways for the quilt and baby.

 I thought to cut disks  out and use of them as "button" reinforcement to tie the layers of the blanket together. ( cant you see a baby when he gets older playing with these instead of napping?)

 The backing of the patch wook blanket has a cotton Beatrix Potter  toile print.

I cut up the blue felted hand woven piece  along with the greenish  left over from the "buttons"into sections and sewed , embroidered  and stuffed a wool felt baby toy.

 so every piece was used and there were just " snippiest for mice" (from the Potter book Tailor of
Glouster ) left .

I am dreaming of a baby boy having tummy time on this blanket this summer looking at all of your weavings. 

THANK YOU EVERYONE IN THE SAORI  RAVELRY FOR CONTRIBUTING YOUR WEAVINGS.
peaceful weaving
jill nickolene
www.saorisantacruz.com

update the blanket made it to canada!  proof ! I was so worried my paper woork was incorrect, I laughed out loud when jadzeea posted this photo on rav!