Winter hats workshop (and a bit about life)

Winter is well and truly upon us here in Melbourne. Thankfully this year, I have a bit more hair on my head than I did last year.  It makes for tricky modelling of chemo hats, but here I am, doing my best to show off one of the newer styles we've been making in the last couple of  #chemostyle workshops. It's all about the tucks.

A few weeks ago, a lovely group of Australian Sewing Guild gals got together and whipped up a goodly pile of winter hats.

These have mostly already been distributed to Warringal Wig library, the Olivia Newton John Centre and a few individuals. There are a few other regional centres who are also in need of more hats, and we need to pump up the range of colours and styles that we have left here....

So I've organised this...

If you can use a sewing machine or overlocker, or are a dab hand with a rotary cutter, and want to do something to help people going through a really rough time, this might be for you (book here). 

If you need hats for yourself or someone you know, you're more than welcome to come along and make whatever you need. If you'd like to help add to the supply of hats going out to individual people, wig libraries, hospitals and other cancer support centres, please do come along.  

Please note that this isn't a "learn to sew" workshop. I really need you to already know how to use your machine and overlocker.

In other news, I've taught some fun workshops at My Sewing Supplies in Sydney ...

and the Horsham "Art Is " Festival in the last month or so.

 I haven't had time to share any of the details here because I've also been juggling a new teaching job around a few demanding real-life issues.

...Which is also why there is still no separate blog or sewing pattern download for these hats. I'm a one-woman show, so please be patient (no need to email for updates - I'll let you know when the patterns are ready!). I'm chipping away at things where I can, but it's slow-going.

If you can help me out by joining a hat workshop, that would be great!

Hat workshop #3

Thank you to everyone who has been generous and supportive of my little "free hats" initiative.  Hats have gone out to people through the Olivia Newton John Cancer and Wellness Centre, and I'm packaging up others to go to a few regional centres that people have flagged as "in need".

I've also done a couple of personal sessions (where people get to choose hats for themselves and I help with styling tips). I'd love to do more of these personal sessions, so if you know anyone around the Melbourne area who would like that, please put them in touch with me (chemostylehats at gmail dot com).

Work on patterns, websites and all the other background tasks for this project have been mostly on hold here the last few weeks, as I've been prepping and teaching classes full-time again in my day job, but I'm gearing up for our next workshop date at GJ's Discount Fabrics.

Our last workshop was a lovely day, where wonderful volunteers had great conversations, made meaningful connections and PUMPED OUT HATS like nobody's business!

If you'd like to come along to make hats for yourself, someone that you know, or simply to contribute to the pool of hats that are available for people who need them, please register here. (It's free, but we need to know numbers.)


xxnikki

Helping out

Hair loss is traumatic at any time, but summer can be tricky for those who feel more comfortable covering up and/or accessorising. Knitted or lined hats can be too warm. and not everyone wants to wear a headscarf.

As I mentioned last week, at the beginning of this year, I had chemo through the stinking hot months of an Australian summer, and I found that what suited me best was unlined knit fabric hats (natural fibres, sometimes with spandex, sometimes not). I free-formed a heap of them for myself and had fun matching them to outfits and other accessories. I was determined to beat that poison with style!

As a part of my research into my potential new NFP/social enterprise, I've checked the supplies of suitable summer hats in a few "free hats" boxes in local cancer hospitals/support centres. There are certainly gaps in the "summer range", so I've organised a day where fabulously generous people can get together and sew some more, to help out. It's filling up fast, but if you want to be a part of it, you can still book in here.

We'll be testing a few patterns that I'm developing, and I'll be happy to hear people's stories and opinions on how/where they think my ideas would have the most "impact for good".

If you are suffering from hair loss and want to make hats for yourself - do come! If you have a cancer centre near you that could benefit - do come! If you have a friend who is going through treatment - come along! If you want to help make hats for me to distribute around Melbourne, you'd be more than welcome. All are more than welcome!

If you have any knit fabric offcuts that you would like to donate to the cause, they can be left at GJ's Discount Fabrics, or you can contact me directly (info at nicolemdesign dot com dot au).

We'll start with knit hats - so only knit fabrics are needed for this workshop. I'll consider peaked caps and brimmed hats (in woven fabrics) when I see how this workshop goes.

And if you missed last week's post, there is a survey HERE that I'd love to be filled out by anyone who has either lost hair through medical treatment or knows someone who has. It will help me to assess the needs of the people I'm trying to help.

And yes - I'll be moving this over to a new blog/website when I get it off the ground, and we can go back to normal YOU SEW GIRL business here.

Teaching and Writing and Living and Dying

Yes - I'm still here...occasionally peeping out from behind the curtain of real life and the Facebook and Instagram rabbit hole. This year, I've been pretty well occupied and away from this slower, more considered form of communication.

When I received notification of my Weekender Bag project being a Top 10 hit over at Creativebug, it occurred to me that I hadn't actually mentioned that class in this space before.

It appears that since I was burgled recently, the new owners of my old computer now have all the images I had of this bag, so here's a screen capture of me in action... talking to a finished bag.

I use my original version of the bag for hauling student folios to and from my regular teaching job.

I do a lot of hauling of folios, and marking of folios, these days... and a lot of kid-free Friday nights look like this.

One looked like this... :(

I've also been teaching a Garment Construction class regularly at Kellie Wulfsohn's fabulous fabric shop Cutting Cloth in Fairfiled (Melbourne).

The classes are on the 3rd Sunday of every month and you can come and go month by month, doing pretty much as you please (although I start you off on an A-Line Skirt if you're a newbie) with lots of help and tips and tricks from me.

The rest of my time this year has been all about juggling the joys and sorrows (and Mum's taxi service) of family life, wholesale biz and working on a new book. Much of the last few months has looked like this...

And the crazy-wild-kid-free Friday night version looks a bit like this...

As I near the completion of the book project, there's a sort of freeing-up of mental bandwidth, and ideas are flowing again. I'm tying up loose ends, ticking off long-overdue to-do lists... and thinking about the way ahead from here.

I have plans... Stay tuned. 

Workshops and holidays

 

I'm on a two week break from my weekday teaching job and doing a bit of catching up with things.. like updating the Class/Workshop Schedule on the website. 

I've been teaching about the place.  We had a lovely day at Patch 'n Quilt in Gisborne, and we've scheduled a Zippers for Bags class there for 22nd November.  Contact Mary at Patch n Quilt for bookings.

 

There are still places on the Handmaker's Factory Masterclass next week.. This isn't one that I do very often, so if you're sort-of-thinking about this as something you might like to do, now is a very good time!

To take up the waiting list for this class, I've taken advantage of a rare free day to schedule a last-minute A-Line Skirt workshop at GJ's on the 27th September.  This will be a small group (being a late-scheduling and also being Grand Final day for the football season... which means that most of the waiting list can't make it that day!), so if you think you need lots of extra attention, this will be a good one to book in.

 

 

The other thing I've been doing lately, is taking a complete break from work for THREE  DAYS... I decided I needed a holiday, and I needed to get the garden ready for Spring and Summer... so I had a little gardening holiday at my house this last weekend.

 

I weeded, I dug, I shovelled and wheelbarrowed 2 cubic metres of freshly-delivered soil and compost.  I made new garden beds, cleared overgrown corners and revealed yet more vegetable-growing space... and I planted lots of potential harvests of fresh, organic food for the girleen and me (and for anyone who looks sideways at me during zucchini season). 

I am sore, scratched and bruised (and have a small patch of sunburn where I missed with the sunscreen), but feeling very pleased with my work.  I'm looking forward to the weather warming up more and all the planting, growing and harvesting that comes with it.

 I'll be back soon with more news of books and giveaways... stay tuned!

News from the classroom (at Grampians Texture... ahem.. a couple of weeks ago)

Lately, there has been much to show and tell, and my inner-blogger is always taking photos and mental notes.  My outer-blogger appears to be otherwise occupied, and things like my fabulous week at Grampians Texture nearly slipped through the net of bloggy documentation.... I'm remedying that NOW!

 



What a fabulous week it was... spent in beautiful Hall's Gap with hundreds of textiles-loving people, and 2-day and 4-day workshops in all manner of textile-related skills and projects.

 

My 4-day Pattern-Free Garment workshop was a hoot.  With 4 days, and 11 bodies of varying size, shape, age and personality, we were able to explore the concept and come up with lots of great garments and ideas.

 

These are just a few of the photos of garments that were made. It's a very image-heavy post, so I'll lighten the load on the wordy bit and let the pictures do the talking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were many more... and lots of giggles, collaboration and creativity.  It must have looked like fun, from the outside looking in.... this fella really wanted to join us!

 

My 2-day workshop was a bells-and-whistles Travel Bag, with loads of different zips and pocket construction methods.  We had a few finishes and lots of nearly-finished bags by the end of the 2 days, but absolutely no photos of the actual class.  We were too busy!

 

 

These are a few of the bags on "show and tell" display at the end of Sunday, when all the workshop participants and tutors gather to see the results of all of the different workshops.

 

 

Grampians Texture was so much more than the snippet I've shown here.  I have more photos, more stories and more thoughts to share.  I may or may not get back to doing that.... there are other very exciting things to tell.  I'll be back soon... or when I can! 

 

If you're interested in learning some zipper pocket and zipper closure methods, there's a class coming up in a few weeks in Melbourne, and there are a couple of places left in it.  You can book here.

 

If you'd like to do a 1-day Pattern-Free class, I have one coming up (and booking up!) in May - book here (quickly).

 

 

Headless in a Pattern-Free World

I've been whipping up a pattern-free garment storm, in preparation for my 4-day workshop at Grampians Texture in a few weeks.

 

I've also been Photoshopping my head out of a bazillion photos for student notes, which is strangely liberating ("Tired, middle-aged face, begone!!"). 

 

 

My week has been a world of ideas and experiments ..and of making myself a few new outfits.

 

 

I've also been working through ideas for shapes other than my own.  The whole notion of Pattern-Free is that you work around your own particular shape, and the more you do it, the better you get at judging what will and won't work (and you start to be able to eye-ball measurements on fabric that will fit your body's proportions).

 

The difference in proportion between this top (below) and the first photo in this post, is the difference between it flattering my shape and being a bit ordinary. 

 

The longer, tummy-covering drape would look a treat on some figures. Perhaps it's the posture here (it sort of freaks me out when I see family resemblance in a headless photo), but I can see this one on my eldest sister. She has about 7'' more height and a bust.

 

 

And I think that a bust wouldn't go astray in this twisted tube dress, too. Perhaps some hips... and maybe even a waist as well.

 

 

 

I've come to the conclusion that I'm a straight-tube sort of gal.  Minimalist....

 

 

...with a bit of a twist.

 

 

There are some shapes that would look fabulously fluid and flattering on anyone except people under 5'2'' with swimmer's shoulders and no bust. 

 

 

But Pattern-Free, being all about adapting shapes to suit the body, offers solutions...

 

 

Yup.  Minimalist and much better.

 

 

This week, I may  have also made my new favourite top.

 

..and dress. (Once again, the shirring elastic came out.)

Here I am, practising for when I wear it to art exhibitions....(art here by Manus Walsh and Ilse Theilan).

 

 ..and there'll I'll be, in Halls Gap in a few weeks time, throwing lots of fabric about the place with a bunch of great gals who love sewing as much as I do. I can't wait!