What inspires your designs?

Some of our teacher who will be at the SAGA Convention in Winston-Salem tell us how they are inspired.

Judith Adams:

Anything I see that has a regular shape may “plant a seed” for a smocking plate, or it could just create a theme in my mind, such a “bows”. I always come away from SAGA Convention or a workshop feeling inspired to create. I think it is being surrounded by ladies that are just so enthusiastic about smocking and it makes me try and think “outside the box”.

                                          

Kathy Awender:

So many things! I have been inspired by advertisements, color combinations, and of course by fabric that begs to made into something special. I also have collections of antique magazines, patterns, clothing, hankies and other textiles and I often look to them for inspiration.

                                  

Jeannie Baumeister:

My designs are mainly inspired by old things.  I love old baby clothes.  I examine old baby garments for inspiration and am lucky that many people share their treasured baby clothes with me. Many of my designs/patterns and classes came from garments shared with me.   I am especially drawn to the styles from 1900 through 1940's.

                                    

Tess Ellenwood:

Absolutely everything!  One time I based a design on a bar of soap.  When we went to the beach, I took a picture of the dime-store rug in the entranceway of the beach house rental because I really liked the palette; everyone else was snapping pictures of the ocean. Once, a furniture ad inspired a vest.  When I walk through my yard, I take time to look at the really tiny wildflowers, count their petals, and decide which stitches they could be.  I tend to see tiny pieces of things, not necessarily the whole.  I really have a different drummer (maybe we all do, but just don’t realize it), and I like to push the envelope.  As a consequence, I try a lot of stuff that just doesn’t work J

                                     

Cindy Foose:

This question makes me laugh! I wish I knew the answer to this question. If pressed for a real answer, I would have to say that visiting museum collections of antique clothes and perusing vintage photos and patterns of children’s clothing. Inspiration can be anywhere; you just have to open your mind to all possibilities.

                                      

Susan O’Conner:

All sorts of things – historical embroidery, flowers, periods in history, poems and stories.

                                        

Vaune Pierce:

A fabric, a color, a shape. 

SAGA Design Show Registration Closes Soon!

Are you planning on entering the SAGA Design Show at the Convention in Winston-Salem? Then don't forget to mail in your Entry Form to be received no later than July 30, 2018!

Your entry does not have to be completed by this time, but you do need to have it registered.

The entry form and more information can be found in the Convention Brochure in SAGANews Volume 39 Issue 1 and on the SAGA website www.smocking.org.

You can contact the Design Show Chair, Lori Barton, with any questions designshow@smocking.org

Design Show consists of original work by professional and non-professional members. All items must have been made since the last Design Show in 2016. Design Show entries must be pre-registered and catalogued for judging. A panel of three judges will evaluate each piece according to the Judging Guidelines set forth by the Design Show Committee. Ribbons and Artisan Points are awarded to deserving workmanship. 

Design Show Rules 

~ Please consult the Design Show Handbook for a full description of all requirements for Design Show.

~ Entrant must be a current SAGA member.

~ Each entry must be an original design solely developed and implemented by the Entrant, without assistance, from conception through completion.

~ The use of the basic garment patterns is permitted. Credit for the pattern should be noted on the Registration Form. Originality of design must come from the Entrant, not the pattern.

~ Item must be presented clean and pressed. Soiled items will not be judged.

~ Previously entered items and group projects are ineligible.

~ SIGNED Registration Form must be postmarked not later than July 30, 2018.

~ Mail Registration Form(s) and NON-REFUNDABLE Registration Fees ($20.00 per first item, $10.00 each additional item)

Need and Ecxcuse to Visit the Victoria & Albert Museum?

The Victoria & Albert Museum has picked Christian Dior for its next major fashion exhibition, opening in February 2019.

The London museum plans to adapt “Christian Dior: Couturier of Dreams,” the popular show that opened last year at Paris’ Musée des Arts Décoratifs, for a U.K. audience. The exhibition will be the largest Dior exhibition held in the country and the V&A’s biggest fashion exhibition since “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty.”

The show will trace the history of the house and the impact of Christian Dior, and the six artistic directors who succeeded him. A new section will be added that explores Christian Dior’s relationship with Britain, from his fascination with English gardens, Savile Row and British ocean liners, to his circle of London-based clients, including Nancy Mitford and Margot Fonteyn.

The show will also aim to breathe new life into some of the couturier’s most memorable British shows from the first one held at the Savoy Hotel to the presentation at Blenheim Palace in 1954.

A Dior dress worn by Princess Margaret for her 21st birthday celebrations — on loan from the Museum of London — will also be on display, alongside Bar Suits from the V&A’s archive and more than 200 couture garments.

Oriole Cullen, fashion and textiles curator at the V&A, added that the new show will aim to celebrate the ongoing cultural and historical relevance of the work of both Christian Dior and his successors.

“In 1947, Christian Dior changed the face of fashion with his ‘New Look,’ which reinvigorated the post-war Parisian fashion industry. The V&A recognized Dior’s important contribution to design history early on in his career, acquiring his sketches and garments from the Fifties onward. More than 70 years after its founding, the exhibition will celebrate the enduring influence of the House of Dior.”

The exhibition will run until July 2019

Don't forget your Wee Care and Trees for Troops Ornaments

Don't forget to bring some Wee Care items and ornaments for the Trees for Troops to the SAGA National Convention in Winston-Salem.

You can find ideas for both is back issues of SAGANews as well as on the SAGA website , Facebook pages and this blog.
                                          


All donations qualify for a special raffle ticket that can be placed in the box to win the Wee Care basket.

Wee Care items will be donated to local hospital NICU's.

Who taught you needlework skills and when did you first start learning?

Some of the teachers who will be teaching at the SAGA Convention in Winston-Salem answer that question.

Judith Adams teaching at a SAGA event.

Judith Adams:

I have some pieces of petit point that I worked when I was 10 or 12 but can’t really remember much about them.When I lived on an Australian Air Force Base (my husband was the Senior Dental Officer at the time ) we had a USAF exchange officer and his family living there and I was taught by the officer’s wife. I was pregnant with my daughter at the time (1984) and loved smocking and bought a pleater immediately. 

Kathy Awender, left, helps a student at a SAGA event.

Kathy Awender:

My mother, aunt , grandmother all taught me different things. My mother always sewed for all five of her daughters, and I was very excited when she finally taught me how to use the sewing machine just before seventh grade. That is when I started making my own clothes. My grandmother taught me to embroider and an aunt taught me to knit and crochet.

Jeannie Baumeister (right) with Susie Gay

Jeannie Baumeister:

My Mother taught me to sew using her Featherweight Sewing Machine (it is now my Featherweight Sewing Machine) and my favorite color is always Blue!

Tess Ellenwood on the right

Tess Ellenwood:

 As a child, I was surrounded by grandmothers, aunts, and a mom who could sew, knit, crochet, and tat.  Even my dad was accomplished at picking up dropped knitting stitches.  My earliest sewing memory is from when I was little more than two.  My mom had cut the feet from my pajamas because they had gotten too short. I got up in the night, found a needle in the sewing box (it must have been already threaded), and attempted to sew the feet back on.  I’ve been stitching ever since.  

Cindy Foose:When I was about five-years-old, my Aunt Carrye decided it was time for me to learn to do simple embroidery. She believed that every home should have embroidered cup towels and/or fingertip towels. Her long suit was lazy daisy flowers, French knots, and stem/outline stitches all of which graced many items in her home. Guided by her early, gentle instructions I found a lifelong passion. My construction skills have evolved over the last sixty years by applying what I describe as “The Three Ps” – patience, practice, and perseverance. Successes coupled with failures have bred an ongoing determination to improve and hone all my needlework/sewing skills. This quest keeps me awake at night!

Susan O'Conner, centre, teaching at a SAGA event 

Susan O’Conner:

My mother taught me basic embroidery stitches when I was a child. As I really enjoyed embroidery I then learned other stitches and techniques from books and classes.

Vanue Pierce, centre, teaching at a SAGA event.

Vaune Pierce:

For VERY basic embroidery – self-taught with Simplicity embroidery transfers onto a chambray shirt (this was in the 70's).
'Heirloom Embroidery' - the first class I took was Bullions from Julia Golson and made lots of nice grubby worms.  The embroideresses in Madeira on the two times I visited, along with Lillie McAnge were instrumental in the embroidery that I do now.

So who taught you to sew?

Happy 4th of July!