Mirroring Suzy Bee Sews - Life So Strange It Should Be Fiction

For Pattern Review's anniversary weekend, SewDC arranged for Joe Salasovich, Arena Stage's Costume Director, to give us a tour.  What a treat!  Joe was incredibly generous with his time and vast store of knowledge.  We toured not only the costume shop but the entire backstage area, including the craft shop (where dyeing, millinery, and other non-sewing costume work is done), wardrobe storage, hat storage(!!!), the wardrobing room, the hair salon (who knew?), and the scene shop.  We started in the costume shop, which is full of beautiful dress forms.  This padded out form was incredible!  Seeing that it is possible to make the form fit any size was inspiring to work with what I have (though my problem is the shoulders are too wide on all commercial dress forms and the bust too large).  Joe shared their process for making costumes.  They often start with vintage garments as inspiration, many of which come from his personal collect...

On Saturday, Nikki  acted once again as our fearless leader and organized a DC area sewing meetup!  I love these events.  It's great to be able to bring projects you're working on and get opinions, to chat about sewing, and to find new homes for fabric and patterns that need to get out of stash. We had an awesome turnout, and took over the whole front section of the restaurant (it was empty so they didn't mind). The front section was convenient because there is a long bench with a ledge behind it that we used for spreading out our swapping goodies.  And there were some goodies!  One woman's excess stash is definitely another woman's treasure. I once again failed miserably in reducing my stash by bringing swap fabrics to the meetup.  But come on, how could I resist any of these? I wore a new dress (you can see a sneak peek in the second photo) and had a great photo shoot.  More to come on that... All photos of the meetup are here .

I will apologize in advance for having no sewing nexus here!  The weather turned unexpectedly hot and I didn't have anything new to wear to the cherry blossoms this year.  I didn't have a photographer with me, either, and the photo I asked a stranger to take barely shows the dress I was wearing (my Burda 06-2008-108 shirtdress with a cherry blossom-evocative print). Even without a new dress, I wouldn't miss the cherry blossoms! I visited after work on Monday, and got there just about sunset.  I loved this venerable old tree. We had an unusually cold Spring, so the blossoms--which were originally forecast for peak bloom on March 25, because of our mild winter--were still not quite there when I visited on Monday. I shared my blossom experience from people all over the world, everyone drinking them in and trying to get the best shots.  This one was a first for me:  a pet photo shoot.  This impeccably-groomed dog  was having none of sitting on the black-c...

The  Meridian International Center , across from Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park on 16th St. NW, is having an exhibit on silk from China through April 14.  The exhibit is free to visit.  I never even knew this place existed but it is a really lovely space--almost on a par with the Hillwood mansion (and, bonus, a 15 minute walk from my house).   Nikki found out about it and we visited after the DC meetup . The dress above is made of hand-painted fabric.  The perfect detail is pretty breathtaking.  I can barely draw stick figures.  I like the cuffs that are part of the ensemble.  They are an interesting, avant garde touch and yet somehow don't scream "trying too hard." The exhibit starts with folk art displays on the silk-making process.  This paper cutout--part of a set of four --kind of blew my mind.  There are also some brightly-colored folk art pieces , which are sort of in a naive style  but have a sophisticated grasp of colo...

It is so fun to talk about sewing in real life! It had been a while since we last had a DC-area sewing meetup, so Nikki took the initiative to organize through the message board at Pattern Review  (for some reason it literally did not occur to me to announce it on my blog until I left the house and was biking toward the restaurant).  We met at the Vapiano in Chinatown, which is convenient to all five metro lines.  It turned out to be a great place for a meetup.  Everyone orders their food separately at the counter, but the dining experience is not fast food.  We were able to take over a big corner of the restaurant with plenty of space to chat and to swap for a couple of hours. People came from near and far--I think Baltimore was our furthest trekker. I think I was closest. The restaurant is only a little over a mile from my house (lucky me!). Everyone was decked out in their fanciest sewn duds. We circulated around getting to know one another and reconnectin...

I read in the paper about a new local non-profit thrift store with a unique focus:  it's a thrift store exclusively for craft supplies.  Well, I had to check this out for myself!  I am totally spoiled because it's a 10 minute walk from my house.  By metro, it's accessible from the New York Ave. metro stop on the Red line.  I live at Shaw/Howard U on the Green line and found the walk easy and safe. ScrapDC  was sparked by the original Scrap in Portland.  Co-Directors Karen and Heather were so inspired that they had to bring the concept to DC!  That's Heather at left, playing in...I mean organizing...the pretty paper collection.  The organization is 100% volunteer run. As you approach the store--a ground level unit in an artists' building--you are greeted by a colorful bulletin board. The door opens to reveal the RE-Boutique in front of you, where local artists have gorgeous pieces for sale (at great prices).  I love the detail on this wo...