Thread Den

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Workshops

How to Copy a Garment You Love

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Yifen modeling her joyful new dress
Yifen’s joyful new dress

Yifen recently took part in one of the most popular short courses we offer – the two day course: How to Copy a Garment You Love.  

Over a total of 12 hours; students learn how to assess their original garment to draft a pattern off it – without having to pull the original garment apart! The second component of the course is having students make a toile of their pattern so that we can test the pattern that has been created and make any adjustments or corrections to pattern.  This short course is a great introduction to pattern drafting.

Original dress

In the August 2019 course, Yifen copied a fun party dress that featured angled seams, ruffles and gathering (no easy feat for the copying process) and we are so proud of her results!  Yifen only learnt to sew this year in our Sewing Basics for Beginners 3 Week Course. She has achieved an amazing result with her copied dress – we love it more than the original! Plus she now has a pattern for her favourite dress and can create many different versions. We hope they all bring her as much joy as the fabulous zig zag version.

Old fashioned or necessary: Hang the garment?

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Have you ever come across the instruction “hang the garment for 24 hours”. It may seem unnecessary or even a bit of an old fashioned wive’s tale. But this instruction is necessary and has a purpose. 

 

A circle skirt covers all the angles of the fabric, think of the skirt hanging on your body – at the front the grain line hangs vertically, on your hips the cross grain hangs vertically, in between the bias is hanging vertically.

 

If you pull on the angles of your fabric you would find there is very little give along the grain line, there is some give along the cross grain, and there is loads of give or stretch along the bias. Once hanging the bias will stretch and this makes the hem drop more at the bias angles. By hanging your garment, you allow the dropping to occur before hemming.

 

Make a circle skirt in our class and learn all about the bias and handling the fabric, inserting an invisible zip, attaching a waistband and how to narrow hem all that fabric! Make a Circle Skirt at Thread Den.

 

Image from Melly Sews

A whole outfit: Make this styleARC look!

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styleARC outfits

Can we pose a hypothetical situation? 

You catch up with friends for brunch, they notice your gorgeous jacket.

Jane says “Wow I love that jacket! I’ve been looking for one just like that.”

You reply “Guess what?” (without waiting for a response) “I made it!” Then you slip off your jacket and pop it over the back of your chair.

Sally exclaims “OMG!!  That shirt, those sleeves, I love them.”

You smile and say “I totally made it too!”

Then you just can’t help yourself, you standup and exclaim “AND I MADE MY SKIRT!”

Do you dream of having the patience to plan and make a whole outfit? We are hoping that we can help you with that dream. We have searched through styleARC’s beautiful patterns to find a whole outfit that will take you into Spring/Summer2020 in super style!

Over several Sundays we are going to make styleARC’s

We chose an outfit that is classic, but still with modern lines and something different to everything you find in the shops.

 

Why make your own knickers?

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Do less washing, make more undies

You’ll feel fab!

Imagine if you chose fabric to match your favourite bras and made a couple of pairs of complimentary knickers for each one. You could be rocking a matching set every day of the week… Imagine it! So posh!

You could have the nicest knickers on the line. Totally make the housemates and neighbours jealous.

Save $$$

Thought of how much money you could save by buying a metre or so of fabric, a few metres of lingerie elastic and making up a few pairs?

Or recycling an old t shirt into some undies? That awesome band name that you love could be placed proudly across your bum! 

Be comfortable

We’ve updated this workshop format so that you can bring along other underwear patterns to make in class! Chose the style you like the most.

In the class description we have recommend several great beginner patterns.

PLUS – We’ll be running a seperate class for men’s boxer briefs as they are quite different. So the boys won’t miss out – and if you love wearing the boy’s, this will be the class for you (coming soon).

Read the full class description – click here.

Fabric Identification

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Our in-house Fabricophile: Meagan has created a 2 hour workshop where participants learn how to identify what is in their fabric stash.

Covering a bit of fabric history, production and environmental impacts to build a good basis of understanding. You will start to build your own fabric identification resource. The let’s get to know fabrics: wovens, non-woven and knits, how they are made and the most common weave structures. Learn how to work out has it been made from synthetic fibres or natural? Take your fabric knowledge to the next level and discover what to look for when conducting a burn test.

New Embroidery Workshops

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The new embroidery workshops are taught by Hozanna, a Japanese designer and embroidery artist currently in Australia. You can see her inspiring work under her label Towelket Tokyo by clicking here. 

In our beginners embroidery workshop you will learn techniques that will allow you to create a beautiful neat monogram over three hours.

In our intermediate embroidery workshop you will learn more embroidery stitches over four hours. Using the new stitches you will create a beautiful floral design.

Hozanna’s style reflects nature and uses earthy tones, she embellishes her beautiful creations with embroidery to make them even more stunning. Hozanna’s work in Japan involved fashion design, pattern drafting, dressmaking, crochet, knitting and embroidery! She explained that in a small industry it’s important to be able to do it all. Hozanna believes in making everyday items beautiful to bring you continuous pleasure and enjoyment while you use them.

Hozanna graduated from Bunka Fashion College or Bunka Fukuso Gakuin in Japanese. 

Learn embroidery

 

Shift Dress Design Update

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French dart shift dress

We’ve updated our Shift Dress design.

Our popular dress now features French darts which add soft shaping from under the bust down to the waist. The neckline is wider and the pattern is longer. While a shift dress doesn’t have a defined waist, some soft shaping has been added to the waist. The bust to hip ratio has also been changed based on the measurements of the many many students that have taken this workshop over the years. Have a look at several images on our instagram highlights – click here.

This pattern features just 4 pieces and simple detailing, this makes it a great project for those that are early on in their sewing adventures.

While making this Shift, students will learn how to choose their size, pattern placement, tracing and cutting technique. In the sewing room you’ll cover dart sewing technique, how to finish fabric edges with an overlocker, learn how to insert an invisible zip and then discover the surprising method used to sew an all in one facing. 

Workshop Description – read more here.

Terminology – is grading, alterations?

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Pattern grading should not be confused with pattern alterations. Alterations are the process of making a pattern fit the nuances of an individual body. Whereas, grading is the process of creating a range of new sizes, or a size run.

Grading may simply be defined as the increasing or decreasing of a pattern according to a set of corresponding body measurements.  The secret to professional grading is to understand where the body requires these changes.[1]

Patterns can be graded using: the cut and spread method, pattern shifting or with computer grading.

We teach the basics of Grading in a 3 hour workshop at Thread Den – click here to read more.

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