Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Sewing Camp December

We had Sewing Camp December on the 18th this past Sunday and I had been excited to share our Fab Felt Holiday Craftsy Class by Betz White with the girls. We chose the Poinsettia Brooch project and it was a lot of fun to try. If you've never done a Craftsy class, I highly recommend them. Once you purchase the class it's yours forever to review and try and ask questions. More on these a bit later as a certain holiday is upon us and a certain girl will see more of this on Sunday. ; ) For now, here's the link to the Craftsy home page so you can see the classes they currently offer with prices and instructors. If you click Betz's link above, that will take you to her blog and she offers a link to her Craftsy classes for $10 off. In general the classes are about $30. They have samples of each of the classes and introductions to what you will learn. Once you register, you'll get emails on sales for the classes. I took advantage of a buy one, get one free this holiday season.

The first finished poinsettia- we did not have fusible webbing to attach the printed fabric to the petals first.

But some of the girls tried Tacky Glue and it worked fine- love this color combo and what a great button!
R11's brooch- I love the button in the middle. She forgot her printed fabric, but she was going to give it a go. There is hand sewing involved to make the leaves curved and then you use glue for assembly.

These are the materials we used minus the fusable webbing. I chose to go with the craft glue as well and just a little tip- for VBS I used the Discount School Supply craft glue which is Tacky glue in an old fashioned paste type bottle- with the stick and everything. You know how Tacky glue will gum up a squeeze bottle! The kids at VBS hate it so I use glue dots with them now, but it's perfect for home crafting. FYI- kids these days have issues with liquid glue! Too many neat alternatives for them to bother. What a shame!

My almost finished brooch- once dry I will sew the middle and the button to the flower. I was missing a petal- that's what happens when you start with a partially used template. I was missing a petal and did not know it. More of the green leaves show when you use all six, but it's tricky to get them all around at first.

We watched the video together as we assembled to get started and it was great instruction. If we needed to see a part over we could do that later and one camper did just that. I'm looking forward to using this format again not only for Sewing Camp, but for other times as well. I love that we can access the class anytime and from our home. We can do the project along with the instructor or just watch to get an idea of what to do before beginning again later.

Next month we'll be having two Sewing Camp events- one is a snow and sledding party with the opportunity to make pillowcase dresses for girls in third world countries and the other will be a normal project day - the project remains elusive at this moment.

This has been a terrific opportunity to gather R11's friends for an activity they all enjoy. It's a much cheaper option for sewing instruction and her classmates are her friends. The moms are on board and it's been an activity so worth our investment of time.

2 comments:

TN Quiltbug said...

I'm sure you have already talked about this and I have just missed it--but can you tell me more about the sewing instruction video you are using for your sewing camp? Thanks for sharing--I think they all look fantastic!

Heather said...

Hi Quiltbug,

If you click the link to the class, you'll see the Craftsy offerings. I'll post a clearer link in the post as well.

They are online videos of instruction that you pay for. Generally, they are $30 a class. This is the first time I've used it for Sewing Camp. I actually purchased them for my daughter and I to enjoy together. The Christmas one (Fab Felt Holiday) seemed like a good choice for a holiday project and it would change things up to use the video for instruction.

Heather