I thought I’d write a review (sort of!) of the Australian Sewing Guild 2009 convention. For those with no interest, you can look away now! LOL.
The ASG Convention is now held annually, usually in September/October. This year it was held in Perth, Western Australia. Next year is Ballarat, Vic and 2011 will be in Launceston, Tasmania. Nice cold locations! (note my comments re the weather cos if you’re going to either of these places, you will need to heed my advice!).
The location for this year’s convention was St Brigid’s School in Lesmurdie. It’s a boarding/day Catholic high school situated in the hills of Perth. A wonderful venue..the school has its own heated swimming pool and gym! The food was fantastic – we had a hot lunch on most days, breakfast alternated between hot and cold and dinner was 2 courses. Ergh…I ate too much! Grog is BYO except for Friday night and much embibing was happening. Classes were held on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday. Wednesday is a much needed day off where we had the option of a bus trip viewing the sights of the Swan Valley (ie wineries) or fabric shopping and Kings Park in the city which was my choice. Alternatively, you could stay at the school and sew or even (horrors) sleep which, in hindsight, might have been a good choice.
So…onto the nitty gritty. Day 1 – Monday I had a class with Elizabeth Morley called Rags of Light. Elizabeth is a fabulous teacher & I would recommend her classes to anyone. There was a requirements list we had been sent which involved much gnashing of teeth (as normal) in order to find just the right fabric etc. I used scraps of some of my convention outfits plus some special black/silver silk another black fabric I got at Pitt Trading. I ended up with this:
We started out with a piece of Romeo stabliser, then drew some lines on it, sewed a bit on fabric on & then just basically chucked on other bits. It was a little tricky to start with but then you got the hang of it. The bits are then free machine embroidered together and the romeo washed out. That’s a very basic overview of the class. There was much deliberating and agonizing over fabric choices but once everyone was settled in, it was great. Mind you, I was the only one in the class to finish her scarf & actually wash it out.
Day 2 Tuesday – I had another class with Elizabeth on the Tuesday. This time doing an evening bag. My colour scheme had been planned so both the scarf and the bag would match a couple of my outfits for the week. However, I had no plans to wear the scarf. Nor could I as it needs a bit more of a soak to get all the romeo out. Erk that stuff is disgusting..it looks and feels like mucus when you wash it.
Anyway, back to the bag. We started with a base fabric and made of sandwich with pellon & calico, then laid our main fabric over the top. This was all sewn together around the edges into the shape and size of the bag we wanted. The bag could be big or small, square rectangular or oval. Whatever we liked. I decided to go with a smallish rectangular evening bag. So over the top of the sandwich we placed our fabric pieces. I also had various pieces of braids (aqua & silver) which I literally threw on top and just let it sit wherever it wanted. Then over the top of all this, you place black bridal tulle. Sounds funny doesn’t it? Then you free machine embroider right over the top of the tulle. It was fantastic! The method is great cos the tulle holds everything down until you’ve sewn it and it doesn’t show as much as you’d think. You can also cut it back if you have a particular texture you want to show through like velvet or such. Once I had everything placed, Elizabeth suggested a focal point on the front so I ended up with a flower. I’m still not sure about that! LOL.
Here is a closeup of the abovementioned flower.
Back and inside of my bag.
Day 3 – Wednesday. As I mentioned before, Wednesday was a bus trip and I chose to go fabric shopping. I have no pics of fabric shopping. After all, how exciting could that be? Well it was but I still don’t have pics. So you’ll have to make do with a couple of pics of Perth from Kings Park. It was a glorious day & I actually got sunburnt!
Day 4 – Thursday. Usually by Thursday I am almost over convention so I chose a couple of non-thinking classes. Both classes were sample classes. The morning was with Cheryl Glew a local teacher. We did standard dressmaking techniques including mitred corners, slash openings, cuffs and faux sleeve vents. I actually learnt a bit in this class!
Thursday afternoon was with Patricia Clark from SA. I did Collars, Points & Corners with her and it took all afternoon for the class to make a revere collar with lapel and lining. We were supposed to make a one piece collar with front facing too but didn’t get time! So I have the sample and notes to do that at a later date. No pics though!
Day 5 – Friday. As I was well & truly over convention by Friday and knew I would be, I chose an arty-farty class for the Friday. It was a class using disperse dyes. None of us knew what we’d be doing and I figured if I didn’t like it, I could wag LOL. However, it turned out to be a fabulous class. We painted dye onto litho paper and then after it dried, ironed it onto fabric. Oh lordy. I could really get into this even though I can’t draw! We ended up with the most fantastic things.
Friday night was our gala dinner where I was presented with a Certificate of Appreciation for all my hard work for the Guild in a previous life. I knew I was getting it....it had been mentioned at least 18 months ago but had hopes of nothing happening this week but it wasn’t to be. How lucky I am that I have no photos of that. ☺
So the convention was a great success and the team that organised it should be very proud. I heard no complaints during the week…well…except for the cold. So now we come to that. Our bedrooms were in the boarding school and were unheated. I don’t usually feel the cold that much so had brought my usual PJs plus a thermal in case I got cool. OH MY GOD…it was freezing! I had on the thermal, a long sleeved Tshirt, a wool cardigan, my interlock dressing gown, 2 blankets and my polar fleece shawl and I was still cold! I don’t think the rooms ever warm up in the day as it was even cool in there in the daytime. It was warmer in the corridor so I have no idea how the boarders cope in the middle of winter. So here’s my tip for future conventions: Take lots of warm clothes you can wear to bed! Especially for Ballarat & Launceston. Assuming, of course, that the rooms aren’t heated. I wish someone would invent a half size doona. One that just goes over the top half of your body. That would’ve been perfect! Maybe I could make one? LOL.
