PR Weekend 2014 Austin Recap

Before I dive into the recap, I want to say thank you, from me and my dad, for all your kind and supportive comments on my last post about my mom.  We both appreciate it.



Last Wednesday I flew to Austin for PR Weekend.  This was my 5th one so it felt like an anniversary of sorts.  5 years ago I attended PR weekend 2010 in Philly not knowing anyone personally--just a few sewists whose blogs I read but who mostly didn't know me.  Also my bus buddy was Elaine, who was the first blog reader of mine who I met in person and didn't personally know.  This year, I knew probably a third of attendees!


Thursday (pre-PR weekend)

Antoinette (ATP) lives in Austin so she shuttled us around.  Thank you ATP for picking me up at the airport and driving me back to the airport and for driving me to many places in between!  It was great to spend so much time with you!

PR fun fact:  ATP was the first person to ever comment on one of my pattern reviews!!!  How about that? And we became good sewing friends.  Thanks PR!

First we fueled up then headed over to Stitch Lab and TexStyles for some pre-PR weekend fabric shopping.

At Stitch Lab

At TexStyles--love all their knits and how their store is arranged by color!  It is really hard not to buy the whole store...I cut myself off after $170....

That night a whole bunch of us went to Austin Fashion Week.  Thursday night had, gosh, 8 shows?  of mostly local designers.


A group photo at the Step and Repeat, photo is from Connie

Update:  The link to the professional pix of the Wed and Thurs night shows is here.

Friday
Friday morning PR weekend officially began at the Palm Door.


Project Runway alum and Austinite Daniel Esquivel talked about his life before, during and after Project Runway on Saturday morning.  Such a sweet man.

That afternoon we learned about organizing your fabric room from Jennifer Lava, professional organizer.


Connie and me. We met at PR weekend Philly in 2010

That evening we went to the Palm Door for some delicious pre-runway dinner.  The food was super super tasty!!!

My camera couldn't really handle the lighting of the fashion show but there are more pix of it in the PR weekend Flickr group.  Friday night was Project Runway All-Stars, where 6 of the PR folks presented collections....and the designers were actually there!!


The view from row 6, when Matt Swinney, founder of Austin Fashion Week, introduced the show.

During intermission we had fun at the step and repeat.

Daniel's orange dress with the giant bow in the front.

Update:  The link to the professional pix of the PR runway shows is herehttp://www.fashionweekaustin.com/2014-designer-all-stars-images.html.

Saturday
Two buses carted PR members around for shopping and hands-on workshop day.
Since ATP lives in Austin and we were taking the bra workshop, Roseana asked if ATP could drive me around all day.  This meant our day was a little different in parts than everyone else's. Initially though we headed to the Austin Fabric Co-op like those in bus group #1.


ATP browses the delicious striped knits.

Lisette and Sharon--finally met Sharon after reading her blog since Nov 2011! I "met" her online because we both tweeted during PR Day in 2011, only I was at the celebration in Austin and she was leading the one in Minneapolis, and now I finally got to meet her in real life!. I met Lisette at PR weekend in 2010 in Philly.

Rachel was my "bus buddy" at PR weekend Chicago in 2011 where I first met her. Then she drove me around LA last fall for a one day tour of LA fabric.

The gang at the Austin Fabric Co-op


My haul from Austin Fabric Co-op, lots of textures in there even though it's hard to tell! 


You see the PRW bags we're holding?  The co-op had printed them especially for our purchases!

We got to meet up with the other Leslie in Austin.  She wasn't able to register for the weekend but we were able to meet up independently on Saturday morning at the Co-op.  I met the other Leslie at PR Day in Austin in Nov 2011 and have been reading her blog ever since.  I always learn something new when I read her blog!

The three of us headed over to Form and Fabric, a new store in town that is so new it hasn't officially opened yet but the owner opened to us for the weekend!

At Form and Fabric

Saturday afternoon was the bra making workshop!!

Andrea, me and Jacqui.  
In this photo, Andrea and Jacqui just successfully finished making half a bra and I'm about to make my half!


In the classroom at Sew Much More, with my half-bra half-constructed.


Ease that bra cup in there!!  Megan pinned it for me.

A view of the classroom

ATP hard at work

Look!  I made half of a bra!!!

A big thanks to Megan Summerville who taught the bra making workshop.  She is a lingerie designer and she won the AFW Trailblazer award later that night.

Then it was on to Austin Cake Ball.  I think the chocolate was my favorite, and the chocolate mint was a close second.

And then on to the big PR Saturday night party.  It featured food sponsored by Bernina (and a room where you could try out the Berninas).  Plus there was a raffle of many sponsor giveaways, like Angela Wolf patterns, Jalie patterns, the Seam Allowance curve ruler, Fashion Sewing Supply interfacing and more!

Bonnie and me at the PR party

Swag bag
The swag bag was also the best EVER: Dear + Doe pattern, StyleArc pattern, a yard of fabric from TexStyles courtesy of Kellie, and more!  That huge zipper pouch from Form and Fabric is really super amazing!

Oh, and there were sewing tattoos.

There were real tattoos...(Lilia from Austin Fabric Co-op)

...and fake ones (Margaret's Stitch Lab seam ripper tattoo)

A big thank you to Leslie and Roseana for organizing such a super weekend, and to Deepika as always for founding PR!  I'm not sure how I left without a picture with the three of you but I did and I'm sorry for it!!

Next year PR weekend is in LA at the end of April!!!!!  Start planning for it now!!!  Will you be there?

My recap of PR weekend 2013 San Francisco
My recap of PR weekend 2012 NYC
My recap of PR Day 2011 Austin
My recap of PR weekend 2011 Chicago
My recap of PR weekend 2010 Philly

Be well!

Remembering my mom

At my friend Maria's wedding in August 2008.   I'm wearing S3833.

I'm really sorry to write this post to tell you all, my sweet sewing friends and blog readers, that my dear mom Judy Burkhardt suddenly passed away in the early evening of Saturday, April 5, 2014.

It was a shock and surprise to us all, though looking back the signs were there starting in the fall of 2012.


June 13, 1964.

It is really hard to believe she is gone.  She was 69.  If she had lived 10 more weeks, my parents would have reached 50 years of marriage.  They were high school sweethearts who had dated for 5 years before that.  And they still liked and loved each other!!


My parents at 15 and 16 years of age.

Dad and I co-wrote her obituary and her eulogy. I might post the eulogy on my blog, or I might not.  Not sure yet.   The funeral was amazing, if a funeral can be such a thing.  We had the funeral in her hometown of Florence, NJ and had the funeral director, who went to high school with my parents and who my mom actually liked, read the eulogy Dad and I wrote.  We estimated mom gave away over a thousand bouquets in her lifetime.  We did not ask for donations because we wanted the flowers to come back to her.  The amount of "floral support" was outstanding--it was like a wall of flowers.  My uncle sent an amazing bouquet that the funeral home put in my mom's hands.  It was gorgeous.  Dad had the idea to bring the cat apron I made her for Christmas, and we draped it on her arm and over the side of the casket.     We dressed her in one of her typical outfits--white turtleneck, turquoise button down shirt, cream sweater, unbuttoned, with a cat pin.  She was always wearing cat or heart pins/necklaces.


Mom's first car:  1957 Ford Thunderbird Convertible, in turquoise burgundy

The support of all her communities was outstanding--Dad's family including my 98 year old great aunt Iris; Mom's high school classmates (she organized a monthly luncheon and loved chatting with them); her Wall neighbors; Dad's coworkers who all knew her from the summer picnics and Christmas parties she helped organize (and my dad's been retired for almost 13 years now!); my former and current coworkers who all knew her from the mini-pumpkins she decorated and gave to them, but most of whom she never met; my third grade teacher who we kept in touch with--she gave flowers to him on his birthday every year; my friend from the gym representing the evening rampers; my childhood best friend and her whole family--she always thought of my mom as her second mom and mom thought of her as a second daughter; even a college friend who is a professor trying to get tenure and has a family of her own but took the train from MA to attend the funeral because "that's the impression your mother made on me."


4 generations:  my great-grandmother Mema, my mom, me at almost 2 months of age and my grandmom in 1975.

Mom loved the internet and email.  She was the number one fan of my blog.  She must have been constantly checking to see if I wrote a new post; sometimes she'd email and comment on what I had made when I had just pressed the post button a few minutes before.  She always emailed me her comments; she never left one on my blog itself.  She was also fond of reading the blogs on my blog roll, in particular Sidewalk Shoes for the kitty cat pictures on Saturdays (Pam, we *both* loved your story of how Coco came to be in your life because it was so much like our Cali cat), and Marisa at New Dress a Day (she often would tell me to check out something interesting or a scandalously low bust line on Marisa's blog).    She also really enjoyed I can has cheezburger for the LOL Cats.


My mom's favorite picture of her and dad, taken in Myrtle Beach in the late 80's/early 90's.

Mom read all the comments you, my readers, left on my blog and sometimes she would email me about your comments, or she'd say "your sewing friends are going to love all this detail" when I'd write an overly long and picture heavy post.


1985:  Mom, Aunt Barb, Uncle Jim, Grandmom, Granddad
Me, my cousins Kris, Ryan, Jamie

She was so sad, like I was, when GwenSews passed away; she couldn't believe it either and she cried like I did. She said she felt like she knew Gwen, as did I, even though we never met Gwen--but Gwen had commented on almost every post I had written since Gwen found my blog at the end of Jan 2012 2010 and mom read every one!


Before going back to Bryn Mawr for my senior year, 1997

I wore my favorite dress, Vogue 1351, to mom's funeral.  I wasn't sure about wearing it with the red belt but Dad said I should wear what I'd like and dress like me.  The red belt is me.


Me and mom on Mother's Day 1977.  Mom is 32 and I'm 18 months.

As for my dad and myself, we are doing ok.  I have always had a great relationship with my dad but we are spending more time together and learning more about each other.  The obituary, eulogy, and funeral came together better because we worked on it together.  We are grieving but are functional.   At work,  the software upgrade happened on April 12, the day after mom's funeral. My kind and amazing boss said we could move it but I felt like we were so close to go-live we should just do it.  My coworkers were a huge help and I am grateful to them.  I am still working on this other huge software project that goes live July 1.  I'm looking at that project like my college degree:  I've been setting aside things I want to do in order to work on the project and just get it done. I had been keeping a list of things I'd like to do after go-live that I haven't been able to do personally.  I had gotten myself onto a schedule that let me go to the gym after work, work 6 days a week, keep the house clean, and do sewing on Sundays before Mom's death.  I think the sewing is going to slide for now but I'd like to pick it up again after go-live.  I really want to get back into making dresses.  I have somehow gotten mired in fit and I just want sewing to be fun again.  Time is so precious, life is so short to spend it on struggling over fit (besides many other things).

Thank you Mom.  I love you.  I miss you. I can't believe you're gone.

 Be well.

StyleArc Laura Cardigan wearable muslin

I bought this pattern in the summer of 2011, but sewing it up meant I would have to learn how to use my serger first (see the overlocked edges above) and find some sweater knit.

Finally, 2.5 years later, the time came to make a muslin.  I made the straight 12.  I think it fits pretty well.  The only thing I'm unsure about is the length.




My usual work photographer was not available for pictures so this is a different work photographer who insisted we use his windows phone.


Here is the walking away shot, to show how it flutters.  I feel like I'm a caped superhero when I wear this.



This is to show you the impressive wingspan



And here are some pix my regular work photog took before I serged the raw edges


back


Side



Serger practice
I was pretty afraid of serging the raw edges.

I cut some sample squares.

I bought this 4x4" square "ruler" after taking the PR class "understanding knit fabrics".  Mainly I use it for cutting sample squares when I wash and dry fabric to determine shrinkage...but it has another use...when I serge the edge, is it getting longer or shorter???

Then I serged.
And it was terrible.
No matter what I was setting the differential feed (DF), it was gathered.  Adjusting the DF was always my fix in the past, but not this time.
I gave up.
Then I googled.
And then I found the right setting.

First three:  great if I wanted gathering!!

I had no idea that I had to release the needle tensions down, and the upper looper tension down too, but so it was.  I experimented a bit more than above, but finally figured out that the last settings above are right.

I then serged on the lengthwise grain, expecting the settings to be different, but they weren't!  This was single layer, which is exactly what serging the raw edges involved.



In the above photo, the top and right sides are serged.  I cut the edge so the square is no longer 4x4.  If you really want to check if the stitching is changing the length/width you need two samples:  one where you only cut the length and one where you only cut the width.

So here's what it looks like on the garment.  Wow, that black serger thread really blends into this blue and black fabric:


So I wanted to serge the inside too, which meant 2 layers.
I wrote down the settings in my notebook where I keep sewing notes for myself. The fabric was from the San Diego swap meet with Elizabeth last November.


and this is what it looked like inside on the sleeve cap


For the bottom of the sleeve I serged the raw edge and then blind hemmed it.  The arms seem to be extra long and begging to be hemmed so that's what I did.

Wrong side of the sleeve.


What to do with the serger tails
I was also unsure of what to do with the serger tails on the single layer, around the edges.  It turned out to be so easy...but maybe I'll talk about that in the next post.

So what do you think of the length?  Too long?

Be well!!!