Canada Day

Proud to be a Canadian and love the fact we celebrate in July!

Lots of out door activities such as Pickle Ball. Anyone played it before?

I shall find out how at the Canada Day celebrations at our local Loonie Club. What a great spot for fun lawn bowling, tennis, curling, snooker and more, including Yoga which I take part in every Friday.

Speaking of the outdoor summer fun, I recently made new covers for some very retro outdoor chairs.

The picture on the left does not show the damage but the foam core was deteriorating, the plastic cracked and if they got wet, rain soaked right into the base making them almost obsolete. Would it help if I told you that these chairs came from Ron’s grandparents circa 1950’s. I laughed one night when I saw them on ‘That 70’s TV show’. Same chairs and same covers! Well I had to keep them and when one of the swivel base broke the auto shop on the corner fixed it and said it was solid steel. They rock and turn and deserved a retro makeover. First I used clear plastic bags to cover the old cushions and then used outdoor ‘sunbrella’ fabric and Velcro to adhere the top to bottom at the crease with a pattern I constructed from originals.

What do you think?  Of course the arms need a cover as the old ones did rot away. Part of my upcycling for this month.

A great friend gave me this T shirt and it says it all. The month of June this year had us visiting hospitals constantly. OMG what a couple of years can do to through you off track. Still back and forth with Ron, the outcome is good but my whole daily routine is not the same.

I am back teaching next week and will post a schedule soon. For now save those old tshirts for a new project.

Sewing in the rain !

Jo-Anne

June ( my favourite time of year)

Looking forward to a month of UPCYCLING. I have been cleaning closets where I found some gems to good to part with, but perfect for recycling with some changes. By ‘Up Cycling’ or blending new pieces of much loved fabric or trim with the old, you can have some wonderful new pieces of clothing. Lets play together !

Bring along some old, some new and get your creative thinking caps on.

Another class will be this T shirt Cover up. Bring along your old T’s and we will serge a quick and easy cover up from this great pattern. 5 students / 5 hr  June 17 Fee $45 includes pattern!

I love the long sunny days of June when you can enjoy sitting outdoors until almost 9pm. I am an early riser, so I love sunrise too. The weather is something Canadians always discuss, so; it has been cool and risk of frost prevented me from getting any plants until recently. It has also been very dry and the garden centres have a selection of several wilted planters unless they have been sheltered. Suffice to say there will be less work with annuals and I will enjoy my beautiful perennials. Daffodils, Lilacs, Lily of the Valley, Flocks, and now min and maxi Irises have flourished and are always brought in to rest in a lovely vase for room décor.

May Sewing saw the Embroidery group back for a day of chatting, eating and ‘therapy’ as I like to call it. We never made it to the sewing studio as we gathered in the kitchen for the day, but we have plans for this month’s project which is ‘Sewing off the Edge’. Friday June 26 will be the date for another Pot Luck lunch and practice of Machine Embroidery. If you name is not on my e mail list of reminders just drop me a line.

SEWING CLASSES

This I Matt, who did an amazing job of sewing his tailored Shirt. Awesome work as he adjusted the pattern to his size and completed all details of stand collar and cuffs, then went on to sew buttonholes with his new machine. GREAT JOB Matt!

This is the leather bag I made for my daughter. Brown and Black Lamb Skin. I added the zipper pocket in front and had cut the opening a little larger than necessary. ( even templates and careful measuring can cause grief) To disguise it, I added a rectangle in the contrast color to cover the mistake. I loved the end result, so sometimes mistakes can be blessings. Although our trip to Perfect Leather did not happen, we are getting together soon for show and tell.

Serger sewing sessions have been postponed so we may have to change the day. Just contact me for a time that fits your schedule and we will get back on track with monthly get meetings.

See you soon and plan your up cycling day with me. I am in the sewing studio all month

Jo-Anne

jc@creativestyling.com