RIP Claire Shaeffer

 I suppose most folks in the sewing community have heard that Claire Shaeffer, author, educator, pattern designer and source of much inspiration, passed away a couple of days ago.

That was just 5 days after she posted a you-tube video with plans for 2025.  I haven't heard cause, but it appears to have been something sudden.

I have several of Claire's patterns...haven't gotten brave enough to try any of them yet.  I have a couple of her books...she was a wealth of information.  The you-tube channel was a fairly new thing; she doesn't appear on it but does voice-over narration.  Or, at least that's been the case for the videos I have watched so far.

So we have lost another of the major influencers of home sewing enthusiasts...one who knew and taught the classic techniques.  I'm encouraged by the younger faces now appearing with instruction on social media...some have done much work and research and are well worth watching.  But we are losing some of the folks who sustained us during the years when home sewing was rather scorned.  Now the creative potential is beginning to revive, along with an interest in clothing as investment, which was a Thing of the Past for so long.  

I feel much gratitude for folks like Claire Shaeffer, Nancy Zieman, Cynthia Guffey, Clothilde, and others, who kept the education going when universal sewing instruction in home ec class slowly faded away.   I have I have learned much from these ladies over the years and my sewing is better for it.

Mayhap I should pull out one of Claire's Vogue patterns this year and challenge myself to learn from her some more....

A bit of...Epiphany? Sewing...

 I had the idea last summer to take advantage of a sale on some Christmas print tea towel kits at Fabric-Store.com.  At first, I was just going to use them for stocking stuffers, and maybe one or two others.  Then I thought of my co-workers...and decided I should make tea towels for them.

I ended up getting 10 kits...that's 20 towels...and it still really wasn't enough.  Stocking stuffers for my daughters/ daughters in law; a goodie for a sort-of secret (but not secret) sister, and the rest went to ladies that have worked with me in the data base in the past year.

The towels aren't difficult...you cut off the selvedge edge, then cut them apart on the  marked line, then hem them; much like the linen waffle towels I made in October.  I made, like, six back in the early fall, then got busy with other things.

I had planned to take my unused vacation/ personal leave (sick) time to work on them during December; then I ended up using my actual sick leave...being sick...and totally useless.  As we got closer and closer to Christmas and I still had the two pirate shirts and the crossback apron to do, it hit me that our first day back at work after the Christmas holiday was Epiphany.

So I was sewing during Christmas break and my co-workers got Epiphany presents, lol.

I thought I took some pics of the construction process when I did the first batch...but if I did, I have lost the photos.  You'll just have to look at the pics on the waffle towel construction...because it's the same.  I did miter ALL THE CORNERS on the tea towels.  (80 mitered corners).  That's lots of practice...but they were simple.  Both sides of the corner measured the same, and the fabric pressed beautifully and didn't fray badly.  It was just fiddly.

I had already given away five of the ones I had made earlier but the other fifteen are in this photo; multiples are stacked together:

  The only print that's not in the photo is the kitty print...I made two of those and they both went to my cat-loving daughters for Christmas.  The 12 days of Christmas print was the one I made the most from...I think I did six of those.

My only complaint is that the towels aren't perfectly square on the fabric.  Trying to get a straight edge yields something a bit crooked looking; after a few tries at that I gave up and just cut it according to the print. It didn't make the edges too off grain to press well.  The prints are lovely.

I will say that these are COTTON towels, not linen towels like I thought in the beginning.  Just so you know.

I've gotten some nice comments from the folks that got them!  Wish I'd had time to make more so I could have enough for everyone....