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Create!-ive Designing & Sewing

We are very big into helping our students sew, make and create whatever it is that they want to make. There is always a starting point of a student’s vision of what she or he wants and then figuring out how to do it. Often that involves taking fabric, pattern and directions and marrying the 3 so that the garment or accessory or “stuffie” comes out the way he/she/we envisioned it.

Sometimes however, a student comes to us with an idea  that is more “outside the box”. Either they have a drawing they want to see come to life or the pattern they chose is clearly not adequate to the task of their vision. That’s when our creative minds start working overtime.

Two projects come to mind that were in this category and interestingly, both were from advanced students who were in the same summer class. It was also the last class of the summer, so we were scrambling to try to get these projects done and done right under a serious deadline. They were also both projects involving stuffed animals, which if you have never made one before, can be very challenging since you are working in 3-D and it has to work as a sort of sculptural object as well as a sewing project.

One project was a stuffed cat that had to have very distinct properties. The first of which, since the student is a true cat lover was that it look “real” in it’s stance, with legs that actually were separate and helped it stand, not a 2-dimensional curled up flat “idea” of a cat. It also needed to be relatively easy to make since she wants to make several stuffed cats, each one slightly different.

The other project was a stuffed bear, but not just any stuffed bear. This was “Mr. Bean’s bear” made to resemble the bear from the the Mr. Bean movies. It had to look a certain way (skinny and somewhat gawkish, like Mr. Bean) and have 2-toned paws.

We had a limited amount of time and two very picky “sewing artists” plus two sewing instructors who wanted these kids to get what they wanted and not  be disappointed.

Here are the pictures of the finished projects. How did we do?

yellow kitty

yellow kitty

yellow cat on student's head

Successful cat stuffie!

Mr. Bean's Teddy Bear

Mr. Bean's Teddy Bear designed by advanced sewing student at Create! Sewing Studio

Mr. Bean's Bear

Summer Sewing Creativity

Every class we have is full of very creative sewing students, but last week’s our group of students got creative in some unexpected ways. Take this “Button Fish Sculpture” for example.

The student who made this just created it totally on her own when she saw a bunch of buttons on the table top.

Other kids got really creative with our new “monster” project. Here are some pictures of their work.

Happy Monsters

Lonely Monster

Several students also made more traditional projects like our lounge pants, ipod cases, totebags and backpacks. Here are some of those sewing projects.

“Sewn by me” Lounge Pants & Totebag

A monster and a new handbag!

Ah yes and we now celebrate at the end of each session with a cupcake treat! Yum!!!!

Cupcakes to celebrate!

We all love cupcakes!

And finally, our most advanced students show off their sewing projects for the week. Summer tops and totebags.

New Summer Tops! Great Sewing!

"Made by me" beach bag with fabric flowers

Mom was amazed at the great job these girls did!

“Sew Simple” Tips for You on SuzySaid

Have you seen our new series of  Sew Simple “mini-blog” newsletter articles on SuzySaid? Here are links to a couple of the posts. If you get yourself on “Suzy’s” email list the links will come right to your email. Enjoy!

sewing lessons

http://suzysaid.com/acton/index.php?page=stories&family=momtomom&display=4029

http://suzysaid.com/acton/index.php?page=stories&family=momtomom&display=4046

http://suzysaid.com/acton/index.php?page=stories&family=momtomom&display=4049

http://suzysaid.com/acton/index.php?page=stories&family=momtomom&display=4104