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Friday, February 26, 2016

Sewing and designing Saori hand woven clothing



Welcome Dawn to Saori Santa Cruz designing and sewing clothing class! Lets look at how this progression  class went from hand woven cloth to jacket



Here is Dawn's  happy hand woven fabric she wove Saori style and brought to class in her luggage from Canada .

 I had the studio all ready for cutting and sewing and trying on….
 Dozens of muslins to try and finished garments as well for ideas…..


  Dawn confess that in her soaking stage of her finished cloth  she some how felted part of it . …. you can see ruching and textures  and narrowing widths varying . But this is Saori!  not to be deterred . I told her " We will work with what we have and use the textures as design elements!"

 Trying muslins  and , and  then trying on my finished pieces . Dawn especially kept going back to one design, a jacket I designed. although there were vests and  tunics that she loved as well.


  I helped her with her decision  by seeing if she had enough yardage to make the jacket style she wanted. She watch as i layed out and showed her oprtions for piecing. she helped with her own esthetics  to where she liked pieces placed but the goal is not to over think this process to much ever! The magic happens by trusting in your  true self.


Ok deep breath… lets cut!!! we really just had barely  just enough fabric  to make the jacket but we made it work!

 ….and sew and piece and re cut




  and CUT some more and SEW and PIECE some more
  NOW  she is   basting  the  main pieces  of the jacket together to  try on and see if it fits etc


"I am going to love it"
 So I said , " it fits great! so lets  sew it up now!!  It is a beautiful spring day here in  northern california lets move  the sewing machine out side to sew your jacket after lunch" 

 ….. and sew we did! In the mid 70's  in February BLISS!!!


 the try on……...
















  It is getting late but the jacket is almost done!!! Lets keep going …...

 Now back into the studio to press for hems and sleeves and ...



Back outside to sew  more and to secure all  the seams on the  jacket's inside.

 NOW FOR THE FINAL PRESSING!!!



 Dawn has her beautiful amazing jacket to wear tomorrow to the airport and  to her next American art journey !
"I love it Jill, I learned so much"






…. and I love it it to bits too ! don't you?








A email from Dawn:
 "First I want to tell you how much I enjoyed meeting you and Lee. 
Secondly. thank you so very much for a wonderful day at your studio. I enjoyed myself immensely, and I simple LOVE my jacket. It's couldn't be better. Thank you again. I also love the photos and stories you shared on your blog.
I hope that we meet again. I would love to be able to bring a group of weavers (or even beginners) down to your studio to weave and learn about SAORI.
Best, Dawn"




I enjoy meeting new students and sharing my life long skills of fibers and sewing and art with them.
more  info about my classes or to schedule a class or intensive go to my web site SAORISANTACRUZ.COM
you can find my email there as well.

PEACE FROM THE LOOM
Jill Nickolene Sanders








Monday, February 15, 2016

Saori weaving students new and returning, a new saori top I sewed

Silvia came to the studio to pick up her third Saori loom. She uses Saori in her therapy/counseling  sessions  innerweaving.com
She had on the cutest Saori top she wove and sewed...




she bought this soft bulky cotton I sell in the studio and  here solid colors
and spaced dyed colors for weft  here space dyed bulky cotton and just adores  the softness and drape.



The drape is amazing and even after repeated washings still is is so soft. perfect for baby blankets too. 






 We threaded the loom together and now she has a 33 yard saori pre made warp  good for months of therapy sessions.


  The Saori WX60 LOOM HERE only weighs 27 lbs. easily transportable.

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Meet Hazel. she has had two Saori classes and is getting ,as she calls it, "addicted " to  saori weaving.
  Her first go at Saori weaving  try it class here



  Hazel's return to weave a  wider wall hanging and  she learned some new tecniques and how to twist fringes



 Her piece done to her  own desired color pallet she chose, soaked and will dry at home  
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I spun some coils art yarn at our monthly Mavens meeting out of my solar dyed polwarth.

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 Meet Martha. her  parental heritage is from San Salvador and she wanted to reconnect to her  ancestral roots so she came for a try class to experience weaving.


  She was incredible!
 Learning to twist fringes with  battery fringe twister here. you can twist with  your hands and  use manual clip types but this is the most user friendly efficient fast  fun way!



 beautiful!
 Thnak you Martha  it was a wonderful class.
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 What have I been doing?  my  good friend sue traded me a few years ago  for this  great Saori yardage she wove  and I could not decide what what to design out  it…  it has been calling me this week I decided to  take the plunge and just cut into it and go with my instincts .


 ok ...not pressed yet but I was excited to share it .. I  rarely get to sew for my self I am so busy so this was fun!


Here it is a bias top, fresh off the sewing machine and  still needing pressing yet...  I  love the way the bright colors are featured with the bias design and I cut and pieced  raglan sleeves I only  have tiny snippes left as I used every last bit!   this is my own top to wear and I am happy that did justice to Sue's saori fabric and now have a light weight silk and cotton top!


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  I have brought back A few Swedish Borgan egyptian cotton and cottonlin  yarn sets .
a great value off of  the regular retail prices too for such high qualith 8/2 cotton that does not pill like American cotton yarns. I really dislike pilling. great for warping and inkle weaving, and rigid heddle weaving ...


 LOTS MORE COLORS yarn sets here

 Egyptian 100 % cotton coned weaving yarn A strong superior quality cotton yarn from Sweden. 1780 yards 8 2 cotton yarn unmercerized
also Blockens cottonlin 22/2 is 8.8 oz,60/ 40 . 60% cotton 40% linen 1800 I weave sandal straps and bag straps inkle loom weaving or back strap or card weaving as well.from this high quality tightly twisted yarn too  check out the other colors, yarn sets here


Peaceful weaving in the redwoods

Jill Nickolene Sanders