Sunday, October 9, 2011

My class with Gertie

While I was in New York City, one of the things I knew I absolutely had to do was take a sewing class with GertieOona and I plotted and planned about taking a 2-hour class and we were lucky enough to find a day that worked with Gertie's schedule!


Gertie teaches and holds private lessons at the Sewing Studio.  This place is AMAZING!  What is also brilliant is that you can rent space here to sew--it only costs $13.50 a week (only £8.50) to use the space an unlimited amount of times during one week.  They have amazing space, huge cutting tables, pressing stations, loads of sewing machines and overlockers, changing area, etc.

It's perfect if you are just in town for a few days but still want to get some sewing done!  I so wish other cities had this (and at such a good rate!!)  Plus, they are open late--until 11pm!  And I was the only one there on the day that I went!  Very nice!


Oona and I decided that we would each pick one thing to focus on in our lessons.  I choose bound buttonholes.  It was a method I hadn't tried but knew we could easily cover in an hour.  I'm so glad we did! It is amazing to see someone do it in person.  So how did we do?  Well, we watched and listed to Gertie do the buttonhole first and then we gave it a try.  Then we both forgot our patch!!! hahaha...that means that our buttonholes wouldn't have had lips!  Too funny.  Gertie gently asked if we were missing anything...oh yes! The whole second part of the bound buttonhole!!

Another funny moment came when we were marking the length of the buttonhole.  Gertie hands me this large clear ruler with a curvy side and a regular side with all sorts of markings.  I may not have mentioned before but I have very few sewing gadgets and I didn't know how to use the ruler!! hahahaha.  I was quite befuddled being able to SEE through it! lol.

In the end we both made lovely looking buttonholes.  Gertie's buttonhole is on the left and my very first one is on the right!  I am quite proud of it (and it wouldn't gap if I steam ironed it a bit!!)

For the second part of the class we focussed on draping! That was loads of fun and something I wouldn't have thought to do!  Gertie had this amazing 1/2 scale mannequin (named 'tiny') and we learned how to drape and then transfer our design into a pattern. 


I draped a pencil skirt (yawn) and Oona went to town and draped this amazing pleated blouse!  It was so much fun!

Gertie is such a lovely person in real life and it seriously is one of the best sewing days I have ever had!  If you are ever in NYC--even just for a short trip--it's well worth it to take a lesson with Gertie!  I learned so much and had so much fun!

Safe blog
In other news, a super big thank you to Elise for alerting me that she received a malware message when she accessed my blog.  We ran loads of diagnostics and were able to pinpoint it to a blog listed on my blogroll (thanks also to Elise's sending us the exact wording in the message she received!!).  I've removed that blog (and gotten in touch with the owner and sent her some helpful tools/links).  We reran all the tests and my blog is completely safe.  YAY!  Thanks again, I really appreciate it!! 
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20 comments

  1. That's a very pretty bound buttonhole! I have had a go at them in the past and they are fiddly things to do. One cm off and it's all wonky. Yours looks great!

    I have to say I am totally envious of your class with Gertie. I'm a big fan of hers and just love her way of teaching. I might need to plan some holidays to NY just for that (and maybe some fabric shopping)!

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  2. That looks like so much fun! Hanging out with Oona and Gertie must be a hoot. I'm super jealous :)

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  3. Bound button holes oh my I haven't made them since, oh you don't want to hear before you were born no kidding! I should try them again sometime on all this stuff I made. Love all what you got to do with Gertie how fun to meet her and visit her place there.

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  4. Oh wow, what an amazing day! And being able to rent sewing space like that with proper cutting tables - I'd happily pay double that for anytime I want access for a week! Ah, to be loaded and be able to develop a space like that near me. It's weird though as I have no idea if there'd be the demand for it or not!
    It looks like you had a ton of fun, and you've a load of my sewing heroes in this trip too! Is it OK to be a teeny bit green eyed?!

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  5. That looks absolutely amazing - like a dream come true. What excellent fun!

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  6. It looks like you had such a fun day! And your buttonholes look great - can't wait to see them on one of your projects soon! PS - I love your Spanish Harlem theme dress - the fabric is amazing.

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  7. You must have had so much fun with the 'girls'! I imagine there was lots of laughter...how did you ever get anything done? I would love to know how to drape, it's on my list of things to learn.

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  8. great recap! totally satisfies my curiosity about your lesson. i may have to give gertie some business myself one of these days!

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  9. That's so cool that you got to have a class with Gertie! And I'm jealous of your bound buttonhole as I still can't do one. Draping is fun!

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  10. Glad you had a good time. We need that kind of thing in brisbane... hmmm...

    Gertie sounds nice.

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  11. Wow! What an amazing time! 'Tiny' the mannequin is so cute!

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  12. Well done on your buttonhole!! It looks fabulous :)

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  13. Debi, thank you so much for the shout-out. It truly was a pleasure to help you and David. I'm such a fan of your happy sewing place. You are such an inspiration to me with all of your beautiful creations!

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  14. SUCH a great blogpost! What fun! Gives me loads of ideas! Would love to drape and do buttonholes!

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  15. OMG I am totally giggling laughing at the idea of 'lips' on buttonholes. It looks like you had such a fun class!!

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  16. OMG... I am so jealous of that sewing space. And the price is amazing. I think I would just move in! What fun to have such a lovely teacher and accomplice! Everything about this post sounds like a dream to me!

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  17. Jealous! I felt like such a dweeb when I talked to Gertie last weekend, yet you spent an entire two hours in a private lesson! She's a total doll :) I am astounded at those rates..in NYC, to boot! Bravo on the BBH. It's def near the top of my to-learn list.

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  18. Wow it's like a sewing bloggers ideal day! I would love to get together and sew and design with other bloggers I have met over the net sometime. It's amazing to see the career of Gertie grow. I took an online clas with Susan Khalje and I could not figure out that darned buttonhole!

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  19. I read this post before, but totally forgot that you'd made the bound buttonholes! You got the real deal lesson:) Looks great!:)

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I read each and every comment--thank you so much!

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