Hey, everyone!
A quick post tonight to tell you about a class I'm teaching next month at the Textile Center in Minneapolis!
It's a 4 hour workshop in which we'll be making soft toys together - specifically, Menagerie animals, but more generally, we'll be covering stuffed animal design and structure, techniques for making various appendages and how to use seams to attach those appendages. It's part Stuffed Toys 101, part sewalong, and part This Is How We Cope With Impending Minnesota Winters.
The workshop is divided into two sections. The first is literally that sewalong I mentioned. We'll be making a sampler project, a multicolored patchwork creature that doesn't look like any animal I recognize in nature, but all those different colors are meant to help with spatial visualization and clarity in the making process.
In the second half, you'll get to pick one of three animals - a cat,
a ladybug
or a rabbit -
to make on your own. Unlike the sampler project, these will look like actual animals, with familiar color schemes and anatomical features. Here's an older photo of our prototype rabbit in Kate's arms, to give you an idea of its size.
You'll bring your sewing machine and basic sewing supplies, and I'll provide the fabric, stuffing, poly beads, safety eyes, and other things needed. Want to know the best part? I'm cutting out all those pieces for you ahead of time, so it's like getting a ready-to-sew kit. I figured that it's a better use of our time together to be actually sewing, rather than fiddling with pattern pieces or prepping and laying out on fabric. You'll go home with (time permitting) two completed projects and a digital copy of the Menagerie pattern so you can make more animals at your leisure.
I'm hoping to bring some print copies of Menagerie as well, so if you prefer a physical book to flip through, you can pick one up after the class. Fingers crossed that I'll get around to contacting the printer in time - this has been a really busy fall with the two younger girls in swim team and all three (including the one in college) in their various musical ensembles. My evenings are full with swim meets and concerts and football games but it's a good full. I'm trying to attend as many as I can, because the year passes so quickly, senior year especially.
So come join us if you're in the cities and want to make some stuffed toys for the holidays, or even if you just want to meet and sew with me! There's lots of info in the link below: a class description, materials list, cost and more, but here's a summary:
Place: Textile Center, Minneapolis, MN
Date: Friday 22 November 2024
Time: 12 pm - 4 pm
Cost: $85 + $40 materials fee (which includes the cost of the Menagerie PDF pattern)
More information can be found here.
Slightly related, to prepare for this workshop, I made a bunch of new Menagerie cats. Two of them are calicos, in honor of Maisy, our own sweet and sassy calico. I will share photos soon!
