NNC November Stitching Bee 2009

It was the biggest Stitching Bee thus far this year with 21 turnouts at our November Stitching Bee held at Bangsar Village II starting from 10.00am on 7th November 2009!

By the time I arrived at about 10.45am, there were already Alynn and her daughter, Usha and her 3 daughters, Anna, Margaret, Janet, Radha, Rose, Veronica, Tini and June. Soon after that Jo, Mel, Wendy, Zarina and Faizon arrived.

Paul came despite an ankle injury and Sabariah dropped by despite being on the way to go to Fraser’s Hill.

It was like what June said, it was more like 21 of us talking and none listening! LOL!

Maybe next time we should get a hall? *wink*

The lady at Starbucks where we had our meet thought that it was a meeting of teachers! LOL!

No offence to Ying or any teachers here, but, did we look like teachers? She actually asked if we are primary or secondary school teachers! LOL! I find that so amusing! *grin*

She must be thinking that probably we were all getting together to discuss craft projects for the school! LOL! *wink*

Anyway, when I got there, everyone was already engrossed in showing off what they had brought over, but none were actually sewing, crocheting nor stitching! LOL!

The Stitching Bee is now becoming more and more like a `Show and tell’ meet than a meet to stitch and chat to try to complete that UFO piece or current project at hand! LOL! But, never the less, it fulfilled the other intended purpose, and that is to meet and chat with friends sharing the same passion.

I can’t recall everything that everyone brought, but Alynn and Veronica brought many lovely cross stitch pieces.

Zarina brought quite a number of quilt pieces to show off that she got distracted from her other intention, and that is to learn how to do smocking. *grin*

Jo got her much awaited crocheted shawl from Usha which I was made to understand, it was a personal exchange between her and Usha some 3 years ago! LOL!

I believe Usha got a bag from Jo in exchange, though I did not get to see the bag that Jo made for her.

Anna was busy crocheting a lovely bookmark. We teased her about already being ready for the upcoming bookmark exchange which is being planned for only next year! LOL!

Usha brought along another crochet piece to work on, while Wendy brought along a lovely crocheted bag which I was immediately smitten by and would love to make one myself too. Unfortunately, I forgot to snap photos of the bag.

Tini brought along to show off a very lovely laptop bag complete with a cable bag. Mel brought along a very lovely crocheted laptop sleeve which was in a colour many find so sweet! I just love it!

Mel, want to do a personal exchange with me? *wink*

BTW, Mel, thanks for the mahjong papers and tracing paper, and the buttons too!

June did a demo on how to pleat for smocking. June stayed up till passed midnite it get things ready for me, Paul and Zarina, though Zarina got distracted by the many things to see and show! LOL!

June had brought along her pleating machine or whatchamacolic, and showed us how to start smocking the proper way.

She also brought along some lovely smoked dress she made for her daughter many years ago.

Thank you so much, June, for taking time to teach us the basics of smocking. I really appreciate it.

I am sorry to have made you stayed up passed midnight the night before to prepare for us the pleated pieces. It was worth it because now I know what I might have done wrong for my first smocking piece, no thanks to eerr……never mind….at Epal *wink*

Radha gave a lovely neck wrap to Rose. She also showed a few of us how to do a hairpin lace shawl.

Janet, thank you so much for making the trip to join us at the bee. Thank you so much too to Wendy and Radha who came all the way from Johor and Kedah. We sure appreciate it.

Thank you so much to everyone for making it to the bee. I hope you all had great fun!

A special thank you to Paul too for making it despite the ankle injury, and to Sabariah for the effort to drop by despite it being a `touch n go' situation.

Need I come next time to ensure that you stay long enough? LOL! *wink*

Many stayed till 2.00pm, where we adjourned for lunch at Kopitiam.

The next meet will be our Stash Shopping Trip scheduled for December! I hope to see as many turnouts too!

Going up in smoke smocking!

Heheh…I feel like my head was smoking like a chimney as I tried to master the technique of smocking! LOL!

It looked like it was easy, and yes, I am sure that once you get the hang of things, it would be a breeze. But, even before you could even get the hang of things, you have to go through the learning process.

If I read it from the internet, it sounded easy. But, I think what made it hard for me was because the teachers at Epal did not actually go through with me the proper procedure of how to do the smocking like how much fabric do I need to make pleats to fit into a certain size of a body of a certain size chest.

They just told me to pleat the whole 45” wide fabric. But, the person I am learning to make this dress for is still small and has a chest of only 19”. The fabric, after pleating, is 12” just for the front. Double that and I will get 24”. The dress is going to be 5” bigger at the chest. When I explained this to the teacher, she said it should be just right once the smocking is completed.

Even when she taught me how to do the smocking patterns (err...it that what you call it?), she did not show me how to set the pleats to be even, and how tight and taut am I supposed to stitch the motifs. She just told me to stitch first, and said that later the embroidered motifs will be adjusted. I wondered whether if that is actually the correct way to do smocking.

For one, am I not supposed to secure the pleats first and even it out before I start on embroidering the motifs? My pleats kept moving as I embroidered. My pleats would sometimes end up to be 13" at some rows, and 12" at another row. Am I not supposed to leave some allowance for seams, because the teacher showed me to embroider right up to the edges of the pleats?

I surfed the internet looking for answers but could not find a satisfactory solution. *sigh*

I finally decided to post my questions at the NNC board and June, being a smocking expert, came to the rescue. Thanks, June! She explained it very clearly what I am supposed to do.

She suggested that I trace the smallest template out onto a cardboard, then reduce the cardboard to the size you deem fit. A photocopier could be used to shrink down the size instead of tracing out the templates.

She also suggested that I put pins at the end of one end of the pleated material and wind the pleated threads in a figure of 8.

Anyway, here is part of the smocking motifs that I had done so far, before I decided to post my message at NNC. Notice how uneven my embroidery and the pleats are?

I had to unpick several times as I kept on miscalculating and missing stitches.

I am not too pleased with the results, but, if I unpick it for the 3rd time, I think I might just end up abandoning this project totally! LOL! But, with June's clear explaination, I am a little bit more confident of doing the next stage of the embroidery.

However, I will need to go back to class to learn the rest of the motifs for the center portion. I can't wait for when the August Stitching Bee is coming up as June promised that she will do a demo on smocking.

Now I know why a smocked dress cost so much. Doing up the smocking motifs takes so much of one’s time. I almost gave up! LOL!

In fact, today, I went to check out a shop in Bangsar Village just to gauge the price of a smocking gown. The shop, Cotton Club, is selling their cute and oh so sweet smocking gowns at a starting price of RM70.00.

I already can’t wait to get this dress done up! I am alraedy thinking if I could make more of these dresses in the future! LOL! I already have plans with my brother, Ayis. I just need to find time to sit down and get to work! *wink*

BTW, I have completed the flower motif bag.

I completed it about two weeks ago but could not find time to take photos of it, and to blog about it.

Here is a close-up of the flower motif with a very simple embroidery work.

It’s not the best work. I could have done better, but, after having to do 7 embroidered flowers, I got bored and just wanted to get it over and done with! LOL

Nothing can beat the lovely embroidery work June did for Paul’s apron which she gave him for his birthday as his Birthday Exchange partner at NNC.

I will definitely have to practice more to get to the standard June is. OR, I could `cheat’ and use my upcoming embroidery machine to do the work for me! LOL! *wink* Sssshhhhh….

Oh, BTW, here is the progress on my mum’s bag.

Not much progress actually as I am only working on this bag in between my Epal projects. I hope to find some time to complete it very soon. But, as always, time always seems to elude me! LOL!