New Fabric and Sewing Class update

NEW Japanese fabric arrived!

First up are these sweet, delicate floral prints in a super soft cotton.

Next are the yarn-dyed checks...they just exude summery freshness and I can see a perfect picnic blanket and napkin set in the yellows and blues and fresh gingham-y dresses and men's shirts in the blues, greens, and browns. For those of you who don't know, "yarn-dyed" means that the check design is created by weaving the colored thread together to create the design rather than printing on one side. This develops a beautifully textured look to the fabric and it's also reversible and makes for a nice fray to the unfinished edge.

We also have some new cotton interlock (jersey, stretchy) fabric in that I'm dying to make a summer shift out of..right now we have the all important basic black, a black and grey strip, an aqua polka dot, and a bright floral.

Last up, a quick reminder that we have a sewing class and a workshop starting next week and there are still a few spaces left in both. Call or come in to the shop to register:

BYOP: Bring Your Own Project Workshops

Sundays 2:30 – 4:30 pm

Workshop 2: May 29; Workshop 3: June 12; Workshop 4: June 19; Workshop 5: June 26

Sign up for only one workshop $30

This class is perfect for the sewer who knows how to sew, but needs a little help with a current project. Two hour session includes instruction on using our machines.

Finishing Touches Workshop

Instructor: Taylor McVay

Saturdays 10:30 – 12:30 pm

June 11; June 18; June 25 Level: Intermediate

$100 plus materials

Sewing technique classes for those who know how to sew, but would like to give their handmade garments a little extra polish. Class will cover seams (French seams, faux French seams, flat fell seams, Hong Kong bound seams); hand and machine hem stitching (including tape hems, chiffon hems, folded and rolled hems); handpicked zippers; hook and eye closures; blind and belt loops; and fabric covered snaps. These finishing techniques will make your garment sing!

Fancy hanky

This is Vanessa. Among other things, Vanessa blogs about food (here). She is also a sewer and came in the other day and aquired two 1/4 yards of Monaco Birds in pink and Medium Dots in mineral, both organic.

She made a hanky for her honey! Cute edges cut with pinking shears then turned over, creating a sweet contrasting edge. Tiny heart stitching on the two birds, and two mismatched buttons completes the nicest hanky I've ever seen. What about you?

A lovely harmony between the two fabrics.

Vanessa with her creation. Ok, everyone....ahhhh..choooo....

Stocking, stocking

After a much needed break, we are back and hard at work stocking shelves. And we are making progress!!!

We're having a lot of fun unpacking boxes from the far reaches of the world, such as these gorgeous, fair trade, hand crafted and dyed yarns from Manos del Uruguay. We get to pick these giant skeins up and then we...

..twist them into happy, portable packages...put a label on them...and then we get to...

...hang them! So pretty...

Sigh, but we also have to do a lot of this....

Opening Soon!

461 Center Street is the new home of JP Knit & Stitch! We are thrilled and excited and more than a little overwhelmed with all that has to be done to turn our longtime dream into a reality. Thanks to everyone in the JP community for their support.

This is what our store looked like when we signed the lease. We have a lot of work to do!

This is what it looks like now. Better, but still plenty of work to do. We will be showing sneak peeks of our progress on the store in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!