The Colette Sewing Handbook party at Sew LA

Over the weekend I headed out to Sew LA in Los Angeles, a super cute sewing studio located in the Silver Lake section of Los Angeles with my friend & neighbor Kat ( & new sewing enthusiast ). Finding this cute little studio was not a problem, but parking was not happening for us, especially after driving up these very narrow streets, uphill ( in a truck mind ya ), then driving down again still not finding a spot. We finally gave up after 20 minutes & decided to valet park it. Shoulda just done this to begin with but I guess I'm just not used to handing over my keys to a complete stranger. I live more inland about an hour & 10 min. east where it's a more like suburbia ). -But anyways....here's a few pics I captured w/ my new bff Siri iPhone.

Here I am with Sarai Mitnick, author of The Colette Pattern Sewing Handbook, & designer of Colette Patterns. Although I've been a reader of her blog, I haven't yet had the opportunity to try out any of her patterns until now. I'll be making the Meringue Skirt, the Pastille Dress, & the Taffy Blouse ( all included in her book ).  & I also just ordered the "Macaron" dress. I love that her designs have a vintage flair & seem to flatter curvy figures. 

Happy to add another signed sewing book to my collection!

Here's the cover, which features the Pastille Dress. 

Pictured here with my friend Kat, who purchased the last pattern of the "Ceylon" dress.
This will be her first time constructing a garment, but with a little guidance, I am sure she will do great!

I'm going to start on the "Taffy Blouse" soon ( blouse on the right ). 

I like that it sewed using a french seam & bias tape. 

....I think this photo was an accident, but it's still kinda cool.
 

Here's Kat with the adorable Devon, who teaches at Sew LA & has her own cute blog Miss Make ( & is wearing the "Ceylon" dress she made herself ).  

We had yummy eclairs, macaroons, & lots of other goodies.  

And here I am with a few other fun gals I met there. I loved that the middle gal shares the same name as me ( although I'm not quite sure how she spells hers ), all I know is that she has a pretty hilarious blog about sewing.....and lots of drinking!   It's called oonaballoona from kalkatroona, & I can already tell she's very very creative. & I loved that she is swapping homes until the summer with a friend, she's an actress from New York.  We joked about swapping homes ourselves since I've been wanting to visit the big apple...although I'm not sure the Inland Empire will be as exciting as LA or New York, but she seemed to be intrigued by getting to use my sewing studio.
& the lady to the right, was a really nice lady herself from Australia who just happened to recognize her favorite blogger miss oonaballona....pretty funny. 

Little Stitchers make LadyBug Pincushions

A few shots from last week's kids sewing workshop. On this day, I had a group of 4 girls ages 6-10, who all learned how to hand-stitch for the first time. They learned two types of hand stitches ( backstitch & whipstitch ), & made their very first pin cushion out of felt. The 4 year old came along to observe...but I think that by next year she may be ready to pick up her first needle & thread.

Here they are cutting out their felt pieces from a paper pattern. I reminded them that it was ok for all of our ladybugs to look different, as each one is unique in size and characteristics just we are! ( They all seemed to like this idea ).

And here is my youngest little sewist who's only 6 years old. I was so impressed how agile her little hands were. She took instructions very well, and I was so happy she didn't poke her finger once.

The workshop was only 2 hours and everyone completed their project, with the exception of the little eyes -of which I told them they could do as homework, being as creative as they wanted by either adding small buttons or hand-stich some eyes with white thread.

And here they are again, stuffing their little bellies or "feeding them" as we were calling it. We all had such a fun time & the best part is over hearing them say "this is the best day ever, I love sewing", which of course melted my heart.

If you live in Southern California near the Inland Empire and have kids ( or yourself ) who'd like to learn how to sew, please visit mklittle.com for a current workshop calendar. I will eventually post it directly here on the blog.