June 2022 -Standards of Quality

In early June, the Colorado Chapter had another evening meeting, this time to learn about Standards of Quality.  Chapter President Anne Kuehn led the discussion by walking us through the 2008 version available from the National ASDP web site (Standards of Quality for Custom Clothing (sewingprofessionals.com)).  This document contains expectations for quality garments made primarily of woven fabrics (knits are included in a few places). The document covers all types of features of garments and explains how professional treatments should look.  It also includes a minimum ease chart for various garments and references to books that cover the different topics.  Our discussion included what we should do if the client brings a garment to be fixed that has not been made to these standards; should alterations be done to the same standard as the original garment or should the entire garment be upgraded?

May 2022 – Personality Types

In May, the Colorado chapter met online (zoom) and in person to learn about personalities. Member Pat Bornmann introduced the Enneagram and Myers-Briggs personality types. Near the end she had everyone submit their individual personality preferences and that of the entire group was determined. All preferences were well represented with nearly equal numbers of extraverts and introverts; sensing and intuiting; thinking and feeling; and perceiving and judging. For more information, contact Pat at colosewingpros@gmail.com.

April 2022 – Denver Meet-and-Greet

In April, the Colorado Chapter had a social networking meeting with people from the local fashion and design community. It was held the Monday evening after Denver Fashion Week. We met at a trendy bar with food stands. Just over 30 people attended and there were many comments from the visitors about it being a great idea, and there were many long conversations making new contacts. The end result, so far, is one new member for national and the chapter and many new connections who are very interested in what we do who may come to our events going forward.

March 2022 – Croquis

Carol Phillips gave a highly informative and interesting presentation on how to create your personal body croquis for zero dollars using readily available digital resources like smart phones, computers and common tracing and drawing tools. Or, enter 22 body measurements into an online application and generate a customized digital body silhouette for $30 to $ 40 dollars (see My Body Model Application).

     Carol described several sophisticated fashion design packages that are used in the fashion industry including Adobe Suite with Illustrator. Most are expensive to purchase and require serious time to learn.    

A croquis is a quick sketch of a fashion figure. Croquis drawings are minimalist in style and serve as a blank canvas for drawing clothing.

     Carol described the head count method of determining if your body croquis is properly proportioned. A well-balanced body is about 7.5 heads in length and 1.5 heads wide at the shoulders.

     The advantages of using a personal croquis template are many including but not limited to:

  • See what jewelry type and length work best on your body type
  • Check which neckline and sleeve styles look best on you.

     Carol listed several great sources for learning how to make a personalized croquis template and highly recommended searching the Internet. She found one source using our Chapter library catalogue, which identified Threads Magazine No. 125 with the article “Discover the Best Proportions & Styles for You” by Nancy Shriber.

February 2022 – Denver Art Museum

In March 2022, the Colorado Chapter visited the Denver Art Museum to see the exhibit titled Suited: Empowered Feminine Fashion (Suited | Denver Art Museum).  The fashion started in the late 1900’s and progressed to the present.  Most of the fashions were haute couture with a few ready-to-wear garments.

Members and friends of Colorado Chapter at Denver Art Museum

Of course, there was a Channel suit.  This one, in beige with back trim, is from 1960.

We liked the seaming on the red Channel suit shown here, with its dual princess seams to the shoulder and armscye meeting at a waist that drops from the side seam to center.

And we liked the detailed piping on the off-white haute couture gown by Ralph Rucci from 2009.  The graceful lines in this wool garment flow from below the bust diagonally to the side waist and back across the skirt.

January 2022: eCommerce

At December meeting of the Colorado Chapter of ASDP, we learned what to ask ourselves when starting an eCommerce (web-based) business.  Speaker Bethany Siegler, from UniqueThink (https://uniquethink.com), spoke about the various topics that people tend to forget and topics that need to consider before choosing the web site host, site developer, and software to run the site. 

Bethany divided her talk into seven sections: Product, Workflow, Payments, Shipping, Marketing, Reporting, and Final thoughts. Bethany asked us an hour’s worth of questions on these topics and wrapped up by telling us to write our answers clearly and concisely, because anything we forget could be out-of-scope with the web site development and therefore cost more or even require rethinking the whole project.

To learn more about the Colorado Chapter of ASDP see our web site https://colosewingpros.org and our Facebook page Colorado Sewing and Fashion Design Professionals. To get added to our mailing list or come to our meetings, contact Pat at colosewingpros@gmail.com.

December 2021: Holiday Party

The December meeting of the Colorado Chapter of ASDP was the Holiday Party.  This time we met once again at Jane’s lovely home.  We enjoyed waffles, egg dishes, and a variety of other brunch items.  We ate at two tables, which facilitated small group conversations. 

After our meals, Carol, Pat, and Jane shared their Sew and Tell items.  Carol is progressing on her business to scan patterns and reproduce a full set of left and right oak tag patterns, this time for Clara to use to layout patterns on single layers of silk.  Pat reported that she had a new car, an RDX, and that she had scanned an image of an RDX molecule into her embroidery software programs; she passed around the resulting embroidered t-shirt she planned as a gift to her spouse.  Jane showed a lovely jacket she had made with a beautiful rose-gold colored zipper that contrasted beautifully with the black fabric.

November 2021

At the November meeting of the Colorado Chapter of ASDP, member Karen Bengtson gave her summary of “A Day in the Life at the Learning Experience” that was held in Boise, ID, instead of Conference. Karen attended classes by Claire Schaeffer (couture tailoring) and Robyn Spady (garment trims). We met at our usual location in South Denver, so that Karen could show lots of pictures on the library’s big screen.

Highlights of Claire’s classes included:

  • The grainline of the lapel should be along the outer cut edge to make the fabric look good.
  • A picture of the “goose” iron with a block of wood behind it. The wood is used to hold fabric in a bend for couture shaping.
  • Views inside many designer jackets, such as using wigan fabric across the sleeve cap to keep the sleeve from collapsing.
  • Views of different edge trims used on designer jackets, including fringes and using the wrong side of the fabric to contrast with the fashion side.

Highlights of Robyn’s classes included:

  • The definition and pronunciation of the term Passementerie for decorative trims on garments.
  • Pictures of lots of hand-made wound buttons with various intricate patterns.
  • Various patterns made by braiding multiple cords and by feeding cords through other trims.

For more information about couture tailoring, see Claire Schaeffer’s latest book: Couture Tailoring: A Construction Guide for Women’s Jackets.

To learn more about the Colorado Chapter of ASDP see our web site https://colosewingpros.org and our Facebook page Colorado Sewing and Fashion Design Professionals. To get added to our mailing list or come to our meetings, contact colosewingpros@gmail.com.

Instructor Claire Schaeffer
Instructor Robyn Spady
Inside designer jacket with wigan fabric at sleeve cap.
Designer jacket with inside fabric used as trim.

Cover of Claire Schaeffer’s book on Couture Tailoring.

September 2021

In September the Colorado Chapter returned to its old meeting place for the first time since January 2020.  We met to continue stitching our Fashion Gloves, using the techniques John Koch taught at the October 2019 ASDP National Conference.

Member Pat did a quick review of terms and what we’d done previously: setting the thumb into the bolton – the thumb hole with an attached gusset.  Then we stitched “darts” in the fourchettes – the strip of fabric between the fingers – to account for the different depths of the webbing on the palm and face sides of our hands.  After aligning the fourchettes to the trank – the body of the glove – we spent the rest of our time stab stitching the pieces together.

We had a few stumbles, but by the end many were trying on their gloves checking the fit of the first two fingers, and others were happy to understand how the pieces fit together on what originally seemed like strange shapes.

Thumb of fashion glove showing attached gusset.

July 2021: Angela Wolf

For our July meeting, the Colorado chapter invited Angela Wolf to speak to us about Marketing for the Solopreneur (Solo Entrepreneur). 

After speaking to us about how she ended up in a sewing career and the value of ASDP, Angela spoke about the importance of one’s brand.  She emphasized using that brand on everything you do, even if the business evolves.  She also noted that the brand should be developed before considering marketing.

For developing brand awareness, social media is excellent.  Instagram and Facebook are good because you can post pictures and sell things there because people like to see pictures of the sewing process.

One suggestion that we liked was having a fashion show.  Angela started with a small group one year and after a couple years she connected with a non-profit organization that used the fashion show as a fund-raising event.  This worked well because all she needed to worry about was the fashion show itself and the non-profit handled all the other details like advertising, setting up the environment, and hosting the event.

Another suggestion was to host dinner parties or cocktail parties to show your work.  If a bar is provided, then tickets can be provided so participants can get a free drink.  One caveat was not to host an event outdoors – she had one scheduled in the middle of a week of rain and luckily it stopped raining just in time, but she vowed never to do that again.

Angela also advised us to have a website.  She has had good experiences doing it for little money using GoDaddy and WordPress.  The website is like a business card and it can link to your social media sites (e.g. Instagram, Facebook, Etsy, YouTube).

When asked about partnerships, she emphasized the importance of a legally binding agreement in case the situation changes.  She’s not done a partnership; she hires people instead.

Angela also talked a bit about pricing.  If you are too busy to get all the work done, raise your prices.  You may lose a few customers, but you may gain better customers. 

Angela also likes digital patterns because they sell themselves.  When asked about developing patterns and the inevitable errors that arise, she suggested writing a correction sheet rather than reprinting all the paper patterns.

Angela also talked about the benefits of getting a studio outside of the house.  She started her business in her home, and it consumed the entire house.  Having a separate studio helped her establish a better work/life balance.  To determine if one is ready to rent a studio, she suggested doing a 3-5 year budget and see if you have enough cash on hand to pay for six months of rent.

When asked about doing videos, she said not to spend money on video equipment that is higher quality than YouTube uses.  The important aspects are lighting and sound equipment, and don’t worry about what you wear. 

For more information, check out her book “How to Start a Home-based Fashion Design Business” and her Sew Me the Money Business Classes at www.AngelaWolf.com.