Blog

The Colorado Chapter had an evening business meeting in September. This was our meeting for voting and strategic planning.  According to the latest draft of the Chapter Bylaws written by the National ASDP, we have too many board members.  Because only one at-large member was present, it was decided to table the votes until another meeting.

For strategic planning we focused on two topics: one was details for doing more Meet-and-Greet sessions and the other was generating ideas for programs in 2023.  These topics will be discussed further as members gather additional information about venues and contacts for potential topics.

After the meeting Carol offered a free front-opening bra kit to anyone willing to test the pattern and instructions.  There were questions about her planned 30-day refund policy if a customer was not satisfied, particularly if their size was incorrectly measured.

The Colorado Chapter had an evening potluck during the heat of August.  Fortunately, the weather threatened rain so we didn’t have the usual radiant heating of the air, meaning that the covered patio at member Marci’s house was a comfortable place for conversation. 

Carol entertained us with a study of garments from 1922 in the CoPa Archive (Commercial Pattern Archive – Home (uri.edu), see also Association of Sewing and Design Professionals – Threads Challenge (sewingprofessionals.com)).  Carol found the pattern (#3750 Butterick) from the June 1922 Delineator Magazine at https://babel.hathitrust.org (see figure).  It had heirloom drawn work for decorations, so she showed us a modern example she made.  Then she showed us examples of undergarments for support, one of which looks much like the current sport’s bra.

When a box of donated fabric appeared, we discussed all the ways we manage to store our large stashes of fabric.  Yvonne, in a previous home, took over the closet in the entry way and had all her fabric on extra-large hangers with fabrics arranged by type and color.  Afterward we discussed a special excursion we’ll take in September to the Denver Art Museum to see Carla Fernández Casa de Moda: A Mexican Fashion Manifesto, which was particularly exciting for new member Gabriela, who is originally from Mexico.

The Colorado Chapter had a stimulating meeting with Alicia, the Zipper Lady (www.thezipperlady.com).  Alicia brought an assortment of zipper tapes and zipper pulls for everyone.  Starting with zippers with the largest teeth we learned how to install the pulls.  Then we tried it on zippers with smaller teeth, which became progressively more difficult, but doable.  Alicia explained how to determine the size of a zipper (width of the closed teeth), but warned us this is not consistent between manufacturers.  She also told us how to identify locking pulls, and threw a couple of them in our assortment, so we had to learn how to manipulate these locking pulls to install them on the zippers.  As we were installing our pulls, Alicia educated us on many other aspects of zipper quality, costs, and terms. 

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?

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.

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.

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.