My First Meeting - Haute Couture Club of Chicago

Finally able to sit down and talk about the exciting time I had at my first club meeting. I was thrilled at the initial invitation from Marty Moser, VP of Membership back in the fall. Well on Saturday I meet a host of fabulous, sewing fashionistas from all over the Chicagoland area.

Here's how the day went:

Meeting place - Illinois Institute of Art in the Apparel Center

The institute was like the school sent from heaven. This was my first visit to the institute. As I made my way through the corridors searching for the meeting room, I passed classroom and beautiful exhibits. I found myself wishing I had gone to school here. It would have been totally different from my school experience at UIC, math class after math class, after IDS class. Of course, I forgot my camera. But I managed to take a few pictures with my phone. When I found the room, the meeting was already in session.


One of the exhibits on the first floor

Agenda - Socializing, Meeting, and Program

As facilitator, Maria C., asked if anyone had a "show and tell" project to present to the group. Several people did. After a few presentation I raised my hand, stood up, introduced myself and did a show and tell of the pants and coat I wore. It was a good segment of the meeting, filled with several tellings of creative work. I was glad to be in the group.

The night before the meeting I read the entire newsletter, which was filled with challenges, program information, classes, fashion show, you name it. All about creativity. Ms. Jean Haas was the program presenter. Highlights from her session included pattern fitting and draping over dress forms. I learned so much with her session and am eager to try some of her techniques. To list a few tips here and now:

Pattern Fitting - - Make or purchase I custom dress form upper body and pants
- Identify points of measurement vertical and horizontal on the forms. This helps with fitting and draping.
- When pattern fitting use the center front and back as your starting point.
- Find the apex of the back bodice pattern using the front bodice pattern (bust point) as a guide.
- Fold the pant pattern in half from the hem to the waist to find the grainline and use it as a point of reference when fitting pants.
- Purchase re-stickable tape for easy removal and repositioning when fitting patterns.
- Purchase a variety of rulers to help with drafting, fitting, and truing patterns.


Draping -
- This is hard to tell without illustrations. In a later post, I'll try to
demonstrate.


The pant form after the program

Ms Hass was fabulous and I wished we had more time to learn. Here is a link to Jean Haas' dressform designing.


After the Program - Lunch
I joined several members for lunch after the program. We shared stories about our sewing experiences and talked about upcoming club events. I sat near Jean, Maria, Cleo, Nikki, and Sandra. They were all very charming women. It was a rewarding experience and I am very happy I didn't think twice about joining. I was on TEN for the rest of the day. So I rushed home to do some sewing. Now I want to finish up client projects so I can sew for ME.

Happy Sewing!
C