Sew Crafty Houston Visit

I visited Sew Crafty, Houston's first sewing lounge, on Saturday afternoon. Its located in an old stone building in Houston's historic Heights neighborhood. There is very little off-street parking but the walk in the midday heat did not dampen my spirit. When I went up to the door, the sign said closed but there was a door bell so I rang it anyway. The closed sign was up as a class was in session but I think they will change that policy. Inside I discovered a completely renovated interior with white washed walls and bright lighting. I brought some ASG membership brochures with me and they were promptly put out for browsers. They are planning on monthly adult crafting evenings to include leal libations and a monthly sewing/crafting for charity event. The owner, Sarah G,, gave ASG a wonderful little write-up in her weekly newsletter so I hope we will be able to complement each other.

A class was just finishing up. The students were half a dozen young women who were embellishing little two pocket aprons they had just sewn in their introduction to sewing class. The sewing classroom had Janome's Sew Precise sewing machines with lots of space for spreading out your materials. There was another room with tables for other crafting. In this case, it was covered with aprons, ribbons, buttons and other embellishments that the class was working on. There is a lounge area that really tempted me to stay and knit. There is a kitchen as well which suggests that more 'water intensive' crafting is also a possibility for classes. The entrance area has a small selection of patterns, fabrics and accessories. I liked their little basic sewing kit that included a hem gauge... something I lose a couple of times a year.

I saw some patterns from 'Betsy Ross Patterns' and decided to try one as I had heard good things about them. First of all, production values are very high in this line of patterns. Each black envelope had a lovely black and white photo of the project. The instructions come in a nice booklet and the patterns themselves are printed on heavy duty white paper. Everything is explicitly stated and it appears that it would be hard to go wrong with these patterns. I picked up the simple tote bag pattern and, after a couple of changes, I came up with a pretty good bag. The pattern does not include a lining so I added one. The handles seemed pretty flimsy so I added some cording to them. I also added a hook to hold my keys so that I don't have to dig them out of the bottom of my bag and also added an exterior pocket embellished with an old embroidery of mine. Here's how it turned out (in all its wrinkled glory):

The exterior is an old piece of heavy weight linen and the lining is an old piece of dupioni silk. The praise for these patterns is not misplaced when it comes to the quality of the patterns but the projects are very, very simple even at the higher difficulty levels. I also wonder why anyone in this day and age would continue using 5/8" seam allowances when half inch are easier to do using your presser foot as a guide. The lack of a lining or pockets in this pattern are real negatives if a beginner wants to produce a high quality product. I may try another of these patterns but not until more interesting patterns are developed.