Beth Smith's Blog
May 13, 2022
RAFFLE
April 29, 2022
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February 11, 2022
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February 9, 2022
Meet the Team
Daisy Hazzard – Chair
Grace Charles- Director
Rohan Bernard – Director
Hazel Bierzynski- Human Resource/ Secretary
Magdalena Fielden- Founder of Grenada Choc Fest
Shawnna Cuffie – Director
STAFF:
Michelle Warren – Operations Manager
Melessa Hillaire- Library Coordinator
VOLUNTEERS:
Matthew Tugwell
Meghan Kane
Hallie Tamez
Ariel Sampson
Sibby Dickson
Ayisha John
Anthony Telesford
Emon Bowen
Zoei Ollivere
Jill Robinson
Carlene Scott
Gabrielle Victor
Lystra Walters
Tammy Martin
Tony Telesford
June 24, 2020
So Close
Today is 2 days until launch. the launch of my first clothing line. Do you believe I’m 55 years old? this is something I have wanted to do for a long time but I was afraid. I didn’t know exactly how to proceed and I worried I wasn’t good enough or smart enough. Then just a little under 2 months ago I thought to myself, “If not now, when?” and “Stop being a fraidy cat.” So here we are.
I designed a skirt that is a style I love and is so comfortable I can’t stand it. What style you say? A fited waist and a free hip – which means it isn’t fitted at the hip. It’s a wrap skirt so can be a little tighter on your skinny days and have a little more room on those days that you definitely need more room. It made from stable woven fabrics so you get that body and drape of a woven fabric. So the comfort of a kn it with the stability of a woven!
On top of that these skirts will be very limited. Limited because the most I will make of one print is 3 skirts. Often it will be only one skirt. Also limited because I can only sew so fast while also maintaining the quality I want to put in. I’m using enclosed seams all around including around the pocket and I’m hand sewing all of the waist bands. These are couture quality skirts at a department store price.
I can’t even tell you how excited I am about it.
So let me show you a few of the skirts that will be available when the cart opens on Friday.
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The skirts come in 5 sizes and they will fit waist sizes ranging from 24 to 64 inches.
I hope you will love them as much as I do. And if you are on my email newsletter list you will get a discount code for 15% off of one skirt in the newsletter I will send tomorrow, Thurday, morning. I will also give my newsletter subscribers first dibs on the skirts so if you love what you see, make sure you sign up now.
If all goes well with this collection I have several ideas for a fall style!
I just want to say thank you so much for your support and encouragement.
June 1, 2020
Beginning to see.
It’s embarrassing. I’m 55 years old and I feel like my eyes are just beginning to open.
I’m not going to write about spinning or sewing today because I am sad. Sad that a police officer can kneel on a man’s neck in the daylight with 3 other officers standing by until and even after a man is dead. Because he was suspected of using a a counterfeit $20 bill.
This man was not a criminal. He was well liked. He had friends and family . His Name is George Floyd. And I know for a fact that if he was white none of this would have happened.
I’ve seen people I know complaining about the protests and the riots and the destruction of property around the country. I’m not sure that the protesters are the ones responsible for the destruction. Many city officials are reporting that a large majority of those being arrested are from outside the cities and even outside the states.
But the people I know are saying all they had to do was to be patient. That the protests weren’t necessary. Are you kidding me? How long should they wait? I am 55 years old and this problem is older than me. How long do the people need to wait to be treated like they matter?
A man, Ahmaud Arbery, was shot while jogging in February and it took until there were protests and national outcry in May for the men responsible to be arrested. Three months later! They have yet to go to trial and I am concerned that nothing will happen to those men.
The officers in Minneapolis should have been arrested that day. They weren’t.
I don’t know enough about this topic but I know how I feel. I don’t blame people for protesting, and marching and even lashing out in anger. And I’m tired of being afraid to speak up. I can only imagine how it would feel to be treated like a criminal in every situation and regularly.
I’m sad. And sorry.
These are just two cases in the last couple of months. There are many more. And in most cases police officers are not charged. And we can say not all police as much as we want ( I have a brother in law who is a good officer) but until the police departments are willing to get rid of the bad ones instead of covering for them then I think we have to be suspicious of all of them…except my brother in law of course.
That’s all I have to say here today.
I’m sorry if I sound clumsy but what I really want to say is I’m sad, and sorry and I understand why people are done waiting.
PS If anybody knows who made that graphic so I can give attribution I would be very happy if you could tell me.
May 25, 2020
Safety Masks
Early in March I started making protective masks. It happened accidentally. I went with a friend to visit an assisted living home for her husband. it was at the beginning of things in Michigan. You couldn’t visit people in the hospital and medical workers were having a hard time getting protective gear.
We went to the place and they gave us shoe covers but couldn’t give us masks because they couldn’t get them. I was sad for them and also worried for the residents of the facility. I had seen a tutorial to make the surgical style (pleated) and the shaped masks. I quickly found the tutorial and showed the photos. I asked them if they would like me to make some for them. They were so grateful and asked for 20 masks. I figured it out and dropped them off 2 days later thinking that would be the end of my mask making. I had used my cotton fabric and nonwoven sew in interfacing for an extra filter layer along with the bias tape in my stash.
When I brought the masks to them they said they had told their other facility and would like 40 more please. Home I went to make 40 more masks. 2 days later I went back to drop them off and they asked for another 40…
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I mentioned on instagram that I was making them and requests started rolling in. When I got past the 500 mask mark I started asking for $5.00 per mask and then when I got past the 600 mark I raised my price again to $10 each which feels very comfortable for me considering materials and time involved. Around that same time I wanted to make something fun and pretty and I got out my sequin fabrics and layered them over the other layers. You all know how much I love the sparkles.
At this point I have passed the 750 mask point and I feel like an expert. I have had lots of great reviews about how comfortable they are and how easy they are to wear. I’m glad about that because I think we are going to be wearing them for a little longer when we go out in public.
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I’ve thought a lot about the big Influenza epidemic of 1918 because my great grandmother died in that epidemic and left my grandfather motherless when he was 5 years old. I’ve read books about it and looked at photos. The people in that pandemic wore masks for quite a while too. I’m happy to wear a mask so that I can protect others just in case. I’m also happy I can use my sewing skill to provide masks for others who also want them. And if I can add a little sparkle at the same time then that’s not a bad thing.
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Check out my shop if you need a mask of your own. If you want to try making a mask of your own check out the highlights on my Instagram page for a step by step lesson. My instagram name is @bethsmithtextiles.
By the way, have you signed up for my email newsletter yet? If not, try it out!
May 18, 2020
Comfy Summer Dress
I had this really cute blue stretch cotton fabric and I wanted a good short sleeve dress for every day. I bought the fabric at Fabric Mart one of the times I visited my parents last year. It was on a great sale so I bought all they had on the bolt. I like to do that because then I know I have enough to make whatever I want and also if anybody loves the fabric I have enough left over to make something for them. That exact thing happened with this fabric. Maggie loves it and wants a top out of it.
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I have narrow shoulders but if I cut the shoulders narrower that usually means I need to cut the smaller sleeve size so it fits in the arm hole. The problem with that is then the sleeve hem is very tight and for a summer dress I wanted a little more room. Lucky for me I’m in the midst of a pattern making class and I have some new found confidence with pattern manipulation and alteration.
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The other thing that I’ve gained a ton of confidence about is using pattern pieces from multiple patterns together. So for this dress I used my sloper and added sleeves from New Look 6262 which is a pattern I’ve used to make dresses several times. I just took the sleeve pattern and split it so I could ad about 1.5 inches at the hem. You can see how much room I have now.
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So here she is, currently the most comfortable dress in my closet.
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The skirt is a full 4 panels of the fabric which is 58 inches wide. You know I love a big skirt. The side seams have pockets of course.
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I have already chosen 4 more fabrics from my stash so I can make more of these. What that means is I will need to get rid of a few things from my closet. I’m not sure if I should give them to Goodwill or try to sell them myself. Any suggestion?
If you are interested in getting more in depth sewing tips and some sew alongs and other learning excitement I am doing a reboot of my Patreon page. Patreon will now become my main teaching platform. I hope you will go over there and check it out and consider joining us.
At the same time I am working on launching a line of skirts. The first skirt style which you can see here will be released on the next 4 to 6 weeks. There will be some ready to wear skirts and also opportunities to purchase skirts custom made to your very own measurements. If that is interesting to you I would love for you to sign up for my newsletter if you aren’t already a subscriber. You can either go to the Homepage of this site or click this link to register. As a newsletter subscriber you will be first to know what’s coming up, and where I’m teaching. In addition there will be some exclusive discount codes when the new skirt line launches so please sign up today.
Please let me know if you have any questions. I’m really excited about this next step in my life.
May 6, 2020
Butterick B6284
A few months ago I saw that Sitka Fabrics was adding more woven fabrics to their store and they were looking for some dressmakers/sewists to make some clothes out of their incoming collections. I immediately raised my hand and they said yes to me! This is my first project for them.
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I don’t know if you remember my Christmas dress from this year. It was an exact rip off of the one Gretchen Hirsch made. I picked up the fabric at Beetle and Fred when I was there in September. The pattern I used is from Butterick and it’s number B6284. After very little adjustment I made a super comfortable dress that I wore at least 5 times between December 25th and January 5th. But I realized that I would be needing another one that I could wear when it is not the holidays.
So imagine my delight when a fabric was offered to me that I thought would work beautifully for another version – even though I was not planning on another red one! I loved how the dress had worked in 100% cotton and I was curious about making it in a lighter weight more drapey fabric. You know how I love to experiment.
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This fabric is a woven made from Viscose rayon. It has the cutest little flower print. Sadly, I can’t find it on the Sitka Fabrics website anymore. I will say that the washed linen that is currently there is fantastic.
Anyway, lets talk a little about the pattern. The sleeves are cut with the bodice and under the arm is a gusset. The gusset detail allows plenty of arm movement. They might be a little tricky to insert if it’s not something you’ve done before but just take your time. If the pattern instructions aren’t doing it for you Gertie has a great little tutorial here.
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The pattern also calls for a gathered skirt but I was thinking about one with 1 inch pleats all around so I put the bodice on my dress form and pinned the uncut fabric to see how it would look. Well, the tiny print just camouflaged the pleats so that much work would have been sort of a waste of time. Gathered skirt won in the end.
When I sew slinky or drapey fabrics like this I always pin way more than I do with cottons and fabrics with more body. It helps to keep everything lined up.
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In the end, the second dress is just as lovely as the first and I’m pretty sure it’s going to get as much wear in the warmer months as my ankle length wool circle skirt gets in the colder months..
