Anne Whalley Returns

If you’ve never attended one of Anne Whalley’s presentations or classes, here’s a look at the experience based on her three classes for our guild the first weekend in March. The classes were held in a new venue for us—Milwaukie Mill End store.

Anne has a warm presentation style and is genuinely interested in sharing her love of sewing/fashion and her passion for helping people find their best style. She and her assistant (her husband Bruce) have good senses of humor and this shows in the presentations.

Saturday morning, Anne presented The Marriage of Fabrics and Patterns. We had the opportunity to see and examine closely many garments. Anne shared her techniques and hints for choosing fabrics and patterns to suit our styles.

On Saturday afternoon we learned about Deconstructing Your Body Into a 2D Block Pattern. Anne, with assistance from her husband Bruce, (measuring tape in hand) showed us a technique and tool for taking measurements and using them to create a pattern block. This tool does away with complicated calculations to create a block.

Sunday afternoon we learned about Getting Creative with a Block Pattern and Integrating Commercial Patterns. Anne showed us the steps she took to use her block pattern for pants to create knit pants using a commercial pattern. She used both her block and a pair of commercial jeans that fit well.

In addition to coming away from the classes with some new sewing knowledge, I also learned some words that Australians and we in the US use differently. Australians say, “calico.” We say, “muslin.” Australians say, “jumper.” We say, “sweater.”

It was very nice to be with everyone to learn more about the craft and art of sewing. I look forward to more classes in our future.

Lisa White