Sew News at CHA!

I’m back in the office after attending the CHA (Craft & Hobby Association) SuperShow in Rosemont, IL. I was stationed at the National Sewing Council booth and had a great time making projects all weekend!

Remember my T-shirt makeovers post? Well, I created 100 kits to teach people how to bind a T-shirt with bias fabric strips and make a cute little cardigan. They LOVED it! I was down to 38 kits after day 1. Needless to say, it was exhausting. But I met a lot of great people who had either never used a sewing machine (oh the horror), or hadn’t gotten their machine out of the closet in over 20 years.

Here are a couple of scrapbookers sewing their T-shirts. They said they were beginners…but they finished their shirts in record time! What a riot these gals were. Good times were had by all.

It was such a rewarding experience to show people just how simple sewing can be…with the right tools, a little guidance and a new machine to top it all off.

Sewing trim

Hard at work!

These ladies were pros!

Sew News Associate Publisher, Wendy Thompson, even gave it a go!

Pinning trim to shirt

Wendy sewing (& making friends)

We held four drawings each day for new Janome and Brother machines and the crowds flocked to the booth to enter. One woman cried–and I mean “ugly cried”–when she won. It was fabulous! Another winner was a 17 year-old student. She was so excited! Maybe we’ll see her on Project Runway in a few years.

A great perk of work travel is getting to see people I only see on the road. Here’s a photo of Shannon Dennis (frequent Sew News and Creative Machine Embroidery contributor) and I.

Shannon made Anna Maria Horner’s Socialite Dress to wear on day 1. How cute is she? She also brought her baby boy Liam (4 months old). He is such a happy baby and definitely helped attract people to our booth.

Liam with Mom

I couldn’t resist some baby time.

Liam with Ellen

Here’s Shannon teaching one of our youngest participants. The kids really flocked to her station. Must have been the cute bib necklace project she was teaching.

Here’s our friend Joi Mahon teaching her bubble skirt project.

And people enjoying the potholder project:

The National Sewing council also held a competition called Fashion Fever. Eight designers from all over the country met on Friday morning, were given $100 to purchase fabric at Vogue fabrics, and had 12 hours to make an outfit suitable for the red carpet at the Grammy awards. In the coming weeks I’ll be sharing photos of the designers from beginning to end. Don’t miss it!

Cheryl Jukich from Fine Lines fabric designed the show banners. Super Cute!

If you attended the CHA Super Show, please comment below and let me know about your experience! And if you didn’t attend but would like to comment, please do that too.

More later!

Ellen