The spring edition of this biannual (or is it bienneal) festival was just held and turned out to be quite a disappointment for those of us who sew clothing. The vast majority of the booths were devoted to quilting, a few to needlework (just about exclusively cross-stitch), computer and machine embroidery, and some of the more interesting booths to knitting. There were, aside from sewing machine reps, only a handful of booths of interest to the fashion sewer: Lynn Dooley-Marek's clothing samples of Sewing Workshop patterns, the G & S Dye Company, the delicious luxury fabric's from Oakville's Tex-Styles and a few others. Ditto workshops: they were brief and far less advanced than a major city festival warrants. A pale imitation of the fall festival which features day-long sessions with the likes of Sandra Betzina and David Coffin. Even many of the local suppliers (such as tailoring supply house McDonald Faber) skipped this event. I wish someone would explain why the many excellent small pattern companies (Purrfection, Park Bench, etc.) have no Canadian representation.
Frankly, anyone who is interested in doing sewing-related shopping here in Toronto would be better off looking for fabric, buttons and all the rest in the funky shops on Queen Street West and Spadina in what is called the Fashion district. Englis linen for $10 a metre (cdn) and more besides. So unless you have a more than passing interest in quilting (spelled many, unfortunate times with a "Kw") and in fluffy puppy cross-stitch the spring version of the CSNF may not be worth your while. Heck, even the fall one is rapidly being "kwilted" to death as well. |
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I found enough in the Spring show to go for one day, but it was thin. I enjoyed hearing Ron Collins talk, and to poke around on the embroidery machines (a curiousity) but I was done after six hours, and that included some chat breaks with friends. I also noticed the quilting emphasis. I am very much trying to find a certain presser foot for my machine, one that is not used in quilting in any way.My local dealer is, you guessed, a quilt shop and doesn't carry it. I was hoping at these shows to pick one up, but the "official" sewing machine booths are simply run by associated retailers, and my machine's "Official" booth was, yup, a quilt shop. They promised to get the foot I wanted and call me and I have never heard from them. I know that quilting has been great for sewing in that it is a new market, but I sure run into a lot of people at these shows looking for new patterns especially, and ideas for garment construction. I have just gotten the brochure for the fall show and have registered for the seminars I want, and it was tough to find enough garment sewing workshops to fill the time. Partially my fault because I've done several of the presenters before and have no cause to take Betzina's Today's Fit workshop again. There is a staleness creeping in.
8/16/03 12:06 PM