Indeed a proud teacher°°

Hello my friends, Ihave not been around for a while,  because I am rushing a lot finding a place to do a  "sewing retreat" here in Costa Rica!!  and I found a most b eautifull mountain hotel, where we are going to offer a splendid week end, learning my embroqué technique,, having fun, admiring the most beautifull nature and.......looking for the Quetzal.  Would you come????  I would love to see you around!!!  In the mean time, just have a look to the first proyect of one of my pupils at my  Alta Costura sewing class. 

ME!!!! a proud teacher!!!

Hello to all of you my friends!!!!   I have had a sad week in a way, because my dear friend Carmen passed away.....she was another victim of lung cancer.....and I thank God, that had mercy on her, and took her away fast....for her not to suffer longer.   I was a smoker too, and Thanks God, with His help, I was able to give it up, 4 years ago.....If you smoke, please try to stop, you life is too precious my friend!!!!

On the other hand, I had a good week.  I decided to teach since march,   and I have 2 small groups  that I am teaching, and...............I AM SO PROUD OF THEM ALL!!!    We started working only   3 months ago, (with the first grour) and,  starting with the toile, and  of course:  their first proyect:  a semi fitted blouse, with invisible zipper, and they have to choose from 3 different types of finishings.   In this case, they chose to do:  Faggoting.   Of course, by now you know me, and they did not do, a strait forward fagotting,  I introuduce them to ....the wonderfull world of....lace making at the same time, and experimenting, and here you have the first blouse that was finish:

May be you will tell me that this is a simple blouse for 3 months classes!!!  but....we take the class once a week, for 4 hours.  We have learned to take measurements, to draft the basic blouse pattern, to  make the toile, to give allowances, to transform the basic pattern, different types of cuts, designing with darts, and...........using the sewing machine, different types of seams, working with bies bindings, making your own bies,  how to put invisible zipper,  different types of hand stitiching, faggoting, and using their imagination to create, and....with this teacher...they have to learn to be perfectionist otherwise, they have to undo the work!!!

In this blouse, as you can see, Claudia did a very good job.  The fitting of the blouse in her body, is jus perfect.....the machine sewing is very good, because to make and add all those bindings and have good top stitching is not that simple.  And then.....the way she use the faggoting.....she decided to use yo-yos and have them susppended in the front of her blouse, incorporating them with:  the stitch that we use for faggoting!!!  Is n´t it beautifull???  I really love it and feel so so proud of her new learned skills!!

I am not quite sure, about my second group that only started 2 weeks ago.....Please give me your opinion about what to do:  to teach them a strait forward faggoting only, or to introduce them to lace making also????  because the lace making process took  a month!!!!  and I feel that is too long for them to see their first proyect finish.  My first group is super-happy with their blouses.....but I feel that may be people can get restless trying to learn and experiment with the lace making process............because I will share with you all the blouses that we finish, for you to see how different they are, and  all the laces are also  so different, so in a way, they all learned from each other.  Please give me your opinion!!!

CHINESE BUTTONS -day 2-

Good morning!!  Here in the rainforest, today is cloudy and grey.............the storm last night was really bad!!!   there was so much rain!!!!  you just can not imagen!!!.  I had a meeting with my Bible studies group, and precisely last night,  I had cooked  a typical arroz con pollo (rice chicken) to take and share with the group (about 30 of us) and...........I was so worry, because....I really though that I was not going to be able to drive in that rain!!!  and outside my house, there was floding....but....everything went fine, thanks God!!!!

We are going to continue with our tutorial:

 12.  The 2 sides are freed from the twizers, and well secure by the cord that is passing right by the center of the sides.

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13.  Hered, you can see how we go around the sides for the second time, and how the "monkey´s fist"  is finish!! But our tutorial is not...............

 14.  FORMING THE CHANK:  In these 3 pictures, you can see, how I am forming the chank, and how now we need small needle and thread, to  make sure, our chank does not go out of shape or, if pulled very hard,   we are not going to have the button in our hand!!  jajaja!!!

15.  We make tiny stitches on one side of the chank.

16.  And   a couple of tiny stitches at the other side....

 17.  An cut the cord!!!!

 

18.  Now, with the pointed part of our scisors, we push the end of the cord, inside the button.

 

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19.  We also cut the other piece of cord that is hanging.

 20.  And again, with the pointed scisors, we push the end of the cord inside the button

 

21.  Now it is only a matter of closing the gap with a couple of tiny, invisible stitches, to make sure, we are never going to see the raw ends of the cords.  

  22.  This is our finish chinese button!!!   How do you like it???  I hope you understood my instructions, and the step to step  pictures!!

 This is the reason why I need to measure the oppening of the twizers at the begining of  this tutorial, because, most of the times, I need to make 4, or 6 or more buttons, and I have found out, that it is the only way that they all come the same size.....  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate in contacting me.  I will allways be happy to see you here, in the Rainforest!!

CHINESE BUTTONS - day 1-

Hello my friends!!!  I have been putting together this tutorial about:  Chinese buttons, and it is rather long, so, I hope you bare with me for a few days, and will also enjoy with me, the warmth and the coffe of this beautifull country.  Yes, you have arrived to Costa Rica, well known for many beautifull things, but also, for its Rainforest!!!

To start with, we are going to need:  1 pair of plyers.   I will use jewlery ones, but you can even use the ones for the eyebrows, or a pair of small swisors.

Cord:  this can be like the one they call:  rat´s tail, or you can make a cord with fabric, like the one I am using, that is made with the same fabric that I made a jumpsuit.

Needle and thread and a big big needle to thread the cord and.............all the enthusiasm you can gather!!!

 1-2.  We need our plyers.  In the case of this jewlery plyers, they stay close all the time, so I put a ribbon around to "tie" the size of the opening.  If yours are different, you have to find a way to make them stay open, the same size all the time.
 

 3.  You can see now the size that I needed my plyers to be open:  7 mm.  And the size also depends on how thick is you cord. It is a matter of triying.

 

4.  Now, you start by  keeping with your  thum the cord, and the other side, you wrap it around the twizers  2 times..

5.  Now, put the needle inside the wraping as you can see in the picture.

6.  And just go around again  2 times, but this time in the center, as you can see in the picture, and it has to go all around and outside the other 2 wrapings we did before.

7.  This is how it looks, after you have wrap around 2 times  (SORRY

  to repeat so much, but I really want you to understand me, if not by my words, then....with the pictures!!!)

 8.  I want you to look at your button, to see if is looking like mine....is it???  Becasue now, we have to pass the cord where the  2 points of the plyers are!!!

9.  Can you see how I am passing the big-big needle right where the point of the twizers is???  Be carefull, because you can pull to hard and the whole thing just collapse!!!

10.  Once you have secure with the needle the cords that are in the twizers, you can take ONLY THAT SIDE off the twizers, like you can see here

11.  Now, we go and pass the big-big needle through the other side, and we make sure not to let it loose from the twizers until is well secured inside the needle.

My friends, if  I am not mistaken, we have 37 pictures for this tutorial, and it is 11:30pm here....and I want to  go to sleep.  But, we will continue tomorrow.  BY THE WAY:  these are not the original chinese buttons, these ones  I think they are call:  Monkey fist.....I think......but they are very similar to the real chinese ones, and also much easyer to make.  You can also add the frogs if you want......or may be, when I will have to make some more, I will explain to you how to do the frogs, that are so nice and give them that....very chinese finish!!! 

 

SHAWL FOR SARITA

It was my friend Sarita´s birthay this week.   And I love to give presents that I make, to people that   I love....and this is what I did for my dear friend.

I did the pleating  as small and tight  as I was able, for the  45" wide silk to be able to shrink  when she wanted to wear it as a scarf, but as you can see, when let loose, it is big enough to cover her nicely.  There is a flower made separetely from the same fabric....and that one, she can also use as a brooch.   I am sorry there is no tutoring on this shawl, because I was so concentrated while making it.....and with my hands wet and full of color, was not able to take pictures.  But, I do quite a bit of hand painting, hand dyeing and hand pleating and other techniques, that in any other moment, I will take lots of pictures and will share with you all, how to make this lovely presents for your friends.

My new page!!!

Hello my dear friends!!!  life has been really hectic here in the Rainforest!!!  not as much rain as we spect at this time of the year....but..........OMG!!!!!!!!!!   so hot and humid!!!!  and my garden is growing really fast too!!!

This is a picture of Ray and Gloria in Puntarenas, that is the name of the Port that they arrived here in Costa Rica, and this picture was taken as they were leaving......with the ship that was taking them away!!!

I have not been here with you, because I have been bussy, learning /or trying to learn.....how to use the computer and different things, to  be able to make a better blog for you, to understand my  tutorials.  I am impatient.....and that....you can not be when working with your pc!!!!!
In the learning process, I decided to make a new page on facebook, for you to please visit, and click the "like" button...please please, and is called:  ADRIANA OROZCO COUTURE.    Fancy a cup of coffe???

 

Encuentro con Diva-online!!!!

Creo que la mayoría de ustedes, pertenecen a la comunidad de Burdastyle.com, por lo tanto, conocen a Diva-on-line, quien es una verdadera artista!!!  no solo en costura, pero en joyería, y sobretodo en pintura con pistola de aire.  Bueno, les cuento que Gloria y su esposo Ray, estuvieron aqui!!!!!  si!!!!!!!!!!!  pasaron por Costa Rica, y tuvimos la oportunidad de compartir unas horas juntos.  Fué una maravillosa experiencia conocer a una amiga que solo había conocido por medio de la red.  Pero definitivamente, Ray y Gloria quedan en mi corazón, y esta visita solo nos sirvió, para afianzar nuestra ahora "solida" amistad.

 Tengo que contarles, que yo estaba muy emocionada y contenta de tener la oportunidad de conocer a Gloria y a su esposo Ray!!!  Empezé la jornada desde San José hacia Puntarenas, a las 8 am, y como pueden observar a su izquierda, la autopista estaba bastante desocupada, y la vista que  yo tenía a mi alrededor, era....maravillosa!!!  todas esas montañas, y los muchos tonos de verde que caracterizan esta bella naturaleza creada por Dios!!!!  realmente, fué un gusto conducir por 2 horas, para llegar......al mar!!!!   y ahora, en busca del puerto de arribo de los cruzeros.

Bueno, fué muy facil nuestro encuentro......dijimos que a las 10 am, y.....fué.....puntualidad al estilo Rainforestcouture!!!  jajajajaja.....justo a tiempo.....nos reconocimos en el acto, y con un gran abrazo, le dí la bienvenida a mis amigos Ray y Gloria.    El resto de las fotos......las colocaré después, ya que.....Ray tomó las fotos desde mi cámara....y no salieron!!  pero cuando ellos lleguen a California, les pediré que me embíen las que ellos tomaron, para que ustedes vean el lugar donde nos tomamos un refresco, y luego donde fuimos a almorzar, y...............los regalos que intercambiamos!!!!  hechos por nosotras.....por supuesto!!! 
El día pasó demasiado rápido, y ya tenían que partir.....regresamos al puerto, y  con lágrimas en los ojos, como amigos de toda la vida, nos despedimos con la promesa de que nos volveríamos a encontrar!!! 

Esta, ha sido una nueva y maravillosa experiencia de lo que puede hacer el maravilloso mundo del internet....pues yo siento lazos de amistad con muchos de ustedes, y estoy segura, de que si nos encontramos, como lo hizimos Gloria, Ray y yo, nos daremos cuenta, de que esta es una  manera de conocer gente linda y afin a uno, una nueva manera de cruzar fronteras, y hacer el mundo pequeño en un enlace de amistad y cariño!!!!

Mis amigos Ray y Gloria se marcharon....y sólo me queda dar gracias a Dios, por un maravilloso día compartido entre risas y cariño.  Que afortunada que soy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!