Australian sewing whiz schools on computerized machines

Over the weekend 25 sewers had the opportunity to test drive “the Cadillac” of computerized sewing machines under the instruction of an international teacher at A-1 Vacuum and Sewing in Kalispell.

Fran Tabor, president of A-1 Vacuum and Sewing, said Kym Goldup-Graham of Queensland, Australia, is the first international instructor the store has hosted and the first time that a company provided sewing machines — the Janome Horizon Memory Craft 15000, to be exact, worth $12,000 each — for participants to use. The machines can do just about anything with the push of a button, from threading a needle to wirelessly connecting to a computer or tablet. It can do embroidery as well as sewing.

“It’s like test-driving a Cadillac,” Tabor said.

Tabor said such an advanced sewing machine makes sewing and embroidering easy even for novices, and might attract younger generations to take it up.

“[With] old-fashioned sewing machines, you had to concentrate on your sewing machine as much as on what you were doing,” Tabor said. “The new sewing machines you concentrate on being an artist, on creating, on the results.”

On Saturday, students were busy embroidering black geckos that formed a circle. It was the first time Ginna Stonehocker of Kila used a computerized sewing machine.

“It was a little scary, but these are very simple to use with the proper instructor,” Stonehocker said. “They can do anything. We did embroidering, we did stitching around an appliqué.”

BESIDE THE rows of sewing machines, Goldup-Graham cut a piece of fabric over a green cutting board. Goldup-Graham is co-owner and co-inventor of the Sewing Revolution — a clear, circular ruler with holes for marking fabric.

“This was the very first ruler we invented,” Goldup-Graham said holding up the ruler. “It’s called the Sewing Revolution — the name came to me at 3 o’clock one morning.”

Sewing for Goldup-Graham began as a hobby while she worked as a police detective and forensic specialist, which she retired from after 15 years. After retirement, she initially started working for her current business partner, Ann Duncan, who owned a sewing machine store. The two began designing the circular ruler to make a sewing task easier for a customer. The ruler took two years to perfect and patent.

“We had a lady that used to come into the store and she was having trouble with circular sewing — finding the central pivot point for circular sewing — so we set out to invent something that would make it easier for her. And that’s how this started,” Goldup-Graham said.

Without the ruler, circular sewing necessitated a compass and protractor. She said it is “quite a difficult thing to do,” if someone isn’t well-versed in using a compass or protractor.

The circular ruler is also divided by degrees, so users can draw shapes such as hexagons and octagons, Goldup-Graham said.

“So the blue line divides the circle into six, the red line divides the circle into eight. So if I put this on and mark a dot on every blue line then connect up the dots I would end up with a perfect hexagon,” Goldup-Graham said, placing the ruler on a piece of fabric with a hexagon design drawn on.

In the time since inventing that first ruler she and her business partner have designed 19 other rulers.

Kalispell marks Goldup-Graham’s last stop on a three-month U.S. tour. She now heads back to Australia, where she said she plans to continue teaching and inventing.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.