November 12th 2012

Erica Thomson

It was lovely to see Erica back again this year, with her talk/demonstration on blocking and pressing.

She showed us various new items she has for sale, and new jewellery ideas she is developing, before moving on to the main event.

Most of us feel that we should finish our work with more expertise, but Erica took it a stage further and explained what happens when we do certain things with our irons.  It would be more accurate to call this talk ‘Blocking and Steaming’ because Erica does not touch the fabric with the iron but hovers it over her work and uses lots of steam.

Someone whispered to me that I probably knew how to use the blocking wires that Erica provided for us to have a go with, but I realised at that point that they do not know me well!  I learned so much from this demonstration, and will be using my blocking kit in future, having seen how the shape of a garment can be radically altered by different steaming techniques.