Textiles SIG February 2026 Meeting Notes

February 2026 Textiles Sig Meeting 

Tuesday, February 17th 6:30PM – 8:00PM

Meeting start – quick intro of everyone with names (5 minutes)

Budget update – breakdown of current budget (5 minutes, informative)

• • Machine Repairs
    • Industrial sewing machines (all): $602.82
    • Embroidery (7 needle only): $475
    • Home sewing machines (all): $320

• Total: $1,397.82 or 23% of the annual budget

• Catering: 
  • $59.45 out of $75 for January 
• Overview: Will provide Jan + Feb in March due to personal conflicts of time
• Consumables every 2 weeks  

Year focus overview (quick, 5 minute overview) 

• Basics quarter 
  • Intentional classes focused on specific skills designed to help people make garments and items that are more complicated 
  • Repairs on items from home, teaching how to reuse things
  • Fabric pressing, measurement, light garment drafting
• Cosplay quarter
  • Focus on collaborating with 3D printing and laser SIGs 
  • Garment construction – sleeves, structured layers, edge finishes 
  • Attaching 3D prints or EVA foam to garments 
  • Professional class – cosplay focus + eva focus (2 classes) 
• Ren Faire quarter
  • Focus on leatherworking – another 3D printing and laser SIG focus
  • Leather cutting class + laser leather cutting – Ian Harvey – koozie out of leather
    • Nick 
  • Professional class for leathermaking
  • Weathering 
• Holiday quarter 
  • Unique structural base for masks, large wing elements, furry masks, etc
  • Functional items for gift giving and personal use 
  • Fitting class to assist with Halloween costumes 
  • Open working hours to assist with costume making

Quarterly focus for Jan-Feb-March (5 minute overview) 

• Focus is basics – how to install zippers, buttons, snaps 
• How to hem clothing, how to repair simple tears
• Finishing techniques – piping, bias tape, binding 
• Fabric pressing, garment making, measurement 

Classes – authorization / instructional (15 minutes combined) 

• Industrial Sewing Machine (2 classes)
  • Industrial 
• Serger (1 class)
  • Mohr + make up class 
  • Tuesday 24th 6:30-9:30PM 

Classes – make and take / workshop 

• Make and take 
  • Level 100
    • Heat pack – Rory – March 1st 
  • Level 200
    • Round pot holder with bias tape – Kelsey
    • Fabric Bowl Cover with Elastic – Kelsey
  • Level 300
    • Bucket Hat Making – Kelsey
• Weekend Workshop
  • Garment Making – Kimono top – middle of month – Kelsey
  • Saddle Bag – end of month – Mohr 
    • Bias binding + interfacing + unusual shapes + source fabric 
  • Upholstery Month long class – uses auto bay + woodshop + textiles – Sable
    • 4 consecutive sundays + office hours on random weeknights to make progress in between classes 
    • No authorization needed for woodshop + auto bay 
    • Mohr and Sable will train the industrial sewing machine usage 
      • Autobody SIG – reservation via slack 
        • Had a brief convo with sig lead
      • Woodshop – confirm 
    • Potential box cushion class – possibly come in and watch the class happening 
    • Box cushion class – Mohr – first tuesday post textile area 
  • Pressing Class – Open House Day 
    • Happening throughout the rest of the open house – every 15 minutes or so demo 
    • Preschedule people to show up 
    • Drop in class – stop by during these hours for a demo 
• Professional – N/A
• Potential classes:
  • Michelle or Daniel – precision sewing 
  • Seams – Jamie maybe 
  • Zipper installation on pants 
  • Pocket installation on pants / skirts / dresses 
    • Unique pockets 
    • Daniel maybe 

Train the trainer for Feb/March  

• February 28th for Embroidery Machine 2/4 slots filled
  • Outside professional is doing the training 
• March for all other machines
  • When? What machines?
    • Script written out 
      • Serger specifically
      • Review the Industiral  
    • Hackdenhac day is the goal 
    • Is the serger ready for this?
      • Yes and situation 
      • 3 or 4 
  • Do we want to separate industrial serger and regular serger into separate classes?
    • no

Hackdenhac day: (15 minutes to allow discussion and additions)(28th) 

• Ribbon area 
• Iron area
  • Jamie and Mohr got this 
• Clean the table area container 
• Tufting area
  • Tufting wood board conversation – safety concerns 
  • Sean suggested Arapahoe Library’s set up
  • Tufting materials 
• Area underneath the embroidery machines
• Debbie brought in treasure trove of leather tools / leather organization 
  • Label the instructions and names of the tools 
• New shopvac
• Replacing pull down extension cords – bypassing the fuse on it 
  • Big focus – talk to Justin 
  • Talk to Ops about this 
• Outlet focus 
  • Every breakline station will have pulldown cords instead
  • Irons on at the same time will cause issues
• Move the table forward as much as possible – 18 inches or so 
• Move all items away from embroidery machine
  • Shut down area by like 12ish 
• 10am people who want to come in 
• Board for the ironing station 
• Button press area 

 

Updates:

• Hat press – ordered (thank you Doug!) 
• Pressing items from Ukraine – ordered (thank you Sable!) 
• Embroidery Machine

• 7 needle (purchased in March 2024 for Denhac)
  • First class in late March 
  • When & who
• Single Needle (on loan from Justin)
  • Person who repaired 7 needle will take a look at it
  • Daniel Pawlak has been working on it
  • Still down – hopefully also up in March
• Train the trainer – 

General discussion points: (20 minutes or whatever time we have left) 

• Have removed Intro to Sewing Machine classes due to the number of make and take classes that include basic sewing machine information
• Discuss all textile purchase requests for the board within the SIG meeting to better refine proposal – yay or nay
• Kingmax repair issue – was just repaired so is it something we can fix ourselves or is covered by the recent repair? 
  • Nick fixed the Kingmax!!!!! 
  • Jamie helped identify the issue – dog feet not being tightened all the way down
    • Issue happened with the industrial for both
    • Industrial training – how to align them properly 
  • Kits to go with every machine to get it included 
    • Flathead screwdriver – right angle ones that are really short 
• SINGER Heavy Duty – Board Proposal for March 
  • Have two, most used home machines, would like 1 or 2 more
    • This is what is used in our classes which cap out at 4 people for the most part 
  • $179.99 at Costco atm – about $250 outside of Costco
  • Used prices are sitting between $150 and $200
  • Mohr is strong yay – backup of extra bobbin plates and housing for the machines 
    • Does Marco get an employee discount 
    • Keep only 2 out for general use 
• Space organization – what can we do to better utilize the space and make it easier for people to find things and use them 
  • Reach grabbing arms 
  • Higher shelves above the fabric storage + step ladders 
  • Cricut Area 
    • Wash all of the mats 
    • Once every six months – keep track of when this happens
      • December was the last time – check the status 
      • Replace the cellophane 
• Identify other people who do industrial sewing machine repairs
• Karen’s button press – this is the fun type vs the button hole thing for fabric
  • Can it make fabric buttons?
  • Professional grade – manual but industrial af 
  • 2 and a quarter button 
  • Repair could be done in house but it’s unlikely parts are still available
  • Steel circle part for cutting out the buttons – if you want to make quantity you have to have one of those
  • Guide material with plastic cover sheets people could refer to when using it
    • Would be willing to do a class periodically on designs for this 
    • Organization + software for it 
  • Karen would be into collabing for an electronics / light up cosplay 
• March focus 
  • Tufting classes as a big focus for March / April