Meet our newest Retreater turned Instructor

     Robbie Severson is a second generation sewing retreat participant turned teacher. She & her sister discovered the Vashon Sewing Retreat through their mom, Kay Kelly, who had been coming for many years.

Robbie & her sister Pat Chubb are also avid quilters for Project Linus providing love, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill. 

Last year she was making bowls in the ‘Do Your Own Thing’ class and everyone got excited. She has graciously agreed to teach us all how to make them.

          Cheryl Tolbert was born into a sewing family, learning from her Grandma and Aunt Ethel June.  She has been learning and sewing ever since.  Cheryl earned a degree in Home Economics Education from the University of Washington and taught home economics for several years before focusing solely on sewing education.  For 20 years, she was a District Home Economist for Hancock Fabrics.  Currently you can find her at Pacific Fabrics, continuing to give numerous in-store sewing demonstrations, creating original projects, and advising on all sewing programs.
    
      Prior to the first Vashon Island Sewing Retreat in 1984, Cheryl was the Administrator of the Seattle Chapter of the American Sewing Guild. She was then, and continues to be today, very instrumental in locating instructors for the Retreat.  She herself has taught at the Retreat for most all of its twenty years.

Peggy Garber
Summer Day Camp  and
The Something Simple in Silk Class

      Peggy Garber is another of the Vashon Island Sewing Retreat’s original teachers.  She had been the Kitsap County representative on Seattle’s American Sewing Guild board where she met both Cheryl Tolbert and Lorraine Kimmel.  With her Fashion Design for Apparel Manufacture degree from the University of Washington, her experience in the design rooms of Sportcaster of Seattle, her fitting expertise from Fantastic Fit of California, and her years of teaching in adult education programs, community colleges, and fabric stores, she is the Retreat’s primo apparel expert.  Over the Retreat’s 20 some years she has taught everything from the simple bog coat to tailored Ultrasuede jackets; from swimsuits to silk blouses, to prom and wedding dresses; from making patterns from existing garments to designing original patterns. Never satisfied with the mundane, she even embellishes the fabric she uses in her garments.  Her Apparel Clinic classes are full of tips and techniques gained from her many years of sewing for herself and teaching others.
     
      Peggy is also a computer wiz and the Pe_gy part of Pengy Productions, who created this web site and the 20 year Sewing Retreat History DVD/Video.

    Carolyn Cavanaugh started teaching for the Vashon Island Sewing Retreat in 1993 and has become the very popular Master of the Quilt Clinic.  With 30 years of quilting behind her, she brings an experienced eye for color and planning plus a passel of tips, techniques, shortcuts and quilting know-how to her students. Carolyn thrives on the excitement and challenge of each project her students bring to her classes. Over the years she has taught quilting for Hancock Fabrics, Ben Franklin and the YMCA.   This very talented and capable lady has also taught knitting, crocheting, macramé, and cake decorating. Some winters she has toured the country in her motor home, but summers find her at home near Eatonville, remodeling her lake cabin.  When in Eatonville she also teaches quilt classes at the local fabric store, for the quilt group, and even at the elementary school where she was named volunteer of the year.

Jinni Nastiuk
The Jinni's Robe Class

"Personal Patterns by Jinni"
Special Sale Prices

    Jinni Nastiuk, another Retreat founding instructor, has focused her entire career on fitting and flattering the human figure.  For many years she was regularly featured in Fredrick & Nelson sewing programs. In the 1960s she ran her own original design dress factory.  Over the years she drafted individual patterns for thousands of bodies, extensively researched the intricacies of fitting the human shape and developed her own fitting philosophy.  She shares her comprehensive knowledge of pattern fitting and design in a series of books under the titles “Personal Patterns by Jinni” and has taught fitting and design internationally.  She also reflects her fitting philosophy in her line of personal sewing patterns fashioned for specific body shapes.  Currently, she is working on computerizing her methods for home sewing. Click here to learn more about Jinni’s books and patterns.

Jinni is no longer exhibiting at the Sewing & Stitchery Expo.
You can reach her at  Jinni4YPP@aol.com

Penny Kimmel is the Director of the Vashon Island Sewing  Retreat, taking over from its founder, Lorraine Kimmel, her mother. Penny has been attending the retreat since 1988.  With her Apparel  Design Program training from Seattle Central Community College, she is also a well qualified instructor when needed.  She has taught sweatshirt appliqué, purses and bags, adaptable aprons, and then for several years she became the Retreat’s polar fleece guru, known for the mounds of Polar Fleece scraps she always brought to classes.

      Before attending the Apparel Design Program, Penny was working full time in television production.  She has combined her 2 loves on a number of sewing videos for Jinni’s Personal Patterns, Kathy Ruddy Live Guide Series, Unique Measuring video, Clotilde, and Creative Feet.  Her professional video abilities also make her the important Pen_y part of Pengy Productions, who has created this web site as well as the 20 year Retreat History DVD/Video.