Handmade Getaway

Exactly as the name implies, this inspiring book is your guide to getting away from it all—just you, your sewing machine, good friends and a quiet place to relax. If you’ve always dreamed of organizing a day, a weekend or a week away just to sew, this planner by Jacqueline Sava Clarke and Karyn Valino will help you step-by-step through scheduling, packing, and sewing your way through your time together.

Meet up with your friends to sew as often as you like because this book includes 14 individual and 7 group projects, at least a year’s worth of fun get-togethers. Designed specifically for sewing retreats, Jacqueline and Karyn offer practical guidance and checklists for everything your group will need, from help with planning supplies and how much time you’ll need, to suggestions for extra activities and menu planning. It won’t matter if your friends are new to sewing or if they’re pros, what matters is that you’ll all be together making your own cherished items that can only have been made with the collaboration that happens on a handmade getaway.

More About the Authors

Jacqueline Sava Clarke

Jacqueline Sava Clarke, of Toronto, is passionate about quilting, crafting, and combining business and creativity to create market-driven products. She is the founder and creative director of Soak Wash Inc., Creators of Soak, the rinse-free laundry soap for delicates, and Flatter, the pressing spray for quilters. Sava lectures frequently about quilt and knit care. Taught to sew by her mother, an apparel designer, Sava is a trained industrial designer who has earned several awards for business innovation and entrepreneurship.

Karyn Valino

Karyn Valino owns the workroom, a sewing studio, shop and community space in Toronto. Though her original loves were photography, paper, bookbinding and collage, Karyn eventually discovered sewing and immediately fell in love with making her own clothes. Just a few years later, Karyn opened the workroom and over the last ten years has created a vibrant space in Parkdale that shares a diverse and always expanding roster of textile arts workshops and events. In her spare time, she is also the photographer for Handmade Getaway.