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Margaret Islander, Islander Sewing Systems

Margaret's 35-year background of training and experience cover garment production comprehensively (in addition to her prior background in textiles, couture, fitting and tailoring). As a technician at a Los Angeles training center for garment industry workers, she mastered every aspect of production, including speed systems, production sewing, cutting, pattern drafting and pattern grading. Based on this training, she developed her first "Industrial Shortcuts for Home Sewing" course in the early 1970's. As the demand for her expertise grew, she founded the Islander School of fashion Arts in Grants Pass, Ore., which continues to graduate many satisfied students.

During the past two decades, Margaret has taught her techniques at community colleges and retail stores and to professional organizations throughout the United States and Canada. But in 1987, she realized that video technology could take her techniques directly into student's homes and reach a wider audience. She converted her school into a studio and focused on developing seminars and her "open classroom" video tape instructions. She has also been a frequent guest on television sewing shows.

Video is an ideal medium for her sewing system because it's not what Margaret does, but how she does it that is the key­the placement of her hands, the amount of pressure she applies to the fabric, the way she guides it through the machine. And she's easy to listen to­as if she's sewing with you rather than lecturing to you. You'll like having her in your home!

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