jcaroline

Fabric Trade Show aka "Quilt Market"

This past weekend was Quilt Market in Houston, which is held here every year.  (The spring market moves to other cities.)  I do wish they would change the name to better reflect what it is.  It is one of the biggest fabric trade shows in the country, and obviously the quilting industry is a huge part of it, but there is so much other sewing going on that doesn't involve quilting.  Don't get me wrong, I am not knocking quilting.  I just believe it is but one piece of an industry that still has great potential to make itself attractive to new generations of sewers.  I don't quilt and most of my customers don't quilt, but we are all still sewing like crazy and want to see new fabrics and goods oriented to our projects as well.  And I think by broadening the name of a market such as this, you encourage more participants, both buyers and vendors, to think beyond one particular type of sewing.  So when they call me to ask my opinion about the future of the industry, I will include this comment in my report.  Which should be happening any time now...

So, based on the name of the market, you may be surprised to hear that it was very encouraging from a sewer's and a business person's perspective.  There were so many contemporary and interesting fabrics, I had to make choices as to which ones to take on.  Three years ago, I bought everything remotely funky and still didn't think I had enough.  Finally, some manufacturers realize that people like you are producing children's apparel, apparel accessories, and home dec accessories and want sophisticated, interesting prints and will pay for them. Hurrah.

The quick version of my finds at Quilt Market include:

• Michael Miller has three great new printed cotton collections coming out, but my favorite is their neutral collection.  Yes, I have to say I am starting to suffer from color overload and found the tans, caramels, beiges and whites to be soothing.   Coming in December, I believe.  They have also added bias tape and ruffled ric rac from their pin dot and gingham fabrics.
• Michael Miller also introduced their organics collection, which is coming in January.  Seven pieces of organic cotton including a fleece, terry, a mid-weight woven and two lighter cottons.  Also includes a felt from post consumer recycled plastic bottles.  This is a children's apparel and accessories must.
• Joel Dewberry was there in the flesh- met him.  His fabric collections for Westminster came out in May, but for some reason I ignored them until now.  Never fear, I ordered from all collections in all the colors, except the tiny prints.  Coming next month.
• Prints Charming was there with their new collection "Two Young Street" for Marcus Fabrics.  (They had the "Follow Your Imagination " collection with Free Spirit last year.)  Bought it- coming December, I think.
• Tina Givens is a new designer for Free Spirit with a new fabric line.  Lots of green and salmon.  Sorry, can't find a picture of it on the web.  She has previously developed stationery through her company Cid Pear.  Sophisticated art.
• Had already ordered Jennifer Paganelli's Sis Boom Basics.  They should be arriving in November/December.
• Found the distributor for those Japanese prints that I've been seeing all over the web.  They are bold graphic prints on linen and canvas (they remind me of early Marimekko)- coming in January.
• I am most excited about Alexander Henry's launch of fabrics on a heavy cotton oxford.  (The look and feel of canvas, maybe slightly lighter.)  They have some new prints (that are awesome), but they also ran some old favorites like Mocca in Chocolate on the new fabric.  Not only that, but they have already run the fabrics, so the items are available to ship now.  (Alexander Henry usually sold their fabrics from the art and then only produced the items that they sold enough of.)  Whoopee!  Expect them in two to three weeks.

My overview was perhaps a little lengthy, but this way you can save some pennies for the incoming fabrics, buy up the fabrics that are soon to be retired and sew like a mad woman.  And yes, I believe I will soon have an inventory problem.

Wall Treatments

This room was done by Jessica Jones over at How About Orange.  The before picture is a study in beige.  She did a few simple and inexpensive things and made it look fabulous.  I love the idea of stretched fabric on the walls.  What a great way to adore your favorite print.  (She added a tutorial for stretching your fabric on a frame.)

She painted the tree on the wall and then hung leaf pictures.  How cool and 3D is that?  However, if you are terrified of trying to paint the wall yourself, I keep seeing wall decals on design blogs lately.  Elly Nelly offers self-adhesive decals on their Etsy shop .  They are a mother/daughter team and I like their designs a lot.  They range from $25 to $65.  It appears that you can choose from one of 14 colors for each design.  And don't forget you can hang things with your wall decals to add more interest.

Go forth and decorate!

Yum, yum

While doing a Google search for crack, I came upon Karen and Nancy's homemade goodies.  No, that's not really how I found them.  I was actually searching for "things to make my butt really big".  Well, they have it.  It's pecan crack and it's awesome.  I also bought a caramel sauce that is the best thing I've ever tasted.  They sell these goodies from their Etsy shop, September 15th to December 15th.  The packaging is as good as the product- cute ribbons and little jar "hats" (whatever those things are that you slip over jar tops).  The price points are $8 to $14, so great for little holiday gifts.  They included a couple of Espresso Caramels that were also delicious.  When I reorder, I'm going for the full blown Golden Caramels.

Blog Ideas

I didn't think I needed ideas for my blog, but clearly I do, since I've been persona non grata ¹absent for a week.  Sorry- my mother called last night to see if I was okay- clearly my absence has gone on long enough.  I don't have an excuse because I haven't achieved anything profound in the last week.

Well, lo and behold, guess what came in the mail yesterday?  Margaret Mason's book, No One Cares What You Had for Lunch   100 Ideas for Your Blog that I ordered here off her blog Mighty Girl.  I can't even remember how I found Mighty Girl, but she founded Mighty Goods, which is basically a window to cool and interesting shopping finds on the web.

Anyway, I ordered the book merely because of the title and she offered to "sign it and caress it lovingly before mailing it".  She signed mine "You are fantastic".  It's as if she knows me.  Anyway, the book does have some good ideas and more importantly, it's hysterical and a quick read.  Idea #47:  Promote truth.  "You're a font of wisdom, and you're getting sharper every year."  (She really does know me, doesn't she?)  "Outline ten truths you believe to be universal.  You can tell us how you came to your conclusions, or explain how your beliefs have changed over the years."  Two of hers are "Don't fill up on bread" and "Wear sunscreen".  If you blog or just like humorous writers, pick yourself up a copy.  Though I can't guarantee that she thinks you're fantastic too nor do I have evidence that the book was caressed lovingly before mailing.

Oh, and don't scroll down the book page if you are offended by offensive language.  (Of course, you will now, but don't say I didn't warn you.)  She sells a T-shirt including a particular word that horrifies many.   No! Not THAT word!  The f word.  Of course, I had to buy one of those too because it made me laugh.  I'll wear it for special occasions.  Sorry, Mother.

Footnotes:

1. While looking up persona non grata for spelling purposes, I discovered it really means "personally unacceptable or unwelcome".  But it sounds so cool- I wish it meant absent.

Inspired by Tory Burch

The picture on the right is from Time Magazine's Style & Design article entitled "Tory's Turn" about designer Tory Burch.  First  off, I was inspired by how cute she is, but I loved this straight dress in a big pattern.  The picture on the left is my rendition in Amy Butler's Silver Wood Fern from the Nigella home dec collection.  The collection is full of big prints (I also think this could be darling in any of the Grandiflora prints) and the sheen and weight make it fun for apparel (heavier than quilting cottons, lighter and softer than canvas).

I have no idea what is around the neck and sleeves of the Tory Burch dress, but it looked complicated.  I settled with a strip of Gray Floral Sequins around the neck only.

The pattern is another matter entirely.  I used Simplicity's New Look #6086.  But wait, that's a slipover tunic.  How did that metamorphosis into this dress?  Hummm... not easily.  I couldn't find a pattern that had a one piece front with just darts (I didn't want to break up the design on the fabric with princess seams or other nonsense).  So I took about 2" out of the center of the front and back of the tunic, lengthened it, added a zipper in back and shortened the sleeves.  Oh, and added a facing to the neck, since the pattern just called for a hem.  Would another pattern have been better?  Absolutely.  If you find one, use it instead.  The front of the dress worked out great (though I think the shoulders are a little narrow- maybe 2" was too much?), but the back is still under construction.  It needs darts above the waist, but I haven't quite gotten the right size in the right place.  So this dress will be gorgeous for entering a party, but not yet great for leaving.  I'm going to let Mona party in it while I ignore it for a few days to approach it with fresh eyes (and attitude).

In an earlier post, I railed on invisible zippers, but I feel better about them now.  I did figure out how to get the invisible zipper foot on my machine (the instructions on the package are non-existent).  The zipper went in fairly easily, but do follow the zipper package instructions about not sewing up ANY PART of the seam before installing the zipper.  (I tend to take those instructions as helpful suggestions only.)  Allows you to compensate for the zipper being a little higher or lower on one side.  Now I need to work on getting the zipper and fabric to feed evenly, so I don't get ripples in my fabric.

Perhaps this will inspire you to make some apparel from Nigella or any other home dec fabric and to completely butcher a pattern to get the look you want!

Laminated Cottons from Michael Miller

I made this bib today from the Laminated Cottons from Michael Miller.   The pattern and instructions are available here.   We had brought in one pattern of the laminated fabric and we couldn't keep it in stock, so we brought in five more patterns last week.  I've been dying to make something out of it-- I can see it being used for  cosmetic bags, diaper bags and changing pads.  Then I saw on Michael Miller's blog this darling raincoat and I am really tempted to attempt a big person version.  How cute would an adult raincoat be in Spa Feeling Groovy or  Black Dandy Damask?  Then again, a little girl's raincoat would be faster and the wearer would be less critical of any sewing shortcomings.

Cool Plates from Jackie Shapiro

You may have seen the name Jackie Shapiro on our website.  She is the designer behind Modern Grace and Play for Wyndham Fabrics.  I just noticed that she has a whole other life as a designer!  She has a company called French Bull, which specializes in melamine dishes and now stationery, and designs some of the cutest dishware (including flatware) I've ever seen.

While drooling over the dishware on her site, I noticed that I owned one of her plates.  I had seen this cute child's plate at the Contemporary Art Museum Houston's gift shop and had to buy it for you-know-who.  Those fabric designers are everywhere!

Anyway, the French Bull site lists three places to buy her things online (or to just ogle at them):  Plum Party, Cocoa Crayon, and Loft Party.  These plates are like cute fabric on your table.  And you don't have to sew them into anything!

My apologies, Mother

My mother called me yesterday to say she had read my blog and felt she needed to comment that growing up I was expected to make my bed everyday.  I don't want people to get the wrong idea and think I was raised with no couth and that my mother didn't teach me to be neat and clean.  Every Saturday, my two sisters and my mother and I cleaned the house from top to bottom.  My mother is the only person I know that vacuumed out the air ducts every week.  And yes, I had to make my bed every morning and change the sheets every weekend.  So my mother is not to blame and she is a pillar of neatness and cleanliness. 

When did it all go wrong?  When I went to college, I think.  I discovered that my sheets never "needed" to be changed, jeans could be worn at least five days in a row and that I could save a lot of time for other activities if I didn't clean or pick up.  I have achieved a balance of how much time I'm willing to spend on organization and cleanliness and what my limit for utter chaos is.  Thus why my office and project room are a complete shambles- those are my domains and I don't have to share them with anyone else.  At home, I do have cleaning help, so that other members of the household do not have to suffer from my cleaning and picking up rebellion-- at least not too much.  My husband has asked me on numerous occasions why the dirty clothes only make it "around" the clothes hamper and not in.  The fact that clothes are going to the hamper at all I consider quite an achievement.

You can blame my dad.  He is a bit of a clutterer.

Skull and Bones

I made a pair of pants for my favorite model this week just in time for Halloween.  The fabric is Black Jolly Roger from Alexander Henry.  I then ironed the Skull Applique on a plain white T-shirt.  A pants pattern is here if you are so inspired.  I did figure out a new trick for pants adjustment that is really helpful.  I needed to expand her pants pattern a bit and rather than rework the whole thing, I just cut it in half length-wise and taped another 1 1/2" of paper in between.  The crotch then stayed the same, the pant length is easily adjusted and I have bigger pants. If the crotch needs adjusting, I'll just cut the pattern widthwise and insert paper as needed.  It's not that profound, but I had never approached it that way before.  Much easier.

Here is the angry model walking off of the shoot.  She has her agent on her Barbie cell phone, I'm sure.

My Studio

In Amy Butler's new book, Midwest Modern, she shows us pictures of her and her husband's design studios.  I was so inspired, I thought you might be inspired by my space as well.

This is a lovely 15 x 8 foot room in our warehouse/office space.  Note the design details only available in buildings of this era (1980's concrete block business park buildings).  Nothing beats the simplicity of a linoleum floor and suspended ceiling with fluorescent lights.  It is a multi-function space, storing various hardware, including the computer type (in that refrigerator-like cabinet in the back corner).  The table is decoratively strewn with works in progress.  Mona is hanging out in the background in a new dress I'm making for her- more on that later.

Another view of the inspiration room. The bookshelf in the back has been meticulously organized with plastic containers with labels.  The grid wall on the right provides a home for a few well-organized patterns. I insist on a neat, clean sewing surface, so Olivia is going to have to move her blue block.

But this isn't the only space I put my special design touch on- there's also my office.

Again, I find organizational containers an absolute necessity and these in cute colors from The Container Store fit the bill.  And once they got filled up, the floor provides easy access. I love the frosted glass doors on the book cases (from Ikea)-- you can close them and it will hide the mess.  I prefer the airiness the open doors provide.  It makes me feel like those books are free to come and go as they please.

In front of my desk, I like to keep my inspirational objects and images.  Apparently, most of my inspiration arrives in cardboard boxes.   The couch is what I like to call "interactive furniture"-- you must clear a spot before you can sit down.  Rearranging its contents really helps you get to "know" the furniture.

I call my design philosophy "cluttered genius" and I hope this inspires you to redo your studio, office or even your home.

New Eye Candy via Amazon

Amy Butler's new book, Midwest Modern arrived today.  It's a "sit down and read" book, but also has lovely pictures (her husband is the photographer).  From a quick run-through, I like it.  Did I mention the beautiful photographs?  She also shows her home and design ideas, talks about her artistic inspirations, and shows a ton of her fabrics and designs.  I will sit down and read it, but I also think it will be a great "pick up occasionally for inspiration" kind of book.  The concept of the book is to focus on design from the Midwest, but since I'm from the Midwest, I didn't realize it was a defined "style".  (I'm very heavy on the quotation marks today, "aren't I"?)  I would define it as we take the best of the West and East coast and do whatever the heck we want with it.  A practical, frugal approach to design, if you will.

Anyway, I promise a full book report later.