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Interesting Links

  • Amy Butler
    Stay up to date on Amy's latest designs, patterns and gorgeous photos. She also offers some free patterns here
  • Angry Chicken
    Amy Karol, author of Bend the Rules Sewing, covers food, family and sewing. She has a very appealing retro style to her work.
  • Anna Maria Horner
    Artist and designer of Chocolate Lollipop fabric
  • design*sponge
    Grace has an excellent blog covering home decor and great design. I'm currently obsessed with her "Before & Afters" on Thursdays. She has great DIY projects on Wednesdays.
  • Etsy
    Boutique of hand made items from various artists
  • Heather Bailey
    Artist and designer of Freschcut fabric
  • How about Orange
    Graphic designer with great ideas in paper and other media- loves orange
  • jcaroline creative!
    Of course I think it's the best source for everything creative!
  • Kathy Miller's Blog
    Artist and founder behind Michael Miller fabrics
  • Pink Lemonade Boutique
    Wonderful, creative bag designer
  • Print and Pattern
    A visual delight of designs on paper and fabric
  • Sommer Designs
    Designer of bags- lots of clever sewing and knitting ideas

Tools

July 16, 2007

Blog Slowdown

My Google RSS feed page of craft blogs has not changed in days!  Lots of bloggers on summer vacation and not writing!  However, I haven't written in days and I have no legitimate excuse.  Lots going on at jcaroline-  we got in Amy Butler's Nigella fabric, which I was told we wouldn't get even one piece until September and we got almost all the pieces last week.  I did get it on the web and I am going to create some color boards (where we show you combinations of fabric, trim and ribbons) with the gorgeous stuff this week.  I have to apologize for my color boards- I did a few over a year ago. I think they are a great idea and people even commented about how much they enjoyed them, but I didn't keep it up.  I will be better about it!

Boxoftrims My niece, Mary Louise, is in town for two weeks and being the creative photography type that she is, she already helped me get a ton of new trims on the web (that have been sitting waiting to be photographed for six weeks now?) and will help me with color boards this week. 

Last week my new Sewist 521 sewing machine and MyLock 204D serger from Janome arrived.  I will be doing some sewing projects for their new website, so I'll let you know when the first one will be up.  There is nothing better than a new machine to improve your sewing!  I have only spent a couple of hours with the sewing machine, but I already love the top-loading bobbin with the clear cover (you can see when your bobbin is running low), love the buttonholder (very easy), and that your "default" settings (stitch length, stitch width) aren't reset when the machine is turned off.  (Especially important since my old machine would come unplugged unexpectedly and it reset your current stitch settings.)  I have also never had a machine where you could drop the feed dogs, so I'm most excited to use that feature.Sewingmachine

We also got in a bunch of cool buttons last week.  Those will be on the web shortly (courtesy of Mary Louise).  And some 100% wool felt.  And some new Alexander Henry.

July 06, 2007

I Bought a Bodkin!

Thanks to Amy Karol's Bend-The-Rules Sewing (posted here), I discovered the bodkin and I like it!  In her discussion of tools, she talks about a bodkin which allows you to pull elastic through casings- basically tweezers that clamp together.  I had always used a safety pin (my mother's idea), but used a bodkin today and it made life much easier.  So I sent my mother one as well.  I had never heard of nor seen one, but I added them to our site today.

And I finished a project today (hurray)!  I made a top and pants for my daughter out of Chocolate Lollipop fabric.  I copied a top she had from the Gap that I liked and that fit.  The pants are the standard elastic waist pattern (thus the bodkin) that I've used before. I am going to put these patterns on the web.  I have no idea how to size them for anyone else (she's wearing 18-24 months), but they will give you a starting point.  And check out the flower buttons!

(7/25/07:  The top and pants pattern and instructions are finally on the web.  Hurrah!)

Chocpoppants