A few weeks ago I took an amazing trip to NYC. When you love fashion, design and sewing, NYC is the place to visit for all things creative. I just love walking the garment district and seeing the unlimited options in fabric, trims, beads, fur, notions and anything else you can think of. Of course I stopped at Mood and bought some beautiful rose tufted wool that I will be making a bolero out of this winter as well as some reversible jacquard for the bodice on some of my designs. One thing most sewers do not realize is that many of these stores will mail order creating access to supplies you may not otherwise obtain, and living in the Midwest I order almost all of my fabrics and supplies from companies in NYC. This trip was a great opportunity to see some people I do business with face to face.

You can look up  company info using online yellow pages, and one thing I recommend is developing a good relationship with your suppliers. Tell them about what kind of sewing you do and what type of fabrics you like to work with. Make sure to take the name of your sales rep and ask for that person each time you contact that company. If they learn to recognize who you are when you call, then they can better serve you by sending swatches and even special ordering certain fabrics for you.

Leather Suedes and Skins Store

I could spend an entire trip in the garment district and never see everything, but another opportunity I highly recommendis getting tickets for Behind the Emerald Curtain, a behind the scenes look at the musical “Wicked” (a version of The Wizard of Oz). Two of the actors take you literally behind the scenes and a huge part of the program is actually seeing many of the amazing costumes. This is so different then most Broadway plays and they have one of the highest if not the highest costume budget. If you sew or design would really appreciate this. Every fabric and trim for all of the costumes are custom made in Europe and they have their own line of fabrics and their own store for Wicked Fabrics. So anywhere in the world when a touring company needs a costume for an actor, they order fabrics from their own fabric store and have the costume made.  Of course, it is not available to the general public, but to see the detail was amazing.

Coat from Musical Wicked

One other highlight of the trip was having the opportunity to tour Simplicity patterns and see how a pattern is taken from concept to completion. It is a complicated and detailed process. Patterns can only have so many pieces, can only weigh so much in the pattern envelope and they go through an extensive sample and testing phase before it even makes it to the customer. This was really exciting. As a pattern designer I even had the opportunity to present some of my design story boards. You just never know. I have an even greater appreciation of the entire process and it is very inspiring.

Touring Simplicity Patterns

If you are planning a trip to NYC do a little research before you go so you get the most out of your time.

Have an unsightly kennel in your house? Create a cute and functional kennel cover for man’s best friend that you’ll both love!

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I have a tin of buttons that belonged to my great-grandmother. I’ve wanted to use them, but was unsure of the size of each. I don’t mind mixing, matching, and guessing, but I wanted to sort them by size, and didn’t know what size to label each group.

I found this chart for button sizing at www.karimeaway.com:

http://www.karimeaway.com/files/buttonsizingchartexpanded.pdf

I printed it at 100% and labeled the sizes according to the chart. Now if a pattern calls for a 9/16″ button, I’ll have a clearer idea which ones to use.

Smiling snowmen, funny frogs, grinning garden vegetables… these are just a few of the characters you’ll discover in the wonderful, whimsical world of Janet Wecker-Frisch.

Janet shares her art with the sewing world through licensed fabric and embroidery designs from her company, Tidings of Great Joy, LLC. Over the years, sewers, embroiderers, and especially quilters have fallen in love with Janet’s vintage-inspired characters and unmistakable artistry, and Janet has loved connecting with the people who use her drawings to create their own art.

Janet was born with a natural drawing ability, a talent that was encouraged by her artist father. As a child, Janet was always drawing, finding inspiration in vintage children’s books, and learning from her father’s training and critiques.

“It’s just a part of who I am,” Janet says, adding that, like her father, she eventually drew to love other art such as sculpting, painting and photography.

In fact, it was Janet’s love of sculpting and painting that led to her licensing adventures. In the early 1980’s, Janet created her company Tidings of Great Joy, LLC, named after a line from her favorite holiday special, A Charlie Brown Christmas. For 20 years, Janet sculpted and painted Christmas ornaments and sold them at art shows in St. Louis, Missouri. These ornaments soon became highly collectable.

About 10 years ago, a customer took one of her ornaments to an agent, and Janet soon began licensing her artwork for products such as dishes, decorations, wallpaper and more. However, Janet has found a real home in the sewing and quilting world with her gorgeous fabric designs.

“It’s the most fun industry to work in,” says Janet, who loves attending events such as Quilt Market whenever she can, “Just such a warm, more personal industry. I really enjoy it.” Janet puts a lot of care in designing artwork specifically for fabric and loves hearing feedback from quilters, as well as quilt shops and companies.

“I try to think about how the fabric will be used,” Janet says, adding that she loves seeing what quilters have created using her fabric lines, either in person or through emails and pictures.

In fact, Janet loves seeing what everyone can create, especially children. A page on her company’s website is dedicated to artwork that children send to her. Janet says that it reminds her of when she first fell in love with drawing and inspires her to keep drawing for fun.

“I have a granddaughter and niece who are both artists. Watching them develop and running into these little kids who love art just reminds me of what it was like as a little girl. When kids have that in them, it can’t be oppressed… they just draw all the time.”

Janet’s art is still inspired by her childhood favorites: vintage children’s books and nature. She has a large collection of books, citing illustrations by Harrison Cady and Garth Williams as her favorites.

“When I was growing up, I was always attracted to the illustrations and would pour over them. I have a lot of fond memories from childhood, things from within that need to come out” she says, “I also happen to live in the woods, where there are a lot of creatures running around.”

Janet’s love of animals and vintage illustrations are beautifully merged in over 20 lines of fabric featuring her fun characters. Her favorite characters are the frogs in “Tiny Tailors” and several characters from the newest line, “Animal Alphabet Games.” Janet adores her characters and loves meeting people who feel the same way.

“A retailer met me and just started laughing about one of the characters,” she says. “Sometimes I laugh as I’m drawing them – I just get a kick out of them and I think they’re really funny – and it’s so nice to meet people who get it.”

“The best part of this licensing experience has been all of the connections with people, Janet says, “It’s connected me with so many people around the country and even around the world. It has been a real pleasure.”

To see and purchase designs created from Janet Wecker-Frisch’s wonderfully whimsical artwork, visit the Amazing Designs website.

 As a challenge to myself, I am hoping to sew through the majority of my extra fabric that is stacked in my sewing room. We all have some- tucked away for that special moment when we get a break from our everyday lives to sew. Yet we still continue to purchase more, and it all adds up. So in an effort to get rid of mine, and hopefully a challenge to you also, I am going to blog about my experience of using all that fabric. This dress was the first of my garments to make. It was used for the fashion show but I told myself I didn’t want to purchase anything, so I rummaged though my stack and found these two prints. Together they didn’t look horrible and I decided to take the chance and use them together. I am fully satisfied with the way it turned out, I put an exposed zipper in the back and it also has pockets. I sewed elastic on the bottom hem to give more of a bubble skirt feel. I used Simplicity’s Cynthia Rowley pattern #2497. I hope with spring practically here you will decide to join me in my efforts to make time for sewing and use up some of this fabric.

It’s Friday night, you have just the right outfit but just can seem to pull the accessories together.  If accessories can make the outfit, why not make the accessories?

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I love fabric. All kinds of fabric, I really am not all that picky. My bulging drawers of fabric will prove that. I have found that I am drawn to certain styles and patterns and what I am drawn to is vintage/retro looking prints and have collected yards and yards of vintage inspired cottony goodness.

Fun circus print!

One of my all time favorite  fabric designers, Michael Miller, has really captured the whimsy and detail of fabrics from the past.  I have collected vintage looing fabric with boys dressed like cowboys, little girls baking pretty little brithday cakes and yound girls in their holiday best passing out presents.  And to add to their great looking fabric, they have great looking website.  On it you can see new designs, find a store that carries Michael Miller fabrics, and even get free quilt patterns.

Cute kitties playing with yarn!

Yee Haw!

Who is your favorite fabric designer?

This is a really neat website that I ran across when I was given two really neat gifts. Both were rings with all different colors of 100% rayon seam binding, and the other Petersham ribbon. These are incredibly convenient when I need to match a color to hem up a skirt, or trim the lapel of a jacket. You can order them with a minimum order of 1 yard. These are only a couple of the really neat things they have for sale on this website, I encourage you to check it out.

I hope you all enjoyed the wedding projects during the month of May.  My sister got married on April 25th of this year and the projects posted were things I had made for her wedding with the exception of the purse. (I would have made these but I ran out of time!)  Anyway, I thought I would share some things that I learned while working on my sister’s wedding.

1.   There are just about as many wedding websites and there are wedding couples.  But, these are a great place to idea shop.  You can email links and pictures so you know exactly what the bride is talking about.

2.  Pace yourself.  Tackle one thing at a time, ring bearer pillow one weekend, flower girl basket then next, etc…trying to do too many things at one time can become overwhelming and limit your progress.  You want to make the bride happy with everything completed right?

3.   Buy plenty of fabric.  I can tell you, once  you have your list of items set, the bride will come to you with one last thing she saw and say, it’s no big deal but it would be nice to have…and you being the one that wants to make the bride happy will say sure…I can make these for the entire wedding party….. for the rehearsal dinner…

4.   We didn’t have a veil project but I can talk from experience, a simple veil makes a big impact.  And when I say simple I mean just a bunch of tulle gathered to hair clip!  The best part, it can be done at the last minute.  This is not recommended as it does tend to stress out the bride….

5.   The most important thing I learned is only you know what didn’t get done in time, and well, maybe the bride.  So relax no one else needs to know.  Enjoy what you did get finished and save the other things for the next wedding you get to make things for!  And remember, all your touches big and small will add to the special day in a way that a gift of a can opener never will.

When you create something how do you choose a name? Do you name it after yourself, you location, your materials, your inspiration? Do you ever think, “How did they pick that name”?

Some fabrics are named for the cities they were created in. For example, Cashmere comes from Kashmir, a region in India. This region is home to the goats where the wool comes from.  And, Calico come from the city it was first obtained, Calicut, India.

Denim is brought to us from Nimes, a French city — de Nimes, “from Nimes”.  Chambray is also named after a French town.  Suede received its name for the French name for Sweden, Suede. Why? Because Swedish gloves were made from suede.

Muslin was made in Mosul, Iraq and damask named after the Syrian city of Damascus. Chuanchou, China, formally Laitun, was the birth place of satin — the smooth glossy fabric.