Last-Minute Fabric Gifts

It must be something in the air at ABRAMS but I’ve never been the recipient of so many homemade and thoughtful office gifts as I have these past few weeks leading up to our holiday closing.

By the time the mason jar of Eleven Madison Park granola appeared on my desk—following the homemade Baileys Irish cream, spiced nuts, truffles, and bottles of wine—I knew I would have to appear at the office prepared or risk imploding from all the unrealized love and gratitude I’ve carried for the faces I see every day. 

Luckily, even a last-minute crafter is never really empty handed and the office is rich in inspiration in the form of a long and beautiful list of craft titles. Books are the secret friends of harried people, unlike the Internet, so I am sharing a small gift from one of ours. Last-Minute Fabric Gifts by artist and designer Cynthia Treen is helpfully organized by time commitment—from “Less-than-One-Hour Gifts” to “More-than-Three-Hour Gifts”—all clearly marked “hand-sew,” “machine-sew,” or “no-sew” at all. 

The recommendation of corduroy for this little change purse is the touch that caught my eye. Any durable fabric will do, but corduroy lends itself to dozens of handsome, quirky, or workhorse variations, with a pleasant tactile quality that I can never find except in the most expensive store-bought accessories. Cynthia cuts the wale in a different direction for each purse.

Corduroy Change Purse from Last-Minute Fabric Gifts by Cynthia Treen

Materials

• One 5 x 5” and one 2” x 5” piece cotton corduroy
• 7” polyester, all-purpose zipper in contrasting color
• Thread to match fabric
• Fray Check (optional)

I only found 9” zippers at Mood. Their corduroy selection isn’t very big but I picked a black Steven Alan cotton, and an extra half yard of Liberty print cotton.

1.     Lay the zipper, closed and with the back side facing up, along one of the 5” sides of the square corduroy piece. The zipper ends will overhang the edges of the fabric by about 1”. Match the zipper tape edge and the fabric edge to one another and pin the zipper in place. 

2.     Using a zipper foot, stitch along the zipper tape with the side of the foot resting against the teeth as you stitch (3/8” seam allowance). Because of the zipper’s extra length, the zipper pull should be out of your way the entire time you are sewing, so there is no need to open and close the zipper as you sew.

3.     Splay the zipper and the fabric open so that their right sides are facing up. Lay the 5” edge of the rectangular piece of fabric, with the right side facing down, onto the unsewn side of the zipper tape. Pin the fabric to the zipper tape, matching the edges.

4.     Using the zipper foot, stitch along the fabric edge with the zipper facing up under the fabric and the side of the foot resting against the teeth as you stitch. 

5.     Splay the fabric open to expose the zipper and press flat. Unzip the zipper partway so you will be able to turn the change purse after the front and back are stitched together.

Fold the project in half, right side in, with the zippers open far enough to turn them right side out after stitching.

6.     With right sides together, match the two 5” ends that are parallel to the zipper and pin them together. Sew around the three cut sides with a ½” seam allowance, backstitching over both ends of the zipper as well as the beginning and end of your stitch line. Trim off the overhanging zipper ends so they are flush with the fabric edge. Trim the corners at a 45-degree angle.

I made my purses in slight different sizes to take advantage of the longer zippers (these started as 7 x 5" and 7 x 7" pieces).

7.     Because the seam edges are likely to fray from the change moving around inside, secure the fibers by either making a zigzag stitch on the seam allowances or by applying a fabric adhesive (like Fray Check) to them. Turn the purse right side out and press, if necessary. 

A Year of Quiet and Important Moments

Today’s big news is not what this post is about, but it does serve as a bit of a reminder, whether comforting or not, that headlines and sound bites are not the bulk of our lives. 

On a December morning almost exactly a decade ago, Maria Alexandra Vettese and Stephanie Congdon Barnes each posted a still life on the then-new photo-sharing site, Flickr. Though the two women had never met, they were struck by the way the photos seemed to echo each other, and the friendship that followed grew into a year-long photo collaboration, a blog with a worldwide readership, and today, a new book.

We are celebrating with a Q&A with Maria (MAV) and Stephanie (SCB).

One of our favorite things about A Year Between Friends is the seasonality of your projects and recipes, and how your very different environments affected your tastes. Can you tell us a little about your lives as makers? What are you working on now as the holidays approach?

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MAV: I live very much in tune with the seasons and I love seeing Stephanie’s life pace along similarly. I know I will see her paper snowflakes coming out after Thanksgiving and her tabletop Christmas tree shortly thereafter. It’s a comfort to me to see these traditions in her life 3,191 miles away. Right now, I am preparing to host Thanksgiving (for 15 adults and 10 children!) and thinking about what I want to make Luna Rose, my baby, and my friends or family for Christmas. My making usually centers around photographs (photo books, framed images), food (cookies or granola in a beautiful jar) or naturally dyed goods (a set of cloth napkins or towels). I don’t work too far ahead and will take each holiday one at a time.

SCB: Since childhood, making things has been a part of my daily life, but the process of documenting my life for A Year Between Friends helped me see how my activity and focus flows with the seasons. After a summer spent out in the world—traveling, exploring, gathering inspiration and supplies, now I am settling in for the shorter days when I spend more time indoors at home. Making a little time every day for craft is essential to me whether I am learning a new skill or chipping away at a long-term project. I am doing a lot of mending, both with wool (as shown in our book) and some simple patchwork on favorite garments. As the holidays approach, I am starting a few hand-sewn projects as gifts for close friends and family, including something special for MAV’s daughter.

You both started blogging in 2005, which if we look back is a time period that produced game changers in more fields than one (the advent of Dooce, and Gawker, Julie Powell, and Deb Perelman). What is it like to be part of the group of first bloggers? How have things changed, how have they stayed the same, and what do you think will happen to the medium in the future?

MAV: It’s interesting to see you categorize us next to names like Dooce and Gawker. While we did start blogging around the same time as many bloggers who are now “internet famous,” I think of us so differently. We are not better or worse, just different. The plain fact is, we are just not as popular as the rest. We never took on sponsors, we don’t spill our guts or publish tons of photographs from our personal lives. We have been doing this for a decade in a rather low-key fashion and I think we prefer it this way. I think we have changed with the times, somewhat, but we still value our space at 3191 Miles Apart. We still try to cultivate a home there where we can share quiet and important moments. The medium of sharing has gotten faster, quicker, more immediate. People don’t want to read a long, wordy post (or I should say, most people?). They want something quick; a snippet. They can find that at 3191 Miles Apart, and in our books, through the photographs. That feels good to us. But we will always want to offer a space, through the web and our books, where people can take a bit more time to themselves, or time to share with a friend. We still see what we do as a whole as creating a place of pause, something a bit deeper than a snippet. Or, at least I hope people see that. I think it would be hard for us to get on the fast track like many other bloggers from our time have. I guess we are a bit old-fashioned.

A milder weekend escape with SCB, to Oregon’s Mount Hood.

SCB: I think we benefitted from the boom in the popularity of blogs back then, but agree with MAV that we have always been a bit set apart. We chose to not ride the tide of sponsorships and advertising and have forged our own path. Our project has always been about our friendship and having an outlet for our creativity, and thanks to the supportive community surrounding 3191 Miles Apart, we make it work. The advent of smart phones has definitely changed how bloggers share in the last ten years. Some of that change has been hard for us to adjust to, but other aspects have been welcome—we love the simplicity and immediacy of Instagram, for example. Back when we started with A Year of Mornings, taking a picture of your breakfast was an odd thing to do, now it’s the norm!

MAV, you write in A Year Between Friends that for this book, “It would have been easier to just share the photographs but this time around, we wanted to give more.” How did it feel to share some of these life events? Was there anything that was too close to heart, or anything to be afraid of? What did you enjoy the most?

March diptych

MAV: I was not afraid of sharing as much as I was afraid of exposing. I think there is a difference. I am a private person but I also have a lot to say and am not afraid to say it. We decided to share our lives from a full year (2015) but certainly we didn’t share everything. I did have to share some big things because I wanted to, not because I felt forced to. That felt really good to me. I’m honored to have an audience to share in this part of my life and my friendship with Stephanie. As the year went on and I grasped what I was going to have to share, I knew Stephanie would be there to have my back. She cheered me on all year and I did the same for her. Working on the book together was an incredible touchstone for me. I enjoyed the commitment. I enjoyed showing up each month to do the work. I loved the rhythm of the whole process. I am a huge fan of marking a full year so our “Year Of” concepts have been thrilling for me no matter what happens during that year.

SCB: When we committed to documenting the year, I worried a bit that we were inviting disaster, and life did throw us some curveballs. MAV and I are both private people, but also very open to new experiences and connections. We never would have met and started collaborating ten years ago without that exact openness and vulnerability, so I am always able to see the benefit of sharing. That said, I value my relationships and the trust that friends and family place in me, so that is always foremost in my mind. The gift of this book for me was being able to explore my feelings surrounding parenting teens and the changing role tradition and rituals play in our family as I prepare for them to leave the nest. I was also just so moved by MAV’s strength and resilience over the course of the year and her ability to share that experience with me, and ultimately, all the readers of the book.

At some point in early adulthood, it suddenly seemed like a lot of people were telling us it would be hard to make real friends after X point, or that the friendships wouldn’t be the same (this article stuck, in particular). We don’t think that’s true, necessarily, but your friendship story seems particularly miraculous—you met on Flickr and have never lived in the same state! What makes your very real friendship work despite the physical distance between you?

July diptych

MAV: I think our friendship comes down to one word: trust. We built trust over a shared visual language. We did not over-think it. There was not a moment where we could stop and say, “is this person my real friend?” because we were already involved in a year-long project and then another one. We were committed to each other because we respected and adored each other’s photographs. From there, there were visits and getting to know each other more. Each of us let our guard down over time. Even now I always tell people that Stephanie is very private and I feel honored that she shares with me. I always feel that I am standing a bit taller after we talk on the phone and she gives me her sage advice or tells me a story from her life. Her friendship is one of the most important of my life yet it’s one that I put the least amount of time into, if that makes sense. I know, however, that I could call her at any moment and share anything with her. I love that feeling. I also know that she understands my photographs, which are incredibly important to me, just as much as I do. I think we both have an eye for seeing things in each others images that others don’t have. Trust is why our friendship is so dear. We do not share the every day through words, we share it through photographs, making, cooking, caring. It’s simpler. It feels like home, like an extension of myself and what is important to me.

SCB: MAV expresses my feelings surrounding our friendship so well! It is absolutely about trust. Sometimes it takes years to build trust with a friend, but we were thrown into this creative partnership where we had to show up every day and share a little bit of our lives, so that trust was built quite quickly. It is very unique relationship in that way! As I meet new people and form new face-to-face friendships, I sometimes wish I could jump-start them in the same way!

November diptych

SCB, you write that doing this project “creates a heightened awareness of the passing of time.” How does the process of documenting your daily life affect your daily life? Do you ever struggle to find the time, or are there any rituals or habits that help? What would you recommend for someone hoping to create a similar kind of document?

SCB: Documenting my life in a structured way has been such a gift to me, as an artist and as a human. I do believe in the ritual of time-based projects whether it be photographing your morning, keeping a gratitude journal, or having a weekly craft goal. An essential part of the process is sharing that work with someone else. I often struggle to find the time or just feel that my work is not good enough, but the trust and commitment that I have with MAV, as well as the community of people that follow 3191 Miles Apart, propels me forward. It is important to show up. The advice I give is that it is all about the showing up. The work you do is secondary to the showing up, but you will see benefits in your work over time. You don’t have to document it all in a book or even share it online—a commitment between two friends can be enough! 

We might be a little biased, but we promise this conversation has barely scratched the surface of this generous, beautiful book. Learn more, or order your copy of A Year Between Friends here. 

All photographs in this post © 2016 Stephanie Barnes and Maria Vettese. 

4 fabulous gift ideas straight from our bookshelf!

With the holiday season kicking into high gear, we're looking for inspiration for everyone on our list this year. 

These sweet and simple gifts (and the books they came from!) are some of our favorite picks for simple handmade gifts for everyone from your neighbor to your work wife.

• Dressing up your dishware has never been so easy. Try adding this personalized touch as a host gift at a holiday or dinner party—and top it with home-baked cookies!

Playful Ceramic Platters from p. 86 of Anna Joyce's Stamp Stencil Paint

• For the crafter who you can barely keep up with (also adaptable for other handmade projects: try a smaller version for knit sweaters, pouches, and other sewing projects!)

Hand-Drawn Quilt Labels from p. 128 of The Spoonflower Handbook

• A cute and simple way to make something special for someone special.

Traced Wildflower Hankie from p. 68 of Rebecca Ringquist's Embroidery Workshops

• We love this simple yoga (-or- ukulele -or- farmers market) bag—easy to customize for friends who are always on the go!    Cecilia Yoga Bag from p. 58 of Lotta Jansdotter Everyday Style

Straight from our 2015 shelves:

Have you made anything inspired by STC Craft on your bookshelf this year? We want to see it! Show it off online and tag @stc_craft on twitter or instagram. 

Lotta Jansdotter's blog tour is now live PLUS these NYC events!

A few weeks back, I'd mentioned the upcoming jam-packed blog tour celebrating the release of Lotta Jansdotter Everyday Style. We're ready to kick off the tour—starting now! As an added bonus, Lotta has a few NYC-based events for local folks. No problem if you can't make them—you can follow along at the blog tour stops below: 

• Dec 1 – Lotta
• Dec 3 – Windham
• Dec 4 –  Noodlehead
• Dec 7 – Modern Handcraft
• Dec 8 – Sew Scatterbrained
• Dec 9 – Crimson Tate
• Dec 11 – Groovy Baby & Mama
• Dec 14 – City Stitching with Christine Haynes
• Dec 15 – CraftSanity BONUS: check out their recent podcast feat. Lotta!
• Dec 16 – Aesthetic Nest
• Dec 17 – Sew Mama Sew
• Dec 18 – Lish Dorset
• Dec 19 – Fancy Tiger Crafts
• Dec 21 – Generation Q
• Dec 22 – Carolyn Friedlander
• Dec 23 – Crafty Planner

All stops on this month's tour feature talented creators and makers sharing a version of their simple sewing projects from the book. All blogs will also feature a giveaway! Check out each stop for a new chance to win a copy of the book, Lotta Jansdotter fabrics from Windham Fabrics, and Lotta-branded temporary tattoos from Tattly!

photo by Jenny Hallengren

As an added bonus for NYC-based crafters: On 3 consecutive Saturdays (Dec 5, 12 and 19) from 12-4, Lotta’s Brooklyn studio and shop will be open for book signings, studio visits, and a trunk show! Stop by 131 8th Street in Brooklyn or visit http://jansdotter.com/studio/ for more info.

Follow @stccraft and @lottajansdotter for more information on additional workshops and signings throughout the spring in LA, Pasadena, Denver, and London (and more!)

We're also thrilled to invite you to a free fabric bracelet workshop and book signing at Purl Soho in NYC!

We hope you can join us in person and on the web!

Lotta Jansdotter shares her rules for cultivating your own Everyday Style

We're thrilled to welcome celebrated, chic fabric designer Lotta Jansdotter to our list this season! Her latest book, Lotta Jansdotter Everyday Style: Key Pieces to Sew + Accessories, Styling, and Inspiration  is a pattern- and guidebook for creating your own basic wardrobe essentials throughout the year. At its core are five easy, versatile sewing patterns—skirt, dress, blouse, pants/shorts, and jacket/coat—and highlighted with quick DIY accessories, including hats, bags, scarves, and jewelry.

Photographed over the course of a year in her life in New York, Tennessee, India, and Sweden and organized by season, Jansdotter shares her sources of inspiration and how she and her friends mix and match her key pieces while working, playing, resting, and traveling.

Looking to add some of Lotta's infectious and sought-after sense of style to your own closet? Check in over the next few weeks for updates on a jam-packed blog tour, plus a chance to win your own prize pack! More info to come.

Heather Jones's Quilt Local is coming to bookshelf and a blog near you!

There are few seasons more lovely than a New York fall. As the leaves begin to change and the air gains a certain crispness, we're getting ready to pull out the warm blankets and bask in the comfort and familiarity of home. In her new book, Heather Jones does just that. Debuting today, Quilt Local: Finding Inspiration in the Everyday is a love letter to landscape.  Heather presents 20 quilts, each inspired by objects and places close to home—country roads, cityscapes, street signs—the landscape of her existence. Then, in a fascinating exercise in color theory and design play, she reworked each one in a second palette to show what a striking

We're so inspired by the interplay of colors, shapes, and space in this book, and we know you will be, too. That's why we're inviting you to join us on a blog tour, kicking off this week!

Please follow along as Heather's creative colors and patterns grace the following blogs throughout the fall:

10/8: Robert Kaufman

10/9: Melanie Falick

10/10: Sew Mama Sew

10/11: Creative Bug

10/12: Plaid Portico

10/14: Modern Sewciety

10/16: Pellon

10/19: The Tattooed Quilter

10/21: Amy’s Creative Side

10/23: Diary of a Quilter

10/26: Film in the Fridge

10/28: Tall Grass Prairie Studio

10/29: Okan Arts

10/30: Kara Sews

11/2: Crimson Tate

11/4: Dainty Time

11/6: Nap Time Quilter

11/9: Spoonflower

11/11: Aurifil 

11/13: A Gathering of Stitches

Feeling inspired to make a quilt of your very own? Here's your chance! Right now, Creativebug is offering up a chance to win a 3 month course subscription, a copy of the book, and the fabric (from Robert Kaufman), batting (from Pellon), and thread (from Aurifil) to make the Austin quilt! Click here to enter. 

The perfect book to get you in the Mood for sewing

“Designers, we’re going to Mood!”

Chances are, if you've heard of Mood Fabrics you fall into one of two categories: you are either a huge Project Runway fan OR you are an avid home-sewer, a fashion student, or an aspiring designer. Regardless, you know it's New York's go-to spot for anything and everything fabric. 

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It was more than 10 years ago that Tim Gunn walked the first batch of Project Runway contestants into Mood Fabrics. This week, the experts behind this fabric power- house bring their fabric and fashion know-how—plus their behind-the-scenes stories—to the sewing public. The Mood Guide to Fabric and Fashion is the ultimate guide for the home-sewers, fashion students, aspiring designers, and Project Runway fans who want to learn everything they need to know to choose and use quality fabric. Drawing upon the expertise of the Mood staff, the book teaches readers the fundamentals—from where fabric is produced to the ins and outs of its construction—and features a fabric-by-fabric guide to cottons and other plant fibers, wools, silks, knits, and other specialty fabrics.

Intrigued? Hear what Tim Gunn has to say about it. 

And if you're a frequent shopper at Mood (or would like to be!), take advantage of the promotion that is going on on their site right now! Buy a copy of the book from their site and you'll be automatically entered to win a $250 gift card to the store. 

The Spoonflower Handbook has arrived!

The season is off to a great start with today's release of The Spoonflower Handbook.

What if learning to design fabric was as easy as messing around with pencils and paints? The Spoonflower Handbook puts surface design for fabric, wallpaper and gift wrap well within the reach of creative people everywhere.

What used to be a prohibitively expensive and time-consuming process is now available to anyone with a computer, Internet connection, and an idea! At the forefront of this revolutionary DIY movement is Spoonflower, a North Carolina startup that produces designs for hundreds of thousands of creative people worldwide.

With step-by-step tutorials and projects that span a wide spectrum of skills, The Spoonflower Handbook is written for both new and experienced users of this print-on-demand technology. Covering everything from equipment to software to working with photos, scans, repeats, vector files, and more, it is an essential guide to a booming new creative outlet.

Excited to try Spoonflower but not sure where to get started? Check out our #HowToTuesday from last week for a fun new way to honor your favorite child (the dog).

Beginning today, the Spoonflower team is celebrating the book's release with a special giveaway! Check out their site for more info on how you can enter for a chance to win 2 free custom yards of fabric!

After a successful book tour, Sherri Lynn Wood is still making waves!

You may have met the multi-talented Sherri Lynn Wood on her cross-country tour to launch The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters this spring.

If you missed her, here are a few lovely recaps from events at Thimble Pleasures in Chapel Hill, NC; Sewingly Yours in Lewisville, NC; and Malaprops in Asheville, NC.

If you managed to catch Sherri on tour, then you may know that she received over 250 requests and 165 completed submissions for the ten test quilt scores in the book. You may have even seen some online or on display at recent shows like Modern Quilt Guild's QuiltCon in Austin earlier this spring.

Good news: if you happened to miss them (or if you can't get enough of them), you can join Sherri for a test quilt blog hop going on right now! Click the link above to see where test quilters will be showing off their variations of Sherri's test patterns, and get inspired to try one out on your own!

Have you tried one of Sherri's patterns from The Improv Handbook? If so, we'd love to see your results!

The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters is Coming to a Shop Near You

The final piece in our fabulous lineup of spring releases is Sherri Lynn Wood's Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters: A Guide to Creating, Quilting, and Living Courageously.

For the quilter looking to break free from the confines of step-by-step instructions and predictable patterns, Wood (of Daintytime.net) brings a flexible approach to quilting that knocks traditional instruction aside. Instead, she presents 10 frameworks (or scores) that create a guiding, but not limiting, structure.

To help quilters gain confidence, Wood also offers detailed lessons for stitching techniques key to improvisation, design and spontaneity exercises, and lessons on color.

Every quilt made from one of Wood’s scores will have common threads, but each one will look different because it reflects the maker’s unique interpretation. Featured throughout the book are Wood’s own quilts (more on view here!) and a gallery of contributor works chosen from among the hundreds submitted when she invited volunteers to test her scores during the making of this groundbreaking work. For inspiration, you can check out some variations on her Rhythmic Grid score in this image gallery.

Sherri is also coming to a shop or guild near you! Check back later this week with more info on her in-store national book tour. First stop: this Friday, 5/8, at 6:30 pm at Sew Modern in LA!

And that's not all—all month long, Sherri will be making digital appearances on favorite blogs from Sew Mama Sew to Spoonflower. Check out the full list of blog tour participants here!

Natalie Chanin is Back with Alabama Studio Sewing Patterns!

Today is an exciting day—Natalie Chanin, founder and creative director of Alabama Chanin, is back with the book fans have been waiting for: Alabama Studio Sewing Patterns! 

If you've ever dreamt of creating your own Alabama Chanin wardrobe (and really, who of us hasn't?), this exciting compendium takes the Alabama Chanin library to the next level, offering all the patterns from Chanin’s first three books on a convenient CD, plus instructions and patterns for new skirts, dresses, tops, and jackets, with illustrated guidelines for customizing the fit and style of each. 

Hand-sewists: this is a key guide to customization. This invaluable resource is bursting with information about the ins and outs of refashioning shapes, raising and lowering necklines, taking in and letting out waistlines, and other key skills for creating the wardrobe of your dreams.

Chanin also provides guidelines for adapting patterns from other popular sewing companies to the Alabama Chanin style: stitched by hand in their signature soft, organic cotton jersey and embellished with swirls of stenciling, embroidery, and beading.

For more inspiring peeks into the book, check out our image gallery. Or, get your hands on a copy today, wherever books are sold!

Celebrate Fall by Knitting-A-Long with Guest Blogger and STC Craft Author Katie Startzman

Hello! I’m Katie Startzman, author of STC Craft’s The Knitted Slipper Book. I blog at Duo Fiberworks with my twin sister Laura Poulette. Thanks to STC Craft for inviting me to guest post here!

We will soon be deep into slipper season—blustery, gray days and downright cold starlit nights. As someone who delights in making and wearing slippers, I look forward to this time of year. It’s an opportunity of pile on the handknits, make lots of soup, and catch up on my reading by the woodstove. But we’re not quite there yet. Here in Kentucky, we still have a good long stretch of crisp Fall weather ahead of us, and the layers I put on in the morning get peeled off as the day warms up.

To celebrate the changing seasons, I wanted to do a knit-a-long that featured a pair of slippers that would be a good fit for this transitional time of year. The Cotton Loafers from The Knitted Slipper Book are shoe-like slippers that are made from soft organic cotton and rustic jute twine. They’re my knitted mash-up of boat shoes, espadrilles, and loafer moccs. They feature functional leather lacing, and the thick jute sole is sturdy and comfy.

 

I’ll be hosting the knit-a-long on my blog, over the next two weeks. In a series of posts, I’ll share tips and tricks to knitting these quick-to-finish, stylish slippers. You can view the first post here. Since many folks are unaccustomed to knitting with jute, I’ll also be sharing a free pattern that combines the cotton and jute to make a mini-tote.

Thanks to Blue Sky Alpacas, we have giveaways planned too—a sweet kit of organic worsted cotton yarn, jute, and a hand-stenciled canvas project bag made by yours truly.

**To enter the giveaway here, leave a comment between now and Friday, September 26 sharing something that you love about this time of year.** The winner will be announced on Monday, September 29.

Be sure to join us at Duo Fiberworks in the coming days to knit with us and for a chance to win a kit over there too. Here’s the schedule:

Monday, September 22:      Inspiration and design

Thursday, September 25:    Knitting the jute sole, project kit giveaway begins.     
    
Monday, September 29:      Knitting the slipper upper: Also share free pattern for the Bird Nest Mini-Tote

Thursday,  October 2:         Seaming and finishing details, announce giveaway winner

Wind those bobbins...Gertie Sews Vintage Casual is on sale today!

Our latest fall 14 book release comes just in time for the changing seasons. We're thrilled to introduce the latest from Gretchen "Gertie" Hirsch—Gertie Sews Vintage Casual: A Modern Guide to Sportswear Styles of the 1940s and 1950s.

In this follow-up to Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing, Hirsch returns with more iconic styles from the mid-20th century. Think sportswear made popular by fashion darlings like Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, including knit tops, beach rompers, house dresses, wide-legged trousers, capri pants, and more.

With instructions for creating a 30-plus-piece casual wardrobe plus illustrations by the amazing Sun Young Park, this helpful guide offers all the inspiration and know-how you need to look delightfully dapper this fall.

Read more about the book on Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing, and check out our image gallery here. Plus, stay tuned for news about Gertie's fall pattern collection from Butterick and a new fabric line with Fabric Traditions at JoAnn's stores this spring!

What will you sew this season? Tell us in the comments section!

Celebrate Fall with STC Craft

We're back! We hope you enjoyed a lovely and relaxing summer. We reveled in some lazy warm days and even some exotic getaways, but now we're excited to share our fall news.

We've got a stellar lineup of books to share, bursting with inspiration, ideas, and instruction.

View our full fall 2014 lineup by clicking here, or on the catalog cover below:

 
Quilt back from Roderick Kiracofe's Unconventional & Unexpected

 First up this season is Roderick Kiracofe's brand new Unconventional & Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar 1950-2000, available today!

From the esteemed author of The American Quilt, Unconventional & Unexpected explores the amazing quilts created during the second half of the 20th century.

Get a sneak peek of more from Kiracofe's fabulous collection in our image gallery, and check out what the New York Times had to say about Unconventional and Unexpected here!

We're looking forward to sharing a fabulous season with you!

Spring Refresh with CLOTH by Cassandra Ellis!

There's something wonderful about changing our homes to reflect the change in seasons. When cold winter winds begin to blow in, we nuzzle in to wooly accessories; spring's arrival speaks of light cotton pieces; and linen's cool touch and open weave makes it ideal for the summer months.

For those of us who mark the passing of time in precious pieces and scraps of fabric, Cloth: 30+ Projects to Sew from Linen, Cotton, Silk, Wool, and Hide by Cassandra Ellis is just the inspiration we need for swapping out those woolens for a little spring refresh!

For a chance to win a copy of the book, as well as a bundle of five silk fat quarters, head on over to Spoonflower to enter! And of course, check out the CLOTH gallery for more décor inspiration, and make sure you get your hands on a copy of this beautiful book, available now everywhere books are sold.

Holiday Gift Guide: 15 Books for Sewists & Quilters

Ermine Stitch from Alabama Studio Sewing + Design by Natalie Chanin

Still looking for the perfect gift for the crafter who can do it all? Don't despair! It's not too late to pick up a copy of any of these great titles for your resident sewist or quilter.

For the weekend stitcher:

Weekend Sewing; Last-Minute Fabric Gifts; Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts

For the color-obsessed quilter:

Kaffe Fassett Quilts Shots and Stripes; Denyse Schmidt: Modern Quilts, Traditional Inspiration; Material Obsession

For sewists who stitch outside the box:

Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing; Alabama Studio Sewing + Design; Stitch Magic

For the storyteller:

 

Kaffe Fassett: Dreaming in Color; Alabama Stitch Book; Quilting for Peace

For the little ones:

Wee Wonderfuls; Kata Golda's Hand-Stitched Felt; Oliver + S Little Things to Sew

Stitch Magic Stitch-Along: Pleats

Welcome to week three of the Stitch Magic Stitch-Along! My apologies for the delayed post this week. I’m writing to you from lovely Cleveland, where I’m filming an episode of a PBS sewing show.

Today we’re talking about pleating, which begins on page 41 of Stitch Magic by Alison Reid. But first, a note: the author uses the terms pleats and tucks to apply to her own techniques, which are gorgeous (like the beautiful throw pillows pictured above). In the sewing community, there have been downright impassioned discussions about the difference in terms. For this sew-along, don’t worry too much about what the “proper” terminology is, but rather focus on how the author utilizes the techniques in her own designs—and how you can customize them for yourself!

Okay, let's dive in. Pleating requires very precise marking and folding, so I’ve only gone over two design samples this week. There are several more techniques in the book to try; I especially like the origami box pleats, shown below.

We’re going to start out with knife pleats, which are flat pleats that are generally uniform in size. Each pleat takes up three times its width. So, for a one-inch pleat, you need to allow yourself three inches of fabric. Make sense?

Start by marking your pleat lines. Mark two-inch pleat sections one inch away form each other. Mark them on the bottom of the fabric as well. Bring one pleat line to the other and pin in place.

To retain the soft, sculptural feel of the pleats, we’re not going to press our sample. (If you want crisper pleats, go ahead and press them.) Now take some six-strand embroidery thread and stitch the pleats down in incremental lines with running stitches.

It’s hard to get a straight line, so mark your fabric with disappearing ink or some sort of tape that doesn’t leave a residue. Masking tape has worked well for me; you might also want to look for Tiger Tape, a quilting notion that has incremental stitch marks along a tape that doesn’t leave any gunk on your fabric. Genius!

Now let’s try another technique. This is a sort of grid, with small projecting pleats in both the horizontal and vertical directions.

Make ¼” pleat marks on your fabric. The pleat marks should be 1-1/4” away from each other.

Fold and pin the vertical pleats. Now, stitch along the side of the pleat that isn’t folded. Next, do the same with the horizontal pleats. But! When you stitch the sections that intersect, pull back the little flap to form a sculptural detail. Your presser foot will want to do this naturally anyway, so you’ll only need to help it along a bit.

My sample got a little crooked at points (See? Marking well is so important!) but I still like how it looks. In fact, it reminds me of the bodice of a designer dress I saw recently. Zac Posen, anyone?

I hope you’ve enjoyed a look at Stitch Magic’s pleating techniques! Next week we’ll be trying cording, which is completely new to me. If you can, get yourself a cording or braiding foot for your machine. This isn’t crucial though—methods with a regular presser foot as well as hand stitches will be shown.

Gertie at STC Craft: A Stitch-Along!

While I’ve been gearing up to do some ribbon embroidery from the new Alabama Chanin book, I’ve also been thinking of ways we can make my posts here more interactive. And what better way than a little sew-along? Or rather, a stitch-along! I’ve been reading the book Stitch Magic by Alison Reid and it has tons of fun ways to spruce up your sewing. I can’t stop thinking about adding pintucks, pleats, and cording to my projects. Being a lover of vintage fashion, I see these details all the time in gorgeous dresses but have never taken the time to properly learn the techniques.

So here’s what I propose: each week we will do a little stitch sample trying out one of the techniques. I’ll guide you through the how-to and give you inspirational ideas for adding these flourishes to your handmade garments. At the end of the stitch-along, you’ll have a little sample book of swatches to refer back to!

The standard supplies needed will be thread, hand-sewing needles, and some cotton fabric. If you have a sewing machine, that's great. If not, I'll give hand-stitching options for each technique. Here’s what I’m thinking for the schedule (with special supplies needed in parentheses):

Week of 7/ 25: Quilting (six-strand embroidery floss, batting)

Week of 8/1: Pintucks (twin machine needle, pintuck foot helpful but optional)

Week of 8/8: Pleating

Week of 8/15: Cording (cotton piping cord, cording foot optional)

Week of 8/22: Smocking

Are you in? What do you think? Personally, I think this is going to be great fun! Please leave any questions in the comments.



Designing Fabric with Heather Ross--Lucky Me

Last week I hit the jackpot when it comes to being a craft book editor. I learned how to design my own fabric with none other than Heather Ross. We were working together on her next book, Heather Ross Prints, which we will publish in Fall 2012. While Weekend Sewing, Heather's first book, was a tour de force full of gorgeous, doable sewing projects, her next book will focus on all manner of crafts that can be made using fabulous repeating designs, hers (see sampling below) and your own (just keep reading). 

One of the first chapters in Heather Ross Prints is dedicated to teaching crafters how to make their own repeating designs using artwork of their making and/or choosing. Up until last week, this section of the book was making Heather and I feel both nervous (“How exactly will we do this?”) and excited (“It will be so cool if we can do this!”). So, once Heather had written her first draft, I printed it out, wrote out a million notes and questions, and headed downtown to Heather’s apartment. After being treated to an amazing homemade lunch—Heather is 8½ months pregnant, and so, according to her, lunch is a “big deal”—we sat down at the computer and started reviewing the manuscript.

About five minutes into the process, I turned to Heather and said, “I really think it would be most effective if I tried to create my own repeating design following your instructions…you know, to see if it works.” And so she handed over a sketchpad and said, “Sure, what would you like to draw?”

As she warned in her manuscript, this would be the scariest moment of the design process. What should I draw? Can I draw? These questions were running through my head. But before I committed to just drawing a simple circle or star, I thought, I’d like to try to draw my favorite animal: a bear. With some artistic tips from Heather regarding the shape of the nose and the hulk of the belly, I suddenly had a bear (shown below alongside Heather's bafflingly cute donkey.)

Once the sketch was done, we scanned it into the computer and Heather taught me how to turn it into an illustration. It was my first time drawing with a stylus, and true to another warning in her manuscript, it was pretty awkward. While coloring in my bear, I could not stop laughing every time I got near the “outline,” knowing that mine would be super wobbly. But after some practice, I got the hang of it and could make fairly controlled strokes.

After about an hour or so of coloring in the background, playing with different hues, and shading some areas of the bear, we saved the file and uploaded it to Spoonflower—a site where you can print your own designs onto fabric of your choosing and buy it by the yard.

Next we played with the repeating design.

Seeing my silly little bear design up on the screen felt so empowering. It was unbelievable that in just an afternoon, I was able to use my humble artistic skills to create a fabric design that I will proudly use to make pajama bottoms for the whole family next Christmas. How cool is that?

Having gone through the process myself now, I feel confident that this is something anyone can do, and I personally can't wait to sit down and do more. But for now, I should probably get back to the editing.

Thanks again, Heather!

Stitch Magic Scarf

 

Stitch Magic: A Compendium of Techniques for Stitching Fabric Into Exciting New Forms and Fashions is one of the new books on STC Craft's spring list, and it's a wonderland of fabric manipulation--how to fold, twist, pleat, and pucker fabric, then stitch it down into the most mesmerizing creations. The first time I set eyes on the photos from Stitch Magic, I'll admit to being a bit intimidated, but once I started reading through the directions, I was shocked to discover that these techniques are actually quite simple to execute. Some may take a little time to create, but the looks you can acheive with these simple twists and turns are so incredible, the time spent is absolutely worth it.

 Stitch Magic is divided into nine sections by technique--cut shapes, folded shapes, pleating, pintucking, quilting, cording, hand-stitch marks, smocking, and special fabrics. Included in each section are directions for the technique, with lots of of ideas for varying it (all shown in photos), plus projects.

The technique that caught my eye first was cording, which is essentially done by laying a piece of cord on fabric, holding it in place, then stitching it down with a wide zigzag. You can swirl the cord to make a meandering trail, hold it down straight and narrow, or twist the cord every few inches to make a loop that hangs freely from the fabric (as shown on this pillowcase.) 

Last week I decided to use the cording technique to make a long scarf that I could wrap around my neck several times. Since I'm a knitter, too, I have a ton of stash yarn on hand. So I used some of my leftover yarn scraps for the cording, and I of course couldn't stop at just one color--I had to have blue, green, gold, light brown, and white.

 

One of my favorite features of the finished scarf is the white zigzag stitches on the reverse side (below). The cording beneath creates ridges on the back, and the white slanted stitches against the yellow provide glints of sheen and a bit of texture.

And here I am wearing the scarf  this weekend. While it may not be perfect springtime weather here in New York, I did manage to find some time yesterday to sit in the park and bare my arms in the sunshine. And with the scarf draped several times around my neck, I was nice and cozy, daydreaming of the leaves that will soon be on the trees.

As you can see, the fun of Stitch Magic is imagining what you can create with each technique. The book includes a number of projects to get your creative juices flowing, but it is also intended to inspire you to strike off on your own. You can add a little embellishment (along the hem of a skirt, perhaps?), or embark on a larger endeavor (wouldn't it be lovely to create an entire quilt top using this cording technique?) The choice, of course, is up to you!

To see a gallery of images from Stitch Magic, click here.