When was the last time you sat here? Maybe it was just a few days ago, or sometime this month? Maybe these chairs, that long beige table and pile of thick catalogs, bring back memories of sitting here with your mother or your auntie or your son, planning what you’ll make for a recital or…
Reflections on Today’s Home Sewing Pattern Market
I just finished reading Blueprints of Fashion: Home Sewing Patterns of the 1940s. This is my first deep dive into the history of home sewing in America and it’s made me reflect on the moment sewing is experiencing in our culture right now. The role of sewing in the lives of women has radically changed,…
MyBodyModel is a Body Positive Design Tool for Garment Makers
MyBodyModel, a web-based design app that allows users to create a custom fashion croquis, launches today. A croquis is figure drawing used in fashion illustration. Designers sketch clothing onto a croquis while working out a new look or collection. Croquis for fashion illustration are typically highly elongated bodies that aren’t representative of real women. Typical…
How to Get Your Own Fabric Printed
Custom fabric designed and printed for Craft Napa. Are you hosting a special quilting event? Are you a regional shop that’s a destination for travelers? How neat would it be to design and print custom fabric to mark a special occasion or place. Of course, Spoonflower has made this possible by offering on-demand digitally printed fabric to…
What is the Moda Bake Shop and Should You Contribute?
Sunnyside Diamond Zigzag quilt pattern by Better Off Thread for the Moda Bake Shop. Cutting quilting cotton into squares or strips is one of the most time consuming parts of making a quilt. In 2006, Moda, the Dallas, Texas based fabric company, began selling fabric bundles that were precut, making it easier for consumers to…
Introducing Harper the Owl: Print Pattern and Kit
I have something really exciting to share today: my first print pattern and kit! Meet Harper the Owl. Here you can see the front and back of the pattern. Harper is a really sweet little project that you can make from small cuts of quilting cotton and felt. He works as a pin cushion or…
A Profile of Spoonflower’s Top Seller
In 2010 printmaker Andrea Lauren was putting her artwork on mirrors, calendars, buttons, and rings and selling them on Etsy. While browsing the Etsy forums one afternoon, a comment about the print-on-demand fabric company Spoonflower piqued her interest. She’d been searching for a way to print her art on fabric, and this seemed like the…
Should Sewing Patterns Be Certified?
If you’re interested in becoming a sewing pattern designer it’s easier now than it’s ever been. You can learn the skills you need, create a design, test it, and then sell it directly to consumers without a huge investment in formal schooling, software, or printing and distribution. There are online classes in pattern drafting, grading,…
Market Research Takes the Fear Out of Getting Started
In 2011 I was at a crossroads. I had just turned in the manuscript for Stuffed Animals and I wasn’t sure what to do next. For a year I’d been writing a book which meant I was in the rhythm of creating a new pattern every three weeks. I’d learned a lot in the process…
What Happens When Your Pattern Goes Viral: The Spool Bird
UPDATED February 17, 2019: You can now purchase a copy of the Spool Bird pattern in two sizes from Michael’s Etsy shop for $5 right here. In 2008 Michael Fulkerson was working as a sewing teacher at Spool Sewing, a fabric store in Philadephia. The store owners asked Fulkerson if he could create a pattern…