Last week I got my latest Warp & Weft Sewing Society package. Exciting. They always come wrapped in brown paper and tied up in string. It’s such a nice touch.
Anyway, here are some “before” shots of some upcoming projects. Of course, I had two kids who refused to nap photobomb my photo session. Just one of those days…
Kid No 3 loves ladybugs and walked around with this fabric for two days. No idea where she gets it. 😉
When I made my very first quilt I had the toughest time finding fabric for the backing. So I scoured the web and found something perfect.
I chose the Spade in Charcoal from the Grand Bazaar collection by Patty Young for Michael Miller. I bought it at Tonic Living , a Canadian fabric shop, and it was also the very first time I bought fabric online.
So it’s a little bit sad for me that Tonic Living has decided to stop selling quilting cottons and focus on home decor. On the other hand, it means that quilting cottons are on sale (while quantities last). You can find them all here. They even have some Spade left, though not in charcoal.
Janine from Tonic Living has generously offered a discount for my readers. If you use the coupon code FINISHEDGARMENT you will get an additional 10% anything in the store (on top of clearance prices.) but hurry, the coupon code will expire at the end of Friday October 11.
Just a little reminder that Google Reeder goes offline this weekend.
What Is Google Reader?
Google Reader is an online RSS reader. It lets you add blogs and websites to a list that you manage. Whenever those sites add new content, it shows up in Google Reader.
If you want to continue to follow my blog please try one of the following. Or you can see some other solutions in my Google Reeder replacement round up.
Prefer to Use a Social Network?
You can also find The Finished Garment on the following social networks.
I have some big news! As you know, I’m a big fan of Canadian fabric shops, so I am super excited to announce an ongoing collaboration with Warp & Weft Exquisite Textiles.
Warp & Weft is a Canadian online fabric and sewing store specializing in designer and imported cotton fabric, embroidery supplies and notions for creative sewing. The shop is run by Esmari Taylor out of Toronto.
She has some fabulous products (go check them out!), and I’ll be doing some sewing with her fabrics on a regular basis and possibly doing some embroidery (so excited!).
My late grandmother taught me to embroider as a little girl, but I haven’t done very much of it lately, and I’m looking forward to the trip down memory lane. I miss her!
I just got my first package, and there was some great fabric inside. I have some really fun projects in mind and I can’t wait to share.
The kids love the Seven Seas fabrics. So cute! I may need to get some more.
There were also some pretty florals, which are great for summer.
I have been adding this fabric to my online shopping carts for months and then not buying it because I had no specific project for it. But now I do!
And finally, linen! I think linen is my favourite fabric of all time. I always just buy black and white, so I thought I’d try some colour this time.
So consider these the “before” photos, and expect to see the completed projects in the coming weeks.
Honestly, the fabric is pretty exciting! But a couple of other nice things happened lately. We’ve always wanted to plant trees for each of our kids, and we’ve just been given four baby oak trees. Now we just have to choose where to plant them.
We also had a very special visitor drop in unexpectedly. We live outside of the city, so wildlife sightings aren’t rare, but the kids always seem to miss them. This time our friendly visitor stayed still long enough for us all to get a good look and for me to take some photos. Wonder if he or she will be back?
I am very happy to announce the winner of the Fabric Giveaway from Double Decker Fabric.
Dorienne of Double Decker Fabric generously provided a collection of 5 fat quarters from the new Safari Soirée collection by Birch Fabrics.
I chose a winner at random using http://www.randomizer.org, and the winner is (drumroll please) comment #11 (not including replies and such).
The winner was Jen and here is the comment she left.
Great fabrics! I’m always on the lookout for cute boy fabrics! This would make a great baby quilt! Yay for Canadian retailers!
I couldn’t agree more about Canadian retailers.
Congratulations Jen! I hope you enjoy making a baby quilt with these great fabrics.
Look what arrived in the mail! Double Decker Fabric is a new Canadian online fabric boutique and they just sent me this beautiful gift.
These fabrics are as follows:
At least I think the last one is Turks & Caicos. There are a couple solids in similar colours on the website.
It’s just in time for Easter and the colours just scream spring. It’s perfect timing as well. I bought some small toys for the kids for Easter – we don’t like giving too many treats. Now there is something for me from the Easter bunny too. Fun!
Now what to make… Zip bags? Something for the baby? The diamonds would make some pretty spectacular quilt binding. I’m going to have to think about this.
A big thank you to Dorienne at Double Decker Fabric!
And if you haven’t seen it yet, there is a fabric giveaway from Double Decker Fabric here on my blog. It’s not too late to enter!
Just recently, the very friendly Dorienne of Double Decker Fabric contacted me asking if I’d like to host a fabric giveaway for my readers. Would I ever!
Double Decker Fabric is a Canadian online business that Dorienne runs near the Rocky Mountains of Alberta. She has some very nice quilting cottons in gorgeous bright colours. These are great for modern quilting but would also work really well for craft projects and kids’ clothing. She has some fun prints but also solids and geometrics. Overall, a really nice, modern selection.
It’s so exciting to see some more modern quilting fabrics available in Canada! No?
The Give Away
The Prize
Dorienne has generously provided the following collection of 5 fat quarters. These are from the new Safari Soirée collection by Birch Fabrics and are all 100% organic! (I love organic fabrics.)
How to Enter
All you need to do, is leave a comment on this blog post letting me know what you would do with the fabric if you won.
The Rules
I’ll pick one winner at random, and Dorienne will send the winner the Safari Soirée fat quarters. Please make sure you leave a valid email address when you comment so that I can get in touch with you, if you win.
The contest closes on April 2nd, 2013 at 12pm (noon) EST.
I’ll announce the winner here on my blog.
So, what would you do with these fun fabrics? Let me know in the comments.
Note: I will be sharing the email address of the winner only with Double Decker Fabrics for the sole purpose of getting their prize delivered. No other email addresses will be shared.
The internet is abuzz with talk of Google Reader shutting down. If you’ve been using Google Reader to follow me on this blog, and are looking for a replacement, here are some alternatives.
What Is Google Reader?
Google Reader is an online RSS reader. It lets you add blogs and websites to a list that you manage. Whenever those sites add new content, it shows up in Google Reader. You can categorize the list of websites into groups. That way you can just read the types of articles you want to, when you want to. I use Google reader and have a “sewing” list, a “world news” list, a “silly news” list, etc.. It helps me prioritize my reading when I’m short on time. I often ignore the “silly news”, for example.
What Is an RSS Feed?
Most blogs, including those that use WordPress (like this one), Blogger and tumblr, produce an RSS feed automatically. These feeds contain either entire articles (blog posts) or article summaries – the website owner controls what shows up in the feed. You can subscribe to these feeds and be notified whenever your favourite blogs and websites add new content. In order to subscribe, you need an RSS feed reader (sometimes called a feed aggregator). This can be an online tool like Google Reader, or a software application on your computer or mobile device.
How Do I Subscribe to The Finished Garment?
You can get the RSS feed link for this blog here: http://finishedgarment.ca/feed/
Just copy this link and put it into the RSS reader of your choice.
Don’t have an RSS Reader?
Here are some options.
Anything I Need to Know Before Making the Switch?
Most of the above tools have a quick easy way to sync your Google Reader account with their app or service. Google Reader will be shutting down in July 2013. If you switch before then, you will be able to take your existing feed list with you quite easily. That means that you won’t have to enter each feed into a new application manually. So make your choice before July to save yourself some headaches.
Prefer to Use a Social Network?
You can also find The Finished Garment on the following social networks.
And on the following sewing networks:
And on the following French language sewing networks (pour les francophones et francophiles):
Am I missing something? Do you know of another social network I should be on? Let me know in the comments.
When I started sewing again, one of the first things I decided to do was to get all my patterns and fabric organized. I only had a small stash: one box of quilting fabric, one box of apparel fabric, and one box with patterns and unfinished objects (UFOs). It had been a while since I had gone through it all and I honestly had no idea what I had to work with.
The other reason for getting organized was that I was tired of going to the fabric store, finding the perfect fabric, and then having no idea how much to buy. Other times I would come home without buttons, or with the wrong type of zipper. I couldn’t carry around all my patterns, just in case I needed to consult the back of the pattern, or could I?
My Goal
My goal was to create a system that was easy to use, affordable, allowed me to know what I had in terms of fabric and consult my patterns anytime and anywhere.
There are a couple of ways to do this. Of course you can do this the low-tech way, lugging patterns around, or little scraps of paper, but this wasn’t working for me. So I decided to go high-tech.
What Are the Options?
There are a number of dedicated smartphone and/or desktop apps you can use.
Sewing Kit, and Sewing Kit HD
Sewing Kit HD is an application that is available for the iPad while Sewing Kit is built for iPhone. You can use it to keep track of your patterns, fabric, measurements and other data. It doesn’t allow you to sync between devices, however.
Cost: $9 for iPad, $5 for iPhone.
PatternPal
PatternPal for iPhone lets you organize your sewing projects. It keeps track of patterns and allows you to input up to 2 photos. There is also a Fabric Stash app for an additional fee.
Total cost: $5. Add $4 if you also want Fabric Stash.
PatternFile
PatternFile is a desktop application that lets you keep track of which patterns you own, and where they are located. It costs $10-20 USD, but if you want to be able to use your data on a mobile device (of course you do!), and to automatically import pattern data, it’s another $5 per month. Mobile apps are available for iPhone, IPad and Android. The iPhone and iPad apps are only available in the US iTunes store.
The software automatically imports pattern data, images, yardage, etc. directly from the pattern companies’ websites. It also allow you to quickly import data for some vintage patterns. This is a really great feature, especially if you use current patterns from the ‘Big Four’ commercial pattern companies.
PatternFile also allows you to share you data with friends and see which patterns they have. I can safely say I would never use this feature. The chances of a friend using the exact same software, and having patterns I want to look at is exactly zero.
Total cost: $23-$55.
Bento
Filemaker makes a product for Macs only called Bento that allows you to create simple databases. The system is pretty flexible, so you can decide what information you want to store. Fabric, patterns, and notions can all be recorded, you just need to take the time to set things up. There are even some ready-made templates available for organizing sewing patterns which can save you some time. Bento allows you to download their product for a 30-day trial.
Unfortunately, I had downloaded Bento a few years ago for some now forgotten reason but hadn’t gotten around to testing it out, and once your time has run out, you can’t get another trial.
There are also Bento apps for iPhone and iPad that allow you to sync your data and make it portable, but these are not free.
Total cost: $49 for Mac, $5 for iPhone, $10 for iPad.
Evernote
Evernote isn’t really an application as much as a web service. It allows you to keep track of patterns, notions, fabric, and anything else you like. You aren’t limited to any number of photos and you can even save PDFs directly to the service. As long as you upload 60MB per month, or less, the service is free. Otherwise it’s $45 per year. If you are routinely entering the same type of data, you can even set up templates to save time. You can access your data through a web browser, using a Windows or Mac desktop application, or on your iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry or Windows Mobile phone. You can also share your data with friends, if you choose to (I have no need of this feature).
Total cost: free.
What Did I Choose?
Evernote was the winner. It is free, easy to use, and did all the things I wanted (except for magically importing pattern data).
I started with my fabric. I created a ‘Notebook’ in Evernote called apparel fabric, then I started documenting all the fabric in my stash. For each piece I created a ‘note’. I took a quick and dirty photo of everything I had, and measured it and included that info. Evernote helps you keep the file size down by letting you take photos within the app in smaller file sizes.
The whole process was pretty quick. I only had one big box of fabric and I documented it one night while watching bad tv shows. That is also why the photos are a bit ‘meh’.
Evernote lets you sort alphabetically by the title of the note, so if you want to organize by colour, put the colour first in the note title, if you want to organize by fabric type, then put the words ‘lining’, or ‘silk’ first. If you want to, you can note how much you paid, where you purchased your fabric, care details, etc. You can also attach tags to notes that help you find things later. I didn’t really use tags for my fabric collection.
Next I tackled my patterns.
I created three notebooks, one for women’s patterns, one for men’s and one for kids’. This was the best way for me to start, since there is no overlap in these categories, at least not within my pattern collection. Well, I suppose there is that 1980s bomber jacket, but the chances of me sewing that for someone of any gender is small.
I used the pattern company name, followed by the pattern number in the title, and then the name of the pattern (i.e. Kelly Skirt). Then I pulled in the pattern front, pattern back and technical drawing for each one. In some cases there is also a link to the pattern company site, or to an inspiring blog post by someone who has made the same garment.
I really like that this system is so flexible. I can keep track of digital patterns and printed ones, ‘Big Four’ patterns and independent ones, patterns for me and for others. I can even include all my vintage patterns.
With my fabrics, I only used a few tags, but with my patterns I used a lot. I tagged my patterns with the pattern company, the decade, the type of garment (dress, top, etc.) and any distinguishing features that I might want to search for later (gored skirt, puff sleeves, asymmetric, vintage, summer, half-size, etc.).
This process was more time consuming that recording my fabric, but well worth the effort. Now if I see a fabric that would make, say, a great summer dress, maybe with ruffles, I can just open up Evernote on my smart phone and search for ‘summer dress ruffle’ and see all the patterns I own that fit those criteria. Then I can choose one pattern, and get the yardage and notion requirements from the image of the pattern back. I have my entire database of patterns available at all times.
I also like that I have a good idea of what patterns are ‘missing’ from my collection. I don’t own a good jeans pattern, for example, and the men I sew for have very slim pickings. I also can avoid duplicating pattern purchases. In a zombie apocalypse, I now know that I will be able to clothe girls between the ages of 3 and 12 in skirts that are a-line, tiered, gathered, pleated, or culottes, in all lengths, without ever leaving the house to purchase a pattern. How did this happen?
Overall, I’m very happy with this solution. You can see how some other bloggers are using Evernote with their sewing here, here, here, here and here. Everyone is organizing their patterns a little bit differently, which just shows how flexible this solution is.
What about you? How do you organize your patterns and fabric?
Note: This post contains an Evernote affiliate link. If you click on it, I get a little extra storage space, but no monetary compensation. As always, my opinions are my own.
BurdaStyle has just published a collection of 11 patterns in a style they call “Fifties Revival”. There are two cute suits, some dresses and a trench coat. And then a cape.
I especially like the concealed buttons. And I love the length. It’s long enough to keep you warm, but not so long that you can’t wear it with casual clothes like jeans. I even like the fabric choice. It looks like wool bouclé, which always seems to end up in Chanel jackets and nothing else. Overall, I think this looks like a really great pattern.
But I’m hesitant. Do I need a cape? I haven’t seen many around. Of course here in Montreal it is currently far to cold to wear capes. Maybe they will start popping up in spring? Maybe I should stick with a coat?
I was also incredible inspired by Renee of Miss Celie’s Pants and her beautiful purple cape, which you can see on her website. She used the Vogue 8776 cape pattern.
What do you think? Capes. Yea or nay?
