by Sherri Sylvester | Nov 25, 2014
Three post in one day later, I just released two new pdf patterns! The Fabric Gift Bag Pattern and a Reusable Lunch Bag Pattern. Both were made with beginners in mind, and the construction methods make them simple to stitch up with a professional finish. I am so fortunate to have worked with Daryl from Fabric Spark (one of this blog’s amazing sponsors) to create these two patterns and she is generously giving away three kits today! (PS. I dare you not to sing the title of this post for the rest of today, you’re welcome!)
I’m really excited that these kits will remain on sale at Fabric Spark – so you can get everything you need to make one of these projects quickly and easily. Daryl includes a paper version of the pattern, perfectly packed, so these kits make a great Birthday or Christmas gift or stocking stuffer for a fellow sewist! You can get the Lunch Bag Kit here and the Gift Bag Kit here.
Find out more about each pattern by clicking on the photos below…
Fabric Spark has provided three prizes for this giveaway so three different people can win! Yippee! You can enter to win one of the following prizes:
(1) Reusable Lunch Bag Pattern Kit in Tula Pink Meteor Shower (Olive colourway, as pictured above)
OR (1) Red-themed Fabric Gift Bag Pattern Kit
OR (1) Green-themed Fabric Gift Bag Pattern Kit
This giveaway is open to Canadians & US residents from today until midnight next Tuesday evening, December 2, 2014. Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter – and if you don’t have Facebook to sign in with, just use your name and email address. There’s a “click to enter”, no social media login entry too!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Of course Fabric Spark doesn’t just sell kits for my patterns. (ha!) Daryl stocks has a wonderful selection of well curated bright-and-colourful-mixed-with-happy fabrics to “spark your imagination”. Check out her shop!
by Sherri Sylvester | Nov 20, 2014
Wow! This post marks the 10th Canadian Online Fabric Store in our series! Now… only about 48 more shops to go – yikes! Alright… We’ve got a fun one for you today! I’d like to introduce you to Karyn, owner of Duncan & Kate Fabrics. This PEI based shop sells organic cotton knits (and ships internationally) – hooray for apparel fabric! And it’s c-uuute! (P.S. There’s a super generous giveaway and a discount code for this shop at the end of the post – scroll down if you can’t wait.)
When Karyn contacted me I was so excited to see her shop and hear her story. She stocks Lillestoff, Stenzo, and their own range of exclusive Duncan & Kate Fabrics in both her Etsy Shop and on her Facebook page. If you love the European style knits, you are in for a treat. She’s even got some stripes to choose from – and you know how hard those are to find! Her story is amazing, and she’s designing some of the fabrics herself! I had such a hard time narrowing my favorites down… here are only a few of them.
In a little bio about her shop, this is what Karyn had to say: I am a Mum of two young children, and I love to sew for them! Our family moved at the end of 2013 from Scotland to PEI, Canada, to be closer to my family (I’m originally from PEI) and its been so wonderful being back in Canada again. It was a hard year for us as my husband was only able to join us (due to the immigration process) in September of this year – and we are pretty ecstatic to be back together as a family again now! In fact, my Love Home fabric design is all about childhood memories of “home”, and I look forward to sharing all of these amazing childhood traditions and memories with my children, and hopefully with their children too some day.
Thread Riding Hood: Why did you decide to start Duncan & Kate Fabrics?
Karyn: When my daughter was born, we lived in a really rural area of Scotland, so I started sewing things for her as there were no shops nearby, and I fell instantly in love with all the amazing organic knits available in Europe. I got a lot of compliments about the clothing I made, and people started asking me to make things for them. Which of course, meant I got to order more fabric; it became my husband’s favourite thing to say (while rolling his eyes!) “You have so much fabric, you should open your own shop.” I took his advice and opened my shop selling organic European knit fabrics in early 2013. We have since moved to Canada, and I am so pleased to be able to offer amazing European sourced organic knit fabrics that are not readily available in North America.
Thread Riding Hood: What is your favorite type of sewing project?
Karyn: I usually sew clothing for children and women from knit fabrics at the moment. But, high on my list of things I want to learn to sew is a quilt. I think they are just so beautiful, and I am totally in awe of people who can make quilts. My grandmother started to put together pieces for a quilt in the early 1950s but she never got to finish it. I have all the pieces and some day I will finish it, and then pass it down to my daughter. The colours in the fabrics are so amazing and bright, and its really special to me to have the pieces that my Grandmother had hand stitched together.
Thread Riding Hood: What is something coming up in the near future that you are especially excited about?
Karyn: In addition to some new fabric designs I am currently working on for our own range of organic cotton knits, I will also be stocking a new range of amazing European organic sweat shirt fabric and a range of solid colour organic cotton knit fabrics in the next couple of months. I am also excited to be introducing a new program for small business owners who sew items for sale; eligible members will receive a discount on all purchases, special offers from time to time, and flat rate shipping. Anyone who is interested in applying for this new program, please send an email to hello@duncanandkatefabrics.com.
Did you catch that bit about her grandmother’s quilt? What a great project – and all of you handmade sellers won’t want to miss her new program (with discounts!) either!
Karyn has generously given us a “Choose Your Own Prize” giveaway. These are the best because you can pick whatever you’d like from the Duncan & Kate shop! One very fortunate reader will win a $50 Gift Certificate to the Duncan & Kate Fabrics Etsy shop… just imagine what you could buy with that!
This giveaway is open to everyone, internationally from today until midnight on Tuesday evening, November 25th. Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter – and if you don’t have Facebook to sign in with, just use your name and email address. There’s a “click to enter” no social media login entry too!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Ok… so you’re ready to start shopping? Many thanks to Karyn, you can click over to Duncan & Kate Fabrics and use the code “THREADRIDINGHOOD10” to get 10% off your purchase. This discount is valid all of the way up until December 10th, 2014. Hooray! Here are a few more fabrics to get you started.
by Sherri Sylvester | Nov 20, 2014
Some of you will remember that I went to Creativ Festival a long, long almost 4 weeks ago now! As usual, it was a great time to get some new fabric and visit with my favorite online shops that are based in the Toronto area. A lot of them have been featured in interviews here, so I know the owners and am always happy to get to talk to them in person.
Of course, I also stashed some lovely items that I’ve been waiting to photograph and wash up – crazy that they’ve been sitting here for that long! This time I promised myself I would try and stash lightly – and, while I think I actually accomplished this (YAY!), I also splurged a bit on some gorgeous Liberty fabric and Kaffe Fasset Shot Cotton (above) from Hyggeligt Fabrics. Now all I need is the perfect project to use them in. And you can bet that I’m going to make a muslin for that one!
Along with a Bonnie and Camille Scrumptious mini charm pack, I went on a bit of an Aneela Hoey kick. I got a tiny Posy pack (at Hamels) to and “a walk in the woods” yardage at the Lens Mill booth. Denyse Schmidt provided a lovely blue to match (found at Sew Sisters) and I’m all set up for something else new.
My youngest picked out two fat quarters from Fabric Spot while she was waiting for Karen and I to finish our conversation! She came with me on Saturday for a few hours to give out my postcards and was a huge help. The seasonally appropriate snowmen are for herself. The amazing Hapi Cotton by Amy Bulter is for her sister – because she said it looks like Minecraft, my oldest’s favorite game at the moment. I’m not sure about Minecraft – but it looks amazing!
Along the way I got to chat with a few new people, including Berene from Happy Sew Lucky – who just moved to Toronto, the amazing Samarra Khaja, Shannon from the Bryer Patch and Gillian – who lives quite close and might come sew at my place sometime soon! I also took a few photos of the shop booths I’ve worked with in the past, so you can feel like you visited too.
Country Clothesline: Sylvia wins prettiest booth of the show. Truly gorgeous! She’s got fresh florals and an amazing amount of dots – so if you need some, this is the place to go.
Fabric Spark: Daryl’s shop was full of goodness again this year – including LOTS of Cotton + Steel Basics! Soon to be released Thread Riding Hood patterns and (knitters rejoice!) Wool and the Gang products. Check out the WATG Instagram feed – warm and cozy!
Fabric Spot: SOoooooo much fabric! Karen’s Facebook feed says she brought over 500 bolts. Just amazing. Seriously… she’s got everything! And she’s got voile and organic knits – perfect for apparel!
Fridays Off Fabric Shop: Alanna’s varied selection is so much fun to look through! Echino, Tula, Ann Kelle and lots of British inspiration.
Warp & Weft: This year Esmari included handmade along with her fabric! Lysa Flower‘s lovely calendars + Merchant & Mills products = Love! Throw in a few TRH Warp & Weft Sewing Society tutorials and you’ve got an amazing selection.
Reader Feedback: Were you able to get out to Creativ Festival this fall? If not, what are your favorite fabric and crafting events?
by Sherri Sylvester | Nov 7, 2014
Hooray, It’s a new series! Thanks to some generous sponsors and partners, I am now able to post a fabric shop discount every so often along with some of their newest gorgeous fabric lines. Today we are featuring Double Decker Fabrics. (Scroll down to get the discount information, it’s after the pretty fabric!)
If you’d like to know more about Dorienne’s shop, Double Decker Fabrics is one of the first shops I interviewed in my Canadian Online Fabric Store series. She runs the shop from Alberta, Canada – and ships internationally!
Dorienne happens to have just received two of my favorite collections right now – and they are both Art Gallery lines! Winged by Bonnie Christine (Those butterflies are amazing!) and Emmy Grace from Bari J, whom I’ve just started following on Instagram – talk about gorgeous inspiration there!
To get 15% off your purchase at Double Decker Fabrics use the code “winter15”. Dorienne has been very generous and your discount can be used on anything in the shop, including sale items! (Discount expires November 21, 2014)
Reader Feedback: Which fabric is your favorite? (I know I have a hard time choosing! I think it would be either the Wingspan Melon or the Budquette Dayspring print)
by Sherri Sylvester | Oct 22, 2014
It’s time to head to Creativ Festival again! This will be my fourth time going, the others are blogged here: Spring & Fall 2013 and Spring 2014. I’ll be on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter a lot this weekend, I’m sure. So if you can’t be there I’ll try my best to share it with you.
I love being able to see my favorite online shops in person, buying fabric, and browsing fabric, talking to some of my local shops that have booths… buying fabric… ummm…. more fabric?! This year, though, I’m going to concentrate on talking to people, (instead of the fabric!) I am feeling that my stash is a tad overwhelming. While I’m sure I will buy more than fabric than I “need”, I’m going to do my best to keep the total down!
My friend Laura (Seams Sew Laura) and I are taking my brand new postcards down to Creativ early Friday afternoon. Side note… As I think of the number of amazing blog related things happening during the next little while I’m reminded how grateful I am to be working with so many amazing people – and especially for all of you reading! Thank you all so much.
Once we get to Creativ, I’m going to abandon my usual methodical (start at row 1) way of shopping and make a beeline straight for the centre booths. I’ve got two very exciting things to see right away. I’m super happy to say that I’ve been working with Fabric Spark (booth 525) and Warp & Weft (booth 624) behind the scenes to kit my new patterns and sell them during Creativ!
Here’s a sneak peek of two new patterns I’ll be releasing as pdf patterns here next week. (I’ll save the proper introductions, and just write about the kits today.) Daryl from Fabric Spark and I have been working together to produce The Reusable Lunch Bag and Fabric Gift Bag Patterns specifically for the Creativ Festival! They are super beginner friendly and super-fast and fun advanced sewist projects! I was over at Daryl’s shop Monday of this week kitting them with her. It was a treat to see her stash of fabric and get to mix and match bolts together for the kits. (Wow!)
The Fabric Gift Bags are kitted in several different combinations (including the amazing one above!) – everything from gorgeous pinks and yellows to masculine gray and blue to Christmas-themed (… yes.. it’s coming!). The Lunch Bag Kit will be available in 4 different laminated cottons – Tula Pink (x2), AMH and Amy Butler. These two patterns will be available for sale un-kitted as well, and the Gift Bags are especially made to fit in exactly 1 yard of fabric – so you can mix and match whatever colour scheme your holiday season fits into!
The Forest Glen Satchel pattern is finished and I’ll be releasing it as a pdf download here in the next few weeks. In the meantime, it is available as a paper pattern, exclusively from Warp and Weft during Creativ Festival. The satchel was designed with Elizabeth Olwen’s Cloud9 collection, Wildwood, and kits of all three Wildwood fabric combinations chosen by Elizabeth will be available. It was also fun to collect six of my Warp & Weft-related projects from around my house and deliver them to Esmari today. It’s a shame I didn’t think to take a photo! They are all related to free tutorials that I’ve written for use with Warp & Weft fabrics and will be on display over the weekend, so you can see them up close and in person.
On a seriously amazing other note! The Forest Glen Satchel is photographed in Elizabeth Olwen’s Wildwood Look Book and I’m fairly certain the Satchel Elizabeth made at the workshop is on its way to Quilt Market in Houston to live at her booth. (Eeeeekkkk!) I am so re-gramming any photos it shows up in this weekend!
I’ve got a list of other booths to visit at Creativ and I’m hoping to be surprised by a more modern fabric selection. Every year it seems to increase – lucky us! There are also a few sponsor shops and some I’ve interviewed that I can visit as well. Fabric Spot (booth 327) always has a huge selection – and I picked up the Cotton & Steel tigers (above) from her last week, along with a Lush Uptown charm pack. I’m excited to see Sylvia from Country Clothesline (booth 323) and Alanna from Fridays Off (booth 118) again as well.
Wow – I guess that’s “it” for now. What a lot of stuff to fit in with such a small word! Most of all I’d love to meet you. I’ll be there Friday and Saturday if you’re in the area. The most fun part of my job is connecting with all the fabric lovers I’m surrounded with!
Will you be at Creativ this weekend? What are you most looking forward to doing there?
by Sherri Sylvester | Oct 7, 2014
A few weeks ago it was warm and I was thinking about summer skirts. Specifically the Alder Skirt from imagine gnats. I’ve been planning to make one since I wrote about it in May, long time ago now – though I am please to have made two out of the three patterns I mention in that post. That’s got to be good for something! I even used one of the fabrics I talk about for this skirt – though it was supposed to be a Wiksten tank. Not sure I would have pulled that off as easily!
The A-line and front pleat give it a nice, comfortable shape. You can’t really see it in these photos, but it has three panels across the front that add a nice detail if you are close up. The sizing was good, it was even the perfect length after hemming. Since I was between sizes I think I could have comfortably gone down a size instead of up one. The back elastic has plenty of room in it, to the point that the larger size is a bit too gathered. I like the elastic waist, because it is comfortable and easy to make. But I might try removing it, add a few more darts in the back and a side zipper to make the skirt look a bit more tailored.
(please excuse the road trip wrinkles)
As far as construction, this skirt is really simple to sew up and is well thought through. I think it may have taken me 2 hours to make, from cutting to finishing the hem. I even squeezed it out of a bit less yardage than it calls for, which is always nice! I love how Rachel constructed the pockets. They add a great diagonal detail to the sides of the skirt and allow you to add some fun fabric in if you’d like. I chose to use a bit of black denim, to add contrast to the Rashida Skin from Alexander Henry that I got from Fabric Spark this summer. I think a contrasting waistband would be nice too – maybe next time?
I am really pleased that this has turned into a year-round skirt. And I can see making quite a few of them – since they are such a quick finish. There are quite a few variations included in the pattern. With or without the front pleat and with wide or narrow pockets. The two side panels allow you to play with fabrics and color-blocking as well. So each alder turns out quite different from the others. I’ve seen a few that use piping on the front seams and pocket edges, which is a great way to make those lines stand out.
I was not sure I could pull off an animal print, but now that I have it I love it! I think it will be paired with casual t-shirts next summer. But this fall and winter, scarves, cozy leg warmers and boots are perfect! And I’m loving the light in these photos. My husband and I were on our way to dinner, and since it was getting towards sunset we were looking for a good spot with some fall scenery. The photos are fall perfect and warm-looking, though the actual temperature made me run for my jacket as soon as the shoot was over!
Reader Feedback: How are you feeling about fall? Do you get the urge to sew anything specific? (For some reason I want to make a sweater as soon as it gets remotely chilly every year, one of these years it will actually happen!)
