Now you can find the EXACT fabric you are looking for!

All you have to do is design it and they will print it for you. Ahhhhh Spoonflower.com!

So, last week in one of the beginner Fashion Lab Boot Camp Classes, when one of my newly converted stitchers said, okay, so I want to get this fabric that has seahorses carrying flags with my initials on it. Where do I get that????

My first reaction was to kind of laugh to myself and think, wow that is kind of a TALL fabric order... She has a lot of things she wants going on on this fabric.... Not really sure about this one...

Now - I pride myself at having the ability to find my students and customers just about any fabric they can dream up. Between NYC's garment district and my resources online, I can find just about any fabric, but this one was going to be a doozy. But THEN i remembered about the Spoonflower Sight.

I haven't tried to design and print my own fabric yet (regretably) but check it out right now.

You design the fabric, send them the artwork for the design and then they send you a yard of it printed on quilt quality cotton for $18. Cheap if you ask me cause they have no minimums! And you can enter your fabric design in the fabric of the week contest! Good Stuff!

Smells a lot like "Project Runway" to me...

...but who really cares?

I know I will still be watching. I think that Mizrahi has the potential to be just as much of a "charactar" as Tim Gund and Kelly Rowland has GOT to be better than Heidi Klum...

Premiers on May 7th, and I cannot wait!

Are you with me?

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From the Bravotv.com Website:
The Fashion Show premieres on Bravo on Thursday, May 7, 2009 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Fifteen professional designers will compete in this fashion creative competition series for a chance to have their designs sold in the retail market and win a $125,000 prize.
Internationally acclaimed designer Isaac Mizrahi shares hosting duties with four-time Grammy Award-winning performer and actress Kelly Rowland. Mizrahi and Rowland will also serve as judges alongside fashion luminary and Senior Vice President of IMG Fashion, Fern Mallis.
Each week the designers will be put to the test and will have to face off in two challenges – the Harper's Bazaar Mini Challenge, judged by the magazine's Special Projects Director Laura Brown, and the elimination challenge. In the end, America will choose which contestant will have a clothing line available for retail and win the $125,000 prize.

Hoboken Arts & Music Fest - Getting you Excited Early

MAYOR DAVID ROBERTS
& THE CITY OF HOBOKEN
proudly present the 15th annual
Hoboken Spring Arts & Music Festival
Sunday, May 3, 2009 • 11am to 6pm

ADMISSION IS FREE
Washington St. - Observer Highway to 7th St.
Featuring 3 stages of live music
& over 300 artists, sculptors, photographers, craftspeople, food vendors & local businesses
(That's Our Booth Circa 2000, Maybe? We've come a long way, baby!)

Special Children’s area on 3rd street with rides, games, creative activities, ponies, live performances and much more:

Live Performance on 3 Stages -
schedules are tentative and subject to change

Observer Hwy - (bet. Newark & Observer Hwy)
12:00pm - Mad Happy
1:00pm - Yung Wu
1:30pm - Wild Carnation
2:00pm - East of Venus
3:00pm - Val Emmich (of Ugly Betty fame)
4:30pm - The Boxtops with Alex Chilton

Sixth Street Stage -
12:30pm - Bandwidth
1;15pm - The Verdict
2:15pm - Second Fiddles
3:15pm - Clueless
4:15pm - Joe Taino
5:15pm - Orchestra C2

Kidz Stage (Third Street)
11:15am Hanna Valente
12:00pm Polka Dot Pals with aka Ron Albanese
1:00pm Frog & Toad - production of NJ Theatre for the Performing Arts
at DeBaun Auditorium
2:00pm Mother Goose
3:00pm Polka Dot Pals with aka Ron Albanese
4:00pm Frog & Toad
5:00pm Polka Dot Pals with aka Ron Albanese

Just 3 blocks from all public transportation: PATH, NJ Transit Trains & buses,
NY Waterway Ferries and Hudson Bergen Lightrail

Sponsors include:
radio station WRXP, PATH; Port Authority of NY & NJ; Optimum
The Hoboken Reporter & The Hudson Current,
The NJ Division of Travel & Tourism & NJ Transit

CONTACT:
For more information: Geri Fallo, Division of Cultural Affairs
gfallo@att.net; Phone: 201-420-2207
Fax: 201-420-2388
www.hobokennj.com
www.myspace.com/hobokenculturalaffairs
The City of Hoboken: At Work for You

See you there!

Summer Intern(s) Wanted

I am once again looking for a summer intern or two this summer. You must fill the shoes of the last summer interns (left), and that is going to be quite a feat!

Kerry, Heather & Sara were all hard workers who took on projects with ease and loved learning new things about having your own small design business.

Here is how the ad I posted on Craigslist reads:

Attention College students interested in a career in fashion, merchandising or someone looking to have their own DIY business. We are M Avery Designs, LLC and we design, produce and sell our line of bags and accessories in our studio / boutique in Hoboken NJ. We also teach sewing & crafting classes to kids and adults.

We are looking for a summer intern for summer 2009. Schedule is very flexible. You MUST be very comfortable using a sewing machine! We are willing to work with your school to get you credit for this internship.

Duties will include, but not limited to:
-Helping with production (ie Cutting fabric, ironing, cutting patterns, sewing piece work, etc)
-Helping with sewing classes, both for adults and kids.
-"Brick & Mortar" Store management and maintenance.
-Online store management & maintenance.
-Way more that we can talk about when we interview you

PLEASE spend some time on our website maverydesigns.com and get to know our business before you contact us.

PS: We do have a shop dog that hangs out occasionally. Please do not apply if you are allergic or afraid of dogs.


IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES, SEND ME AN EMAIL!

Project Runway - This SUMMER - On Lifetime

Well Hallelujah! They have come to some sort of agreement in court and the *already taped* 6th season of Project Runway will air. (Sigh of relief)

It's coming on this summer and it will be aired on Lifetime.

I suppose this is a little annoying because who likes to watch TV in the summer. But thanks to Adam, we have a DVR now and that is going to come in really handy!


Here is the article from the AP.

Curb Alert - Before & After

Found these two chairs yesterday when I was parking my car in Hoboken. Thought they had great lines and a kind of cool back. Since we have a dinner table that seats like 17, thought it couldn't hurt to give these babies a face-lift with some awesome upholstery fabric I had stashed.



Here is the result. Not a massive change, but it's amazing what a new new seat cover will add to a piece of furniture and it only took about 20 minutes!

And even though there are only two of them, they look great around the butcher block table with the other chairs, even if the other chairs are orange vinyl and metal ; )

These photos really don't do them justice. One of these days I will photograph them with my real camera (not the camera phone) and you can see for yourself, a little better.

Weekend Sewing - By Heather Ross

I had the opportunity to take a look at Heather Ross' new book, Weekend Sewing at our last sewing Meet Up. One of the attendees had just gotten it as a gift and brought it to the meeting for everyone to check out.

I was immediately in love with all the realy unique projects the book was filled with. I saw a lot of things that I have not seen before in sewing books and that is what gets me really excited. One that sticks out it in my mind is this newborn kimono shirt that is going to be my next staple gift for baby showers. It's absolutely adorable and I have never seen a pattern for it so small!

The other thing that I think I fell in love with about Heather's book is all the vintage sewing machines that were photographed with the projects. I seem to have become a collector of broken vintage sewing machines, as my shop is full of them now.
Whether it's machines that we have been using for class that break down, or adorable pastel colored sewing machines that I come across at flea markets and just can't resist having, even though they don't work. In my opinion they make great decorations at the shop.

Well, Heather of Weekend Sewing has a passion for vintage sewing machines as well. See what she had to say to Cathy of California about old machiens on her blog here.