Christine Haynes's Blog, page 14

Home Again: Giveaway, Classes, & Confusion

Hi everyone! I'm back in Los Angeles and currently it's 5am. My body is completely confused and so is my mind! But I'm jumping back into it and wanted to tell you all about a couple of things!


First, just a reminder that I have three classes coming up at Sew L.A. this weekend! Friday night I'm teaching Machine Intro which is perfect for absolute beginners; Saturday this is followed by the very easy (but of so satisfying) Throw Pillow class; and then Saturday afternoon is part 1 of the Adorable Datura Tank class (pictured above). Last I looked there was only 1 spot left for that class, so jump on it!


Also, the lovely ladies at Sew, Mama, Sew are spending the month listing their favorite patterns and the other day was my Emery Dress pattern! There's not much new to read about it over there, but here's why you should go check it out: GIVEAWAY! Yes, they are handing out the pattern to one lucky commenter, so if you don't already own it, go try to win it!

I am so grateful for everyone's comments and thoughts throughout my travels and am thrilled to have met so many amazing people along the way. Some things I've already talked about, but much is yet to come, so stay tuned here for more about the fabrics, people, books, magazines, and inspiration from my travels abroad! I will also get you all caught up on the goodies that arrived at my door while I was gone and loads more!

xoxo
Christine

July Teaching Schedule!

I'm coming back to Los Angeles soon, and with my return is a return to teaching! Yay! I love my students and really enjoy teaching, so if you're in the area and looking to learn a new skill, I do hope you join me for a class! I have classes for every level!

Since I've been away, developing new samples has been a no-go, so I'm returning with some of my favorite projects, with fun new options popping up in August and September.

Read below for my July offerings and click on the link to sign up directly on the website for the class.  Spaces are limited to either 6 or 8 students depending on the project, so don't wait! Classes get cancelled if there aren't enough sign ups as the date approaches, so if you want to take the class, let us know by signing up! And let me know in the comments if anyone has questions about levels, supplies, and whatnot. All the classes below are held at Sew L.A. in the Atwater Village neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Thanks and I hope to see you in class!

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Datura Tank by Deer & Doe Patterns
Saturday, July 12 from 3-6pm
4 sessions (12 hours), $155


This adorable tank from Deer & Doe Patterns is a staple in my personal wardrobe and my last class had tremendous success! This top may seem simple, but it is jammed packed full of skill building! You will learn bust darts, bias binding a curved hem, sewing buttonholes and buttons, a perfect Peter Pan collar, and more!

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Coco Top or Dress by Tilly & the Buttons
Friday, July 18 from 6:30-9:30pm
2 sessions (6 hours), $95


Learning to sew with knit fabrics can be scary and you might think you need a serger/overlock machine to make it happen. Not true! Learn how to sew knit fabrics on a home machine and make this adorable boatneck top or dress by the adorable Tilly & the Buttons!

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Throw Pillow Covers
Saturday, July 12 from 11am-1:30pm
2 sessions (5 hours), $85


If you are just starting out and have figured out the sewing machine but that's about it, this is an ideal project for you! We cover the most basic functions of construction and you leave with a gorgeous pair of new throw pillows! Learn fabric construction, cutting, pinning, pivoting, seam finishing, hemming, and more!

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Machine Intro
Friday, July 11 from 6:30-9:30pm
Saturday, July 26 from 11am-2pm
1 session (3 hours), $65


Never touched a machine before, or maybe it's been a long while? Start with Machine Intro and remove all the fear and hesitation and get sewing! In this absolute beginner class, we'll learn about the basic tools required for quality sewing, all the parts of the sewing machine, plus you'll practice your skills by making a super cute tote bag, big enough to use for the market or the library. Yes!

Ray-Stitch Party Recap!

Last Friday evening the lovely ladies of the London shop Ray-Stitch welcomed me with the most delightful party! There were tons of familiar faces, and though I had met hardly of them before, it was like all of us already knew each other since we all follow each other's blogs and sewing shenanigans.




The party was in their delightful shop, full of gorgeous fabrics, indie patterns, and tons of notions, with a cute classroom in the lower level. Out back behind the shop is a patio and garden, which made for the most ideal setting for the gathering, as it was the warmest day of the year in London so far, and everyone was certainly in the mood to sip a cocktail and soak up the warm temperatures.




After much mingling and snacking, the ladies in the running for the best Emery Dress in the house were rounded up for an impromptu catwalk and fashion show. All of the ladies were such good sports and walked to the sound of a cheering crowd of fellow sewers.




A winner was picked, Patricia, who made her dress in beautiful Liberty Lawn, fully lined, with a rounded Peter Pan collar, complete with piping in the seams. Swoon-worthy indeed! All the ladies were more than qualified to win, but the piping took it over the top for me, making Patricia the winner of some fabric and all three of my dress patterns that I had brought with me from LA.



Roisin and Sarah also got thank you gifts, for making so many versions of my Emery Dress and spreading the word to everyone in the UK. Sarah wore Emery #50 to the party and just about blew my mind.



It was an amazing honor to get to know Victoria and Elisalex from By Hand London. Charlotte was out of town at a wedding, so I didn't get to meet her, but if she's anything as incredible as these two, this is a trifecta that is going to do great things for sure, as if there was any doubt. Seriously, these ladies are awesome!



Tilly was also in the house, which is super fun as that lady simply cracks me up! I love spending time with her! We bought each other's books (a proper review of her book to come soon) and decided to pose for a photo. But as it does with the two of us, it always gets a tad out of hand. She can hold her serious face for a significantly longer amount of time than I can! I always fall into a fit of laughter, as illustrated below...





I will absolutely forget people if I even try to list all the lovely ladies that came, so suffice it to say that I was blown away at the amount of people that came, many in from the burbs or beyond, all of whom undoubtedly have busy lives. So please accept a huge THANK YOU from my heart to all of you who came. It truly meant a lot to talk to each one of you and I look forward to the next time our paths cross!



And to the amazing staff and teachers at Ray-Stitch, it was an absolute pleasure to meet you all! Huge thanks to Rachel and Lisa for working so hard and making the party so delightful. I appreciate all the hard work and effort. Hugs to you ladies!



All photos by my man

London Party Reminder!

Bonjour everyone!

Just a reminder that the lovely Ray Stitch is hosting a party for me tomorrow night from 6-9pm! So if you're in the London area, I do hope you can drop by and say hi! And remember, wear your greatest Emery Dress as there will be an Emery contest! Let's see how many Emery's we can get into a room! I know I'll be wearing one... :)
Hope to see you there!

Petit Pan

I pride myself on knowing a lot about fabric shops in two cities: LA and Paris. So suffice it to say that when I walked by a shop last week that I had never heard of before, and they were selling the most adorable fabrics, buttons, pre-made piping, bias tape, and more, I just about flipped out.

Here's the scene: my man and I were walking home from having gelato. We turned down a street we hadn't walked down before, and on the right side of the side walk appears a shop full of bolts of fabric with adorable florals on them. He turns to me, I smile to him, and in I go. We both know what's about to happen!


About 30 minutes or so later (and it's not that big of a shop) I emerge happy and with a bag full of precuts. Welcome to Petit Pan! Your new favorite super duper cute fabric shop!

Upon returning to the apartment, I did a little digging to find out more about this place. First, it's not new, so shame on me for never having heard of it before. Did anyone else know about this place? They've been around since 2002, so there were right there for the shopping on all of my previous four trips to Paris. Doh!


Are the Parisian sewing ladies using their fabrics? I feel like I've never seen them around or heard any mention of them in the past, so who knows if anyone else knows about them. But now I know! Yay!

Anyway, from looking at their site, it seems as though that they have fabric and notions for sale, plus items pre-made from their fabrics and notions. Much like the Liberty of London model, where you can buy their fabric, or just buy the dress made from their fabric.



I loved everything in Petit Pan, but I know that my wearable fabric taste is getting calmer and calmer, so their vivid colors were perhaps a bit too much for me to wear. But as much as my clothing palate is getting quieter, my desire to make fun quilts is growing and growing. So I knew that a bundle of these pretty prints would be a wonderful souvenir to bring back and make a quilt from.



I picked a handful of cotton quilt weight prints, but they also had a whole wall of oil cloth, heavier home dec weight fabrics, as well as loads of pre-made notions, which were very hard to resist.

Next time you're in Paris, you should totally swing by this super cute shop! And if you're far away, not to worry, as they sell all their fabrics and notions on their website too! Hurrah!

Me Made May Recap

I decided to participate in this year's Me Made May pretty much at the last minute. Not because I thought it'd be hard to wear handmade everyday, because I pretty much do wear handmade everyday. But I hesitated because with my body changing so much this year, I hadn't made many new things for myself as we entered May, so I knew that I'd repeat a lot of the few things along the way, since there are only a few things I have in my closet that I still liked the way they fit. But I still jumped in, figuring that I wear handmade all the time anyway, and well, I should be better at documenting it, and away we go!

I will say though, I got seriously tired of my own selfies, so lord, if you were tired of seeing my face too, I totally understand it! I only skipped two days, both of which were days that I was working from home and didn't have to leave the house, so I stayed in jammies or yoga pants for the day. Clearly I need to follow Devon's suit and make some lounge pants to wear at home!

Anyway, above and below are the results of me documenting myself wearing handmade nearly everyday for the month of May. If you want to see the details of each outfit, check out my Instagram feed, where each of these came from.

Did I learn anything along the way? Yes, and no. I already knew that I needed more things that actually fit me, and I also knew that I liked comfortable, modern, but feminine and vintage-inspired shapes and fabrics. I think this all shows up in my photos, so none of that was news to me. I think was it does tell me is that it's okay to have a closet full of classic staples that you want to turn to over and over. I don't need 1,000's of items and I have no intention of wearing something different everyday. I'm not that into consumption!

I'm also intrigued by separates, as I got quite a lot of milage from a couple of skirts I whipped up quickly and knit shirts, both RTW and handmade. I'm more comfy in separates now, so that might be a theme for me coming up. I'm certain with my smaller shape and a few more minutes to spare when I return home from holiday, my closet is going to get a major overhaul!

How about you? Did you learn anything from participating in Me Made May? Would you do it again? I will!

First Shipping Delivery Deadline

Want to get your order shipped this week? Then today's the day to get your order in! While I'm away on holiday, the shipping is done once a week, and you can see the whole schedule here. Today's the cut off (end of day, Paris local time!) for this week's orders, which will ship on Friday, so go visit the shop if you don't want to wait another week!

London Party Next Weekend!

Greetings from Paris! I am nearly set to local time and am so happy to be back in such a visually inspiring city! And speaking of beautiful European cities, this is just a happy reminder that next weekend I will be in London at Ray Stitch for a little get together! I hope you can join me!

Please note, the lovely ladies at Ray Stitch do encourage you to RSVP so they have some idea of how many people are coming, so might you take a second right now and let them know you will be there? The email is lisa@raystitch.co.uk

Hope to see you there!!!

Au Revoir!

I am off today on my annual holiday to Paris, and I am SO ready for a break! Though this year is the first time work is officially coming with me. But that's okay, it's a lovely problem that I'm at a point where I can't just shut things down for 6 weeks and go hide at a Parisian park! So there will be some items on my to-do list, but hey, I'll be doing them in Paris, so really a girl can't really complain, am I right?

I have had guest bloggers in the past help fill the void left here during my holiday, but since I'll have my trusty laptop with me this year, I will be posting occasionally myself from abroad. Not too much, mind you, but some. So keep your eyes here for some posts from Paris!

And if you're into Parisian eye candy, I suggest you follow my Instagram feed, as I just invested in some international data so I can post on the go! I've heard from so many people that they love my photos while I'm away, so I will be updating my feed daily with French goodness, like the photo above from last year's trip.

Incidentally, if you're into these images, many of my favorites are up on my Society6 page, available on a multitude of products. So check that out if you're so inclined!

Okay, time to catch my flight and cross the ocean to my Parisian apartment! Eeep!
xoxo

Quilt Market Recap!

Melody Miller, Rashida Coleman-Hale, Alexia Abegg, Sarah Watts, & Kim Kight of Cotton + Steel, and meEach market has a personality all its own, and this one had one definite theme: Cotton + Steel. I planned to go to market for my own business, to meet & greet with my friends, visit with editors, and chat with other designers and fabric companies. But in addition to all of that, I was lucky enough to have my bestie pal Alexia Abegg and her C+S partner Melody Miller ask me if I'd assist them with their booth prep and schoolhouse presentation. Clearly the answer was a big fat YES!

details of the Cotton + Steel booth wallFirst off, I have to say that the lovely ladies of C+S and their accompanying men (AKA, beards of steel) were so kind to me and really treated me like one of their own, despite being a helper and not a C+S designer. It was also really educational to see market from a presenter's perspective, and I am so grateful for the behind-the-scenes access, all kinds of knowledge to store away in my head for one day when I have my own market booth!

the beautiful Cotton + Steel boothI arrived on Wednesday afternoon and went directly to the show floor to see how I could help the team with their set up. I had seen the booth in its full glory a few months prior when they were setting things up at the RJR headquarters in Torrance, a lucky break that it is not far from my home. I helped with whatever needed an extra set of hands and then we headed off to dinner.

PittsburghMarket was in Pittsburgh, a city I hadn't been to before, and I really liked it! It reminded me of all the mid-sized midwestern cities I know from Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio, all of which have that rustbelt feel to them. I judge every city on how easy it is for me (a vegetarian) to eat there, and for that, Pittsburgh got a surprisingly huge two thumbs up from me! We landed that first night at a meatball restaurant, complete with a veggie "meat" ball option! Thank you!

After many drinks and meatballs, somehow we found ourselves getting a cartwheel lesson from Sarah, to which me and Melody were the only takers, but we've decided to have a redo in the fall after a summer of practicing. Hopefully it will be slightly less embarrassing than our first go!
the Cotton + Steel Schoolhouse presentationThe next day was an early to rise day, as the C+S ladies were presenting in the premier schoolhouse, which meant speaking in a giant ballroom to about 1,500 people. Alexia and I had proper breakfasts, and headed off to meet up with the rest of the team. Again, watching how all of this went down from behind the curtain was so wonderful and these ladies are such pros. Melody and Alexia spoke and they showed the documentary films that Melody's husband made, all of which are so amazing.

Melody wearing an Emery Dress during the Schoolhouse presentation!One of the films goes into all the details on how the fabric is made and prepared and I cannot recommend it enough. It's amazing how many people in this industry don't understand how fabric is made and printed, including some fabric designers I've met along the way. Seems like fabric 101 if you ask me! You can watch this video along with their others on the Cotton + Steel Facebook page.

details of the pretty Cotton + Steel boothAfter the presentation, it was back to booth prep, and I helped with sewing buttons on garments in the booth, binding quilts, making throw pillows, and the like. I was so happy to help and even was given my very own Cotton + Steel T-shirt! Thanks ladies! After all of that, I got to help (and witness) for Sample Spree, an event I've only ever heard about. OMG, it lived up to the madness hype and then some!
my sample spree haul :)Okay, so for those of you that don't know, Sample Spree is where people can come in and buy fat quarters and other things from the company's booths before it all ships later in the year. So, for C+S, their fabric ships in July, but if you were at spree, you could get your hands on some of it NOW! You see how this can mess with your mind, right? The doors opened, the people RAN towards the booth and then loaded up armfuls of fabric! Melody's husband and I sat on the floor under the tables and threw all the fabric up on the tables and into the hands of the happy shoppers, until the back stock was empty, which was exactly 10 minutes. Yep, 10 minutes and all the C+S fabric was gone! After that madness ended we hit dinner and then passed out!

sample spree madness!The next two days were filled with walking the show floor, visiting with friends, meeting up with people that I knew from the internet and meeting new people. Friday I got together with Lotta Jansdotter so she could shoot my photo for her next book. She asked me and a few other people to make a project from her book, which was a huge honor to say the least.

me & Tasia of SewaholicI also met the lovely Tasia from Sewaholic and was lucky enough to score one of her new books and get it signed by her. Tasia is as nice as you'd suspect and her book is big and lovely. I know that people are going to love it!

Jaime & Amber of Fancy Tiger, Lotta, and meFriday night Lotta and I met up with Amber and Jaime from Fancy Tiger and planned to get Thai food and then visit the Andy Warhol museum. Delicious Thai food was had (vegan duck curry!), then we walked over the river to the museum, only to find that it was closed in prep for their big 20th anniversary party the next night. Needless to say, we were all really bummed. No worries, we found a bar that was happy to have us!

Carolyn Friedlander and her beautiful booth & bookSaturday was more visiting and I hit the vintage fabric booth... twice! Oh man, that is a deadly spot for me. I blame Carolyn Friedlander, as it was her booth that drew me over to that area, but as she was always wrapped up with fans, I found myself wandering into the vintage fabric. Curse you Carolyn! Not really... Carolyn is SO nice and her booth was lovely. The organizers agreed and while we were there getting our books signed (her book too is lovely) she won a booth award! Well done!

Deborah, Keli, Monica, and Kristin all shared a cab to the airport Saturday afternoon, then after Monica and Kristin flew away, Deborah, Keli and I wandered off to find a chill spot, only to find Lotta having a meal and cocktail by herself, to which we happily joined in! A lovely way to end the trip!

me & AlexiaThanks again to the lovely and talented Cotton + Steel ladies for including me, and thanks to all the other fine people I met and visited with over the weekend! It was such a delightful trip and I hope to see everyone again in Houston!