Meet the Designer: Cal Patch!

Cal Patch is coming to town! 

Cal is one of our favorite garment sewists and teachers. She is the author of Design-It-Yourself Clothes, and we are thrilled to be hosting her for a class here in just a few weeks!

Cal is devoted to the handmade movement, and has been since she was a young girl. With her extensive knowledge in teaching, designing and creating she has mastered all things textile. She will be in town for the Makerie and is making a very special trip to Fancy Tiger Crafts to teach her Folk Dress. Sign up for both her workshops at the Makerie and at Fancy Tiger Crafts to receive a combined discount of $50! Call us to reserve your spot. In the meantime, lets meet Cal.

1) How did you get started in the crafting industry? What is your background?
I actually came to the craft world by way of the fashion industry. I've been a clothing designer for nearly 25 years, and the first decade of my adult life was spent working in that world in NYC. But the higher I advanced in my career, the less I got to be creative and actually MAKE things, so I escaped and opened my own boutique, which is where I first started teaching crochet and sewing.

2) You have a wide range of projects from crocheting to sewing - do you have a  favorite type of project to design? Or, what are you most excited about making right now?
Crochet and sewing are like my two babies, and I couldn't possibly ever choose between them. My favorite thing is to combine them, like with my crochet-yoked smock dresses. At the moment I'm super excited about my new 4-week online workshop on pattern drafting and sewing your own wardrobe, which happens to be debuting this week on Creativebug! I love showing people that it's really very do-able to draft and sew with their own patterns.

3) What influences you creatively? What is your creative process for coming up with new ideas? What inspires you?
I'm very practical, so I tend to just be inspired by daily life. I don't get excited when I see fancy red-carpet gowns or elaborate couture ensembles; I'm more likely to be daydreaming up dresses with big pockets that i can use for gathering eggs from the coop, or picking peas in the garden. Usually I design things to fill a niche that I see, or a void in my own wardrobe. I also am very inspired by materials, and try to find ones made with organic fibers, locally sourced or made by independent artisans.

4) What is your favorite mythological animal? 
If I could invent my own *spirit animal*, it'd be a cross between a tortoise (I'm very s-l-o-w) and a kangaroo (I like the idea of a built-in pouch).

5) If you could have any super power, what would it be?
That's easy: to make time stand still, except for in my house, so I can catch up!

If you aren't able to make her class here at Fancy Tiger, check out her 4 week long workshop over at Creative bug on pattern drafting!

Thanks Cal, we can't wait to create with you!

Fancy Tiger Crafts is coming at you with our Spring schedule!

Oh boy, do we have a fabulous spring schedule to share with you! We have added about a billion new classes for all your crafting needs. We are very excited to bring you a wide range of new classes for this Spring. Expand your skills and come get crafty with us! 

Fresh new sewing classes:

1) The unisex Cooper Bag by Walden 

2) Ruffled Jersey Skirt

3) Peter Pan Collar tee

4) Tablet case

5) Needle felting Flower Garland

6) Fancy Tiger's classic T- shirt 

7) A Pet Bed for your beloved kitty or pup

8) Make your own Undies

9) Polly Top from By Hand London

10) The Quillow (yes, its a quilt that folds into a pillow!)

11) Foldover Clutch

12) Kid's sewn Stuffie Cloud

13) Sailor top by Fancy Amber

14) Color Theory for crafters

15) Dolly the sewn doll

 

Next up, knitting and crochet classes:

1) February Lady Cardigan

2) Crochet Granny Squares by Tymla Welch

3) Color Affection by Veera Välimäki 

4) Howelsen Hill Hat by Sunne Meyer

In addition to our spring classes, we are so excited about the amazing guest teachers we have lined up to teach at Fancy Tiger this Spring!

First up is Cal Patch! She will be in town for the Makerie and is making a very special trip to Fancy Tiger Crafts to teach her Folk Dress. Sign up for both her workshops at the Makerie and at Fancy Tiger Crafts to receive a combined discount of $50!

Spend the weekend with LA's Christine Haynes, the designer of the popular Emery Dress, and all around great person. This intensive two day, 12-hour workshop will have you learning all of Christine's favorite tailoring tips for darts, bodice lining, invisible zippers, gathering, in-seam pockets and perfect hem. Sign up now for this sure-to-fill-up class in coming in April!

Check out these hand stitched goodies! Lisa Solomon, author of Knot Thread Stitch, will be here in late spring with her beautiful and modern embroidery skills. She will be teaching two classes. Embroidered Necklace walks you through making a one of a kind stitched pendant that you will turn into fantastic jewelry, and Embroidered Portrait will have you stitching up textural heirloom artwork from a drawing or photo.

Don't miss this schedule full of all the things! Just give us a call or drop by to reserve your spot!

NY Sheep and Wool Festival: Report from Rhinebeck

Amber and I just returned from a long weekend in upstate New York where we went to the New York Sheep and Wool Festival which is commonly referred to in knitting circles as Rhinebeck. It was our first time attending and it was amazing. Rhinebeck is a wool festival similar to our Estes Park Wool Market--only times 1,000. There were so many people and so many booths of amazing things to buy! We were a little overwhelmed at first, but we got the hang of it after a bit and managed to find some things that we couldn't leave without.

HOLY SMOKES!

Nice work, nature.

We stayed with the lovely ladies of Kelbourne Woolens in a house in the Hudson Valley. What a beautiful fall setting for a wool festival! We spent a lot of time knitting at the house when we weren't buying fiber and yarn at Rhinebeck.

There were so many vendors selling local yarns, rovings and fibers. Amber and I had recently spun through our stash of roving so it was a free-for-all for us to buy more! We both picked up a sweater's quantity of longwool roving to spin-up during next year's Spinzilla.

Amber's roving purchase matches her Apple Cider doughnut perfectly

Longwool roving was seen and purchased

Loop had beautiful batts and art yarn

Outlander Adventures' Icelandic yarn Poetry mittens

There were plenty of sheep, alpacas, goats and llamas as well! We love seeing all the different breeds of sheep. Icelandic, Shetlands, Border Leicesters, Cotswold - all the sheep were in attendance!

Merlin the Leicester Longwool

Sheep Parade!

Icelandic Sheep Baby

An adorable Teeswater

Llama parade!

Ysolda Teague had some exciting news at Rhinebeck - the release of a new book "The Rhinebeck Sweater"! She was doing book signings for pre-sales of the book which will officially be released on November 6th. We have it on order and can tell you already that it is an amazing book, everything you'd expect from Ysolda with 12 gorgeous sweater patterns by amazing designers.

The best part about Rhinebeck was seeing and hanging out with so many awesome people! Ysolda, Cal Patch, Jill Draper, Maryjane Mucklestone, Ravelry, Sonya Phillip and more were in attendance and we loved meeting up with peeps for hot cocoa and doughnut breaks.

Sonya Phillip and Allison Page show off their Empire yarn from Jill Draper

Cal Patch and Jill Draper help us display all of our purchases!

Til next year, Rhinebeck - it was awesome!

The Magical Makerie Sewing Retreat!

Jaime and I had a fantastic time at the Makerie Sewing retreat at Chautauqua. We spent the weekend taking workshops from instructors that Ali of the Makerie brought to Colorado from all over.

Our little pop-up store     photo © Linda Winski

Amy Butler stopped by our shop on her way to the Makerie and Fancy Tiger customers and staff gave her a warm welcome to Colorado.

     photo © Linda Winski

This was the first Makerie focusing solely on sewing, and it was a dream come true. The instructors were Amy Butler, Liesl Gibson, Jenny Hart, Heather Jones, Kaari Meng, Tamar Morgdorff and Cal Patch--amazing ladies and inspiring crafters each and every one!

Wonderful ladies Heather, Kaari, Liesl, Amy, Jenny, Cal and Tamar     photo © Linda Winski

Kaari of French General taught a workshop on shibori indigo dyeing techniques. Jaime and Sadie both took this class and made some stunning fabrics.and hand-dyed lace.

Kaari, Jaime and Sadie     photo © Linda Winski

Jaime and I both took Cal Patch's Design Your Own Clothes class, and learned to draft dresses and skirts to our own body measurements. Everyday Cal wore cute dresses and leggings and crocheted shawls that she made--totes adorable. We can't wait to stitch up our new custom garments!

Cal Patch and Heather Jones

Tamar Mogendorff taught a soft sculpture workshop where we learned to mix our stitching with materials like wire and cardboard to create sculptures. Tamar's sculptures are an amazing blend of art and hand craft, so inspiring.

Tamar with her birdcage      photo © Linda Winski

Liesl Gibson is known for the garment patterns she designs under the name Oliver + S. and Lisette, but at the Makerie she taught a class on smocking. Smocking is a hand stitching technique that makes beautiful pleated embellishments. Jaime took Liesl's class and learned how to smock while making a necklace. Smocking was passed on to Liesl from her grandmother so it was a special craft to learn from an amazing woman.

Liesl wearing her smocked necklace

On the left is a sample of smocking from Liesl's grandmother, the right is Liesl's modern take on smocking

Emily, Liesl, Jaime, Cal, Amber, Heather, and Ali     photo © Linda Winski

♥♥♥ Having miss-out syndrome? The Makerie now has a Summer Series--three single-day mini-Makeries that will include a farm dinner at Lyons Farmette. Perfect for locals! Jaime and I will be teaching handspun at the June one, so come have fun with us there! ♥♥♥

Emily's Leggings-palooza

Way back in the yesteryears of August, Our Own Angelique reported that we should make leggings out of our oodles and oodles of jersey. Cal Patch had, earlier in the year, published her Etsy Tutorial on drafting and sewing your own leggings. Whaaat? Make your own leggings??? Crazy talk. Less than a week later, I had leggings that ACTUALLY FIT. Yes, yes, jersey is forgiving and stretches. But isn't it better to start somewhere near your actual measurements? These leggings make me give dirty looks to all my other pants and leggings. Seriously!

After that first pair, I knew I needed to make some more. My second pair was made in French Terry for a bit of extra warmth on chilly days. The third and fourth pairs were made with a stretch knit denim, in indigo and black. It took me no time at all to put them together. Jeggings! It sounds silly, but I wear them all the time, especially under tunics. I'm wearing my super comfy indigo ones right now with my cute tunic from Sonya Phillip's 100 Acts of Sewing class!

The only change I have made to the pattern is the elastic waistband. Instead of the way Cat installs the waistband, I just sewed a channel to put the 3/4 elastic into. That way you can adjust the amount of elastic in there if you need to. Be sure to slightly stretch the jersey as you sew that waist; that area will need to stretch and give more than any other. Also, I like my two pairs made with a stretchy stitch on our regular machines more than the two pairs made on the serger... Regular machine is a *go* for this jersey pattern.

If you are intimidated by facings and lapped zippers, or just want to bust out (but not bust out OF) a pair of bottoms in no time at all, make these leggings! We are offering these leggings as a class, which walks you though drafting the pattern to your own measurements! It's super simple and you will be legging crazy just in time for legging season. I know I'll be making several more pair. Bring on the chill!