Totes-tacular!

It's been a totes Market Tote summer!

All the folks at Fancy have been stitching up Market Totes-a-plenty. We make them as gifts and for ourselves, to take to the pool and to the market....They are just so quick and easy to sew--a delightful way to use and show off your favorite cute fabric!

Aww, shucks...we blushed with pride when a dear customer told us our Market Tote pattern is the most well-written and easy to follow pattern that they have used. Well, we think it's about the simplest and most functional project around, so to inspire you to try making one yourself here are just a few of the fancy totes we've made:

Melissa is showing off her two totes, the green tote is made from the recent Tula Pink Night Shade collection. (Can you tell she is a Tula Pink fan? Her a-line skirt is made from Tula Pink's Parisville fabric!) Her purple tote is made from an adorable organic print from Birch fabrics and veggie print pocket.

Betsy made a Market Tote from stash, picking one of her favorite Japanese forest friends prints accented with a Melody Miller pocket and Essex handles. Instead of finishing her handles by turning them, she ripped the fabric for a cute frayed look and accented it with some decorative machine stitching.

Allison's adorable tote features a super-cute mustard clothing print from Japan. We love mustard clothing + adorable prints from Japan! Do you recognize Allison's skirt fabric? Yep, it's the forest friends print that Betsy used for her tote! That's totes crazy!

Angelique has made about a bajillion totes, but most of them have been gifts for friends. Lucky friends they are! These two totes are just for her, though. Her newest one on the left is an amazing Anna Maria Horner velveteen. Velveteen makes a fantastic tote! The tote on her shoulder is a totes crazy print from Alexander Henry.

Emily made a natural hemp ticking tote with extra long handles so she can wear it like a messenger bag. Perfect for bike riding! For her Echino car print tote she chose some hot pink cotton webbing for handles. Hot! Emily has also made about five million totes for lucky friends.

Erikia used this fantastic yellow Valori Wells butterfly print to make her very first bag ever! It looks amazing and she has already whipped up several more for friends.

Staff Holiday Gift Picks: Part 2

Welcome to part 2 of our 2011 Staff Holiday Gift Picks! By the way, tomorrow is Small Business Saturday, and we have something for you! Shoppers who stop in this Saturday the 26th to support local and spend $20 or more will receive a special little gift from Fancy Tiger Crafts. Hope to see you soon!

Now, here is the rest of the fancy gang sharing their favorite crafty items. Come by and see us for more great ideas!

Greetings! I'm Emily, and I teach advanced knitting, spinning and other more esoteric skills here at Fancy Tiger Crafts. I love constantly pushing my skills, and am often caught crafting in public. Knitting is definitely my first craft, but I love spinning, sewing, quilting, crochet, naalbinding, leatherwork, metalwork, beadwork, and whatever else I can get my hands into! I don't know if you all heard the news, but the fabulous Ysolda Teague was recently in town teaching classes here at Fancy Tiger Crafts. Her most recent book, Little Red in the City, is an amazingly complete guide to basic sweater design and beyond! It is a great book for those who just want to follow a pattern too, but beware, those treacherously delightful design chapters might suck you in sooner or later! My super-spectacular Holiday Gift suggestion would be to pair this book with a sweater's worth of yarn in something totally delicious like the all natural undyed heritage breed yarns from Blacker or the organic undyed New Mexican wool. So beautiful!

Liberty of London fabric is the most coveted fabric in the shop and makes an extra-special gift for your favorite seamstress or seamster. Getting a cut of Liberty fabric (or perhaps a collection of 3 different 1/2 yds?) is the perfect gift for the discerning fabric connoisseur. Liberty is so special that some people are too scared to cut into it or perhaps can't find the perfect project for it - this is why the new book "The Liberty Book of Home Sewing" would make an excellent companion gift. This new and beautiful book is chock full of projects perfect for showing off your Liberty. There are lots of projects for even small cuts or scraps of Liberty fabric so your special gift of Liberty will not go unused! We just received a new shipment so we have over 25 beautiful prints to choose from!

Of course, any knitter loves to receive yarn for their stash but if I could recommend one yarn to give as a gift this year it would any of the HABU metallic yarns. This yarn comes in either a silk stainless steel blend or copper bamboo. Both of which are so beautifully unique and can make a simple project extraordinary. I'm currently making a scarf with a copper bamboo edging and I'm in love with how it is turning out! Knitters also love new patterns and, fortunately, modern knit designer, Olga Jazzy, has a bit of a thing for Habu yarns. You can choose from a variety of her geometric inspired patterns or her incredible book, Ori Ami Knits.

Hello! My name is Melissa, I'm newish to working here at Fancy Tiger Crafts. Newish in that I briefly worked here last year and am back helping for this holiday season. I'm so excited, since I love Fancy Tiger as a customer and it is wonderful to be surrounded by creative, amazing people. My holiday suggestion would be the new book by Sarai Mitnick from Colette Patterns, The Colette Sewing Handbook. It is simply awesome with several cute patterns and a wealth of knowledge from fabric types to finishing techniques. One pattern I am super excited about is the Licorice dress and I think it would be perfect in our Joel Dewberry Heirloom voile, any of them, but the Paisley pattern in amber would be really fun. Plus this fabric is dreamy to touch and would give the perfect drape for this dress. So if you have a sewist in your life I would definitely pick up this book for them! See you in the store! Bye.

  

Hello! I'm Branwyn, the trusty shop dog! You may have given me a pat on the head or a treat before. For that, you are my friend for life. My gift recommendation is for the crafty dog lover, of whom I know quite a few. The Style Hounds sweater kits include organic wool yarn and a knitting pattern to make really classy dog sweaters, like cabled sweaters and houndstooth patterns and such. When we get blustery cold winter weather, I know from experience that pups can use a lovingly handcrafted sweater, too!

 

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xoxo,
Fancy Tiger Crafts