Is Home Sewing Collapsing? A bit of a rant...

 As if it wasn't bad enough that Hancock's fabrics collapsed in 2016, then Jo-Ann's  (who had previously gobbled up the Cloth World, World of Fabrics, and So-Fro Fabrics chains in the previous decades) failed under the ludicrous burden of the leveraged buyout back in 2010, in which the investors who purchased the company did not take on the debt themselves but pushed it onto JoAnn's -- something that, in my opinion. should be illegal; now the news comes that the conglomerate that owns ALL the major pattern companies...Vogue, Butterick, McCall's and Simplicity... has sold all assets to a liquidator. 

Oh, there are mail order options for patterns from independent companies...some of whom have quite good patterns...but the only sewing pattern tissue printer in the entire country is part of that liquidation and all of those indy folks who print patterns on tissue paper use that printing service.  Who knows what will happen to that equipment now.  And we do have online fabric vendors.  Michael's craft stores has supposedly purchased up a good bit of the Hancock's and JoAnn's IP and intends to expand their home sewing offerings but the whole situation seems ominous.  I don't know if I will ever be able to, in the midst of a project, run to a local store and pick up that thing I need to finish, be it thread, zippers or buttons.  

I have read a lot of the comments pertaining to these closures, many of which say something to the effect of 'Oh, (whatever company) just didn't keep up with the times, so the demise was inevitable.'

But that begs the question...why did (fabric stores, pattern companies) not keep up with the times?

Y'all, they were all done in by financial shenanigans.  One company bought out all (or almost all) the major competition, then itself was bought out by an investor group that cared only for profit and had no interest whatsoever in the  home sewing community.  The Big 4 were owned, and just sold by,  IG Design group, who is a leading manufacturer and distributor of stationery, crafts, party and gift products for goodness sake!  Home sewing enthusiasts got frustrated with the lack of quality and techniques offered by the blob organizations and began turning to independent pattern designers and online fabric sources.  Not to disparage those folks, some of whom have great service and products, but...had the local store resources retained their quality, the masses would not have turned to online vendors.  Home sewing is an intensely personal pursuit, and we ALL want quick access to items we can see and touch in person.  I know the main reason I buy sewing goods online is because I can't get them locally. 

Which sounds like a business opportunity...except the goods available to retailers have also been disappearing.  Almost all fabric is milled overseas now.  Remember when a visit to a local fabric store would have the choice of multiple color ways in various prints or designs?  That's been rare for a long, long time.  Home sewing offerings are now mostly manufacturing overruns, with patterned fabrics available in one choice of color scheme only.  

All of this makes it difficult for youngsters coming of age to pick up the sewing habit.  The resources just aren't there; not to mention the demise of home economics in the public schools.  Materials for theater groups/ costuming/ cosplay are also getting harder to find...and more expensive.  I used to costume entire church productions from the dollar table at the local Wal-Mart.  Now I hesitate to even call what shows up on the discount rack (just one small rack...not a piled high table) 'sewing fabric'.  It. Is. Dreck.  A biblical costume could be made for less than $15 twenty years ago; that same costume would be about $75 now.  That's hard on a shoestring budget.

I don't know what the answer is, but I do wish our financial institutions would not allow leveraged buyouts that enable investors to skim profits from a company and then dump the debt back into it. 

I think I will now go upstairs and sew something as my own personal protest, lol.

RIP Claire Shaeffer

 I suppose most folks in the sewing community have heard that Claire Shaeffer, author, educator, pattern designer and source of much inspiration, passed away a couple of days ago.

That was just 5 days after she posted a you-tube video with plans for 2025.  I haven't heard cause, but it appears to have been something sudden.

I have several of Claire's patterns...haven't gotten brave enough to try any of them yet.  I have a couple of her books...she was a wealth of information.  The you-tube channel was a fairly new thing; she doesn't appear on it but does voice-over narration.  Or, at least that's been the case for the videos I have watched so far.

So we have lost another of the major influencers of home sewing enthusiasts...one who knew and taught the classic techniques.  I'm encouraged by the younger faces now appearing with instruction on social media...some have done much work and research and are well worth watching.  But we are losing some of the folks who sustained us during the years when home sewing was rather scorned.  Now the creative potential is beginning to revive, along with an interest in clothing as investment, which was a Thing of the Past for so long.  

I feel much gratitude for folks like Claire Shaeffer, Nancy Zieman, Cynthia Guffey, Clothilde, and others, who kept the education going when universal sewing instruction in home ec class slowly faded away.   I have I have learned much from these ladies over the years and my sewing is better for it.

Mayhap I should pull out one of Claire's Vogue patterns this year and challenge myself to learn from her some more....

Another one bites the dust...

 Sad face.  Very, very sad face.

I have received an email that Textile Fabrics in Nashville, THE ONLY REAL FABRIC STORE within driving distance, will be closing as the owner is retiring.

I don't often get to go, as it is a 2 hour drive, and I don't even think I've made it to their newest location (they've moved twice since I first managed to visit), but just knowing they were there was like a security blanket.  

I probably won't make it up this fall for the clearance sales; it's not like I NEED more fabric anyway,  so I'm just going to have to remember how lovely it was to walk in...smell FABRIC and not cinnamon brooms, and see gorgeous silks and woolens live and in person.

I am grateful for the internet vendors, but even the best of them will sometimes send a 'Hhhhmmmm...' piece of fabric, something that wasn't quite what I pictured from the description.  There's just something so luscious about actually touching that piece of fabric and envisioning what it might be...then putting it on the counter and watching it get unrolled and cut; finding matching thread and buttons right there...

I fear that is a thing of the past.  At least in North Alabama.  There's just nothing around...that I know of, anyway.  Textile Fabrics was the last bastion of fine home sewing.

Now all there is...is JoAnn's World of Polyester and Crafts.

I'm going to be kinda blue about this for a bit.

I should find time to sew something I bought from Textile Fabrics in honor of the dreams I have dreamed there...

Time for some 'Random'....A Stream-of-Conciousness Ramble...

I have struggled with this for days.  Y'all know that I try to keep the blogs pretty much free from anything that smacks of politics or opinions...I steer clear of most current affairs. I want this to be a safe, kinda fun place.

I have found myself alienated by people who hop on a bandwagon and proclaim loudly against beliefs I hold dear...because they are coming down hard on an extreme representation of it but don't realize that their vitriol isn't tempered enough not to hit folks who hold a similar, but not identical, viewpoint.  Painting with a very wide brush, they pretty much slap it on any one who doesn't follow their line of thinking.  And I have been slapped with that brush by folks on both sides of the spectrum, so no one has the high ground there.  In short, I have repeatedly been sorely disappointed by folks I thought well of...and I don't want to be guilty of the same sort of thing.  So I keep my opinions off the internet as much as possible.

But sometimes...a radical departure from the norm is all that will suit.  There was the day I walked out of a church service...not because I disagreed, but because I just couldn't deal.   Walking out of church was just something I could not imagine myself doing...yet I did it.

So maybe this is the same sort of thing.

When I was a kid, I read a book in a Reader's Digest Condensed volume (I was reading those in, like, 4th grade), set in, I think, a European country in the 30's or 40's...I don't remember much about it at all, but I do remember that the main character was, at one point in the story, a young boy. He was Jewish, and one incident related some pretty ugly antisemitism aimed at him.  I didn't understand it at my age...he hadn't done anything, and what folks were calling him had no basis.  I remember asking my mom about it, and she tried to explain prejudice to me.  I heard her, but it didn't make sense.  Why should it matter?  But, I grew up in the very non-diverse agricultural Midwest and such things were just not part of my world.  It never made sense.

I could understand cultural differences; there were culture issues even amongst people with the same skin tone.  But a difference in culture shouldn't mean a difference in the value of a person....although it could mean that someone could offend, or be offended, by something that embodied an entirely different concept to another.  There was one phrase I grew up with, which meant 'to be honest', that I learned at a much later date had an entirely different connotation to people of color.  I could identify two different non-racial bases for that phrase, both embedded in the culture I grew up in, but the person who pointed it out to me wouldn't hear anything other than a racist statement in it. Any attempt to point out that it could possibly have come from somewhere else only made the matter worse as the person believed that such statements were cover ups.  Nope.  I had never associated the phrase with people at all.  But that wouldn't matter if someone heard it as a racial statement.  So I learned not to say it anymore.

I saw the social media posts last week the same as everyone and...if you clicked through on the link above, you'll know what I mean when I say that my visceral reaction was much the same as listening to the account of the partial-birth abortion.  I was nauseated.  No one should die in such a cold-blooded manner.  No one.  It's not right, it's not fair, and it should never, ever happen.  This wasn't a case of a quick reaction to a situation, or a heat-of-the-moment mistake or anything else. It was a murder and it was there on my newsfeed.  It made me angry, that such things could...and did...happen.

But beyond that,  I read stories and saw posts and realized that this wasn't unusual...it was just publicized.  And I got angry again.  I have friends of many ethnic groups; my kids have friends of all colors.  We have a multi-ethnic staff at church...co workers, pastors, choir members, solid citizens all of them.  Young men and women who are gifted and talented...amazing people...whose skin is darker than mine. 

Any one of whom could end up accused of something just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.  I mean, taking a walk in the neighborhood?  Are you kidding me?  Presumed guilty?  Just because of their skin tone?  That is wrong, wrong, wrong.

And I was angry and nauseated again.  I wanted to make the people who only saw skin tone.... get a clue, go away, leave them alone, get a life, learn the lesson...SOMETHING.  But I didn't know if I could really say anything...is there anything I could say that wouldn't be condescending or patronizing?  That wouldn't hit the cultural triggers and sound differently than I meant it?

I don't know.  I honestly don't know.  I have that social awkward thing going on that usually means I say the wrong thing anyway.

But I believe in the power of prayer...and I can pray.  Pray that the crazy stops.  Pray that change happens...that our law enforcement roots out the individuals that abuse their position.  Pray that awareness comes to those fear-filled folks who are too quick to assume the worst of someone they really don't know.  Pray that NO ONE has to endure the humiliation of being judged or treated with disrespect.

So...I don't know if sharing that was a good thing or not.  I just know that this time, I couldn't keep my opinion entirely off the 'net...

Sad News

I logged on to social media this morning and discovered one of my absolute favorite sewing teachers, Cynthia Guffey, succumbed to throat cancer on Monday.

This is a real loss to the sewing community; Cynthia was absolutely one-of-a-kind. She obviously loved what she did...and she was very good at it.  Practical, down to earth,  and witty...she would go through page after page of flip charts as she drew and slashed and taped.  She would slice muslins (she called them 'mock ups') up in a heartbeat...often to the audible gasp of the class, first at the shock of someone just taking scissors to a whole garment, and then, when she pulled and taped (she proved to me that masking tape is an invaluable sewing aid) up the slashed garment, there would be another gasp of appreciation as we all saw that the garment now hung properly.

She told stories, shared recipes, gave makeup and style tips...and loved dark chocolate.

On the occasions when I was able to attend the Sewing Expos over the years, I always loaded up on her classes.  It didn't matter if I had seen/heard the topic before; I always came away challenged and inspired.

I have several of her books and videos and even a few of her patterns.  Maybe I can figure out a way to put one of her patterns into my sewing plans as a memorial.

RIP, Cynthia.  You were loved and will be missed.

Loss of a Landmark...

Saw this on the news last night....logged on today to find that the fire had re-ignited overnight and there is literally nothing but a portion of a shell left.

I've been to Sir's irregularly...it is a 45-minute to an hour drive away...and the stock varied greatly; one visit would yield very little worth bringing home while a visit in 2007 saw me hauling home nearly 50 yards of deals; a good bit of which is still in the bins.  It was THE place to go to find costuming fabric; especially after the deterioration of the fabric department at Wal-Mart.

It was a place that still SMELLED like I remember fabric stores smelling as a kid.  The good ones.  With real fabric.

It was a family business; who knows if they'll try to rebuild/restock.

I can hope, but given the current status of the retail fabric business...I fear they're gone for good.

Glad I have a stash....

Godspeed, Pastor Dave...

I debated which blog should host this.  It deals with church and faith; so perhaps it should go on the faith blog.  But I recently posted a memorial to someone I'd only watched on TV;  this is much, much closer and dearer.  If I could write about one, I should definitely write about the other.

And I have posted about working with our children's pastors many times over the years; sewing costumes and set pieces.  You might remember the costuming ....the  gold dress with the white oversleeves and both of the boys' tunics in the above flyer, for instance.  Pastor Dave added the studs to the tunics, making them more ruggedly squire-looking.

That was just a bit of the awesome eye for detail that Pastor Dave would exhibit. I never failed to be amazed and inspired by his vision and genius, all with the goal of using that creativity to share the gospel in a way that even little kids could understand that they are loved.

Today, I woke up to a text message that our beloved Pastor Dave had had a massive heart attack in the early morning hours.  Of course, being a person of faith, I believe he's currently walking around heaven enthusiastically reacting to the beauty and the creativity in abundance.    But also being a person who loved him and his family,  enjoyed working and creating with him and just plain liking him as a warm, kind-hearted, caring person....well, I had to read the text three times before I comprehended that it said what it looked like it said.  I can't fathom the effect on his wife and three kids (all pictured in that flyer, but the kids are now grown). They have been in my heart and prayers all day.

He was a colleague on church staff; that meant that, as the DBA,  I was involved with the Kids Quest team for registration for the big summer theme events as well as volunteer costuming. But above and beyond that, he was a pastor to my kids.  He pastored them when they were young, educated them in ministry as teens and mentored them as young adults.  My two youngest are now lay adult staff members of the children's ministry team.  We've seen the ministry up close and personal, from the backstage, and I can tell you that it is authentic.  The pastors lived what they taught.  They set high standards and challenged the kids to...for those in leadership, insisted that the kids... meet those standards.

He created all the puppets himself;  designed the stage for our children's sanctuary, designed the sets for the children's theme every summer...ranging from medieval castles to steampunk labs to dinosaur enclosures, pirate ships and more.  He even did some sets for local high school productions and community theater groups.

But, also, in times of crisis, both national (think 9/11) or local, it was Pastor Dave that the church turned to for guidance in helping our kids process and deal with the harsher side of life.  He had the ability to break something down to a kids' level and help them understand.    He truly loved the kids...and they loved him.

He was also a huge Captain America fan; his office is FILLED with figurines, posters, and other memorabilia.  Facebook profile pictures have been converting to Captain America references all day long in honor of Pastor Dave;  my older son actually stopped at Target to pick up a Captain America t-shirt and found a nearly empty display.  The clerk commented that she'd filled that to absolute capacity just yesterday.   I expect to see a sea of Captain America T-shirts at church Sunday.

There's no way to estimate the number of lives he has impacted.  He will be sorely and deeply missed.

RIP Nancy Z....

I know, there are memorials all over the blogsphere today, but what kind of a sewing blogger would I be if I didn't acknowledge the huge influence Nancy Zieman was?

In the days before internet, her Saturday afternoon PBS show inspired me and taught me shortcuts.

Pivot and slide rocks.  I may not always agree with exactly how it was taught (dividing the necessary addition by the number of edges...um, if I need more in front, that doesn't quite work.) but the strategy of sliding and swinging those pattern pieces made so much more sense to me than cutting things apart.

That one-piece collar that Louise Cutting has made famous in her patterns?  I saw it on Sewing with Nancy years ago.  Not to say who was doing it first...but, before internet, Nancy showed it to me. 

A couple of the oldest books in my sewing library were authored by Nancy.  I have her pants pattern and pants fitting book; I made, I think, two wonderful pairs of pants that fit from it but have not done the start-from-scratch that would be necessary to refit the pattern since the big M  gave me a big Middle.  But I know I *could* do it.

I recorded-as-I watched most of the shows back in the late 80's and early 90's, until she moved more into quilting and such, which wasn't my area of interest.  Of course, I still have those in a box somewhere but they're unwatchable as our ancient VHS player can't be trusted not to eat video tape anymore.

Nancy's Notions was a go-to source for things I couldn't buy locally.  Again, before the internet, that was amazing.

I still use the exam room table paper to trace patterns.  I think I'm on the last roll I purchased some time ago.  I wish I had started tracing patterns earlier.  Not because the patterns were expensive, but because...they went away.  The Big 4 retire patterns before they hit their stride, I think.  Even a pattern that I paid $1 is priceless if I can't replace it.  Thank you, Nancy, for teaching me how to trace patterns so I can fit them without spoiling them.

Nancy was a steady, dependable source of information and encouragement, as well as an amazing example of courage.  Her messages to the public during her illness were ever positive, even the last one that related the fact that the cancer could not be treated and she was stepping out of the public to spend her last days with her family was not sad in tone.

She was an amazing woman and the sewing community will miss her.

Why a fabric stash is a good thing...

...because you never know when the economic axe will catch you ....

http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/index.ssf/2014/11/boeing_layoffs_in_huntsville_t.html#incart_river

We've dodged that bullet for over 35 years...but this time My Sweet Babboo got caught out on the wrong project at the wrong time and was one of the 50.

So.  We shall see.

Sewing Bee Mania

If you're around the webs much at all, you'll know that season 2 of The Great British Sewing Bee has hit the airwaves... or digital feeds, or whatever.  It's been something of a trick to watch it on this side of the pond; I found a feed last week that worked, but when I tried it this week all the available choices either wanted me to download something (eek!  no!) or watch advertising for something that looked very, um, morally deficient.  But I did find that episode 2 was posted on youtube, so I managed to watch it there, although I had to keep refreshing the window.  Took a while.

I really am enjoying this second season; it's maintaining the spirit and the quality of the first season and it's interesting to see how everyone handles the pressure; I don't know how well I'd do, having to stick to the spec sheet and not use my favorite short cuts or methods.  (Hand pick a zipper on a skirt??? Why??? )

But, turns out that if I lived up in the New York/New Jersey area I could see if I could round up the nerve and give it a go; the company that produces TGBSB is doing a pilot on this side of the pond.   I don't expect that to be news to anyone by this time; it's all over the blogs.  It doesn't look like the pilot is going to be a replica of the British show; if I'm reading the info right, there will be a new group each week.  Kinda cuts down on the 'bonding' with the folks, but if it's just fourish shows to try it there wouldn't be a lot of opportunity to get to know the folks anyway.

I'm just hoping to see some familiar names; several of the folks on my news feed are from that part of the country.

I think it would be an absolute hoot to do, although I don't for one minute think I could keep up with most of the folks whose sewing I follow.  I'd just love a chance to sit down and sew with them.  ;-)

Hope for the Ol' Stompin' Ground

I grew up in Hendricks County, just west of Indianapolis, and made many trips into Indy to shop for fabric at Cloth World, which is long...long...long gone. For several years, a trip home with a side trip to town to look for fabric resulted in just finding a new location for Jo Anns.

And you all know what kind of wonderful fabric there is to be found there. :rolleyes:

But today I stumbled across a link and discovered that a new, fine fashion fabric store has just opened:

The French Seam

It's on the north east side, rather a stretch for a jaunt into town when I'm up visiting the family farm, but I'm excited nonetheless. It's not THAT far from one of My Sweet Baboo's favorite side trips...a toy/model train store. So I'm thinking I should be able to stop in at some point and check out the new fabric.

For any of my readers who live in the Indy metro area...I'm just a little jealous... ;-)

Checking In

It has been a week.

I posted the details on the faith blog, but for those who don't want to click through...we were without power for several days, and off the Internet until today, but we had no damage or injuries to our household.

I feel frivolous to say that I used the power outage to cut out the bazillion pieces to the Jalie Jeans Jacket, out of some gray denim. I have a Vogue jacket on the cutting table now, and have made a good start on it.

But with the power back on we're playing catch up and I don't know when I'll actually get to sew. Maybe a wee bit at a time for while.

I also finished sorting my fabric and got the bins organized back in the attic where they belong. So I pretty much have my living room back.

But there are so many who don't have a living room at all anymore I almost feel guilty saying that.

I think it'll be awhile before we're back to what passes for normal.

Sad News

I was grieved to read today of the death of Fred Bloebaum. Fred had been battling cancer for a number of months; I'd been following her story sporadically on Care Pages; I'll confess, I was annoyed that I had to log in to the site to read it and I tended to only check in once a week or so.

So I missed the post last week that said it had been determined that the cancer was no longer responding to any therapy, so they had ceased treatment and called in hospice. I thought Fred was more or less holding her own; I was shocked to hear that she had died.

I actually was privileged to meet Fred at the Atlanta Sewing Expo a few years back; she was delightful and charming and gracious. Her battle was bravely fought; the sewing world has lost another gem this year.

I think I shall make something from one of my LaFred patterns soon...

Please say a prayer

I don't know if this made any wireservices...it is, of course, the only news being discussed here in the Rocket City.

Yesterday, a school bus taking 43 students from their high school to the city's tech/voc ed school had an accident on the access ramp to the interstate, and as a result, the bus struck and went over the concrete railing...and hit the ground 30 feet below nose first.

The bus driver was apparently ejected somehow...he was left on the ramp with a broken back.

Two girls died at the scene; a third died at the hospital shortly after arriving. A fourth student was, according to a hospital dr who was in DH's Bible study last night, in very critical condition and may not survive. 13 others remain hospitalized with injuries of varying degrees but are expected to survive.

The driver of the other car involved was another student from the same school, also going to the Tech school. He was not seriously injured...but, oh, my, what he's going through. A witness thought he may have blown a tire or something; he apparently lost control of his car as he was passing the bus and swerved into the bus, which caused the bus to careen off the wall.

Anyway, any prayers on behalf of the folks involved would be greatly appreciated.