The Little Sewing Room

04/23/2026

Yes, skills!

04/04/2026

Anyone want to sew and cruise?!

11/02/2025

We’re teaching and sailing! Join us along with Jennifer Fairbanks of Porcelynne and Monica Bravo of Bravo Bella Bras on a sewing cruise to Cozumel, Belize, Costa Maya from April 12-18, 2026. Go to memadegetaway.com for more info!
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09/20/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Bza8X8DYt/?mibextid=wwXIfru

IG Design Group Americas (DGA) has announced that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas approved the sale of the company’s sewing pattern business.

Simplicity, McCalls, Vogue, and Butterick brands, collectively known as “the Big 4,” have been bought by Rubelmann Capital in partnership with existing management. The sale price was $2,250,000. Abbie Small, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Simplicity, who has worked at the company for over 40 years, said, “This will make us into a small, indie pattern company. Essentially, we’ll be a 200-year-old startup.”

Click the link below to read the full article.

https://craftindustryalliance.org/big-4-pattern-brands-sold/

07/08/2025

We don’t wear sweaters much here but still something to think about…

As the sheer quantity of clothing available to the average American has grown over the past few decades, everything feels at least a little bit flimsier than it used to, Amanda Mull argued in 2023. https://theatln.tc/CEkwZcmY

Good sweaters, gloves, beanies, and scarves in particular are all but gone from mass-market retailers. “The options that have replaced them lose their fluff faster, feel fake, and either keep their wearers too hot or let the winter wind whip right through them. Sometimes they even smell like plastic,” Mull writes. Knits used to be made entirely of natural fibers, usually from shearing sheep, goats, alpacas, and other animals. Sometimes, plant-derived fibers such as cotton or linen were blended in. Now, according to Imran Islam, a textile-science professor and knit expert at the Fashion Institute of Technology, in New York, the overwhelming majority of yarn used in mass-market knitwear is blended with some type of plastic.

Knits made with synthetic fiber are cheaper to produce. They can be spun up in astronomical quantities. They also usually can be tossed in your washing machine with everything else. But by virtually every other measure, synthetic fabrics are far inferior, Mull writes. They pill quickly, sometimes look fake, shed microplastics, and don’t perform as well as wool when worn. The majority of clothing sold in the U.S. now includes at least some plastic content. Brands generally rely on consumers not to be interested enough in fabric content to check the tags before buying. But Sofi Thanhauser, the author of “Worn: A People’s History of Clothing,” said brands have also gotten more adept at marketing synthetic fabrics as a consumer advantage, whether or not they actually are in any particular garment.

The result of all of this is abundance, but only by a definition of the word that includes an abundance of junk, Mull continues. A good sweater is hard to find, but it’s not impossible. “Plenty of garments gesture at what used to be widely available, but few hold a candle to the garments that were once the norm. And, in fact, please don’t get candles too close to a poly blend, which is much more likely than wool to go up in flames.”

🎨: Jared Bartman / The Atlantic / Getty

05/19/2025

The construction of this bodice is…breathtaking!

~ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐰 𝐃𝐫𝐨𝐩 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 ~
My client requested a dress inspired by the Cinderella live action gown. I never quite warmed to that brighter blue colour though, I love muted tones and so I suggested my beloved grey/blue tulle, which looks a lot more like the original silvery blue animation dress. She loved the shade next to her skin and so I created a simplified version of the Cinderella gown for her. With a sprinkle of dew drop rhinestones for some extra magic.
It’s actually floor length on her, but my mannequin was too tall, I do like that it looks like a ballerina dress this way.
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To commission your own fairytale inspired gown mail to [email protected]
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04/27/2025

What does sewing mean to you?

01/30/2025

Some info on the demise of Joann. I hope they can be saved because there are not many choices remaining.

Many in the sewing world will remember entrepreneur Elizabeth Caven (), founder of UpCraft Club and an early pioneer in the world of projector sewing. Over the last few years, Elizabeth has become a venture capital investor. When the news of JOANN’s second bankruptcy broke, she published this article on her website and LinkedIn page and granted Craft Industry Alliance permission to print it here.

What happens when a company’s leadership is completely removed from the experience of the customer? Joann Fabrics just found out and it isn’t pretty. It’s bankruptcy.

Click the link below to read the full article.

Image credit: Elizabeth Caven

https://craftindustryalliance.org/the-unraveling-of-joann-fabrics/