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What Makes it Beautiful?
The same thing that makes anything beautiful -- time. You spent the time to learn what you need to know from those with deep experience. You spent the time to search for the best materials; to perfect the design; to make many prototypes and, finally, to construct it well. At the end, you will have spent the time it takes to create a beautiful thing . . . and learned that time makes it beautiful; you supplied the hands, the eye and the patience. All of these are mostly free and your complete choice to give for the goal. Craftspeople, pattern designers, are about getting there, the journey, making progress, learning more, seeking, experimenting -- they live for the Aha! moment -- always surprised that they could have solved the problem! Arriving is always a little sad because it is the end of the quest.
Make something beautiful; craft a pattern, a dress, a life, a government, a garden -- take the time.
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Our Beauties for Fall - Julian Roberts Dresses - 10 of them! Each one-of-a-kind dress is a different version of his famous Subtraction Cutting concept, cut spontaneously in front of an audience on Tour -- "Genius at Work" for sure! This is the first time they have been offered to the public and one of the rare occasions to purchase a finished Julian dress. Julian believes that the experience of making them should be part of how one acquires them! Enjoy! P.S. Some are signed!
- CoPA is live! The Commercial Pattern Archive is Open and you can copy and paste -- AND ENLARGE -- the pattern diagrams! So, you can use them to create new designs, mix and match parts, recreate vintage masterpieces and generally dream on. There are over 30,000 of the most amazing pattern concepts -- it is the pot of gold at the rainbow's end for pattern people and a single subscription gives you months of use. The download, How to Enlarge a Pattern, is in our store with detailed CoPA tips for enlarging the diagrams. (Please note: CoPA Access is a separate subscription service that we offer giving you entry to the CoPA Archive. Logging into our store site itself does not give you entry to the archive. You must pay for a monthly subscription before you can enter the archive. Then, when you want to use it, you must login to CoPA Access by going to our website and clicking on "CoPA Access" at the top of the home page.)
 - The Fashioning Fashion Pattern Tour -- January 28 - 30! Los Angeles County Museum of Art's brand new Resnick Exhibition Pavilion is opening with an exhibition called Fashioning Fashion European Dress in Detail
 1700 - 1915 , a stunning collection of the most complex clothing ever made, shown from the standpoint of 'how they did it'. So 23 of us will assemble on Friday, January 28 in Los Angeles for an evening reception to meet everyone and a short lecture from Nancy Bradfield's book, Fashion in Detail. Then, on the 29th, we go to LACMA for a private tour of the exhibition in the AM and, in the afternoon, special access to the Doris Stein Research Center for an up-close look at their collection of patterns and couture dresses that have intricate cuts (including Vionnet!). We finish Sunday with Brunch and a visit to Doris Raymond's incredible vintage shop, The Way We Wore. She travels the world hunting for the best and you get to look inside the dresses for those critical clues!
 Fashion For Profit by Frances Harder, the talent behind Fashion Business Inc. (FBI). First a bit about Frances. She is the fashion industry's unsung heroine! Her organization offers practical and realistic classes in several cities for those whose fashion design dreams must get down to earth, to pay the rent and get it out the door on time. In this economy, she should get a medal! We are now stocking her book on everything you need to know -- literally everything -- it's current, easy to read and understand and it is essential for keeping your business on track and getting some sleep, a published blessing!
- The Essential Shirt Workbook by Martin Shoben and Clive Hallet.
 New from the UK where for centuries they have understood beautifully crafted clothing -- it's unisex and manages to capture that thing you say to yourself when you see an amazing shirt and think, "all I need is one of those". You could make every variation and never get bored, making or wearing -- collars, pockets, cuffs, seaming -- the works, plus every fitting lesson possible! Check some inside pages.
 Patterns of Fashion #2 by Janet Arnold. For me, this one is the best of her four books covering the period from 1860 to the 1940. Perfect for those in theater -- where they are very famous -- and fashion designers, this big over-sized book has all the actual patterns right in there on every page, laid out on a grid in 1/8 scale, so scaling up is really easy! And, it has 5 Vionnets in it! -- with incredible details and instructions. I've been looking for a source for quite awhile -- then Eureka! -- so delighted we can offer them.
- Nothing to Wear.
 This is a real book beauty, both visually and, as it turns out in the end, morally. Written in 1859 by an observant, poetic and perplexed suitor, Harry, he spins a long rhyming fable with humor, art and romance about Victorian fashionistas and their fashions. You will laugh and  enjoy the message -- great for holiday gifting and very much in the spirit of the season. This is the first reprint of this rare book (that I am aware) -- found this treasure many years ago at the Antiquarian Book Fair in San Francisco, never miss it.
- Glass, Beautifu
 l Glass, our other life! When you have a tech problem here, you talk to Ed who loves to blow glass and this year he did his laser beam thing on pumpkins -- all kinds, all colors -- and now we have zillions, not really, but lots -- all very beautiful, especially precious are his miniatures -- very hard to blow small glass art, usually done with a torch. For Thanksgiving, pick a pumpkin or put the whole patch on the table! Shop the Gallery.
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Beautiful Events . . .
- Vionnet at the De Young Museum.
 On November 13, at 10 AM, I will have another great chance to tell the world about Madeleine Vionnet and her exquisite designs and techniques in draping. The lecture, The Art of the Cut, and is sponsored by the Textile Arts Council and there will be samples to see up close. This is my favorite topic, as some of you may know, and each time I have discovered more to say about how she worked. See you there! This is an image of one of the samples done in 4-ply silk -- it twirls open like a pinwheel!
- The Drecoll Class. This design of Cristobal Drecoll, in our October class, gave us all a new appreciation for the 1920's -- so easy to wear and so versatile. This one had the most votes for the "I think I'll make this up" prize -- a design you can really use now. Check the 'work in progress' and also take a peek at the pattern -- looks hard but not really -- imagine it in stripes!
 Dior Dress - the next class in the Draping Series. January 8 & 9, here in St. Helena. This dress represents the advent of the the true cocktail dress. It was one of the early street length dressy dresses that one wore after dark -- think the wives of really successful Mad Men, like Babe Paley -- so, yes, it is very fitted and probably would have had its 'shaper' built right in. It's also a study in re-designing the figure with lessons in building the ideal form from underneath and the comfortable version of boning. We'll do it in taffeta -- fabric & forms included, and the class also includes a gift of the Muffin Top Eliminator Pattern -- found it buried inside a Ceil Chapman dress -- it will be there too! Registration open.
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New Beauties - Just Here a Month  
- Books:
- Dress Design, the first book to put the soul concepts of draping into words -- for 30 years, I promised myself that I would reprint it. Done and here.
- Pattern Magic Volume 1 in ENGLISH! Cult pattern design -- really out there!
- New Tool -- Styling Chain. The tool that creates the perfect curve based on gravity for necklines, arm holes, special drapes.
 Fashion Figure Templates.  Some items are amazing but they're sleepers and this is one, so I have to ask you to take a second look at what you can do with this Template. You can put anyone's body on paper so you can try on designs and see what they look like! For example, on the right is the template drawn as a larger size and on the left one drawn with a shorter waist -- both using the same basic template pose. There are 2 poses to choose from and the Draw Your Body download, in our store, is free with purchase.
Coming Next Month
- Shoes: This is a nervous adventure in the making but next month there will be photos of the prototype -- waiting for the non-toxic glue now. They're lavender velveteen flats -- very yummy. I'm attempting to develop a kit for a shoe that can be done on a sewing machine and look like the ones you have in your head when I say "lavender velveteen flats". Talk about time -- this is a long-stretch goal, been waiting for tech to catch up -- it's here and so far, they're gorgeous.
- Scissors
- The Inflatable Dress Form -- a winter project! It's portable, comes in in a handbag, for trade shows and classroom show and tell -- not pinning! Available by February 1.
- Classes: A Draping Series Week in the East, Zero-Waste and the latest on a Pattern Magic Class.
- A combined November/December Newsletter at the end of November. Every once in awhile we update our customer list and we just did, so if you have received this newsletter and do not wish to, please just click 'unsubscribe' below.
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 This Thanksgiving, take the time to cook and make it a beautiful meal. Simple. Vote, take the time to study the issues for yourself and make it a beautiful government. Take the time to think about how much time all good things actually take and grant others the time they need to make something beautiful.
Thank you for all your encouragement, great ideas and wonderful company this year,
Sandy Ericson
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