She did it with Islander Sewing Systems!
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Another Business Success with Islander!
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"I did it with Islander Sewing Systems", writes Barbara Crawford of Crawford Designs.
 Barbara Crawford, owner and designer for Crawford Designs started her business career as a cake decorator. After receiving a degree in art she soon moved onto designing dolls with sculpted heads. Barbara had a vision to expand to garments and projects that required sewing skills, however her sewing experience only included one Home Economic class in Junior High. So she carried on to develop a successful line of dolls and doll kits.
When the doll market began to wane Barbara was left to reinvent her business. With only basic sewing and hand embroidery skills, Crawford Designs took some of the doll patterns to flat surface designs and hand appliqué, including penny rugs and Sweatshirt transformations. With hand embroidery as the main focus of these patterns Barbara still longed to create designs that required better machine sewing skills. In 2009 she decided to take the plunge to Islander Sewing Systems and enrolled in a private class with Janet Pray.
Barbara had always hated sewing but in that one week class, found she liked it as she learned the correct ways to sew, press, attach collars, cuffs, zippers, and as she says, "it was amazing and the best part of all - No pins!
Now as she celebrates 20 years in business, Barbara is designing fashion sewing patterns, creating new techniques on her own and never has to worry about reinventing herself again! She continues to love her work more than ever as she creates patterns that employ not only great sewing techniques but include embellishments, texture techniques, hand embroidery and hand appliqué. You can see her at many of the sewing expos around the country where she demonstrates and teaches as well as offers her products and patterns for sale. Crawford Designs
Pictured above is the jacket from Barbara's all-day workshop at ASE this Fall.
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"Feed a man a fish and eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he will never go hungry"
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