How I welcome September and the relief from heat -- pattern designing gets easier and the new season brings new ideas.  First off, this fall we will try out patterns for men -- on request, no less.  It seems guys are yearning for something else, something more comfortable, less structured, more practical but not too jock or too corporate  . . .  hmmm?  Do I have that right?  Here's the first try, the Scarf Jacket -- even has bias sleeves, front panel and scarf, coming out early October.    

The jacket is for intermediate skills and has no set-in sleeves, no layers of heavy interfacing, no tailoring, no collar and lapels that must be perfect, very few pattern pieces, nice big pockets and a toasty scarf forming the collar that can never get lost.  We hope it looks cool too.  Let us know.

Then on September 28th, Ca�ada College has invited me to be the keynote speaker at their long running fashion fair!  Since 1991, the Ca�ada College Fashion Department has hosted Artistry in Fashion, bringing together fashion lovers, students, faculty, and premier local designers and fabric artists for an exciting day of fashion and creativity, all for the benefit of student scholarships.  I'll be doing my first show of the pattern samples and I might even throw in some pieces that I am thinking about to test the waters.  If you're there, I would love to meet everyone who loves patterns cut in the Vionnet-way as I do -- so say hello!

Then, we welcome three new additions to our Gallery.  See the beautiful work from Gild the Lily, run by Jacquie and Uosis in Arizona who sometimes use our patterns to show their gorgeous surface designs on clothing.  These two were career faculty at RISD, with serious cred, and do the most exquisite work, so we are honored.

We are also showing John Westmark's art in the Gallery-- he uses sewing pattern graphics in the most extraordinary images and manages to make us rethink the relationships between art and pattern design and women and their clothes. We have begun to talk with John about how we can make his prints available in other mediums. 

And Pam Vanderlinde's Insertion work is in the Gallery too! Plans with Pam include her Zero Waste suit this winter and an online class for 2014 on Patterning Insertions -- she's THE source on that. Proof?  Threads will do an article about her work in the spring.

Then, it's been slow going but we are almost ready to try out the idea of classes online and the first one is called Sketch to Pattern and takes the student through the process of making a pattern for themselves from a design in a magazine.  As I kid, I started out by pining away for the beautiful clothes I saw in the magazines and then trying to make them. Hopefully, the class will speed up the process for the next generation!











Then there is the Paper Cube Thing -- for years I've been making these paper cubes while watching the English mysteries (love'em) and a friend, Paulette Knight who has the Ribbonerie in San Francisco, asked me to teach a class on them.  So the class is finally going to happen on November 9, 2013, at her shop on Sacramento St. If you want to join in, you have to call her: (415) 626-6184.

And lastly, read the latest blog post.  I have to admit, I wrote it when I was mad at the declining level of sartorial choices displayed so often now but get past that and see what I told myself so I could begin to understand why.

If I was wearing a hat it would be off to all the students going back to school in the fashion world now -- it's a financially tough row to hoe, not to mention the competition and all the silliness serious people have to put up with, so we  certainly wish them every lucky break and all prosperity possible!  Help them out whenever you can.