100 Year Anniversary! Cheers to celebrating 38 Years in Berkeley!

On May 3rd this year we hosted a little after hours party at the store to celebrate some big milestones. This year marked 38 years for our business in Berkeley, but also 100 years for my family in the California textile industry. And on top of this anniversary, we also launched our newly updated website, a venture over a year in the making. Thank you to everyone who attended and for those of you who weren’t able to make it, we could feel you there in spirit!

(Dear dedicated readers of my blog, last month we launched Stonemountain & Daughter's new website which now has a version of my blog to read there! Click here to bookmark fabric lady's new BLOG page! Thanks so much for following along with me on my sewing and fabric journey - the best is yet to be written!)

photo by: David Mindell

On behalf of my father, my team, and family, we want to thank you for helping us celebrate our 38th anniversary in Berkeley and 100 years of my family selling fabric in California!

Years ago, we couldn’t imagine the kind of connection we have now with so many makers in our area and around the world. Our creativity has brought us together via the internet and social media. It’s so much fun to share our fabrics and inspiration with folks around the globe. To see you sharing your makes out there makes us feel like we’re more than the “well known secret” that we have for so many years.

Did you know that our name Stonemountain & Daughter is a nod to our lineage with my great grandfather and grandfathers’ business, Steinberg & Sons, est. 1919 in Los Angeles? Steinberg translates to Stonemountain and what a perfect partnership it has made. I am including some photos below of my dad’s first store in 1967, Bob Steinberg’s Fabric Emporium on Melrose in Hollywood. The first all natural fabric store serving a new generation of hippies and the hip. I loved being in that store as a little girl. It was magic and the fabric bug bit me hard!

With so many fabric stores now out of business, it makes what we do and how we do it that much more important. It also makes your support that much more important, it sustains us! For so many years now, my father and I have been talking about the year 2019 and wondering what it would take to keep our business going to reach 100 years for our family. I am so happy to be sharing such a milestone with you!

In 1981, my father and I began working together when he moved his Pacific Grove store to our current location. We began with 1,000 square feet, where our current Fashion Room is now. We have dedicated our lives to growing and being the best fabric store we could be and to serve fabric lovers locally, nationally, and even globally!

Well, we made it! And now we are at the beginning of something new!

There is a new story happening – people are sewing garments again! Our online business and our Berkeley brick & mortar store are thriving. My father speaks of our store as an old world fabric store for the new age. This couldn’t be more true than it is right now. Our business has always been based on vision and possibility and we can’t wait to see what’s next for our store and our community.

Claire Zammit, one of my mentors taught me that, ‘We cannot become ourselves by ourselves.’ I see this is true for our store, too. Stonemountain & Daughter couldn’t be who she is without everyone in our community – past, present, and future. I am so grateful to my close team, the folks that have worked here along the way, our community, teachers, pattern makers, customers and sewists here and around the world.

Shown here are some of the folks who make Stonemountain a place of open possibilities! Laurel, my seamstress and co-writer of my blog, Catherine and Liz, our amazing lead buyers at Stonemountain, and a special friend who stops by from Mali to bring us fabulous mudcloth and baskets from his village! It all makes up our Stonemountain Magic!

Another big contributor to this new movement is the amazing indie pattern designers, both local and around the world, who inspire us all. Visit our website to shop our full collection of patterns. I want to extend a special thanks to Janet from Decades of Style, Sonya from 100 Acts of Sewing, and Chelsea from Friday Patterns for being a big part of our party, each with a trunk show and raffle prizes. 

We are also so lucky to be surrounded by our growing community of sewing schools (see our full list here) These schools are play a huge part in the new story for our industry. Together we are partnering to support students and makers in all their projects!

Here are our local schools that came to celebrate with us:

Garment Works

Hello Stitch

Rare Bird

Apparel Arts

Better Living Through Sewing

Sewing Lessons in Redwood City

Sewing Room, Alameda

Handcraft Studio

To top off our guest list, we were also graced with an amazing trunk show of quilts by Alethea Ballard and her students!

I am so fortunate to work with an innovative and dedicated team of experienced sales associates, social media, and management team. Another honor of gratitude goes to my seamstress, dear friend, and genius collaborator, Laurel Dismukes. Thank you Laurel for sewing up over 250 garments over 6 years to help ignite and join in a modern world wide garment making revolution! We all are dedicated to bringing our community the best fabric and patterns, along with the resources and knowledge to sew whatever you can dream! With this next generation of makers and sewists taking off, I am blown away by the growing community who shares our passion. Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics is a Downtown Berkeley landmark and sanctuary for makers. But this is a great time to be a fabric lover not just in Berkeley, but anywhere!

Cheers and Happy Sewing!

Suzan Steinberg
you can follow me on Instagram @fabriclady3

Enjoy these photos from our party!

(Dear dedicated readers of my blog, last month we launched Stonemountain & Daughter's new website which now has a version of my blog to read there! Click here to bookmark fabric lady's new BLOG page! Thanks so much for following along with me on my sewing and fabric journey - the best is yet to be written!)

Finding the Right Fit

One of the main reasons that we sew is to create a garment that fits us correctly. Most sewists will agree that getting a pattern to fit is the toughest part of sewing garments for yourself since our bodies are so different from the "fit model" and dimensions of the pattern.

19 years ago, I began our sewing school at Stonemountain & Daughter to help home sewists get the right fit, by having instructors on hand to help mark changes when you try on a garment, to teach students how to choose which size to make then adjust by measurements, and learn the easiest and best techniques for garment sewing. We offer over ten different classes focusing on different garments to fit (Make a Well-Fitted Pants Pattern, Make The E.S.P Dress, Fitting The Plus Bust) as well as our general sewing classes, perfect for continuing students, where you can bring in your own project and learn how to get the right fit (Beginning & Beyond, Mini Beginning & Beyond, and the ever popular and versatile Sew & Fit Lab).

Many beginner to intermediate sewing students give up altogether on sewing when their garments don't fit right and the idea of "how to fix it" is daunting. Because the challenges of pattern fitting can be so frustrating, we love when Sandra Betzina is back at Stonemountain teaching us how to fit a pattern or showing off her new patterns.

You always learn something new at a Sandra Betzina class. With her teaching style of no-nonsense, practicality, not too detailed or loaded with complex theories. Just great hints and tips on how to make a better fitting garment, she is the perfect guide through the puzzling world of pattern fitting. It doesn't matter how experienced a seamstress you may be, you still have something to learn from Sandra.

Laurel, an accomplished sewist for over 50 years, joined us for Sandra's Pattern Fitting class and I asked her what she nuggets of knowledge she acquired. Here the four NEW things she learned from Sandra's class:

1) Darts are a good thing.

It's perfectly acceptable to add a dart at any place in the garment.  Sometimes we can get too hung up on the original design of the garment and think that by adding or removing details from the pattern, we're ruining the original idea of the pattern designer. Adding darts to an armhole or neckline changes the way the bust or back fits, often for the better.

Quote by Charles James, American designer, at the High Style exhibit at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco 

2) Use the "lengthen or shorten here" lines.

Those little lines on your patterns are there for a purpose of a better fit.  Go ahead and cut that pattern on that line and add your length instead of trying to cut the shoulders shorter, the sleeve longer or the crotch deeper, which can create additional fit issues that are harder to correct. Just remember: whenever you lengthen or shorten, narrow or widen, add or subtract to one pattern piece, you will have a corresponding pattern piece that will also need to be adjusted so that the seams match up correctly. This means you will be adjusting more then one pattern piece.

3) The grain line on a pattern is THE most important feature on a pattern.
There's a reason why you lay a pants pattern on the straight grain line of the fabric: They will NOT hang well if the grain line is off and even a tiny difference to the grain line will make all the difference in the world for a great looking pant.

4) Once you have a pattern that works great, don't risk having that flimsy paper tearing. Iron on fusible interfacing to make your pattern durable.
Preserve your pattern pieces by applying a fusible interfacing fabric to the backs of the pieces.  Don't use steam to apply it or your pattern will shrink. What a great hint, given that many of us use the same pattern over and over again.

Most of the tips, hints and how-tos that Sandra covered in her class are detailed in her books Fast Fit and Power Sewing Toolbox 1 & 2.

Remember the 1-Hour dress by New Look (6347) that we had such a time fitting?  We're making it again and this time with a better fit. 

New Look 6347

This time we're using a gorgeous rayon batik from my stash. This dress would be great in any flowing rayon or soft drapey fabric!

Now that Laurel has a dress form in my size, fondly named Zanikan (fyi, my nickname is Zan - short for SuZan), she is able to make some changes to the pattern so that the dress will fit better.  

Another of Laurel's takeaways from listening to Sandra was that fitting at the bust is crucial.  In the original New Look 6347 dress we made, that bust darts were too low. So Laurel started on this second dress with fitting the point of the bust dart where it should be first and adjusting the rest of the pattern from there.

We are also adding a zipper down the back, even though the original design did not call for it.  The use of the zipper will allow me to get in and out of the dress so we can fit the back and waist to my torso.

Whatever your making, if you're not sure of the fit, then make a muslin first (we've said it before, and we'll say it again)  Once you have the perfect fit in your pattern, you will use it over and over again (a perfect excuse to iron on fusible interfacing, like Sandra said!). 

Having a dress form helps, Laurel admits. Both Zanikan and Laurel's Colette are a mainstay in her studio and boy, has she been cranking out the garments - some for her, most for me (yay!).

Verb for Keeping Warm Endless Summer Tunic, Grainline Studio Scout Tee, Vogue 1313, New Look 6268, Sew Liberated Schoolhouse Tunic

Creatively yours,

SuZan

We are also super excited to have Sandra Betzina back for an inspiring Fashion and Fabric Trunk show to inspire you on Thursday October 22, 2015 at 6:30. Please go to our website for more information. You can call us directly to register at 510-845-6106. Hope to see you then for this fabulous party and opportunity to play with Sandra in her "favorite" fabric store! 

Please email me at fabriclady3@gmail.com if you want more information about a class or the find the perfect class for you!

My fabulous team is now blogging at stonemountainfabric.blogspot.com

Here is a little bit of the latest blog and I encourage you to follow us there as well!

Stonemountain Style Hacking: Finding Inspiration In Ready-Made Fashion

It's summer and the fashion magazines and retailer catalogs are out in full force, touting breezy, comfortable, beautiful clothes. We are finding endless inspiration, flipping through these images and imaging how easy many of these outfits are to make. This post is all about dissecting and breaking down a ready-made or ready-to-wear outfit, so you too can say, "I can make that!"

 To best re-create these styles, or to hack them, we look at three very important elements:

1. Take note of the cut of the garment and drape of the fabric (i.e. where the seams are and how the fabric falls on the body).
2. Search our pattern books to find a similar style to the garment we wish to recreate. 
3. Search Stonemountain for a fabric that best matches the fiber, drape, weight, and overall look of the inspiration piece. 

to read more, please click over to stonemountainfabric.blogspot.com

The Creative Lull

No matter how passionate you are about your craft, there are always periods where life seems to get in the way, and your creative processes go into a self-imposed lull of sorts. It happens to all of us. Our lives are not just one-dimensional, and there are a lot of conflicting desires—things that we'd "rather do" than create.  Designing and sewing our wardrobes can be put on the back burner for a brief time, especially when we don't particularly "need" that perfect dress or top to wear to an event.

But for the really Passionate Creatives, it's always there in the background: that desire to hear the hum of the sewing machine, the touch of a new fabric,  the dilemma of a "what will I wear?" to that event that is only a month away. The Passionate Creative's brain really never turns off, it just goes into a lull, but all the while, preparing for the "break" to end.

Perhaps they might re-arrange their nest...

Or spend some time gazing at their patterns, looking for inspiration...

Ripping out magazine photos of outfits they would love to "copy" someday...there's a pattern out there that could be used or modified to make the top or pants you like.

Passionate Creatives stare at their fabric stash constantly. "What should I make? 

What should I toss? Why did I ever buy that piece?!" 

They have dreams (nightmares?) about things they want to make...

They never believe that they will ever go into a lull. They are passionate about their craft, so they prepare well, spending a whole day in a cutting frenzy...

So when it's time to sew, they can JUST sew! Their piles waits patiently by the sewing machine.

Other "would-be, could-have-been" outfits languish on the dress form, waiting for solutions that will fix whatever went wrong.  Passionate Creatives don't always get it right, but there's always a way to revive a pretty piece of fabric.

They realize that sometimes the first idea about a lovely fabric may not do it justice after all, especially when they've stared it for a week or two. Going back to the drawing board and getting a new pattern is always the thing to do if it just doesn't feel right.

The moral of the story is that if you are one of those people who is passionate about your sewing, crafting, or quilting, don't beat yourself up if you find yourself going through a lull or a dry period.  Creative juices don't flow every day just because you think they should. It doesn't mean that you're not a true artist. Look for inspiration in your everyday life, meanwhile...the smallest things can bring you joy and inspire creativity.

Take time for yourself. Take a walk. Breathe.

Dig in the dirt...plant something.

Or if fabric is your true joy, then come visit us—We love to watch you dream.

Our beautiful ikats!

Or sign up for one of our great classes, and let your classmates and instructors wake you from your creative slumber! Now that's inspiring!

Creatively Yours,

SuZan

p.s. always love hearing from you - feel free to leave me messages!

Wardrobe "Basics": My Marci Tilton Jacket

The Daughter's Collection for Fall 2013 is all about basic wardrobe necessities: pants, tops, blouses and jackets. With these four elements, you can create an entire wardrobe for the season.

Stonemountain & Daughter Farbics got this wonderful boiled wool in for the Fall/Winter season in 12 colors. Boiled wool is a special type of fabric primarily used in berets, scarves, vests, cardigans, coats and jackets. It is created by a mechanical process using water and agitation, shrinking knitted or woven wool or wool-blend fabrics, compressing and interlocking the fibers into a tighter felt-like mass.

I knew I wanted to have something made out of the rich brown for the Daughter's Collection Fall 2013 so chose a Marci Tilton Jacket pattern 8430 by Vogue. The beauty of working with this unique fabric and this pattern is that there is no real finishing to the jacket - it is basically an unlined, unhemmed simple jacket.  The pattern only had three pieces: the front (cut 2), the back, and the sleeves (cut 2).  That's it. You can use the boiled wool in the 100% quality or the wool blended with rayon quality. The one I chose is the 100% Wool. We *happen* have a great class here at Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics featuring making your own boiled wool and jacket!

Laurel did some research on the jacket to see how other dressmakers handled the construction and fitting.  It is a very boxy, roomy jacket, so a few women did some back shaping. And since I too have a relatively small frame, we decided to step down a size as opposed to the one which my measurements might dictate.

She also added an inch or two at the "collar" just so it would have a little more drape. The beauty of working with this fabric is that we can just cut that collar shape any way we want...so if I don't like the way it hangs when we're done, I can "snip-snip" it at any time. The same goes with the finished length of the jacket.  She added 3/4" to the bottom just in case I wanted a little more length.

Laurel confessed to me when we picked out the boiled wool that she had sewn on this type of fabric only once before...and it was years ago! She was quietly skeptical about sewing with such a thick fabric. When she shopped for her back-up machine a few weeks ago, she took scraps of some of my fabrics - knits, silks and the boiled wool (What a great idea, if you're contemplating a new machine!). She handed the sales woman the zip lock bag and said "I need a machine that will sew on all these!!"

Testing stitches on a variety of fabrics is a great way to get familiar with a sewing machine

There is very little to fear about sewing boiled wool. It is exceptionally forgiving - no puckers, no skipped stitches...just pin it together and sew. It took Laurel 30 minutes to sew my Marci Tilton jacket together. Amazing! Of course we still had to adjust the fit (it really is boxy!) and decide if we wanted to embellish it, if at all, i.e. with contrasting thread, binding, etc.

When we did the first fitting, sure enough, it was a little full in the back - time to take it in a smidge, Laurel!

I love the way the back is a little longer than the front.  

We all tried on this jacket during the fitting - despite it's "boxy" style, it looks great on all figure types

Ruth strikes a pose in the jacket that now everyone loves!

Laurel: "I gotta have one of these jackets!"

Even Laurel's Mini-Me Colette back in Sacramento looked stunning in the finished jacket.

The boiled wool fabric and construction of this "BASIC" jacket lends itself to a little top stitching detail. Again, it's an easy task - time consuming, but oh so worth it!!

The current collection of Boiled Wool and
Boiled Wool with Rayon at Stonemountain & Daughter Fabric this week!

Can you imagine how cool this jacket is going to look with jeans? Or that pencil skirt? Unlimited potential - that's why I call it a wardrobe "basic" and  I love it!!!

Creatively Yours,

SuZAn

Come make your own felted wool in
our upcoming class!

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