Let's Get Fancy!

You can tell by my online presence that I am all about fabric.  Granted, I own a fabric store, so I guess that's a given. But even if I didn't, I'd still be in love with fine fabrics - I'd still appreciate the entire spectrum of textile choices that today's fabric sources offer to home sewists. Perhaps that's what keeps me inspired here at Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics - stocking fabrics that can turn your wardrobes into clothes that matter. 

I'm so proud of my staff for keeping Stonemountain on trend.  They have a feel for what's happening in ready-to-wear and are picking fabrics that our customers are wanting to add to their own wardrobes. One of the big trends in special occasion fabrics this year is embroidered tulle or mesh. It looks daunting for the average home sewist, but in reality, it's pretty easy to work. The variety of prints and patterns is extensive, from subtle pattern and color changes to vibrant floral prints.

If you are like me, you get so inspired to see what others are doing with fabric you love. Check out what Kat Makes made out of our embroidered tulle!

Isn't she lovely! Check out Kat's blog!

If you're going to try one of our embroidered tulles, we suggest making a "toile" (fancy word for a muslin) first.  With any special fabric that you are not used to, making a muslin for fitting purposes will save you from making a costly and ill-fitting mistake.  We might also suggest that you think about buying a quarter of a yard extra so you can practice sewing on your special fabrics as well as making adjusting on your machine to handle their unique qualities.

Laurel's granddaughter got married this summer, so she chose one of our embroidered tulles to make a dress that would be paired with a metallic linen slip dress. Not sure of the styling she wanted, she purchased two different tulles - one for a wearable muslin and one for the wedding. (Okay, not everyone would have done this, but it's Laurel, and she doesn't mess around)

For the wearable muslin (to wear for a fundraiser dinner)

And for the wedding...

Still trying to decide on a pattern...

As with any fabric this sheer, seaming needs to be as narrow as you can make it.  And if you have a serger, so much the better.

Serged seam...

or Sew then serge

trim those darts...

Bonus - four dresses! two metallic linen "slip dresses" and two special occasion dresses

Perfect for a Gala, but Laurel made some adjustments to the length of the bodice for the final version.

Oh, and of course Laurel the GOB (Grandma of the Bride) was lovely.  She also totally remade her daughter's MOB dress (which came in a hideous red instead of burgundy), as well as altering the bride's gown and even whipped out Schoolhouse Tunic Dress for her mom out of one of our Rayon challis prints.  Four Generations of sewing bliss!

Laurel's Mom taught her how to sew at 10, Laurel taught her daughter in her teens...
just got to get that granddaughter on a machine!

In choosing my own fabrics and patterns for my personal Destiny wardrobe, I tend to stick with casual, comfortable and uber-wearable styles that I can wear to work - easy care clothes that don't fight with my body. I have a couple of different wardrobes - one for work, one for vacation, and maybe one for my casual nights out. I don't have a lot of "dress-up" occasions in my life, but that doesn't mean that my personal preferences keep me from appreciating the fine silks, beautiful woolens, and soft velvets that grace the shelves at Stonemountain.

When I do have the occasional need for something "fancy" - perhaps a night in the City or a wedding, or when I want to look casually elegant, I certainly have a lot of choices.

Oh you beautiful silk...

Silk Noil can be dressed up or down...

Velvet is not just for dress-up...

Tried and true Linen is not always casual... metalic linen is "da bomb"!

For your next special occasion, think about coming in to see our embroidered tulle collection or our selection of silk prints or our great wall of velvets. Many of these fabric begged to be touched but are available online as well. If there's something you can't live without, tell us - we are always looking for new fabrics!

Thank you so much for reading.

Peace, Love, and Sewing,
Suzan Steinberg
Fabric Lover
Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics

Stepping Out in My Stretch Velvet Holiday Skirt!

At this December Solstice time of year, we see a gradual increase in light until it reaches its peak at June Solstice. We can work with this natural cycle in our creative lives. We can celebrate our "wins" and our creations. It's also an amazing time to reflect on our lessons learned and decide what we are willing to let go of as we enter this new year. What powerful intentions are you ready to dream into? 


My collaboration with Laurel and my entire team at Stonemountain & Daughter is a manifestation of my creative dreams. You can read back through this blog and see all our accomplishments and witness this community that we are a part of. I shared with you my process of "pruning" at my store and releasing the Sewing School that I created 20 years ago. I am feeling into the renewal and powerful intent of new growth in 2017 for my self, my store, and my community. I urge you to spend time with the Sun in these next few days and feel into this rejuvenating and restorative energy. 
One of my intentions is to share more about my background in cosmology (looking up at the stars and planets) and astrology (seeing where the cycles are and how we fit into our personal and collective story unfolding). 

As creatives, we get to shift gears through all our interests and responsibilities. Let's explore something fun to make for New Years and beyond!

When we think of making something quick and easy for a holiday party, nobody ever thinks, "Gee, I think I'll make something velvet!" We have all read horror stories of slipping and sliding off the table and bunching up at the seams.  Perhaps for all these reasons, Laurel postponed making this adorable Megan Nielsen skirt, the "Axel," because I chose a yummy stretch crushed velvet. You have to feel this to fall in love! 

This will be the perfect skirt with a funky top for New Years!

Love my new Axel Skirt with a silk "My Easy Top."

Start to finish, one hour—maybe two if you're not Laurel.  You can decide to make it up in the afternoon and wear it that evening!  Pair it with a silk blouse or a holiday sweater, and you're set!

Look how different the option in the middle is!  Come by the store to see our finished garment on display in the Fashion Room.

Okay, let's get started!  The Axel has two pattern pieces for version 1.  The handkerchief hem skirt piece is the same for the front and the back.  Version 1 only takes a little over 2 yards of 60" fabric.

Like all velvet fabric, our crushed velvet has a very obvious nap, so all pieces must be cut in the same direction, preferably with the nap laying down toward the hemline.

Stretch velvet is no different than other knits - you should cut off the selvage edges before laying out your pattern pieces to ensure the fabric lays flat all the way to the edges.

We've read lots of techniques for sewing velvet - starching seams first, hand basting, tape, etc.  By far the easiest and most fool-proof method is to invest in a walking foot.  They take away all the issues with sewing velvet!  The feed dogs on the upper part of the presser foot pull the top layer of fabric along at the same speed as the lower feed dogs.  The result is a perfectly even, unpuckered seam.  It's a miracle!

After sewing up four pinned seams and adding a waistband (just a folded band attached to the skirt with a zig zag stitch for stretch), all that was left was to hem the skirt.  Serging barely shows on this velvet, so we decided to just leave it as is.  You could always turn the hem under and stitch, but we took the easy way out!

We did add some fray check on the corners of the hem to keep the serged edge from unraveling.  Fray check is your good friend and a must have in your sewing kit!

We have a whole new selection of velvet fabrics in a variety of colors, just in time for the holidays.  Which color would you choose?

Both Laurel and I also chose this gorgeous burnout velvet to make something special.

May the glow of candlelight and the warmth of love around you fill your season,

Suzan 

fabriclady3@gmail.com

Axel Skirt with Show and Tell "My Easy Top"
 ~ available in our store!

Let's do Luxe!

Among all the fabrics that I see and touch everyday in the store, I have to admit that silk is the most luxurious.  Nothing flows off your fingertips or falls in a soft pile on the cutting table like silk. My buyers, Lauren and Liz, and I shop all the time for beautiful fabrics that we can pass along to you. When we get in a stunning silk print, we can't help but gasp in excitement!

We've said it a hundred times to our customers:  you don't have to be an expert to sew with silk, you just need to take your time. Patience, care, and the right notions yield proven results. And we try to help the process along by giving you hints and tricks on the Fabric Lady and Stonemountain blogs.

If it's your first time sewing with silk, by all means pick a SIMPLE pattern—trust me, you'll never buy silk again if you're trying to make a complex button-up, long-sleeve blouse on your first try. So remember to keep it simple. We chose Megan Nielsen's Sudley Dress & Blouse pattern. We love it because of the variety of looks that you can achieve with just this one pattern. An added bonus it that the back is the same as the front, so the keyhole opening can be worn both ways!

We chose this luxurious silk piece to work with. We love the hand-dyed look of it and the neutral colors can be paired with so many pieces in my wardrobe. Silk has a beautiful texture that can be integrated into your everyday wardrobe. It's not just for date night! It elevates the pieces its paired with and can be great for casual wear.

Options for Tracing the Pattern

Laying and cutting out a pattern in silk takes time, especially when the print repeat is large like our fabric. And of course it's slippery! Laurel uses her big kitchen table to line up the fabric edges with the table edges and anchors the fabric with weights to keep it stable while she decides pattern placement.

Trace your pattern in the correct size, or cut it directly from the tissue. Because both the tissue and silk are prone to shifting, it's a good idea to actually cut out the pattern in the size you will be making - that way you are only cutting along the perimeter of the pattern piece and not through the paper as you cut the fabric.

We carry many helpful tools to aid you in this part of the process, including a variety of tracing materials. These items are available by the yard or roll and help you preserve you patterns and can also aid in the fitting process.

From left to right: Pellon Tru-Grid, Pellon Red Dot Tracing Material, Medical Tracing Paper, Swedish Tracing Paper.

- Create-A-Pattern from Bosal is a lightweight, translucent non-woven material, used for duplicating patterns. It's made up of 60% rayon and 40% polyester and will last forever.

- Pellon Tru-Grid has an accurate 1" graph for duplicating, altering and scaling up patterns. It is 100% polyester and 45" wide.

- Pellon Red Dot Tracing Material is a nonwoven dot graph material. It features an accurate 1″ graph, used for scaling up, duplicating, or altering patterns. It is stable in all directions, but light enough in weight to allow for excellent drape. It is 100% polyester and 45" wide.

- Medical Tracing Paper is a high quality white paper with a smooth finish. Each roll is 21" wide by 225' long. Great for pattern making or applique!

- Swedish Tracing Paper is a sewable pattern paper. Trace your pattern, sew the very same material, and try it on before cutting your expensive fabric. Use it to make a durable master pattern. Strong, see through & drapably soft. Rolls are 29" wide and 30 ft. long.

Finding the Right Cutting Tool

And speaking of cutting, silk can be a little testy when your scissors are not sharp. You don't always need expensive scissors, they just need to be sharp. Laurel's go-to Ginghers were in need of a sharpening, so she actually found another pair that would work better for this project.

We LOVE scissors here at Stonemountain, and everyone has their favorites. We polled the staff to see what their picks were!

From left to right: KAI 11" Ergonomix Scissors, Fiskars Softouch Spring Action No. 8, Tula Pink Hardware - 8" Shear, Olfa 45mm Ergonomic Rotary Cutter.

1. KAI 11" Ergonomix Scissors have ergonomically soft handles which allow fatigue-free cutting on all types of fabric. Cuts multiple layers of denim with ease while trimming cottons without any fabric slippage. Heavy duty blades for a powerful cut with an extra long blade length, made of a hardened stainless steel.

2. Fiskars Softouch Spring Action No. 8 have flat-bottom styling for making long, straight cuts. Ideal for cutting multiple layers of fabric, string, paper, construction paper and many other materials. Left or right handed.

3. Tula Pink Hardware - 8" Shear are limited edition, handcrafted 8" fabric shears that are a necessity for any sewing basket. The razor edge sharp blades make them the perfect choice for cutting through all of your fabrics with ease.

4. Olfa 45mm Ergonomic Rotary Cutter features an ergonomic design that provides a comfortable and positive grip. Simply squeeze the handle to engage the blade. Dual-action safety lock allows the user to lock the blade open for comfort and closed for safety. Designed for both right- and left-handed use. Great for cutting fabrics into shapes, strips and pieces for sewing, quilting or craft projects.

You can shop all of our cutting tools on our website!

Print Matching

Many of our indie pattern designers print their patterns on heavy paper, which is great for multiple uses. The Sudley pattern is in soft tissue, so it's actually little easier to layout on this silk print. For instance, in order to match the front and back skirt piece, Laurel traced around one element of the print on the pattern paper and then used that marking to place the pattern for the second skirt piece on another section of the fabric. The result should be a good enough matching of the skirt front and back pieces.

If your pattern paper is heavy and opaque, you could cut notches in various sections of the pattern edges and use those to match up the print. Big prints like this one with irregular shaped lines, just need to be matched enough so that the bulk of the fabric's design elements somewhat line up. Sometimes it's impossible for a perfect match, so don't over think it...e.g. we're thinking big white stripy shaped areas matching with neighboring white areas, etc.

Finishing Techniques

The Sudley view that we chose was dictated by the amount of fabric that we had - we had to make a shorter version in order to match the major elements of the print.  And Laurel knows me well enough after three years of collaboration, so she knew that I would like a shortened "tunic" style with the mid length sleeve. We will use several sewing and finishing techniques we know—some serging, some French seams, some self-facing and some bias facing. When you invest in a beautiful fabric, you don't want to take shortcuts, so take your time and enjoy the ride.

For the skirt sections, we finished the two side seams with French seams.  We used this same technique on the shoulder seams and bodice side seams.

Step 1:  Sew the two pieces together, wrong sides together, using a scant 3/8" seam allowance.

Step 2:  Trim the seam allowance down to approximately 1/8".

Step 3:  Fold right sides together and sew with a 1/4" seam allowance.

Step 4:  Press and Voila!  The inside seam looks beautiful!

The skirt of Sudley is gathered at the waist of the bodice. Gathering silk is a little challenging because it frays so easily.  Solution:  serge the edge first, then do two rows of basting stitches.  (We will also serge the bottom of the bodice before we attach the gathered skirt to minimize fraying.)

Our pattern instructions call for finishing the keyhole opening with bias tape. Because the opening has a severe curve, we opted to make a self facing, by tracing around the opening on another piece of our silk. When your fabric print has so many changed in color, try to match the keyhole facing to the bodice keyhole print.  Silk is sheer, so you wouldn't want a blue section directly under a white section. In addition, we had to totally switch out the thread to match the white area around the keyhole.  Yes, it takes more time, but we're making something special, remember?

 BEAUTIFUL!!! (Use sharp little scissors to clip curves on silk!)

I hope that you will be inspired to try this Sudley Dress and Blouse or a silk in your next project.

Please feel free to email me with photos of what you are making @ fabriclady3@gmail.com.  You can also follow me on Instagram @fabriclady3 and/or @stonemountainfabric.

We are super excited for the new garments made out of our favorite independent patterns - all available at Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics in Berkeley and online!

Cheers and Happy Sewing,
Suzan @ Stonemountain & Daughter

Developing a "Hand" for Silk - 5 Rules to Follow!

Have I mentioned lately how much I love silk? I love the way it looks, drapes, feels and wears. I have been showing you how silk can be used in a more casual and every day style in my previous blog posts. Our lifestyles need it to be more wearable, fun and expressive. Silk is one of the dynamic categories of fabric we have at Stonemountain & Daughter - most of it coming directly from amazing garment manufacturers around the world. Our stock is continually changing and different from what you will find anywhere else. I hope you will have a chance to stop by and check our our collection of Silk in solids and prints - crepe, chiffon, charmeuse satins, organza, raw silk noil, silk knits, woven silk with lycra, and many more expressions of Silk come alive in our aisles and your vision!

Back in 1981, at the age of 22 when I first joined my father, Bob Steinberg, in our store, I was overwhelmed by all the different weaves and names for silk. My curiosity has turned into a life long love affair which I enjoy sharing with all our customers.

We often talk about a fabric's "hand" being soft or beautiful, firm or stiff and heavy or light.  The hand of a fabric refers to the way the fabric feels when you touch it. It doesn't really matter how pretty a print is or how extraordinary a woven design is; if it doesn't feel right to your touch for the project you have planned, then you're probably not going to buy it.

Some fabrics that boast a soft hand would not be right for an upholstery project, for instance. You would be looking for a firmly woven fabric that had some substance to it. You probably wouldn't want anything that felt rough or sticky, either, especially if you wanted to cover a soft chaise for your bedroom. 

A fabric's hand is just as important when you are making garments. Choosing the right fabric for a pencil skirt would probably differ from that of the hand of a fabric for a soft blouse. We love the feel of silk next to our skin, making it one of our go-to fabric choices for a Spring blouse.

As much as we love silk (or even fine synthetics), sewing with such a smooth and soft "hand" can present some challenges.  We don't want you to shy away from buying a beautiful silk for your next blouse - we just want you to go into it armed with the tools and techniques special to this fabric.

We love this Deer and Doe Datura sleeveless blouse pattern from France.  It's not especially difficult to work up even though the pattern envelope's "Advanced" description must have applied to using fabric with a soft hand, such as silk. (A soft woven cotton or rayon would be a great fabric to try first, if you're apprehensive). We will admit that the pattern instructions are very French - brief and to the point - and they perhaps assume that we are indeed advanced sewists. Even Laurel had to interpret the not-so-detailed instructions, applying construction techniques that she has been using for years.

Rule No. 1 when working with silk: Don't start your project after you've just come in from pruning your rose bushes.  All kidding aside, silk is not very forgiving and does not like fingernail snags, body oils, or rough chapped skin. Silk feels dreamy in your hands, but it's also slippery and lighter than air.  You may find that your hands feel large and clumsy handling this delicate fabric at first, but forge on...it will be well worth it.

Rule No. 2: Invest in some fine pins.  Many of you, like Laurel, use the thin long quilting pins for pattern layouts.  We love them too, but they are definitely a no-no when working with silk and silk-like fabrics. Pins can leave pinholes, so pick the finest pin you can find to use on your silks, organzas, and fine polys.

Rule No.3: What goes for pins also applies to sewing machine needles.  We can't stress too often how important it is to make some trial stitches on your fabric. Test out several needles (and threads!) to see which size works best. Laurel started with the Microtex 70/10, but at one point she switched to a fine Universal needle - if you hear your machine groaning or clunking while sewing several layers, you may have a damaged needle.

Rule No.4: Don't always assume that the pattern maker knows best! If you've been sewing for a while, you know some tricks and techniques that have worked in the past with special fabrics, so use them, even if your pattern instructions omit them.  For instance, Deer and Doe's blouse called for just trimming the armhole and neckline seams, but we know that sewing curves requires a little clipping to make seams lie flat. They probably assumed we knew that!

Rule No.5: Beware the iron! Make sure your iron's setting is right for delicate fabrics such as silk.  It doesn't take to much to create a nasty "shine" on fabrics where one is not supposed to exist.  Pressing silk is a slippery business, so take your time and don't be impatient.

Thanks again for sharing the love of fabric and sewing with me. I always love hearing from you, so feel free to post here or email me directly at fabriclady3@gmail.com to share your own experiences or questions. Please stop by the store and take a look at the many garments that Laurel has been sewing up for me - they are gorgeous and will inspire you to get sewing!

It's been a good year so far at Stonemountain. I am blessed to work with amazing people all focused on a vision of providing great quality fabrics, notions and patterns at fair prices. In my twenties I was inspired to "Find a need and fill it!" Well we sure have here at Stonemountain and are super excited about what more is possible in 2015!

Creatively yours,

Suzan Steinberg

FabricLady

Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics

2518 Shattuck Ave. @ Dwight Way

Berkeley CA 94704

510-845-6106