A stitch in time: Reversible tote bag

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Back in September, I decided that my job was giving me no satisfaction whatsoever and that I needed to do a little learning to enrich my life more. And what better time to go 'back to school' than September?! A friend of mine, AM, had just finished a sewing class in one of my all time favourite shops in New York, Purl Soho. I didn't realise that they did sewing classes, I thought it was more of a 'stitch n' bitch' knitters helping hub, but it turns out they do much more than that. Anyways, she created this gorgeous reversible tote bag in just 3 Saturday classes, and I just had to take the class!

The class was called 'Beginning Machine Sewing I' and my class took place every Thursday night for 4 weeks, at the back of the shop. The hardest part of the course was deciding on the material I was going to use for the bag, Purl have so many fabrics to choose from, I was like a child in a sweet (candy) shop! Eventually the fabrics I choose were a brown heavyweight fabric (for the outer) and a lightweight material for the lining which was called Wild Thyme, Ecru Dots 249E by Carolyn Gavin for P&B Textiles. Unfortunately our laptop died so I lost all the photos of my bag's progress, but that just gave me the excuse to buy a small sewing machine (a Brother 60-Stitch Computerized Sewing Machine, CS-6000i) and make more bags! I've since made a mixture of one strap and two strap totes.

The fabrics for the other bags are a mixture from Purl Soho and Mood Fabrics. Mood is where the Project Runway contestants always go. I have to say that I was completely overwhelmed in there, there is just so much crammed in the 2 floors that I just had to get out as quick as I could. But you can find some great fabrics, especially for linings, at the City Quilter and for good heavyweight fabrics, Ikea, has a great selection and very reasonably priced.

I got this wonderful sewing bible from my husband for Christmas called The Sewing Book by Alison Smith (a fellow Brit as it turns out) I just couldn't wait to get stuck into a new project that I dragged my husband out of our cozy apartment, into the snow to go to Ikea to get some fabric! Well if we're going to be stuck in a blizzard, might as well be doing something productive, no? So watch this space to see some of the projects I'm trying to tackle.

Anthropologie birthday card

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So in my birth month, August, I received a curious envelope from Anthropologie - inside contained a card with a perforated cupcake, plastic candle and a birthday discount. Turned out that the candle is part of a necklace! The front read:

"Happy Birthday! Make a wish. And treat yourself to something special..." and the back read "Your candle necklace is for you to keep. This little gift is for you and only you. And cannot be turned into chocolate, flowers or cash. It's a one-time treat...."

I love the detail this store goes in to - it gets me every time! The discount came in handy as I also received a gift card in the cutest gift card holder I've ever seen - a little monster! I don't know who created this little monster, but Lizania Cruz (who I blogged about on 3rd April 2010) created the 2009 birthday gift for Anthro - also very lovely.

Images from 2Sisters and Effortless Anthropologie.

Bill Brown & Target

This week I noticed these lovely ads in NYC's subway station for Manhattan's first Target store. Created by Mother and illustrated by Bill Brown, these ads are simple and a breath of fresh air from the usual terribly photoshopped, drop shadowed, 10 different font text vomit you normally see in the subway. Just lovely!
All images taken from Creativity Online.

Check more out here and here are some images from Brown's agents, Art Deptartment.

Don't judge a bag by it's cover

I recently read an article by a friend of mine who writes for the Salon.com, about a bag design dispute concerning Kate Spade. On googling this topic, I found that it was being discussed everywhere...

In August of this year, Kate Spade is launching a set of clutches based on "classic book covers" such as The Great Gatsby, Emma, The Importance of Being Earnest, Great Expectations, and A Tale of Two Cities. "The brand will release the 'volumes' one at a time as a sort of Book-of-the-Month Club"*. However these handbags aren't launching without controversy...


Not that long ago, French designer Olympia Le-Tan, launched a collection of clutches called You Can't Judge a Book by its Cover in Autumn of 2009. Obviously Olympia is not happy with Spade's choice of bags and feels that the design house has copied her style.


Le Tan is passionate about books, something which was ingrained during her childhood by her book collector father. She was inspired by her favourite first edition classic covers such as The Catcher in The Rye, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Moby Dick, 1984 as well as 17 other covers.

Le Tan's bags are close copies of the original first editions and it's undeniable that more craft have gone into their creations compared to Spades - for a start Le Tan only made 16 bags for each 21 covers; each made of embroidered silk with colorful felt appliqué. Spade's are new illustrated versions of their books and printed to look worn and will obviously be massed produced. But I have to say, that I don't think the idea was 'stolen' from Le Tan - the outcome is very different: differently crafted, different book covers and I'm guessing a very different price tag - although the retail price of Spade's bags haven't been disclosed yet I'm imagining that they will be the more 'affordable' of the two as Le Tan's bags cost $1,500.

I googled 'book bags' and got copious results for etsy shops and crafters. As the saying goes (and I don't entirely agree with it): there is no such thing as a new idea and Olympia and Mrs Spade are certainly not the first nor the last to have the same idea and it seem that for years people have been transforming books into bags. Michelle Pulis, a young designer who has been creating bag tomes out of actual books since 2008:


Here’s a lovely book tote bag designed by Lizania Cruz, that will unzip to become a handy shopping bag. Lizania creates many beautiful items for Anthropologie.


However I can see why Le Tan feels this way; her collection came out very recently and these gorgeous literary purses are her livelihood whereas Kate Spade is a much bigger cog and doesn't need the cash. If I were Le Tan I would take it as a compliment and reel from the amount of press this issue has received. If I could afford it, I would certainly choose a bag that had been handcrafted by a smaller fashion house over a mass produced one as it's more individual, and I'm sure she hasn't had a shortage of interest. Despite this all, I'm still a big fan of Kate Spade (and even her husband's shop - Jack Spade - is gorgeous too) and I constantly enjoy the visual feast I encounter every time I walk into the stores!

(*) Quoted from the Vanity Fair online article.
Images of the Kate Spade collection also sourced from this article.

Monsters of a household variety

It's seems this month is all about monsters, maybe it's a reaction of Where the Wild Things Are.... But these monsters are different as they are hand sewn and in a gigantic book called Monsters of a Household Variety .

The book is a creation of British textile artist, illustrator and 2009 winner of the New Designers One Year On prize, Ruth Ashton. The book was commissioned by Anthropologie, to coincide with it's London flagship opening.

The pages are so intricately sewn and she uses interesting materials for each monster. Each spread is dedicated to the different monsters you might find in your own house like the smelly bin monster, the light bulb popper, the remote control remover, the hot water runner monster...each have their own mischievous stories. The book is enormous (25.5"H, 24.5"W, 3"D), I've included pictures from the Anthropologie site to show the size!

The 24 page book doesn't come cheap - a mear $1,200.00, but to be honest it is a limited-edition, soft cotton page, hand-embroidered book so if you can afford it then it's worth it's money. I will just have to keep popping into the NYC shop to get my dose!

Buttons galore

I've spent the last couple of days searching New York for classic 4-holed red buttons. I'd been to many button and trimming shops in the Garment District, but the buttons weren't quite right. After searching online nymag.com (one of my favourite websites) came up with a goodie - a boutique button shop in the Upper East Side called Tender Buttons.

The shop is beautiful, and they had their Christmas decorations up too which made it feel extra special. On the right hand side of the shop there are floor to ceiling boxes of buttons, every kind that you could imagine. All the boxes are in lovely hand written brown paper carton boxes detailing the buttons, their prices and sometimes their age. On the opposite wall are thin display cabinets of rare and unusual buttons. Suffice to say, I found exactly what I was looking for! If you are ever in the neighbourhood or in need of a particular button, then I would highly recommend popping in.

My camera was playing up, so the last two images are taken from the nymag.com listing and from their actual website.

Through the Looking Glass - Bergdorf Goodman window displays

Every Christmas it's traditional for the 5th Ave stores to compete against each other via their window displays, and the Bergdorf Goodman A Compendium of Curiosities holiday window displays are a spectacle to be seen.

The theme is based on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass. Of course it's no coincidence that Bergdorf have chosen this theme as the hugely anticipated Tim Burton film Alice in Wonderland is due out early next year.

This years window display was created by Bergdorf’s Senior Director of Visual Presentation, David Hoey, and his team of artists. The windows are spectacular; complete decadence, nods to Carroll's characters and not and inch of empty space. The team at BG have perfectly captured fantasy through their looking glass displays and they submerge you into imaginary worlds of dreams, luxury fashion and products. Curiouser and Curiouser...

My personal favourite is the paper/stationery window.

KozynDan - update

I last posted about KozynDan in June (see posting on the 17th June) but I thought I'd do a quick update when I saw that they have done a window display in Carnaby Street's Puma store. They have created a line of t-shirts, jumpers and puma trainers especially for this store. I took a few sneaky pics...

Oskar Pink

Last night on my way to the iTunes Live London Festival 2009, to see the Friendly Fires (amazingly fun gig) at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm N1, this lovely looking hairdressers caught my eye.

Oskar Pink signed up Inventive & Co. to re-brand his boutique salon. I love the way they have iconised the tools of the trade – scissors, hair brushes, water spritzers etc – and made that the basis of the shop window. I think it’s stunning and definitely draws the eye. What I like even more is the fact that Inventive & Co. created the window graphics using scissors and paper to give it a unique identity. It’s refreshing to see hair salon with a creative look rather than the usual generic clinicy salons you see littered on every high street. I think they have just recruited another consumer...

Snowden Flood

I've mentioned the shop Magma before (It's my fav bookshop). A year or so ago they opened a product shop a couple of doors up from their Covent Garden shop. So naturally if I'm in the area I can't resist but to go into both of them!

They have lovely nik naks, toys, homewares and illustrated books by Kate Sutton and many others. But it's here that I cast my beady eye on these lovely plates by Snowden Flood. Snowden Flood is an interior accessories designer based in London. She celebrates urban and rural landscapes and likes to reflect this in her work of souvenirs and keepsakes.

The first 6 plates are from their River series and the last two are from the Urban Landscape series.