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  • This Week: Creative reboot

    I’ve been having the best week. I took the week off from my regular work for a bit of a creative break. I’ve been spending it at a class on drawing and painting for textile design, taught by the immensely talented designer and artist Chelsea Heffner of plainMADE. Having an entire week to just draw …

  • This Week: Birthday cheer

    First of all, look how close we are to reaching my birthday goal for Charity:water! I can’t believe how close it is and hope that a few more of you can spare a few bucks (any amount you want) to put us over the edge. 5 bucks, 10 bucks, whatever will help move that ticker …

  • This week: Racing to the finish

    For those in the US, did you have a good midweek holiday? I chose to celebrate by running another half-marathon, my second this year (or ever). This time I was not at death’s door, the weather was perfect in the early morning out on Sauvie Island, and the course was blissfully flat and pretty. I …

  • This week at Colette Patterns: The joys of self-employment

    It’s true, running a business is not all wine and roses. But there’s nothing like waking up on a beautiful 84 degree day and simply deciding you’d rather not go to work. …Which is exactly what we did yesterday. I put on my white pique Lily dress (which I haven’t had nearly enough occasion to …

  • This week at Colette Patterns: nerding out

    This week I have been seriously nerding out. There are many aspects of my personality that are hopelessly nerdy. My obsession with public radio. My love for Battlestar Galactica. My constant reading about brain science. But there is perhaps nothing so nerdy about me as my love for data. I can fool around with numbers …

  • This week at Colette Patterns

    How did your week go? Ours was rather ho hum, since Caitlin got sick (wish her well!) and Kenn and I spent way too much time at Ikea. But we did finally get some drinking glasses for the office kitchen (see above). And they’re pink! Ikea comes through sometimes. I put together my new Hazel, …

  • This week at Colette Patterns

    Caitlin has a remarkable ability to match the flowers she brings in. I didn’t even notice how well she coordinated with her bouquet until I posted these. I am so happy to be back in the studio this week, plugging away on the next batch of patterns, working on some new tutorials, and finally (!) …

  • Stockholm and Copenhagen: Any Suggestions?

    I have another exciting trip planned very soon! We’re cashing in some airline miles and taking a trip next week to Sweden and Denmark! We’re starting in Stockholm, then going to Copenhagen and we’ll be in each for a bit under a week. I honestly haven’t had much time to plan, so I thought I’d …

  • A day in the life

    The lovely Tilly recently asked me to share some details on what a typical day is like for me. It was a great chance to reflect on my day-to-day life, which has been constantly evolving over the last few years. If you’re interested in hearing about how my time plays out, head over to Tilly’s …

  • Making box cushions for the studio

    Our new studio is really coming together. A few things are still needed but over all, it’s looking pretty good! One of the things I recently made for the studio were these pretty box cushions. We knew we wanted cushions for our chairs, but what fabric? You might recall that we’re trying to use what …

  • Decorating with scraps

    Scraps. We all have them, but some of us have an easier time getting rid of them than others. As you can probably imagine, we generate a lot of fabric scraps here at Colette Patterns. Now that we’ve moved into a large studio with lots of space, we are thinking of cost-effective ways to decorate. …

  • How do you organize your inspiration?

    We are in the process of creating a pretty and functional workspace in our new studio. Sarai and I have talked about ways we can incorporate some kind of inspiration wall. Before now, we’ve used a few hanging clipboards to organize sketches and bits of fabric. This is handy because we usually have multiple projects …

  • Pretty ways to organize your fabric

    We’ve been using the Expedit bookcases from Ikea for our fabric storage. A few months ago I spent the afternoon banging together these boxes to hold all our fabric. Sarai had the idea to cut little swatches of all the fabrics in each box and safety pin them to the outside of each container. It …

  • Inspiration for our new studio

    We’re both really excited to move into our new, bigger studio. We’ve spent some time scouring for inspiring studio ideas and pinning them in her studio folder on Pinterest. A few of the things we’d like to incorporate into the new studio are feminine objects, unfinished wood, pretty and functional storage, as well as some …

  • Any sewing goals for 2012?

    At the beginning of 2010, I was in a sewing rut. Actually, I might more accurately call it a sewing void. A dead zone. A black hole. I just didn’t have time to make anything for myself, and it was difficult to get inspired. Honestly, what really kicked me back into gear was the structure …

  • We’re moving up in the world (literally)

    I have some great news. Well, at least it’s great for us. CP World Headquarters is moving into a larger studio! We love our current space, with its great view and incredible natural light, but it has become far too cramped and incredibly cluttered. There is very little workspace, and things have been tending to …

  • My writing process for The Colette Sewing Handbook

    If you’ve ever wondered how a craft book is written, well… I don’t know how anyone else does it, but I can at least tell you how mine was written. I’m someone who likes really big projects. I like planning them out, organizing all the moving parts, then focusing on the little details until everything …

  • Photos from the launch party

    I wanted to share some photos from our recent book release party for The Colette Sewing Handbook. We had a great time, and I’m so thankful so many people pitched in to help out. Thanks especially to Rachel (former contributor to this blog) who offered to come early to help set up. What a pal. …

  • Quilt Market & thoughts on the sewing industry

    Quilt Market was intense. It was hard, but gave me a serious education and some food for thought. On our end, designing, shipping, and building a booth in an unfamiliar city is an incredible amount of work. Our booth was pretty modest, but still, we worked hard on this thing. During the whole market, we …

  • We’re off to Quilt Market!

    Today, Kenn and I are flying off to Houston to participate for the first time at Quilt Market! Quilt market is the biggest sewing industry trade show of the year. We’ll get to show off our products and book to lots and lots of independent retailers. Plus, hopefully check out all the new up and …

  • The Colette Sewing Handbook: Behind the scenes at our photo…

    I love photo shoots. They’re kind of like planning a big party. Lots of work and care, plenty of moving parts, people to coordinate, and tons of excitement and energy on the big day. I think the video above pretty much sums it up. I’m really a lucky lady, first of all because I was …