Exciting times and the start of a journey-The Grace Collection

The past two weeks have been a complete blur, from packing and writing and double checking everything, attending a two day show at Ruthies’ in Baker, Florida to finishing up the start of my pride and joy…The Grace Collection, Part 1, Bonnets & Booties. The collection is on sale now and like eager parents, both Carolyn and I have been ecstatic over the response from our friends around the world.

My trip to Ruthies was amazing indeed. So many friends showed up and the two days went by in the blink of an eye. When Ruthies’ assistant, Sharon saw the Grace collection, I was immediately asked if she could stitch out the Mary Jane slipper on the EMP machine. The next day, I asked her to come in and let friends know about her experience. Sharon showed everyone her work and explained how easy it was to assemble as all the pieces are stitched in the hoop and all one has to do is to sew them together.

Many friends have emailed me asking various questions, the foremost being about assembly and threads. First of all, the freestanding lace design collection is quite different than anything out there in the machine embroidery world. The collection comes with a detailed PDF file which has step by step instructions as can be seen in the image on the side. The PDF itself is fifty (50) plus pages. Results from using various threads, stabilizers and recommendations are also included. The freestanding lace pieces are accurately digitized and sewn together using a zigzag stitch to produce the desired size. This in itself was not the easiest task and there were many many times when both Carolyn and I questioned ourselves, LOL.

As I said earlier the shapes for all the various sized booties, slippers and bonnets are created right in the hoop.

Here is another image of one of the design pages. The Mary Jane slipper

shape along with the plain slipper shape and two of the three sole types can be seen, in the image on the side. One of the questions sent to me was that the lady is not a seamstress and she wished we had created in the hoop bonnets and booties. My answer is I wish we had a large hoop to work with along with capabilities of the machine to know that the item being stitched is three dimensional. My main concern always is considering the largest hoop that the collection can be worked around. 5×7 in my opinion is one of the most used hoop sizes and most of the designs in the collection use it. 

While at Ruthies, I was introduced to two interesting threads that have just been released. One of them is from Madeira and although it is a polyester 40 wt thread, it has a matte finish which makes it seem and look just like cotton thread. The other is by Robinson Anton and is a 50 wt cotton thread. Both threads were used immediately by Carolyn, upon my arrival in Atlanta last week. The results….absolutely excellent. I already have sent in an order to Ruthies for both threads. The Grace collection was tested using all kinds of threads: poly, cotton, rayon…including serger thread!!! and I have to admit each gave their own unique look and feel.

As for the versatility of the designs…well, they are indeed versatile. Before leaving for Florida, I had been trying to finish a Christmas stocking, sort of along the lines of the “Baby’s first Christmas” but could not finish. Going down the road and talking to Carolyn, I started to explain what I was doing. Next day I had a call from her telling me to expect a package at Ruthies which had a Baby stocking…absolutely adorable. The Collection has some bonus designs of lace squares which have a multitude of uses and four of those squares were used to create the body of the stocking with the lace trim around the cuff. The stocking is photographed on top of a baby quilt I created using left over lace squares. By the way, the baby’s dress (shown above) hemline is trimmed with the lace trim in the collection.

Another idea had come to me while I was working on the collection. There has to be some way that friends can embellish purchased baby and little girl’s clothes. Purchasing some baby socks, I used the same trim around the top of the socks…the result was stunning. A mere $3 pair of socks now had a much more valuable look to them. Lots and lots of ideas…will post more pictures of the little girl’s denim set that I am working on, very soon. I won’t say what Carolyn is working on but it truly blew my mind when I saw it…my lips are sealed.

Some friends have been concerned about the commercial licensing of the designs. As these designs are unique and meant for friends to create family heirlooms, both Carolyn and I were concerned about commercial usage of them. Not that we mind friends making and selling items with the designs but we want to prevent mass production. Three years ago, I was approached by a commercial garment factory to use the Tambour laces on ready made clothing for JC Penney and Dillards. As I did not have a commercial clause then, I truly could not charge them for mass production and they were indeed mass produced. The same factory then used one of the border designs from Izmir to embellish jeans. It was a hard decision for both Carolyn and I and in the end we settled at commercial production of twenty items but left the door open for licensing. Licensing is not that difficult a deal as it sounds. We set up individual and corporation licensing contracts to suit the clients in both fields.

The Grace Collection, part 1 is indeed an absolutely different collection and both Carolyn and I are grateful to all friends for their lovely emails and comments. The journey has begun and we are well down the road with the next release.  Meanwhile, the collection can be viewed at either of the sites: http://creativeneedlecraft.com/grace1.htm and http://www.sadiasews.com/grace1.html  Would love to hear from friends on how they use the designs.