THE DOMESTIC DIVA’S DISASTERS™

Edit…My Sunshine Girl is not feeling well.  Her blood pressure readings have been way too high and she’s in a lot of pain, so the doctors are admitting her in Philadelphia Children’s Hospital once again.  Say a prayer quick.

Great Gadget

How ingenious is this Tee Square It for perfect embroidery and silk screening placement?  I so badly need one of these right now as I start my 17 embroidered tote bags for Kacey of Doodle Bugs Paper.  There’s a How To Use the Tee Square It instruction page and even some videos!  But buy it from my friend, Hot Fix Suzy™ (1st link)–it’s cheaper…oh, and she has the best prices of hot fix crystals!

Google Mapping

Speaking of friends, lots of people have asked for directions to the big BBQ, local hotels and other note worthy sites in NYC.  My partner in crime, Lady M™ of Fabric Hound, put together this Google Map for us:

The Diva BBQ and other Attractions in NYC

Gorgeous Fabrics

Here’s a sneak peek at Patty Young’s new fabric line for Michael Miller.  OMG…it’s AWESOME!  Way to go Patty!  Head over to her Mod Kid Boutique blog for more yummy pictures.

With friendship,

Lisa

Are you a sewing junkie enthusiast like me who drools when you find a cool sewing notion, fabric, trim or gadget?  Yes, I love a good find, but it’s so much sweeter when it’s PINK!  KWIM?

So I thought I’d share some things you might enjoy…

Pink Measuring Tape Ribbon

50 yards of 2 1/2″ Wide Pink Elastic

Hot Pink Picot Edge Elastic

1,000+ Pink Braided Knot Buttons

Imported Pink and Red Flower Fabric

25 yards of Pink Polka Dot Netting

Pink Crocheted Apple Embellishment

Pink Atlas Sewing Machine

Pink Sovereign Sewing Machine

Pink Baby Ballet Slippers to Embellish

Pink Rhinestone Buttons

Happy Sunday Sewing!

With friendship,

Lisa

Fabric Sourcing

When designing a clothing line, you’ll need to find fabrics and order sample fabric yardage.  Sample fabric yardage is important as you’ll need it to test the color, texture, shrinkage, fade, drape, etc.

Not all fabric is available for reorder or permitted to be used in manufacturing.  I knew I couldn’t use Heather Ross’ licensed prints as she uses them for a line of pajamas.  Still couldn’t help but salivate, KWIM?

Neither could I use this awesome Springs’ licensed NASCAR print as it’s not permitted in manufacturing.  Apparently, there’s a bedding company that has exclusive rights to it…ugh!

Some prints are only available to quilt stores for resale to the home market.  I found this to be the case of many fabrics I wanted such as RJR Fabrics and Marcus Brothers.

Others are available, but cannot be reordered.  I was disappointed to learn Robert Kaufman, although they have some yardage available, will no longer be printing their blue camouflage fabric.  It matched another camouflage fabric in my line perfectly.

Many fabrics are simply discontinued by the time you go to production.

Thankfully we have the Internet and Google…I can’t imagine what clothing designers did 20 years ago if they lived outside of the main fashion districts, KWIM?  Anyway, start by Googling wholesale fabric, fabric manufacturer or fabric converter.  Steer clear of fabric jobbers.  They usually have end lots, discounted fabrics and cannot reorder fabric for production.

Here’s some links to help you in your search:

Infomat Fabric Company Listings

Apparel Search

The Cottonworks’ Global Fabric Directory

DMOZ Textile Listings

Fabric Link’s Fabric Company List

Canadian Fabric Sources

Virtual Garment Center’s Textile Company Listings

Davidson’s Textile Blue Book

Fashiondex’s Fabric Directory

Once you find what you’re looking for, call or e-mail the fabric company.  First introduce yourself and tell them what you are trying to source (color, weight, type, etc.).  Ask about their ordering minimums, wholesale pricing and whether fabric is able to be reordered for production.

If you can work within their perimeters, then ask for fabric swatches, color cards (both free) or purchase sample yardage.  Sample yardage often costs a little more than wholesale pricing, so expect to pay it.

You can also go to Textile Shows.  Before going, check out Fashiondex’s How To Shop the Fabric Show.

LA Textile Show (TALA)

Textile America

Material World

Printsource

Tex World

Premiere Vision

Koncept

Direction

Fashion Incubator wrote a great post about How to Buy Wholesale Fabric.  Check it out!

Fabric Sourcing is VERY time-consuming.  Just when you think you’ve found the perfect fabric, POOF!  It’s gone and you have to start your search all over again.  Happy hunting!

With friendship,

Lisa

Exhaling

But just for a moment.  I was finally able to get my sketches, fabrics and inputs packed up in a box to be sent out to my pattern maker this afternoon.  When hiring a pattern maker, you need to send them:

• Front and back sketches of your designs
• Plenty of fabric
• Lining fabric
• Buttons
• Zippers
• Specialty Thread (if necessary)
• Interfacing
• Elastic
• Piping, Bias or other Trims
• Hardware (d-rings and other such components)
• Sample garment (if you have one)
• A deposit towards their fee…LOL

My pattern maker’s work should arrive back to me within 2 to 3 weeks.  At that point, I’ll take my fit samples and patterns to a sample maker to have my salesmen’s samples made for the upcoming ENK Children’s Club show.

Oh and guess what I did this morning?  My first wire transfer!!!  I had to send money to a custom metal snap manufacturer in Hong Kong.  Talk about a language barrier…ugh!  I’ve spent no less than 2 months trying to place this order.  The good thing is I ordered 10,000 jeans’ snaps, so it will be years before I need to order them again…LOL!  Here’s my approved artwork for the jeans’ snap:

Speaking of exhaling, I was at the dentist yesterday to have a cap re-glued.  And all I could think about was INHALING sweet air (aka nitric oxide).  How sad is that?  See when I had all my caps done last year, I actually looked forward to all the sweet air.  Sweet air equals no physical pain in my joints and bones.  Pure bliss.  Too bad, they said I couldn’t have any yesterday…drats!  I thought for sure it was going to be my lucky day–the sweet air addict I am!

Driving

Today I ventured up to the West Side of Manhattan, just a mere 18 miles from my home.  First I noticed this SUV on Staten Island with vinyl signage for BottleBuddy.com.  And yes, I checked out their website, because I was just too damn curious as to what in the world a bottle buddy was.  It was great advertising.    Now, if I was to get one, would I get The Domestic Diva with my blog URL or DowntownJoey.com?  Think Mr. Diva™ would mind if I slapped something like that on the new Beamer?

Anyway, there was plenty of traffic as usual.  It is sad to look to the left (off the Gowanus Expressway) and see all the buildings which were once occupied by sewing factories are for the most part, empty shells now.  The thriving garment industry in Brooklyn has mostly gone offshore.  Sad.

So, I made it to the Fabric Sourcing meeting.  And it really wasn’t good at all.  Certainly not worth $50 parking, tolls and gas.  Definitely not.  There was one lady in the audience who asked 5 or 6 questions without coming up for air.  It took me everything not to tell her to BREATHE…LOL

After the little seminar, I did a little sourcing of my own in the fabric district and found the zippers I was looking for.  I guess the day wasn’t a complete waste.

On the way back to the parking garage, I noticed this awesome window at Lord & Taylor’s on 5th Avenue.  Seems they hired Tats Cru (aka The Mural Kings) to do the background.  Think I could afford to have them do my background for my booth at the upcoming ENK Children’s Club trade show?  Oh, how I wish.  This was one of several windows with NYC skylines…each one truly awesome.

Off to enjoy my air conditioning!  Oh and I forgot to mention…when I arrived home today, I checked on my Koi fish and there standing on the side of the pond was a Great White Heron or Great Egret.  I scared the huge bird away, but I know he’ll be back wanting lunch my fish.  Oh no!!!  Hopefully my fish are bright enough to seek cover under the floating water lilies and other pond plants.

With friendship,

Lisa

Continuing with the good old Encyclopedia of ME…based on the book, Encyclopedia of An Ordinary Life, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.  Feel free to join in and post a link!

Creating Chaos

Yep, that’s what I’m doing.  I do it all the time.  While others are sewing ruffles and sipping Strawberry Daiquiris by the poolside, I’m creating as much chaos as one diva can.  See, I’ve managed to put this all on my schedule:

• Launch a clothing line
• Undergo 6 hours family psychiatric evaluation to get my daughter on the kidney transplant list
• Host a BBQ for more than 150 people
• Embroider 17 tote bags
• Paint two rooms
• Wash 22 windows
• Purchase wholesale cases of candy
• Make a huge candy cart
• Make 100 caramel apples
• Move 4 industrial sewing machine and 20 feet of cutting tables out of garage into basement workshop
• Clean out garage
• Take down extra fence
• Move swing set to new area in yard
• Clean two barbeque grills
• Purchase paper goods for party
• Purchase booze and mixers for party
• Power Wash my house and yard
• Reseed lawn
• Purchase and plant even more annual flowers
• a zillion other things I am surely forgetting

Did I mention this all needs to be done by August 1st?  LOL.  Pray for me or come on over and help.

Company is Coming

I did get some great news yesterday.  Seems my friend, Heidi, will be bringing a few extra guests to the BBQ:

Heidi purchased 4 of these last year when her local GAP Kids’ store went out of business and she’s giving me 3 of them!!!  OMG…these will be perfect for the ENK Children’s Club trade show!!!!

And if that wasn’t enough, she’s also bringing me a few of these:

Talk about a SCORE!  Now let’s just hope her husband doesn’t get pulled over for speeding en route to the BBQ, because I wouldn’t want to him to have to explain to the officer why he’s driving with a bunch of dummies…ROTFLMAO!

City Driving

Tomorrow I’m meeting 2 fellow fashion designers from my Fashion Incubator clan.  We’re attending the About Sources’ seminar on Fabric Sourcing.  Let’s hope it’s worth the $40 parking cost.  Thankfully I can take the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel instead of the Manhattan Bridge…yippee!

Hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday!

With friendship,

On with the good old Encyclopedia of ME…based on the book, Encyclopedia of An Ordinary Life, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.  Feel free to join in and post a link!

Busy

Well actually, I’ve been procrastinating a bit.  Having zero confidence in my drawing skills, I’ve put off the final thing I need to send to my pattern maker…my design sketches.

I wish I was a whiz at Photo Shop so I could easily do my designs and add the different fabric swatches.  But I can barely figure out Paint Shop Pro, so I’m left with my Crayola Twistables Colored Pencils (I like them so much better than regular colored pencils).  I used the child croquis from Frances Harder’s Forms for Profit.  Actually, I bought her Business Startup Package which included the forms and 2 books:  Fashion for Profit and Costing for Profit.

The frustrating thing about hand sketching with colored pencils is you can’t really erase your mistakes well.  See, after drawing a zillion little skulls with crossbones (yes, that’s what those little Xs and Os are…whatever), I realized I didn’t add a front pocket on the shirt…ugh, ugh, ugh.  Do over.

And I drew several pants only to realize there will be no pants in my Spring/Summer line, just board shorts.

However, I did figure out a little trick.  I printed out swatches of my fabrics, sketched the garment on tracing paper and then put the swatch behind the tracing paper…so clever, right?

Stop by Fashion-Templates.com for tips on drawing children.  Or better yet, hire a talented illustrator like Danielle of Final Fashion.

Speaking of designing, check out Creativity for Kids’ Fashion Studio.  And if you’re a gamer, you might like My Fashion Studio:

Buying

I’ve been browsing the net to find the perfect Boy’s Shoes for my upcoming Photo Shoot.  Look what I found:

You can’t see the design well in black, but look at the gray version:

Get them here.  Although the colors won’t work for this season, I definitely will be using them for the second season (Fall/Winter 2009).  Same with these:

These Me in Mind Infant Shoes are just too stinkin’ cute, too!

Most importantly, B is for BACK TO WORK!

With friendship,

In an effort to keep myself blogging, I thought I’d revisit the good old Encyclopedia of ME…you know, the blog meme where you do a post for each letter of the alphabet?   It’s based on the book, Encyclopedia of An Ordinary Life, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.

However, instead of using nouns like I did in the past, I’m going to try to use verbs and adjectives.  Anyone want to join me?  Post a link in the Comments section below!  So, let’s get started…

A is for…

Audacious

au·da·cious [aw-dey-shuhs]  –adjective

1.  extremely bold or daring; recklessly brave; fearless: an audacious explorer. 2.extremely original; without restriction to prior ideas; highly inventive: an audacious vision of the city’s bright future. 3. recklessly bold in defiance of convention, propriety, law, or the like; insolent; brazen.  4. lively; unrestrained; uninhibited.

Oh, yes…that would sum it up.  Looking at the above photo, it’s imperative to note the child harness which is used to strap me into the carriage.  See, to say I was a difficult child would be an understatement.

From the moment I was born, I hit the ground running.  There was so much for me to explore, siblings to torment, and rules to break.

My Mother was foolish to think a harness could tame me.  One day she parked my carriage outside the local bakery and went inside to get me cookies.  When she returned, she found me hanging from the harness on the side of the carriage.  This was just one example of my audacious personality.

In recent years, I’ve become less audacious.  Real life has a way of knocking it out of you.  Things that were once a breeze to accomplish now seem difficult.  Often I lack the courage to tackle what is ahead of me.  But little by little, I’m taking baby steps.

Whether it has to do with my daughter’s upcoming kidney transplant or the launch of my new boys’ clothing line, I’m just putting one foot in front of the other and going through the motions.  I was always known as a real firecracker.  Slowly but surely, I’m rekindling that spark!

Wishing everyone a Happy 4th of July!

I have been running non-stop since yesterday.  Well, not actually “running”…more like DRIVING.  Sometimes I amaze myself with all I accomplish.  Other times I’m just flat out LAZY.

So anyway, I’ve been hearing all this talk about ridiculous gas prices.  I hadn’t paid it much mind, because my new car came with a full tank (and that’s a LOT of gas…like 25 gallons).  Well, I stopped by my local gas station to find this:

I walked into the gas station and asked for $70 worth of gas.  At this price, it takes $126 to fill my gas tank…ugh!  Now that wouldn’t be the worst.  Notice how many miles I get to the gallon now?

I really shouldn’t complain…I mean, my last car only got 9 mpg, so I’m ahead, right?  When paying for my gas, I overheard a young girl asking for $13 of gas.  WTH?  $13?  Who puts $13 of gas in their car?  I mean, at least make it an even $20 worth.  Unfortunately, the last time I put $20 in my car was 10 years ago.  Maybe longer.  $20 wouldn’t even get me back and forth to the supermarket.

Now let’s talk shoes…just in case any of you ditch the car and decide to walk.  Unlike many of my shoe whore friends, I don’t need a million pair of shoes.  I don’t drool over Manolos, but I do prefer all leather shoes.  They don’t need to be glamorous.  The only requirement is they have to be comfortable.

So being that I only have a dozen pair of shoes, I decided to visit Piperline and Zappos to see if anything caught my eye.  I ended up purchasing 2 pairs of Tahari patent leather sandals.  I love everything Tahari…most of my wardrobe consists of this brand.  So when the sandals arrived, I eagerly put a pair on.  Unfortunately, it was no more than an hour before I had blisters on my most of my toes.  Back they go.  Darn!!!  No wonder I never buy patent leather.  It’s never comfortable.

Which brings me to these:

How the heck would one manage to walk in these?  They are unique, but really…KWIM?  Just looking at these hurt!

Have a lovely evening…

Since last year’s 3rd Annual BBQ was a hit, we’re doing it again!

This year’s Menu includes:

• Filet Mignon Skewers (BBQ and Teriyaki)
• Mussels and Clams in White Wine
• Italian Cocktail and Ring Sausage
• Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail
• Fresh Mozzarella Cheese
• Sirloin Cheeseburgers
• Hot Dogs
• Roasted Peppers with Capers
• Variety of Chilled Salads

Treats:

• Villabate Cakes and Pastries
• Homemade Italian Ice
• Seasonal Fruits
• Cotton Candy Machine
• Popcorn Machine
• Homemade Caramel Apples
• Candy Cart

Entertainment: for All Ages:

• Magician and Card Shark
• Pirate Ship Amusement Ride
• Giant Moon Bounce
• Face Painting, Balloons and Temporary Tattoos
• Child Entertainer
• Babysitters

And of course…Lots of Booze!

Just 20 minutes from Manhattan, so if you’d like to come and/or need directions, my phone number, etc., send me an email at domesticdiva@si.rr.com.  Hope to see you there!  Bring your family!  I guarantee it will be a party to remember!

Okay, here’s where I need your help:

Remember these?  I had bought them last year in hopes of using them for little favors for the BBQ.  I have 240 of them…LOL!  So, tell me…what can I put inside as a reminder of the party?  Don’t say M & Ms or Almonds…remember, it’s going to be hot outside, so it needs to hold up to the heat.

Here’s my ideas so far:

• Old-Fashion Candy Necklaces 
• Deck of Cards
• Swedish Candy Fishies
• Margarita Mix
• Colored Chalk
• Candy Buttons

Got any clever ideas for these little pink boxes?  First 10 suggestions will get the winning favor mailed to them after the BBQ (just remind me…LOL)!

On the subject of sewing, check this out…

Threads’ Industry Insider Techniques CD

Well, time to get back to work (I have 17 tote bags to machine applique/embroider…)