daisyjanie

pillows and teatowels

These babies are slowly but surely getting finished. These are my samples (there are more where these came from). I am head-over-heels with the pillow design I devised. Don't you love the zipper? What's that you say, you don't see a zipper? Ah, now you're catching on! You're not supposed to silly - that's what makes it so fabu. And the teatowels....LOVE them. Turned out yummier than I imagined. Things are going a-okay here (for a change!!).

What you also can't see (behind me) are the piles and piles of cut purse pieces for this week's fiesta of sewing. I promised myself I would make handbags I personally liked alot (so I could brag wildly about them when I got stopped on the street) and that didn't have a too many parts - to ease the construction burden. Alas, alack, I couldn't help myself. They are definitely bags I will carry with a zip in my step and a grin ear-to-ear, but the parts and construction steps are not lacking in number! Oh well. They'll be better than anything I've done before and that's a real motivator right now!

working on: cool custom fabric project

I've been working on this very cute project for about 2 weeks now. The client contacted me to print a custom fabric for her, which I will then sew into some Daisy Janie items for her: an uptown handbag, a headband, a roxy wristlet, a couple zoey pouches and maybe a key fob or 2.

The initial concept was done by her son and is a gift from him to his sister in celebration of her Bat Mitzvah. You might recognize the "signature style" upon which it's loosely based. (Considering it's not an exact duplicate, the colors are completely different and it's not for re-sale, I thought it was safe to go ahead with it.)

I tightened and cleaned the client's design, set-up the repeat, colormatched the purple shades - and off to the printer!  The bottom image is the strike-off (pardon the yellow cast from my camera!!). It looks splendid in person - the client loves it. So it's a go. Yay!

She said her daughter will be over the moon with her brother's gift! I think it's awesome not only that he wanted to do this for his sister but also that his mom encouraged him to 'go for it'! (Did I mention he's 14? What a brother!)

If you' re interested in custom fabric design and / or printing, please get in touch.
jan [at] daisyjanie [dot] com.

me 1, brown pants 0

[All fabric and handbag designs copyright 2008 Daisy Janie. Copying is not cool!]
Get outta my face brown pants - I took you down (to the washing machine). I was very motivated last week, and the brown pants are folded and put away! Here's one of my victories. Stress doesn't touch what I felt as I cut (ack!) my new, most favorite collection of beautiful fabrics with an actual goal (not just to ship an order). There were some other cold-sweat firsts for a Daisy Janie product: darts, topstitching in a mondo contrasting color (in a non-random place), and big, fat grommets (hooray, the press got here yesterday...very fast!). My heart rate was through the roof as I progressed through each step of making this bag, esp. the grommets b/c if they get screwed up, the whole bag is scrapped. I had to swallow hard on the little voice that was telling me, "it's too zany, it's too non-traditional, it's too imperfect." That's when it hit me that this handbag design couldn't be more spot-on for me! Since I know there are more me(s) out there who will like it, too, I forged on! I am in love with this one! The fabrics look better than I imagined, and the frayed edges & frayed knots are totally hip. (Do you know the 'frayed knot' joke - not you Beaner...I know you know it!)

As always, necessity played a big part in the final design. I had to get a handbag done for a charity auction this coming weekend for the Children's Alopecia Project, and I was NOT going to give them any of my clunkers. They've been peddled a-plenty around here. So the debut of the bag will have me excited and jangled, I'm sure. Testing the waters with a new design is always nerve-wracking. I have another one of these to make tomorrow for my sister's fundraiser with her Hadassah group. Then, back to getting my samples D.O.N.E. (Hello? Brownpants? Is that you? Gotta a job for you.)

Using the new grommet press was freakin' awesome! I had to put it on the floor and kneel to get enough leverage so the dies would cut through the fabric layers and the grommets would magically seal. Being on me knees to do this part was a challenge b/c I fell down the steps leaving my day job today!!! What a dork! My shoe got caught in my pant cuff and down I went. My shoe came off, some workers thought their tarp caused the freakish tumble...nope, just me being me! This lady nearby helped me up and put my shoe back on! No playing that one off either, like I meant to do that or that I tripped on something. What in the Sam Hill is my problem - Matt used to call me "AWTH" (accident waiting to happen). Totally bruised ego...and nobody around to laugh hysterically with.

Couldn't get a good scale shot whether I took it or Matt took it. He was laughing too hard at how blurry each one was, after about 25 attempts. (Where was he when I fell down the steps?) Oh brother.

working on...taking good pictures

These 2 shots really capture the palette of this fabric collection. There are 14 colors in all, with the chocolate, taupe and cream being the most prominent. Pretty much my "comfort" colors...they make me happy in almost any context.

In all the years I've been creating artwork, photographing it has always been a monumental task that left me fit to be tied b/c there's just so, so, so much to be done between setting up to take the GD picture, actually taking it and then getting it into a usable format. Takes as long as the artwork itself, and it's not nearly as fun! I visited camera shops, asked professionals, borrowed cameras that cost more than my car, made lightboxes, crossed my fingers, waited for full moons - nothing worked! I put up with it b/c they seemed good 'nuff. But these fabrics, oh these fabrics. I don't think anything is good enough for them! I want to get the absolute best pics I can b/c this. is. it. I've been on a journey, and I'm where I want to be - where I can see myself for a long, long time. I want to stay here. So no more pissing around with so-so photos (amongst other things).

I searched hi and lo for my Canon manual today, then I remembered an article on The Switchboards by Lindsay Landis of Pattern & Paw and Purr Design. She gave an incredible synopsis on what you need to do to take your own great pics. If you don't know Lindsay's work, she is an overachieving perfectionist - her work is great and she knows what she's talking about! The first thing (and only thing) I did upon reading this article was fiddle with my light meter. WOW!!! I knew I didn't really live in the dark ages, yet every picture I ever took made my house and family look gray and icky. The light meter was the ticket!!! Thanks Lindsay! Onward and upward people! 2 good days in a row! Who'd have thunk?

working on...vine swirls

This is a fabric design I'm hoping to have finished by January. (I have about 4 other fabrics in the works, including this one as well as the ones above in my header that are complete.) Each element of this design is one freehand "squiggle swirl" that I created and then linked, linked and linked. I don't have a stylus so it took awhile to get each one just right. I would like the final look to have a more damask-y feel to it, and that will require a good bit of manipulation. I'll post the before and after when I have it done.

There's a lot of math and symmetry involved in figuring the layout, and I LOVE that part. I used to paint designs like these on furniture, mirrors, walls. My fabric designs are similar to my painting style - always geometric, layered and balanced. My brain won't let my fingers generate random patterns, although I appreciate it and love it when I see it. Same reason I have spatial reasoning issues.  [don't have a score yet...must get to my dayjob!]

working on...big mamas in decor fabrics

These Big Mamas are now in the shop (at 50% off). Just under the wire for 2007! I've had swatches of them on the site, but images of swatches don't sell the product nearly as well as the images of the real deal.

I have a a few more styles to finish in these fabrics (Fancy Pants, Zoey Pouches, Totes). I'm sooooooo anxious to get these done and crossed off my list, which they've been on for 2 freaking years since I bought them (when I was doing home purse shows). They're much too conservative and staid for my taste, but I made the investment. I have a hard time mentally moving on from things that are on a list, and then that locks me up physically from getting to the next thing. A huge weakness as a business owner! Probably should cut my losses in those situations b/c I dearly love purging junk in my personal life! But in my business life, it's too hard to write-off things that have value. Ah, the value of opportunity cost! I am bursting at the seams to get to the next phase of my business/creativity.....must make room!!

working on...fabric finishing

This fabric design will be available in January. $17/piece (27"wide by 18"tall). I'm sticking to about 11 colors right now so everything will coordinate nicely!! Love that.

This particular design emerged after about 50 iterations of an element in one of my son's school art projects. I find a lot of inspiration from his sketches and doodles (he just started his first notebook of drawings that I'm not *allowed* to look at it). I see repetitions and patterns in everything, and his artwork is no exception. There will be others...thanks Peanut Man!

I'm working on scaling, colorizing and naming this one. This is about 67% of the regular scale. Current colors are chocolate brown, caramel brown, robin's egg blue and chartreuse. Any suggestions on a name are welcome! Here are a couple more options below. Picture a finished product of some sort, and let me know what you think.

All designs are the property of Jan DiCintio, Daisy Janie. Copyright 2007. Stealing is not polite

working on...belts & headbands

In addition to wholesale, I offer private label services. Essentially, I become a sewing contractor on these occasions, but clients are selecting from my patterns instead of supplying their own. (They choose their own fabrics, however.) In private label, I don't use the Daisy Janie logo label - clients supply their own. These belts and headbands are for Miss Maggie Bags out of Ohio. The owner, Michelle, has a great eye for putting together cohesive, seasonal collections of accessories (including handbags) from various designers or manufacturers. She knows her clientele well and sells them via home shows and the like. Her streamlined business model cuts out a huge chunk of front-end time & money. And it works for me b/c I have the know-how and ability for that part, but I don't always have time to research channels of distribution - which she does. A win-win situation.

I have done similar jobs for country clubs, Girl Scouts (post coming up), professional womens' groups, and fundraisers. If you have a group or business for which you'd like to create a private line, let me know. info[at]daisyjanie[dot]com

Shop Miss Maggie Bags if you're interested in these items