Photo: Erica Beckman from Little Green Dresses

This weekend I’m going to be doing a few live demos at the Renegade Craft Fair in Austin at the Stitch Lab booth.  For one of the demos, I’ll be showing you how to sew-up the Ultra Miniskirt from my upcoming book, Little Green Dresses.  I’ll be giving out free pattern instructions so you can go home and make one of your own.  For those of you that are not in Austin, I want you to be able to join in the fun too, so I posted free pattern instructions over at tinasparkles.com

In addition to the Ultra Miniskirt demo at Renegade, I’ll also be demonstrating a few techniques from my “Destroy Your Denim” class and there will be tons of other hands on demonstrations at the Stitch Lab and Austin Craft Mafia booths, so don’t forget to bring a pair of jeans, fabric, tote bags, t-shirts, or any other clothing item to stamp, screen print, embroider, applique or destroy!  See you there!

Happy Earth Day!  What a perfect day to announce that my book, Little Green Dresses, is now available for pre-sale on Amazon.com! 

Little Green Dresses is all about taking DIY fashion to the max with a special focus on refashioning fresh new items from already existing materials. It includes detailed instructions and illustrations on how to make 50 super cute designs including tons of adorable dresses, tops, skirts and bottoms; all designed by me and a handfull of my favorite indie designers (including fellow ACMers Jennifer and Jesse).   In addition to chapters on basic sewing and patternmaking techniques, Little Green Dresses walks you through the process of drawing each of the clothing patterns from scratch using your own body measurements and then shows you how to sew up those patterns using recycled, salvaged or sustainable materials. Each step-by-step project also includes extra ideas and variations to further customize the looks. In addition to all the fashion-making, Little Green Dresses discusses an overall approach to developing a socially responsible wardrobe, including a guide to smart and progressive shopping. All together, Little Green Dresses inspires and gives you the power to create a truly unique wardrobe that makes a powerful statement.

Everyone needs a little black party dress and this one is a winner — literally! It won 2nd place in Blackmail’s Little Black Dress contest in October and has some pretty fantastic design features, including all-in-one dropped cap sleeves, an asymmetrical neckline (which is apparently all over the runways for 2010) and a mini bubble skirt. Students should have at least Level 1 sewing experience, which means you should know how to work your sewing machine and be confident sewing a seam. In this class I will walk you through the entire process of sewing a dress using my original pattern; including laying and cutting out the pattern pieces from fabric, sewing curved seams, under-stitching, sewing princess seams, sewing darts, sewing a lining, gathering, installing an invisible zipper and hemming. $145 per student.

Three upcoming sessions, just in time to make a New Year’s Eve Dress!

• Saturday & Sunday, December 12 & 13, 3:30-10:00PM
• Saturday & Sunday, December 26 & 27, 11:00 – 5:30 PM
• Tuesday & Wednesday, December 29 & 30, 9:00 – 3:30 PM

This class will be taught at the Stitch Lab (1000 S. 1st, Austin, TX). Click on their logo for more information on this class and to register.

Clean out your closets and your craft supply drawers and come participate in a community swap! Bring any unwanted clothes – both adult and kids clothes welcome, and crafting supplies like fabric, thread, yarn, notions, buttons, etc. etc. Get rid of stuff you don’t want and go home with new stuff that you love. Any suits or professional clothing and accessories left over at the end of the day will be donated to Dress for Success, a non-profit organization that helps disadvantaged women get dressed up for job interviews. Any crafty supplies left over will be donated to the after school teen sewing program at the Austin Public Library. Everything else will be donated to a local charity shop. If you want, you can also bring your sewing machine or knitting needles or embroidery hoops or whatever and spend the afternoon hanging out with other crafty types fixing up your swap finds, having fun and sharing ideas. It is also a great way to recycle and upcycle! In case you get hungry, we will have an assortment of amazing treats available for you to buy and snack on. Donate a can of food and your treat is free! We will use part of the $5 suggested donation and bake sale proceeds to help buy sewing machines for the after-school program.

WHEN: Saturday, September 5th, 12pm-6pm

WHERE: Space 12 – 3121 e. 12th St. 78702 (space12.org)

WHY: Have fun, get crafty and support the Space 12 Community Center and the
Austin Public Library Youth Services sewing program.

HOW MUCH: $5 suggested donation

This event is part of a weekend long craft-a-thon. Here are some other crafty events that you might check out that weekend:

Saturday, September 5th, 7pm-9pm
Handmade Nation Booksigning at Domy Books with Faythe Levine, Jennifer
Perkins, Kathie Sever, Whitney Lee, Magda Sayeg

Sunday September 6th, 12-5pm
-Mini Craft Bazaar featuring 10-12 booths outside Alamo Drafthouse South

Sunday September 6th, 1:30 and 4:10
-Screenings of Handmade Nation at Alamo South + Q&A after each showing
with Faythe Levine, Jennifer Perkins, Kathie Sever, Whitney Lee, Magda Sayeg

Sunday, September 6th, 2pm-7pm
-Make Out Session (A DIY project free for all) at the United States
Art Authority (2906 Fruth, next to Spider House) (http://www.artseenalliance.com/)

Sunday September 6th, 8pm-10pm
-After party at Handmade Austin (2009 South First Street)

Come out to First Sample’s monthly fabric bazaar this Saturday. There are new fabrics to choose from including some organic & designer overstocks and sale priced items from last month’s bazaar. You won’t find fabric like this anywhere else in town. There will also be patterns and lots of cool sewing room items.

• The date of the show has officially been set forSaturday, November 10, 2007 at the newly renovated(much larger!!) Austin Music Hall here in downtown Austin.

• Applications for Stitch are now online (http://www.stitchaustin.com/participate.). We’reaccepting them through August 15. Now while all applications will all be looked at as a group, priority will be given to early applicants. Spaces are limited on both the runway and craft booth areas.

• We have a blog now!! Please visit it… all thetime!http://stitchaustin.blogspot.com

• What else?? In our next update stay tuned for info on the djs that will be performing and more news about how we plan to use our newly renovated space.

Now if bullet points aren’t your thing and you want all the tawdry details, read on. This newsletter is chock full of info – and the website’s (http://www.stitchaustin.com) got even more!!!

STITCH 2007 We’re thrilled that the Austin Music Hall is expanding! We were bursting at the seams last year…and it wasn’t just attendees packing the hall… but also with talented and often ingenious designers,crafters and artists. This year’s show will have even more booths, more make and take stations (Remember the awesome one from Duncan Paints?? They’ll be back again this year!), more amazing DJs… well, you asked for it, right?? We have a lot more surprises up our sleeves, but you’ll have to read about them in our next newsletter!

PERKS & PROMOTIONAL OPPORTUNITIES As mentioned, we want to grow the sphere of small independent businesses by offering an opportunity for participants to connect and build relationships with other designers, crafters and members of the independent business community. As a result, this will be a wonderful marketing opportunity for participants and attendees alike. We are holding a happy hour before doors open for storeowners to preview runway designers’ work. Storeowners will get to see the clothing, meet with the designers and even get linesheets and discuss orders. Swag bags filled withmarketing material from vendors and designers will be handed out to the first 500 guests to arrive. Vendors from all over the country are being formally invited to display their wares both on the runway and in craftbooths. Store owners from around the country are being invited to attend both the pre-show and the evening’s show. We are filming this year’s runway show and creating a Stitch podcast, so your runway show will be viewable on the internet long after Stitch is over. We also offer tremendous sponsorship opportunities. It’s a great way to advertise your work if you’re not able to make it to Austin for the event! We are printing and distributing 2500 programs filled with articles,information about the show and the artists and your sponsorship ads. For more information on sponsorships please visithttp://www.stitchaustin.com/ or contact Jennifer at mailto:sponsorships@

JOIN US We would be thrilled if you could participate in Stitch 2007 and become part of this exciting show and our dynamic and growing community. Please refer to our website, http://www.stitchaustin.com, for more information about the event and to sign up for this year’s show.

xox Karly, Tina, Jennifer and Jesse