Hopscotch Designs

So who wouldn’t be inspired by this?…

One look at this tablecloth and I knew that I wanted to make this…

and this…

and this…

and this…

and this…

We also revamped the dress that started it all and brought back some favorites:

You all are the first to get a sneak peek at Fall 2009 before it makes its debut at KidShow next week.  Michele and I are crazy busy dotting all of our i’s and crossing all of our t’s before we go (I promise that I’ll spare you another peek at my to do list–not only is it tediously long, but it’s also painfully uninteresting!).  But when I’m not totally preoccupied with everything we have to do, I keep thinking about how much heading off to trade shows with our new designs is like sending your babies off to their first day of kindergarten–the emotional roller coaster breaks down like this: 

• 30% excitement
• 30% anticipation
• 30% maternal pride
• 10% crazy nervousness (just enough to unleash a small army of butterflies in my stomach!)

So…we’ll be heading out in less than a week armed with a camera, pen and pad of paper so that we can tell you all about it when we get back–keep your fingers crossed and wish us luck!

Here’s a peek at those chenille scrap bags I promised–I’m still spring cleaning, even though I have WAY too many other things to do!  Here are pics of a few of the fabrics…

 
Each bag is a treasure trove of 1+ pounds of large 10.5″ square, very useable, very gorgeous fabric scraps from vintage cutter chenilles in a variety of colors and patterns. They are perfect for quilting, applique or any other scrappy projects in the works or scrappy plans waiting in the wings–put on your crafty thinking cap and have some fun!

On a side note, I have to tell you, these scrap bags are so ADDICTIVE!  I love making them–I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to take something we can’t use and send them off to someone who can.  It’s the thrill of purging without filling a trash can–it makes me soooo happy, and I hope the end result makes you all awfully happy too!

Happy New Year, everyone!!

We hope that 2008 ended on a high note for you all…with that in mind for ourselves, Michele and I decided to wrap up 2008 by combining a business trip with a minivacation for us and the kids.  Replenishing our supply of vintage linens for the website and vintage pillowcases for our Megan dresses (watch for them coming soon to the website, so stay tuned…) meant we were headed for our favorite vintage linen supplier’s garage in Santa Barbara.  We headed out Monday morning with 4 kids, 4 tons of luggage, 4 pounds of snickerdoodles and with a 4 hour drive ahead of us.  I’m happy to report that the trip was deemed a success on all fronts–for the kids that meant:

• Fording streams (or playing in the creek at El Capitan Canyon, depending on who you ask), chasing bunnies and chickens, building sandcastles at the beach, getting nauseous from too many turns on the tire swing, a picnic at the park topped off with turtle sightings and feeding the ducks, and 4 pounds of snickerdoodles (snickerdoodles + tire swing could explain aforementioned nausea).

For us that meant:

• Getting all of the vintage linens we needed and then some, plus all of the above, with the possible exception of the tire swing…

  We also managed to fit in Hopscotch’s christmas party at Palazzio in downtown Santa Barbara with all of our “corporate officers”  (we gave them all titles, but now I can’t remember them…but I’m pretty sure that “president of polka dot fabrics” was one of them).  One of the best finds and the biggest surprise on the trip happened on our way home–we hit horrible traffic on late Tuesday afternoon and early evening heading into LA (3 right lanes closed should say it all), so we decided to jump off of the freeway at Santa Monica Blvd. and kill time by grabbing dinner.  We happened upon Cafe 50’s–an amazing fifties style diner that ended up being one of the highlights of the trip.  I was so smitten that I took a few pics with my cel phone (not great pictures, but you’ll get the idea)…

Really good food, great atmosphere, super yummy milkshakes…it had me humming the hokey pokey on my way out!  It was a happy accident that we found it and I look forward to going back next time we head up that way…

Well, it looks like it’s time for me to wrap this up, and I wanted to do that with a wish that 2009 is chock full of happy accidents and good health for all of you and all of us–Happy 2009 and I hope to chat with you often in the new year!

  So, I’m having one of those days…usually when I say that, it’s not a good thing, but today I’m tickled pink to report that it’s actually the opposite. 

  Here’s my to do list to prove it:

1. Finish putting up Christmas decorations–Check.
2. Mail off Christmas presents–Check.
3. Start French Market Soup for dinner–Check.
4. Have a cup of hot tea–not really on the list, but I’m doing it so…Check.
5. Watch it pour down rain outside and be happy not to be out in it–again, not really on the list…wouldn’t you be a little worried about me if it were?!…Check.
6. Stare adoringly at the new fabrics that just arrived–Check.
7. Write a blog about aforementioned fabulous fabrics–Check, Check!

  Yep, I’m thrilled to announce that the first of the Fall 09 fabric contenders have arrived and here’s a little sneak peek:

Now the colors are a bit off (my camera and I don’t always get along…sad, but true), but you get the basic gist…they are so very pretty and I so very love them!!  I hope you all like them too…more is on its way and then it will be time to sew, sew, sew.  I can’t wait to turn those new, beautiful bolts of fabric into the coats, dresses and skirts that I see so clearly in my head–my fellow fabricaholics may agree that the most wonderful thing about an untouched bolt of fabric is the promise of what’s to come.  Oh, happiness is…!

So…let me start by saying that these busy times have not been kind to my sewing studio.  I’m not a naturally organized person (just ask Michele), but I manage to fake it well enough and hold my own when life is moving along at a reasonable pace…now, throw in a few holidays, vacations and mountains of work and the very unfortunate result is a very, very, very messy sewing studio.  This should say it all–Larry, my typically unfazed father-in-law, came looking for me the other day and in a fit of convulsive laughter and good-natured mocking, threatened to go off and find a camera…it was that bad and a picture of the whole room would just have been too embarrassing for words, but I wouldn’t want to disappoint, so more on that in a minute…

First, I have to confess that not only am I not naturally organized, but I also hate throwing stuff away (total packrat–again, just ask Michele…), so you know what you get when you mix hoarding with disorganization?

This:

8 giant bags of Hopscotch scrap fabric all over my floor!!!  (looking at it more closely now, I’m not sure how Larry did find me…)

The good news is that my sewing studio floor (and happily, the rest of it, too!) is now clean as a whistle, thanks to two busy days and one late night…the even better news is that all of that fabric scrap on the floor now looks like this:

In the spirit of “renew, reuse, recycle”, we now have for $5 each, 20 bags, each bursting with about 2 pounds of fabulous scrap fabric for any of you who have scrappy projects in the works or scrappy plans waiting in the wings.  All you have to do is click here to check out our scrap bags and put on your crafty thinking caps…we can’t wait to hear what you come up with!

P.S. If anyone is interested in chenille scraps, we have a lot of that from backing blankets that could also use a happy home…so if you are interested, just drop us a line and we’ll figure something out!

  Greetings from Virginia!…well, kind of…our family just got back from a fantastic vacation that started in Washington D.C and ended in Williamsburg.  I started writing this in the car on an especially beautiful drive from Monticello to Williamsburg, courtesy of some Virginia back roads.  I picked out my new fantasy farmhouse, plus another baker’s dozen just in case…you never know when you’ll need 14 perfect farmhouses with barns to match, and like any good girl scout, I like to be prepared!  Farmhouse #1 had all of the fantasy requirements—wrap around porch, rambling barn, what looked like miles of split rail fencing, and the coup de gras…a  pond complete with a small dock and even smaller row boat.  I completely freaked out!!  If I had been able to get inside (hard to do when you are speeding past at 50 mph), I’m sure that I would have picked out the perfect spot for a sewing studio in seconds flat…and I made the mistake of actually saying that out loud.  My family spent the rest of the drive mocking my desperate attempts to stop the car and reminding me that I do this ALL of the time—if only collecting houses were as simple as pulling $40 out of the ATM and hitting an estate sale.  If that were the case, I’d have an unrivaled collection of white farmhouses and all of the goodies that come with them…it’s a terrible sickness…

  All that said, it is awfully nice to be home and back in the sewing studio, fueled by happy memories and picturesque moments.  The sight of pumpkins on every porch and leaves of every fall color was all I needed to start the creative juices flowing for Fall 2009.  We’re doing our second tradeshow in February, so it’s already that time again and images of swing coats, party dresses, appliquéd skirts and a new mystery dress are dancing around in my head like sugar plums.  Tonight is dedicated to fabric pairing, so keep your fingers crossed for me—here’s hoping that I don’t question in some sort of hysterical fit why nobody has ever had the good sense to pair together neon green and dusty rose!  Stranger things have happened, so wish me luck and if anything tragic happens, I’ll be sure to let you know…

Hi everyone! Jenn here… This is my first entry and since I’m totally entrenched in design mode right now, I thought that I would write about inspiration.

When you are looking to be inspired, you never know what’s going to get the ball rolling!! Anyone else out there in love with vintage aprons? I have a thing for aprons…always have, at least ever since I can remember. Maybe it stems from happy memories of my mother’s kitchen and wonderful cooking. So many of the wonderful tastes and aromas I remember from my childhood began with the simple act of my mother tying on an apron covered with harvest gold and avocado green pears. My early fascination with I Love Lucy may also be partly responsible. After all, let’s be honest—Lucy raised the humble apron to an entirely new level. Doing the dishes never looked so glamorous!

Anyway, I suppose it doesn’t really matter why I love aprons…I just do, so it wasn’t a great surprise when they worked their way into Hopscotch’s repertoire. I was sitting at my sewing machine, staring at a bookcase full of fabric, just waiting for inspiration to strike…and out of nowhere, it did, in the form of a 1940’s apron. Pretty yet hardworking, functional yet fetching—the basic principles needed for the perfect little girl’s dress had already coexisted happily for years in the form of an apron. Ruffled sleeves, square neck, belt that ties in the back, and wonderful vintage-inspired fabrics—all of these elements were already there, ripe for the picking and just waiting to be reworked into a very small dress for my, at the time, very small daughter. Just like every other prototype we’ve ever made, it took a few tries (including an especially unfortunate attempt with ruffles larger than her head) to work out the kinks and have a working pattern. When it was all said and done, Megan stood in front of me, spinning happily in her new dress and looking like the most darling thing I had ever seen (of course maternal pride should be taken into consideration here, but even so, she did look awfully cute).

So that’s how the Sophie dress was born and all of its success we owe to the timeless garment that inspired it. Here’s hoping that my mother and Lucy would be proud! So now, onto bigger and better things, like maybe “coming soon, scratch and sniff Sophie dresses”…but then again, maybe not…

Below is a picture of one of my favorite Sophies– feel free to search around the site and pick your favorite.  Thanks so much for listening and talk to you later…