Advent Calendar | Better Homes and Gardens - DIY Blog

How crazy cool is this? My Advent Calendar was featured on the Better Homes and Gardens DIY blog! And how ridiculously excited am I about the PS in the post! "PS: Be on the lookout for more of her gorgeous fabric in the spring issue of Do It Yourself magazine!" [Insert crazy big smile here!]



And if you're in the mood for a super fast and fun holiday project, you can buy the kits here in my store.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Turkey Day with your families! My family came here to Austin and we had a wonderful time together. Belated gobble gobble!

Giveaway winner + NEW table place cards

I am continually stunned by the support I get through this blog. Your comments were so unbelievably kind and funny and just downright nice. Thank you for being a part of this super fabulous journey that I'm taking.

With the help of good old Random Number Generator, I've selected a winner who will get 1 yard of fabric of any of my patterns.
Congratulations to: Tootles. Her dream is: living in the mountains in cabin (filled with quilts) and being a steward for our natural resources. Congratulations and I'd love to see what you make with the fabric!

And just in time for holiday parties and dinners, I have something new in the store! Now you can pretty-up your holiday table with 'Print your Own' place cards featuring wee birdies and tiny chairs.

- Printable PDF file contains 12 Placecards (6 placecards per page of 2 different designs - you just need a color printer)
- Available in 3 color ways: Yellow & Grey, Red & Green, Chartreuse & Blue

Partnership with Kaufman Fabrics | Giveaway!

At long last I can share my BIG, BIG, BIG news!!! I've been absolutely on pins and needles and can finally tell you about the SUPER exciting stuff that's been going on here. Drum roll please....

Some of my designs have been licensed by Kaufman Fabrics and my very first collection for them will be making it's debut in Spring 2010.

Wahooo!!! Wahooo!!! Wahooo!!! Can you believe it?!? Bolts and bolts and bolts of my fabric rolling off the presses next year! :) I am so incredibly excited and proud. And even though I've known for a few months, I'm frankly still a bit in shock. Starting in April 2010, retailers can start placing their orders and the fabric will hopefully be in stores soon after that! I'm pretty sure will totally dork out and shed a few tears the first time I walk into a fabric shop and see bolts of my designs on the shelves.

As soon as the design selection process is finalized with Kaufman, I can let you know exactly which specific patterns will be part of the Spring collection. AND I'm finalizing the colors on some NEW FUN fabrics that I'll be adding to the Etsy store very soon.

Wow... I can hardly believe it's been only a year since I first put my first fabric designs up for sale on Etsy. 11/6/08 was the day I put my fabric up for sale. And here I am a year later and my dreams of becoming a licenced fabric designer are coming true. When I left the corporate world I wasn't sure I could make this happen but lookie at what I did!!



So in celebration of my extreme good fortune, I'd love to give away a yard of fabric (in any one of my patterns) to someone! Just leave me a comment (make sure there is a way to contact you) and tell me what YOUR big dream is. What's the thing you stay awake at night dreaming about? :) I'll pick a winner by random on 11/18 and I can't wait to hear from you.

Thanks for all your support and encouragement over the last year!

NEW Website - lauriewisbrun.com

Well it's taken some time, but at long last I have a new website!! (And new headers for the blog and for my Etsy store will be up before end of the week...) Take a look at the website and I'd love to hear what you think. The main purpose for the site is to showcase my patterns and designs and make it easy for potential partners to get a sense of my style.

www.lauriewisbrun.com

For the last few months, in addition to working on new designs, I've been quietly working very hard on getting my designs licensed and getting broader distribution plans in place for my fabric. More to come on that in the next few days! So stay tuned for some super exciting news!!

Holiday Fabrics in the store at long last

I'm so excited to announce 5 new fabric designs for the holidays have just been added to the store.

All 5 of the patterns are printed in a lovely red and a sophisticated chartreuse green. They feature little patterned swans, trees and ornaments with a modern flair. I hope you can find holiday projects galore to use them for. I stitched up a holiday stocking using the Holiday Joy and Reindeers and added a ribbon border. I'd love to hear what your crafting/sewing plans are for holiday gifts this year!

Lots of NEW stuff in the store + New Holiday Designs

Hi everyone! I've been so very overdue with some new items for the store. So at long last I'm happy to announce a whole bunch of new pillow covers, a BRAND NEW DIY kit for Xmas and a sneak peek at my new HOLIDAY fabrics.

My NEW DIY Advent Calendar features my exclusive Holiday Tags pattern. All you have to do is trim out the pieces and stitch them together. Instructions are printed right on the fabric (heavy weight cotton duck) so it also makes a great gift. Sewing the whole calendar takes less than an hour to complete.


Each little tag is an individual pocket where you can stash a tiny gift or a bit of candy. Each of the numbers (1-25) are out of order, making it fun for the kiddos to find the next number and countdown to Xmas!

My holiday fabrics are finally here. They will start shipping by the 3rd week of October. If you're interested in them send me an email at laurie at scarletfig.com and I'll set up a custom listing for you. (They're not listed in the store just yet!

Holiday Trees

Holiday Stripes

Reindeer

Holiday

Ornaments


And I have a dozen or so new pillow covers featuring my fabrics that I just listed in the store. Here's a quick peek at a few of them.

So lots and lots going on here! Can't wait to hear what you think of all the new goodies.

More talented Scarlet Fig customers

One of the things that I love the most about designing my own fabrics is seeing what lovely things people create with it. So imagine my delight at discovering these 2 lovelies from Portia at Perdoozy and another sassy clutch from Jennifer Ladd. I hope you'll go visit their shops!

Perdoozy's Flirt Apron - made with my Wing Chair fabric in Yellow/Grey



Perdoozy's Napkins - made with Avian Therapy




Jennifer Ladd's Clutch - made with my Wing Chair fabric in Yellow/Grey

NELLE handbags

How unbelievably fantastic are these mailers?!

I was contacted a few weeks ago by Laura at NELLE handbags who is showcasing her GORGEOUS (and folks I mean *gorgeous* bags and accessories!) at New York Fashion Week. Take a look.

To drive the press to view her collection at Henri Bendel, she sent out a mailing with a theme of 'take a break from the runway and come see my collection.' As part of her mailer, she included a brochure of her bags and accessories and one of my Couch Potato Eye Pillows to drive home the idea of taking a break! What a sophisticated mailing, eh? I just love it and I'm sure it grabbed a few extra eyeballs. (tee hee...)

Laura: My fingers and toes are crossed for you that you are getting loads of traffic this week! Can't wait to hear how it went.


Images courtesy of NelleHandmade

Home sweet home

Hi everyone! Thanks for all the well wishes while I was on vacation. It was FANTASTIC and I'll get some pictures posted soon.

I *would have* uploaded them today but I came home to a sick computer (grrrrrr) so can't access much of what I need in terms of software and files. A friend was nice enough to loan me a spare laptop (thanks Margaret!) so I can continue to work, but I'm definitely discombombulated without all my files.

So in the interim, while I say small prayers to the computer fixing gods, I want to share another fabulous bag by Jennifer Ladd. She's created another super duper cute clutch using my fabrics. Take a peek and snap it up before it's gone. Her bag listings don't last long!

Hopefully I will be back up and fully functional in the next day or so! I've got holiday fabrics AND a super cute DIY holiday kit coming soon!

Holiday fabric - please vote for me!

I need your vote! Spoonflower is hosting a holiday fabric contest and they are featuring one of my Holiday fabrics. I would be SOOO very grateful if you would be willing to take a minute and visit the Spoonflower site and vote for me. If I win, the exposure for my designs is really helpful, so go cast your vote. And spread the word! :) Thanks for your support!
Here's the link: Click here to go vote

I covet this lamp

When Angie bought some of my Oh So Fancy Armchair fabric to recover a lamp shade, she failed to mention just how GORGEOUS her lamp was. I so very, very much wish I had one just like it! And with Angie's handiwork it's even more lovely, don't you think? Angie: Thanks so much for sharing your finished project!

Sleep mask tutorial

I am in prep mode for a much needed vacation! London, Mykonos and Athens here I come!!

As I was digging through my travel stuff I remembered how much I hate those icky sleep masks you get on the plane. So I decided to make myself a pretty little one using my Birds on a Wire fabric. It only took about 30 minutes or so and now I'll have a cute little mask for my long, long flight. Here's a quick tutorial:



Materials:
-Cotton fabric for front of mask: 5" x 8"
-Cotton fabric for covering elastic: 21" x 2"
-Flannel (or something soft) for lining and back: 2 pieces 5" x 8"
-16" of 1/4 elastic

1. Here is a link to the pattern.

2. Lay your fabrics down in this order and cut out your pattern.
Back flannel- facing up
Front cotton- facing down
Lining flannel- facing down

3. Take the strip for the elastic and sew using 1/8 seam along the long side. Right sides facing together. To turn the tube right side out, take a safety pin and pin one end. Feed the safety pin back through the tube. Work it through slowly. (It's sort of like putting on panty hose when it's hot and sticky outside...but just shimmy it through there gently and eventually it will pop out the other side.) Iron the tube flat.

4. Put a safety pin on both the ends of your elastic and feed it through the tube. Attach the pins at both ends so your elastic doesn't slip back through. To secure the elastic to the tube, sew a quick seam at each end. Take off your safety pins.

5. Now you are going to attach the tube to your mask. Pin the edges of your mask layers together. Now insert the covered elastic between the lining and the front. (See it all squished in the middle? It's like a little stuffed pie!) Make sure your ends are jutting straight out the sides when you are pinning everything together.



6. Sew 1/4 seam all the way around the mask. Go slow so your seams are straight. Leave an opening along the top so you can turn everything right side out. Make sure you reinforce your seams where the straps attach.

7. Clip your edges all the way around to keep it's shape when you turn it right side out. Make sure you don't accidentally clip your seam though!


8. Turn your mask inside out. Iron everything flat. Do a blind stitch to close. I was in a rush yesterday so I cheated and just stitched it closed on the machine...;)

9. Race to your couch and try it out! Since I couldn't self photograph this last step, Clara graciously offered to help.