PatternReview.com 10th Anniversary

Yesterday I attended the PR Boston Anniversary Party.  About 30 women and a few husband were there enjoying each others company while treating themselves to munchies, mocktails and cake at the PR headquarters.  There were 18 other such celebrations around the world yesterday.  PR has grown so much in the past 10 years. 

I first knew of Deepika back on Sewing World around 2001.  She was always asking questions, seeking information.  I do remember her asking if anyone knew of a site where sewing patterns were reviewed.  Although there were a few sites that posted reviews, they were limited in their scope.  Deepika decided that she would set up a site.  I thought to myself "Who is this girl?  She thinks she can set up a site for pattern reviews?  Good luck to her!"  A few days later, she pops back on Sewing World announcing her site along with a link to it.  Hey, not bad for something off the top of her head!  Little did we know at that time that she was a professional web designer.   At that time it was just reviews of patterns, but people started adding more and more reviews, then it began to expand to other areas of review, then on-line classes, message boards, get-togethers, etc.  Who knew it would become such a force in the sewing world.  Certainly not Deepika. 

I feel a major reason PR has grown so large is because Deepika is an open-minded, curious, friendly, risk-taking, always positive individual who has a strong love of sewing. I have been lucky enough to personally know Deepika over the past 10 years and have met many other members at various events including 3 trips to New York, seminars, and a few celebrations at her house (at one we celebrated PR reaching 25,000 members!). 

Anyway, we had a lovely time last night along with a fashion show of stunning cocktail dresses, gifts, a slideshow which will most likely make its way onto the website, and great conversation.  Afterwards, we went to dinner together (and had real cocktails).  I did take pictures, but my camera is not cooperating by letting me download them all.  But this picture did make it through.

PR Friendship Quilt

PatternReview.com is once again trying to put a Friendship Quilt together. This time it certainly looks like it will happen. I had planned to make this square, and in fact even started it, last October. But, since the deadline was changed to January, I put my time into other areas. So, of course, I hurried to finish this quilt square and mailed it the day it was due to be postmarked. Procrastination at its finest. Luckily, it found its way to Deepika's mailbox in time.

My inspiration for this square is that it contains the colors of the majority of my wardrobe and stash. Boring, neutrals, but the wardrobe works well and I always have something to wear.

There are 36 1" squares that are surrounded by a black boarder. The original finished square without the boarder was a little small and less than the required 6.5" square, so I needed to add the boarders to qualify for the quilt. The square was a bit of a challenge for someone who does not do a lot of quilting. I should have planned it a little better, but I am still happy with it.

Back to the Blog

I know I've been negligent of my blog, but I'm back. I have been sewing and promise that I will post my new projects.

Yesterday I attended the PR event at Sawyer Brook which is located in an old factory building in Clinton, Mass. I drove there with AnnB and TrishW from PR. What a lovely time we had. The morning started with everyone checking each other out as we walked in ("I wonder if she made that"). It was great to see members I had not seen since last year at the PR New York weekend, but there were many more people I had never met than there were those I knew. Barb Blom, the owner of Sawyer Brook had set up a refreshment table to welcome us and Deepika was as enthusiastic as always in greeting everyone.

Barb started with a truck show featuring various current fabrics, talking about fibre content, origin, and care. She would pass around the sample to us after telling us about each one. This took at least a half hour and I learned a few new things from Barb who is incredibly knowledgeable.


After the trunk show, we all scrambled to the retail room to search for additions to our stashes. Besides Barb, there where four other Sawyer Brook ladies, Judy, Sue, Dixie and Carol to help us. The store is set up with all the current fabrics on one end along with linings and interfacings, buttons and dress/blouse weight silks are in the middle and the back room was loaded with remnants. Barb personally helped me pick out some terrific buttons for a suit I want to make, then helped me find lining in Ambiance and thread. I also bought a lovely rayon knit to make a top, hopefully, in the next week or so. I really love fabric, but managed to refrain from overdoing it for myself as far as my purchases went. I witnessed a couple PR members creating wardrobes which is very easy to do at Sawyer Brook since Barb purchases all her fabrics with the idea of coordination. In the past, I've been known to do the same thing.

After about an hour or so of browsing & purchasing, we had a show & tell. Deepika had asked us all to bring in the oldest item we had made. I brought an old apron I made in 1973 with Marimeko fabric I had purchase from the old Fabrications which was a store in Boston in the 1970s. I also showed a shirt I made in 1994 for my youngest son who had picked out the fabric himself (think dinosaurs) and my latest project which is the LaFred Maia jacket which I entered in the PR Lined Jacket contest (yes, I will post about the jacket). It was fun to see what others had made over the years. I am estimating that there were 30 of us at this event.

After show & tell, the majority of us headed over to Meadowbrook Orchards for lunch which was about a 5 minute drive from Sawyer Brook. We managed to take over a large portion of the restaurant and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company trading knowledge and ideas.

It was a great day, lovely weather and wonderful company.

Thoughts on SWAP changes

While I totally understand why Deepika changed the rules of this SWAP, I feel that the person who initiated the changes did more damage to herself and her company than she did to the PR SWAP (and I will continue to call it a SWAP, not a Wardrobe Contest). First of all this did not start until after the yearly SWAP was over, voting was completed and the winners were declared. The PR SWAP was initiated by PR members, not Deepika. D was just following the wishes of her members with no intent of stepping on anyone's toes. There was a momentum started because of the earlier SWAP on Stitcher's Guild--people who were not part of the first one, like myself, decided it would be fun to finally get one going now that we were inspired by the earlier one. For goodness sakes, the PR SWAP was nearly six weeks old and half over when this bomb was dropped--at least she should have discussed this with Deepika before blasting the contest on her site. Deepika is very easy to deal with and I am sure that she would have been happy to reach some compromise without everything being made so public by the offender. The majority of us are participating in the PR SWAP to get some coordinating clothes, the prizes are nice, but they are not the inspiration. Had there not been any prizes, I wonder if there would have been such a stink. Competition with the other contest was not the intent--just having fun sewing. I will continue to support Deepika. She has a great site which I have been following since day one.

Besides, the idea of a coordinating wardrobe did not begin with a SWAP. It has been around ever since I can remember. In the early 1980's it was published in Working Wardrobe by Janet Wallach when she introduced the concept of wardrobe capsules where all pieces worked together. I love this book because it is such an inspiration even if it is a little dated with the big shoulder jackets.