It’s been a while since our last ask me post! This week I thought I’d focus on some of your questions about our women’s pattern lines: both the Lisette collection and our newer Liesl + Co. patterns.
I have noticed that the quality of the Lisette fabric is better than most other Jo-Ann fabric. While you design the patterns and color ways, do you also have a say in the quality of the fabric?
As a matter of fact, yes! I can happily say that I do have quite a bit of say in the quality of the fabrics we produce for the Lisette collections. I spend a lot of time evaluating and sourcing different fabrics and looking for new ideas. I know there are a lot of fans of our sateen, twill, and lawn, and we just added a really great chambray to the spring collection. I’m really excited about it and hope to do a lot more with that fabric. We also added a fantastic voile, which, if you look closely at it, you’ll see that it’s a twill weave. That gives it a really nice hand and drape, and I think it will be a great quality for spring and summer blouses, or even for lined dresses.
Will you be doing more women’s patterns?
Absolutely! We were very pleasantly surprised at the reception to our first Liesl + Co. collection, and we’re working on some new styles for 2014. You’ll be seeing many more women’s patterns from us in the future, including styles with a variety of different silhouettes and difficulty levels. This is something I have wanted to do for quite a while, so I’m really excited about this direction.
We also have a new Lisette pattern that will be coming out in mid-February, so stay tuned for that! (Sorry, we’re not allowed to show sneak peaks before the release date.) The dress is really cute and versatile, and I’m sewing the jacket for myself right now and really love it.
Who are some of your favorite artists? I’m thinking of photographers, painters, sculptors — but if who comes to mind is a musician or designer or architect I’d love to hear about that too.
Oh, there are so many! Did you know that Todd is a docent at the Whitney Museum on weekends? If’ you’re ever in New York at 12:30 on a Sunday there’s a good chance you can catch one of his tours. (He’d love to have you join him, and he’s really interesting.) So we spend a lot of time looking at and talking about art, and the more I learn about each artist and his or her process, background, and inspiration the more I enjoy the art. Some of my favorite artists right now are Joan Mitchell, Agnes Martin, Charles LeDray, Lee Bontecou, and Doris Salcedo.
Charles LeDray
Joan Mitchell
We also collect art, and we’ve gradually invested in pieces by artists such as Sean Scully, Glenn Ligon, Collier Schorr, Loretta Lux, and Robert Lazzarini. All three of us really enjoy living with art. In fact, every year for her birthday, S gets to pick a small piece of art for herself. For the past few years she’s selected portraits of animals by Sharon Montrose. With her ninth birthday coming up soon, we’ve been talking about what she’d like to get this year.
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