*annemarie* & Storyville

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Josh Harvey, part owner of the Storyville boutique on the UT Austin Campus. I am working to get my products in more stores, which is hard for a gal like me - because I would always rather be creating than selling!

Josh and his siblings (11 total!) founded this unique shop in their native Louisiana. They set out to create a store that featured apparel and accessories from local and college student designers. "Storyville’s mission is to celebrate local artists and designers and to encourage individual expression. That’s why our shops feature tees, bags, wallets, bracelets, kids/baby clothes, dolls, etc designed by local artists. And that’s why we make one-of-a-kind, customized t-shirts."


Launched in 2007, the Storyville mini-chain has locations at LSU and UT - you gotta love College Campus Stores! I went to UT from - ahem, revealing my age here - 1997 to 2002. The printed t-shirt has definitely picked up steam as the uniform of college kids since then. I remember still trying to be a little fashionista in school and wearing dresses and high heels most of my freshman year. What can I say, I like to get all dolled up.

Storyville also has a website where you can buy many of their tees. I LOVE all the pictures of students - especially because you can tell they are real people - not anorexic model types.


To start - Storyville is carrying some of my Mini Wallets and Wristlets - very big sellers that should appeal to the college crowd. I am excited about our new partnership, and hope you get a chance to check out their shop!

BTW - you can drop into Storyville and design your own tee for only $25! Sweet!


xo, Anne Marie

Anne Marie is Teaching Bag Making Classes!!!

For years now, people have been asking me if I teach sewing classes, and the answer has always been no. Starting next month, the answer is YES!

Last fall I decided that I wanted to release a line of sewing patterns. Designing bags is my favorite thing to do, and to date I have over 90 original patterns under my belt.

I can't think of a better way to share my love of making bags than by teaching others how to make them. Each month I will release a new pattern and accompanying class. The patterns will be "homegrown" until I can get all that fancy software to publish them like a rock star.





My first pattern is my Erin Hobo Bag. I developed this pattern a few years ago, and have made and sold hundreds of them. Almost all commercial patterns with a zipper closure instruct you to attach the lining by hand sewing - "yeah, right!" - is what I said to that! I based the zipper technique off of a pattern I found from 1945, and modified the shape and construction to be a modern bag.


Look for my classes in May at the following locations:



Located in South Austin, The Stitch Lab is owned by Austin's own Leslie Bonnell. You may remember that I blogged about the fab Miss B back in October - click here to read that post...

Class Dates (click to register)

Saturday, May 3rd
Tuesday, May 6th





The Stitching Studio in North Austin is owned by my good friend Ann Randall. A few years back, Ann responded to a post I made about needing an assistant. She faithfully worked for me for one year, and blew me away with her awesome attitude and fast sewing abilities. One day she announced her desire to quit her job and open her own Sewing Studio - and I couldn't have been happier!

Ann has been a key player in making my pattern and teaching dreams come true - she lets me experiment teach on her friends!!!

Class Dates (click to register)

Tuesday, May 13th
Saturday, May 24th

...and don't forget to check out the new goodies in my etsy shop!

Just a cute little ol' Texas lady...

I just wanted to share a very cute Texas moment.

Last week I went to get my hair cut at the Beauty School with my sister. Yes - I pay only $5 for a haircut (ahem - artist budget!) plus tip, and I always get a good cut.

The local Beauty School is a great place to observe hairstyles past in full swing. You see, women from my Grandmother's generation got, and still get, their hair set once a week. In fact, my Grandmother says she hasn't done her hair in... well, maybe never!

As I sat in the chair to discuss my haircut, I noticed the woman next to me. She looked very sprightly, perhaps in her 70s. She was wearing Burnt Orange Crocs with a Longhorn logo (HOOK 'EM HORNS!) and a Longhorn watch.

Her stylist asked to see the picture she had brought of the hairstyle she wanted. The older woman rummaged through her canvas tote bag and pulled out - gasp - a magazine cover with none other than Lady Bird Johnson sitting in a field of wildflowers.

Considering that it is prime wildflower season here in Texas, and that Mrs. Johnson passed just last year - I was touched and smiled to myself. I couldn't help but think how wonderful a role model she is, and perhaps I would like to get my hair styled like hers one day. It's not like you hear of many women asking to get their hair styled like Hillary, now is it?


Anne Marie

Roundtop, Texas - My Pretties

Ahhhh, so it's been weeks since I blogged - first it was a trip to San Diego, then SXSW, then the Zilker Garden Festival, and then a trip to Round Top - all these things I meant to blog about, but was so busy participating in, that I couldn't bring myself to sit down and type anything. I hope I will backtrack to cover somethings I really wanted to share...

For now, just a simple photoblog of items I LOVED at Roundtop. I bought lots of vintage linens, buttons, a few pottery pieces and a few kitchen pieces. Ohhh time to start saving up for next time!

Lots of my pictures feature circular items - apparently I am drawn to circles this year!

Hand crafted metal decor from salvaged chair and iron work!



Pink Planter with cool deco styling and circular edge shape.


Metal bed frame with circular design - I love these beds!



Feedsack fabric in my FAVORITE color - coral - with sweet circle and dot pattern!



Neat-o enameled metal pin - you can't see the petal detail, but they were curled under on the edges in a circular shape! I'm guessing '40s era



Uber cool lampshade - I loved the texture of the fibers and the way it softened the light.



Funky 60s or 70s lamp - so over the top!



Atomic Clock - 50s or 60s - too bad it wasn't working or I would've bought it!



Superb Whiting & Davis chain purse - I have never seen one with this kind of decoration on it, probably 30s or 40s, and priced for the true collector...



A shockingly green pottery vase - the dealer said it was very rare - I just loved the shape and color and the CIRCLES!



My favorite for last... a super cool clutch purse from - hmm - late 40s or early 50s. I am SO INSPIRED by this bag!



I hope you enjoyed the pretty treasures of this year's trip! Back soon with more pics and info!

Anne Marie

SXSW Wrap up - Pretty Purses, Crazy T-Shirts & WILD Dancing!

Uwi - what a weekend. It's been awhile since I have set up a booth for a marathon show - from Thursday to Sunday we had a group booth, courtesy of the Austin Craft Mafia, set up at Jo's Coffee on South Congress.

The reason, of course, was the city's number one tourist draw - SXSW. Jo's Coffee and the San Jose Hotel teamed up to provide a parking lot showcase of bands all day each day, and a little row of tents with local vendors.

First off, I have to say I was VERY impressed with the staff of Jo's and San Jose - I saw these guys and gals out there busting their butts all day each day - and they were really, genuinely friendly. They cleaned the bathrooms all day, they had our booths set up for us, they were just freakin' amazing.

Mostly I have a few pictures for you to peep...

The booth:



Shoppers in my corner:



Amy's corner of the booth - that's Amy Barber of Sweettooth Bags!



Close up of some of Hope's Badass Dresses - that's Hope Perkins of Hot Pink Pistol



Meanwhile - as the weekend wore on and our delirium mounted - we planned our free t-shirts a day in advance. You see, Free YR Radio had a freebie booth set up where you could get a t-shirt custom pressed with vinyl lettering of your choice. Since Amy was "fluffing" our booth merchandise just about every minute of the day - I crowned her the "Number One Fluffer" - he he he.



Me, being me, decided that "Bow down b*tches" would be rather raunchy. However, when I got to the t-shirt booth I chickened out, and got one with "AMBIE" on it - my nickname. Amy, keeping up her end of the bargain, ducked out of the booth for a long long time. When she returned, she proudly showed me the t-shirt she made! She had to find scraps on the ground to piece together the phrase, as the free t-shirt booth was packing up!



As the two of us tried (mostly unsuccessfully) to take some "hot" pictures - me, very sweaty, tired, covered in sunscreen, and Amy, super cute but still tired - Travis decided to surround his glasses with clothespins!



Yeah, that's Travis Nichols of I Like Apple Juice. I didn't manage to get any shots of his stuff in the booth, or that of Sublime Stitching, but it was a blast working with him & the Sublime Stitching Gals!

The big finale - one of the crazy flailing ladies strutted her stuff on the "dance floor" Saturday afternoon - she's got moves!!!

*annemarie* featured in the Austin paper

The fabulous store where I sell on Austin's South Congress shopping strip, Parts & Labour, was featured in the Austin American-Statesman today.



There is a write up about the store, and pictures of my bags in the print version! Looks like my pic didn't make it on the web, but my good friend Wendy Irwin's bags did! She is the uber crafty owner of Ballistic Sweater Girl.

Off to South Congress today to set up in my booth at Jo's Coffee shop... I am expecting to see all kinds of cool outfits and SXSW brings thousands into Austin for the weekend!

xo
Anne Marie

Photoblog: From Luggage to Art to New Spring Bags!

I am off to San Diego tomorrow! I have been so uber busy sewing and cleaning and making hangtags etc.... that I kept forgetting to blog. So to make things easy on myself tonight, I emptied my camera of images and chose a few to share with you!

First off, I finally finished my display luggage. That's right folks, I made this sweet puppy all on my own - it's really just an envelope style bag with lots of velcro and fancy webbing and buckles to hold everything in... 2 pieces of gridwall, shelving, etc...





Next, a sneak peek at my pattern development. I am working on a line of patterns to publish for other crafty people - and a big part of the process is started. Soon enough I will be teaching classes, so to prepare I took pictures of my pattern pieces on fabric for a cutting layout and to determine the amount of yardage to use.



I also snapped lots of photos of my new Spring Bags!!! I have been working on them for a few weeks, and they are all finally finished. I took a huge batch to Parts & Labour today, and packed the rest for San Diego. I will post some for sale on Etsy next week, but you can see a sneak peek preview below!

The Rosie Bag...


The Paige Bag...


Finally, after a lot of hard work, I relaxed and made some art. I wanted to show you how messy making a tiny piece of art can be - paint, fabric scraps, glue, glitter.... how do I fit all of those crafting supplies in my tiny apartment?



Then - the finished piece of art - just a fun little canvas square to let my creative juices flow.



Wish me luck at Appel & Frank!
Anne Marie