What’s Up This Week at J Stern Designs: I’m Rebranding My Patterns… But I want to share my new hobby too!

Hi Everyone, You know when you try something new… and you love it?  I finally got around to learning how to crochet. I’ve had it in my head that I want to learn how to do granny squares so I can combine them with knit fabric to make garments. So, I watched a few granny square tutorials on YouTube and tried to follow along. I thought I could cruise by learning the basic stitches and jump right in. Unfortunately that did not go well. I couldn’t do it and I got frustrated and put it down for a while.

Then during a Stitches Events Class Preview on Zoom one of the crochet teachers shared her new  class in June… a crochet class to make Yip Yips (Those cute little big mouth puppets that Yipped and Yupped on Sesame Street when I was a kid.) All I needed to do is learn how to single crochet and make a chain. This broke the process down into manageable pieces for me, start simple… and make some Yip Yips for my daughter Abby to give to her 3rd grade students next year.

So, I posted in the Stitches Facebook group that I was in the Yip Yip class and all I needed to do was learn how to single crochet and chain.    Edie Eckman, an amazing knit and crochet teacher posted a links to tutorials on her YouTube Channel showing how to single crochet and chain.   She has right handed and left handed tutorials.   Her tutorial was so easy to follow, I was able to learn how to chain and single crochet.  

I tried to use worsted weight yard to single crochet, but I couldn’t see where to put the hook in the individual stitches.  So, I got out some super bulky yarn out of my stash (Yes, I have a yarn stash… it’s not as big as my fabric stash, but that’s subject to change!)  I definitely recommend using bulky yarn when you’re starting out, after single crocheting a few rows, I was able to switch over to the worsted weight yarn.

After I got the single crochet stitch down, I decided that I should also try the double crochet stitch too.    I’m finding this process so fascinating.  Double crochet is single crochet with a yarn over between stitches.  You also chain extra stitches at the beginning of each row to get the hook up to level of the next row.   Here are a few of my early swatches, practicing single and double crochet stitches.  I thought it was interesting that the single crochet stitch made a more dense fabric than the double crochet stitch…. Can you see the difference?

After I practicing for a while I decided I should try a simple project.    I went over to my website to check out the patterns available in Carol’s Garden.  My sister, Joanna, and I started this project   inspired by Alice’s Embrace and named after our mother who is battling dementia.  Our Mom is the epitome of a caregiver. Therefore, it’s in her honor that we hope to bring warmth and comfort to memory care patients in New England.  My sister and I have knitted many shawls to add to the  donations that we have received from knitters and crocheters from across the country. 

When we have enough, we plan events at local memory care homes to give these shawls to the residents.   Each resident gets to pick out the shawl that speaks to them.   (I always get extra warm fuzzies when someone picks out one that I made.)   Diane, who started Alice’s Embrace in honor of her mother, helped us get Carol’s Garden off the ground… Including allowing us to use all of her free patterns.

Happily, there was a super simple crochet pattern, very similar to a knit a row, pural a row knitting pattern.   “Dance Card” is made from a two row repeat of single crochet and double crochet… Perfect for a beginner!     So, here’s the good news, I’m making great progress on my shawl.   The bad news is that I’m finding myself picking up this project to sneak in a few rows when I should be working on J Stern Designs stuff!   Part of the problem was that I could not crochet after dinner because we didn’t have a lamp in the living room that I could use  to see what I was doing.   Just between you and me, my husband might be a distant relative of Dracula…   He loves to keep the house dark down stairs.  The only light on is usually in his office until I get down from working in my studio upstairs.   Saturday, I decided to make serious purchase for the living room… a lamp! 

You may be wondering why we’ve been living in our house for 14 years, and we don’t have a lamp in  the living room (beyond my husband’s love of keeping it dark).   The house came with a ceiling light centered in the bay window that you can see in the right side of this photo.    This fixture sheds  just the right amount of light for watching TV.  This is usually what’s happening in the living room after a late dinner.

With my new lamp, I can crochet from the minute dinner is finished till bedtime.   That’s a  couple hours of quality time!     Now, strap on your seat belt, I’m taking a sharp turn in this post.    I mentioned in the title that I’m going to be rebranding my patterns.

Here is what my pattern cover and size chart look like now. Basically, I’ve been taking hasty photos of my garment and slapping them onto the cover. The size chart with all the important information is safely hidden on the last page of the instructions. To see the size range, pattern measurements and other important info like suggested fabrics, you have to take the instructions out of the 9″ x 12″ zip lock bag and turn to the last page. This is okay for my online shop because I can share the size chart like I am here. However, this is not a great situation if I want to attract sewing stores to carry them.

I’ve been thinking and researching new packaging for over a month now. I’m going to switch to paper packaging and a smaller size. I have 27 patterns in my collection, so printing a custom envelop for each pattern would be cost prohibitive for me. So, I’m trying to figure out how to package them in a pretty envelop with a standard design printed on it. To customize the envelops for each garment, I want a window in the front/back to showcase the pattern photos in the front and the size chart in the back.

My pattern photos? Those are going to get an upgrade too. I think it’s important to be inclusive. You’re going to find new photos of women wearing my garments in a variety of shapes, sizes, ages, and ethnic groups + extended sizing 2-32.

Finally, I’m going to rename my patterns. If you’ve been following along with me, you may remember my first set of patterns I designed had names like: “The Tee”, “Misses’ Jeans”, “Women’s Tee”… am my favorite “A Top with Two Collars & a Peplum”. These are not names people, they are descriptions! Even worse, the Tee isn’t even a Tee, it’s a cool knit top that has unique above the bust details.

Stay tuned for more on this process. My goal is to create packaging that reflects the quality of the design of the pattern inside! So exciting!! Thanks for reading all the way to the end 🙂