Jay McCarroll’s Germania @ Spool
Designer and South Philly resident Jay McCarroll, who (as I’m sure he’s sick of hearing) you may remember from season one of Project Runway (in which he turned down the first-place prize of $100,000 because of a creepy clause that entitled the Weinstein company to a 10% interest in all his future ventures, forever), has been teaching at alma mater Philadelphia University and producing some pretty adorable retro-ish fabric prints.
Spool has his latest line of fabrics, Germania (if you look closely, a lot of the prints involve fuzzy little spherical monsters with two fangs and one googley eye, which I love), and they’re using them in their Stitch Party this Friday from 5-7. FYI.
Spool: 1912 South St., open 11-6 Wed-Sun
P.S.: I have nothing interesting to report about jury duty, they let me out before lunch. I didn’t even get disqualified, they just didn’t need anybody in my 50-person group. Here’s one thing: you can buy ramen bowls, oatmeal, chicken noodle soup and Chef Boyardee Beefaroni at the jury-duty vending machine. The woman in charge of my group was very nice. That is all.
Spool sewing classes
If you just don’t know what to do with yourself this summer, Spool offers sewing classes on occasional Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons. Schedule here!
Classes are limited to 6 students, so please sign up in advance. Payment is required to reserve your space. Class fees will be refunded if we are notified at least 7 days before the class begins. If the class is canceled by Spool, you will receive a full refund.
Sewing machines are provided for each student. Materials are not included unless otherwise noted.
Call (215: 545 0755) or visit the shop to sign up!
Each class focuses on a different project, from the most basic tote bag up to the more advanced party dress on the right, in which you learn to tailor a pattern to fit your specific measurements, something which I’ve always wanted to be able to do (clothes fit the short weird sometimes) but have been too intimidated by my 50-pound antique sewing machine to learn.
Oh, and speaking of Spool, how neat is this bird mobile?
Found in their blog archives, Spool doesn’t tell you how to balance the little hand-sewn birds so perfectly, but does supply a free birdie pattern for the crafty.
Spool: 1912 South St.
215.545.0755
Weekend sewing
Fabric designer Heather Ross will be at Spool’s one-year anniversary Stitch Party this Friday.
She’ll be signing her book Weekend Sewing, which as one might expect has 40 sewing projects that can be done in a weekend or significantly less, and doing a demonstration the following morning.
Below are some of Heather’s totally sweet fabric patterns, some of which can be found at Spool or online here.
