Blog - Cotton & Flax

Inspiration

Snail Mail Saturday – International Snail Mail

round international postage stamp

After a long hiatus, it’s another edition of Snail Mail Saturday!

Do you have any international pen pals? I have a few friends abroad that I like to write to from time to time, and I love receiving mail from them in return. Receiving stamps from other countries is a special pleasure, but I was surprised to see that USPS has stepped up it’s game a little bit for 2013 in the international stamp department.

USPS International Postage

USPS has just released a new international rate stamp for first class mail… and it’s round. I love that the imagery, a photorealistic depiction of Earth, isn’t centered around North America. For a stamp that is meant to travel around the world, it’s nice to see a non-US centered perspective. While I question whether a round stamp is the most eco-friendly option USPS could produce (lots of wasted space on the sheet of stamps), I hope that this beautiful new addition will encourage more people to write letters to their friends and family abroad. There’s really nothing like receiving a letter from some far-off place.

Cotton & Flax visits Common Thread Studio

A visit to Common Thread // Cotton & Flax

In my continuing effort to highlight the best fabric and craft shops in LA, I am excited to introduce you to Common Thread Studio! This unique little shop in South Pasadena is part fabric store, part sewing and screenprinting studio, and part gift shop. Even if you don’t know how to sew, this shop is a great place to pick up a gift for your best lady friend, or just to grab a few rolls of washi tape for yourself.

fabrics 3

If you do enjoy sewing, you’re in for a treat, because Common Thread stocks a well curated assortment of fabrics. Jin, the owner, has a great eye for patterns, and always carries a great selection of fun prints. The shop also has sells all the sewing accessories you’d expect – thread, needles, and even a fun assortment of imported buttons and harder to find sewing patterns.

Common Thread sewing table

work tables

Common Thread offers a range of sewing classes, and if you’d prefer to learn at your own pace, they offer private lessons, as well. Their workshop space offers both regular sewing machines for beginners, and professional tools and industrial equipment for professionals.

A visit to Common Thread // Cotton & Flax

Common Thread turns four this month! Help them celebrate by stopping by and checking out this great independent fabric store.

Looking for more great sewing resources and fabric stores in Los Angeles? Check out my visit to Sew LA, or my first and second posts about the Fabric District in Downtown LA!

Cotton & Flax visits Sew LA

Cotton & Flax visits Sew L.A.

Sew LA is one of my favorite local fabric stores, and I’ve been visiting them a lot more often since they moved to their Atwater Village location. The shop is small, but they carry a great selection of designer fabrics, and some fun Japanese imports that feature really unique patterns and colors. They carry one of my favorite fabric designers, Naomi Ito, so it’s always a treat to see what they have in stock.

sew l.a.

sew l.a.

They offer classes, too, and their studio space in the back is pretty dreamy. The classes range from beginner (learn to use your sewing machine!) to advanced (fitting and patternmaking). I envy their giant worktables, I’d love to have a big, open workspace like that to use every day while I’m making work for Cotton & Flax.

sew l.a.

sew la

For any of you LA readers, have you been to Sew LA? Taken any classes? I’d love to hear what you made with fabric you bought there!

Experimenting with paper goods

Cotton & Flax envelopes

Just a quick instagram shot of what I’ve been developing this week. Thinking about making more fun patterned paper goods, but haven’t found the time to prototype them until this week. What do you think? I’d sell these with a lovely set of mailing labels so you could address them easily and send them around the world.

A Long Overdue Print of the Week

David Row

Have you been missing Print of the Week? I’ve been taking a break from the scheduled content here on the blog, but I’ll be getting back into it in a more focused way very soon. Thinking about featuring patterns instead of printmaking for a while, as a way to share more of what I’m working on.

This week, I wanted to share this beautiful monotype print from David Row. I love how fluid and layered it is, it really has a bold impact. That blue reminds me of the most gorgeous indigo dyed fabrics, even though this is a work on paper, it just screams “textiles” to me. I’ll be keeping work like this in mind as I work to create new patterns for Cotton & Flax.