Fresh Laundry

The best hamburger in Topeka, Kansas is at Bobo’s Drive In. It was started by Bob Bobo (this is not a typo) in 1948 and I still go there as often as I can. When Alex comes to town, we go there as a mother/daughter thing, which brings me to my history with Bobo’s. The original sign which is still there today. They still have carhops. Photos of the grand opening and the price of a hamburger - $.25.

If I have made one pillow, I have made 200 or more. There was a time when I was making pillows for books by various publishers. I have given them away, used some in my home and the rest are stored in Tupperware tubs in “the vault”, which is a fancy name for the basement. I have used all sorts of fabrics from remnants from garment sewing to upholstery scraps picked up at odd place. Ribbons, tassels, and trims are favorites of mine, and finally, I had a use for them.

The Sewing Workshop, while primarily a pattern and sewing education company, plans special excursions every year. A few years ago, we went on our first textile exploration to London. A local guide took us to an area of London called Spitalfields. Spitalfields consisted mainly of fields and nursery gardens until its development in the late 17th century. The main local industry at that time was weaving, and many of the weavers were Huguenot refugees from France.

I’ve been thinking about our Tuesday Livestream from a couple of weeks ago. Alex and Betsy did a Spring Trends Forecast and it was wonderful (you can still catch it on YouTube). I don’t usually care much about trends, especially from the runway. I have my own style, which The Sewing Workshop definitely portrays, and I wear my clothes for years, so the general character of my wardrobe doesn’t change much.

I was an interior design major in college at Kansas State, and I was smack dab in the middle of the psychedelic and pop art cultural movements of the 1960’s. I remember a new furnishings and design store on the second floor of an old building in Aggieville (a shopping and dining district next to the campus). I loved going in there and seeing what was new. And new it was - plastic furniture, sculptural shapes, blow-up chairs and bright colors.

I grew up in a house full of music. My dad played the trumpet, taught lessons in our living room and played in the Topeka Civic Symphony for over 40 years and also played in the Topeka Jazz Workshop and various other bands in the area. My mother was the more professional of the two. She was a soprano soloist and quite well known. Back in the day when funeral homes had their own musicians, my mother claims to have sung at 4,000 funerals. I can remember her taking me along with her while she sang.

The Sewing Workshop has had the distinct pleasure of forming a relationship with Sarah Campbell, the renowned textile artist living in London. I first took a painting workshop from her in London (twice) and then she came to Topeka for a trunk show and week-long workshop. Last spring, the Sewing Workshop again set up a workshop with her, this time in the Cotswolds outside of London. You can never take too many workshops from Sarah - every one of them is different.

Alex here, and I wanted to tell you about the wonderful long weekend I spent in Boulder, Colorado this month. Growing up in Kansas, I spent many family vacations in this state. It seems like a little bit of a right of passage if you’re from Kansas. You vacation in Colorado. I would visit many of the skiing sights, villages and mountain towns even though I’m not a skier. I’m a horrible one, actually.

I can sew about anything, but where I get stuck is choosing the right fabric for the pattern. Of course, most patterns have fabric suggestions on the back of the packaging, but being in this business has proven that either people don’t read that information or they are striking out on their own and bucking what is recommended. Many times I have said to someone, this pattern needs to be made in a drapey silk and they make it up in upholstery fabric, and it’s fabulous.

This year we celebrate the Sewing Workshop being in business for 35 years. It’s actually a remarkable feat considering that most of the early competitors are out of business, and here we stand. If there is one thing that stands out for this company, it is the constant reinvention and updating that we do. It started out as a sewing school only in San Francisco, offering everything from beginning sewing to a myriad of interesting classes related to sewing and taught by incredible artisans.