Now it's easy to whip up a beautiful bag or pretty purse and customize these hot fashion accessories to one's personal style! "Bag Boutique" includes 30 projects for making traditional or trendy bags, complete with a range of techniques that makes it a snap to go from sewing room to shoulder in no time.
Amy Barickman (www.amybarickman.com), founder and owner of Indygo Junction (www.indygojunctioninc.com) and The Vintage Workshop (www.thevintageworkshop.com) is a leader in the sewing, needle arts and retail crafting industry. Her recent endeavors include authoring Hankie Style (published in 2009), as well as Amy Barickman's Vintage Notions: An Inspirational Guide to Needlework, Cooking, Sewing, Fashion and Fun, to be published in September 2010.
Amy grew up immersed in the sewing and crafting business, spending hours at her mother's creative arts retail store working and watching the business evolve along with the trends. What started as a sewing store ultimately grew into a multi-faceted business that included women's fashion, needlework, fabric, knitting and quilting, gifts and classes. The seeds of entrepreneurism took root in Amy, and she started her own business designing and marketing collectible teddy bears while still in high school.
After graduating from the University of Kansas with a degree in art and design, Amy founded Indygo Junction in 1990 to publish and market sewing books and patterns in the fabric arts, and also to showcase the talent of leading sewing and craft designers. Amy's knack for anticipating popular trends has led her to discover more than 35 innovative artists and designers and, over the years, publish 800 sewing pattern titles, selling nearly two million.
In addition, she has licensed her craft kits and fabric lines with some of the top fabric and fashion and novelty craft supplies in the nation and has published 80 books that have sold at stores throughout the U.S. and internationally. Through her published works and business websites and e-newsletters, Amy inspires countless crafters to explore their own creative spirit and experiment with the newest sewing, fabric and crafting techniques.
With her keen eye for design and new market opportunities, Amy spotted the emerging vintage art movement and collected an impressive archive of vintage ephemera. As technology improved, she envisioned what crafters could do with their home computer and printer. So, on the heels of Indygo Junction's success, Amy founded The Vintage Workshop in 2002 to create products that allow crafters online access to timeless vintage artwork, which may be printed on fabrics. Her digitized vintage designs are available to download from her website at
www.thevintageworkshop.com and on CD.
Amy's book, Amy Barickman's Vintage Notions: An Inspirational Guide to Needlework, Cooking, Sewing, Fashion and Fun, was the logical next step for her, as she continues her quest to provide women with imaginative and inventive ideas that show them how to use their talents and skills in the best way possible. Yesterday's inspiration becomes today's innovation Amy's book is the culmination of a personal journey that started 20 years ago when she began collecting rare sewing and needle arts books, vintage home arts magazines and cookbooks, as well as sewing, textiles and handiwork projects she found at antique stores and flea markets. In fact, Amy's collection is amongst the largest of its kind. It is a hobby that has always fit naturally into her business, providing both ideas and inspiration in the world of crafts and the home/domestic arts. She reached a pivotal point in her collecting when she stumbled upon the work of Mary Brooks Picken. Picken founded the Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts & Sciences in 1916, the largest school in history devoted solely to teaching women how to combine the domestic arts with entrepreneurism. Ultimately appointed as the first woman trustee of the Fashion Institute of Technology, Picken wrote numerous beautifully illustrated newsletters that provided what Amy recognized as a "blueprint for living a simple, fulfilling life." She knew she wanted to share this inspiring historical information with the modern generation of women. As she explains it, there is value in "looking back to look forward." It's about taking important lessons from the past and using them to reinvent the home arts as a creative outlet in today's technology-driven world. Amy realized she needed to write a book.
Amy Barickman's Vintage Notions: An Inspirational Guide to Needlework, Cooking, Sewing, Fashion and Fun is filled with creative ideas, practical advice, vintage fabrics and samples of authentic handiwork, sewing patterns and illustrations of fashion and dress that celebrate the rich heritage of women who create. And while Amy's book nourishes the creative spirit, it also brings to life many inspiring stories from the past. She hopes that those stories will "spark conversation and encourage creative pursuits, uniting generations through the common thread of sewing and the creative arts."
Amy and her work have received much acclaim in the news media, including on home and fashion shows and in magazines and industry periodicals. In addition, Amy had the recent honor of being named one of Country Living magazine's prestigious Creative Women Entrepreneurs. She has made television appearances on HGTV's "The Carol Duvall Show," AOL Television's "America Quilts," and Public Television's "Sewing with Nancy." Amy Barickman's Vintage Notion's, is the most recent addition to Amy's best-selling book titles, which include The Vintage Workshop's Art-to-Wear, and Indygo Junction's Button Ware, Denim Redesign, Bag Boutique, Indygo Junction's Needle Felting, and most recently, Hankie Style.
Amy travels from coast to coast to share her ideas, showcase the work of talented designers and spread inspiration among those who share her passion for the creative arts.
