We’re nearing the end of the book. This time, we’re going back to the beginning, to explain how Teresa learned to sew cloth grocery bags and the two styles she’ll teach in her book. There’s just two more posts to round out the series: one on Production Sewing and one on Selling Your Bags. Stay […]
We’ve had a couple of event recently at Peschel Press that spurred some ruminations about book shows, capitalism and the writer’s role in the marketplace. This is going to be disjointed post, I confess. We’ve been so swamped with work and book shows recently that I didn’t allot time for writing Monday’s CIA post. So […]
If you have a large piece of heavy fabric hiding in the stash, you can turn it into grocery bags. The length and width will determine how many bags you end up with. This is what I did with one of those pieces. I bought this piece of fabric a long, long time ago; I […]
As a writer, your hands are one of your most valuable tools. The images that appear in your mind won’t translate to paper without being written down. This is where your hands come in; floating over the keyboard, gripping that expensive French fountain pen, or scribbling notes on scrap paper using a pencil stub. They […]
Good panel and gusset layout is critical for getting the most bags from the least amount of yardage. You start by choosing your size panels as they determine how much fabric you will end up using. I always use 13-by-15-inch panels. With their corresponding gusset, they made a nice size bag that isn’t too large […]
Today’s CIA is replaced with my account of the York Book Expo 2017. This was our third appearance at the Expo, and unlike the first year, when I forgot the table banner, or last year, when I screwed up our cookie plan, this one went off without a hitch. The expo was moved from the […]
If today is Saturday, Oct. 21, 2017, then we’ll be at the York Book Expo 2017 from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Wisehaven Event Center on Prospect Road on the eastern side of York. We’ll be at booth 22 on the lower floor. This is the third year we’ve done the event with […]
KKR’s latest column talks about subsidiary rights, but her discussion of how she was scammed by a major agency reminds me of a lesson you can’t teach too often when judging literary agents: Whenever you’re dealing with someone you don’t personally know, be cautious. Trust, but verify. In fact, “trust, but verify” is useful when […]
Cloth grocery bags have two costs. The first is your time so you want to be as efficient as possible in making them. The second is the fabric. When buying cloth grocery bag material, you want to look for something sturdy. Start with wovens. Knits generally have too much stretch for grocery bags. If the […]