Holidays, Trends, Colors & Cool Designers...

Family, friends, company, dinners, parties and many celebrations will be taking place during the next 60 days,
are you ready? At Mary Jo's Cloth Store we have been anticipating this season with much joy. We are stocked beyond full with Holiday inspired Fabrics. The patterns this year are rich and vibrant. Velvets, Satins, Taffeta's, Batiks and of course all of the Holiday Prints and Patterns that are just the perfect companions to such finery. What is your look this year? How will you decorate for your Thanksgiving Feast? Will you use the traditional Autumn Celebration of color and texture or be a renegade and choose Mossy Greens and Rich Cranberries that segue into the Winter Holiday season and can be timeless through the long winter days of January and February. Quite a dilemma.
We can help.
It is always fun to share the inspirations of real people. A former floral designer, Chelsea Fuss in NYC has a very inspirational blog called Frolic. Sweet and packed with home and garden style ideas, you will enjoy her point of view and lovely photos. Today we are featuring one of her tables, decked out in a simple plaid and matching napkins with some simple embroidery.
Another gal who is always searching around for cool stuff is Manvi Drona Hildago. Her blog is called Mochatini. Really cool and lots of ideas. Some are fancy and others are drawn from nature, all share her unique brand and love of style. Such talent.

The internet is rich with ideas for any occasion. When you google, "Holiday, Thanksgiving or Christmas Table Decor", the world is your oyster and all of the info is at your fingertips. You will be so inspired that you will be runnin' to Maryjos.com to pick up some of the best priced fabric on the market today. Oh and the selection this time of year, well the sky is the limit. Log onto our website today, be inspired, and save some cash. Remember to send us some photos of what you have been creating, because you could be the featured customer on our blog.
Happy Holidays!

The Costume Winner Is...

Wow, what a response. Our customers are not only talented and creative they are also very clever in their use of fabric. Mixing patterns and prints, weights and sheens. We were very impressed with all of your submissions. We have included our top picks in the slide show; make sure you take a moment to see these beauties for inspiration. You will not be disappointed.

Before choosing the winner we did a slideshow, without names (some of you are professionals) and judged on the clever and best use of fabric, patterns and prints and on the technical difficulty. Our Grand Prize $100.00 winner is Matthew James. The costume we chose was the March Hare. This fantastical interpretation was created for the CPCC’s production of Alice In Wonderland. I made the next one for the White Rabbit for CPCC's Alice in Wonderland. The jacket is lined with the same fabric and has batting inside of every piece to give it that fluffy look. The vest is lined and the pants are high-waisted stretch pants. The clocks are made out of vinyl from Mary Jo's and are attached with velcro so he can take them on and off during the show. I made everything on this one but the headpiece. Truly a wonderful costume created perfectly with a healthy use of imagination and executed flawlessly. If you would like to see more of his work or would like to attend one of Rhapsody Designs, Sewing or Millinery classes click on their Facebook Page.

We had so many amazing costumes to choose from we then created a non-cash Honorable mention category.

First Place Winner is “Mr & Mrs Joker” created by Dee Gosnell of Ocala Fl. Dee wrote, “my son lives in Gastonia and he purchased everything, including the pattern at our store and then mailed it all to her." She did a great job, we are sure you agree.

Second Place goes to “The Ballerina” created by Nancy Gallagher, included in her note, “I made this just last month, but I bought the bulk of the fabric and netting at Mary Jo's about 4 years ago when I attended tutu school with Claudia Folts."

Third Place is “Snow White” created by Jennifer. We loved the collar and the perfect use of Satin. Not a pucker, truly a terrific job. Jennifer writes, “I love to get Mary Jo's fabric especially for my costumes! I have made many Disney ones and you all have the best fabrics with colors like Disney colors!"

We also have a Technical Award", this goes to “White Victorian Dress” created by Jessica Hagens. “This is a Victorian bustle inspired gown. Both the off-white and brocade satin were purchased at Mary Jo's as well as the trim, which was customized by cutting it in half and the cording in the back is 3 braided colors also purchased at Mary Jo's. Essentially all materials minus the pattern are from Mary Jo’s. Thank you for your part in creating one of my best costumes."

We would like to thank all of you for your submissions. We collected the best of the best for the slideshow. Halloween is still a few weeks away. Are you ready? If not, log onto the website which is open 24-7 or stop into the store. We always love to hear from you, send us photos of your latest project. You may be our next blog article. Happy almost Halloween!