I Learned Something New Today!

I have always known tailors as men who make, repair, and alter men’s clothing. As a sewer I have never really considered myself a tailor, because I don’t make, repair, or alter men’s clothing. I did work at The Buckle for about 9 months doing minor and major alterations, but call myself a tailor? No. I considered myself a sewer, who just happened to be male.

I have been sewing since I was two. Mind you, I wasn’t making clothing or craft projects. According to my mother, I would sit with buttons, needle, thread, and a scrap of fabric and attach buttons to my heart’s delight. I don’t remember this as I was so very young, so I will take mom’s word for it. After all, she is a fairly reliable source…

I do remember that for a time in the early 80s I had a brown paper grocery bag filled with mom’s scraps and I was on a mission to make a crazy quilt. Did I know what I was doing? No. Mom would have scraps from seed sacks, broad cloth, velvet, seersucker, various cottons, and who-knows-what-else. I would gather together every piece I could find and with my needle and thread, red as I remember, sewing piece after piece together. I was going to make a crazy quilt. I used every stitch that I had ever seen and a few that I made up. It took me months to create a section that was roughly 12” wide and 14” tall and it was a huge triangle with tails hanging off all three corners. Of course I didn’t use a pattern, who needs patterns or directions? Not me. I had no idea what I had gotten into. Finally, one day I tired of the project declared it finished and promptly gave it to the dog to sleep on (I think).

Ok, that was a nice trip down memory lane but back to my main point. I was reading a friend’s blog yesterday and she referred to her dad as a seamster, which I felt it was my duty to point out was not a correct term, but rather it would more correct to refer to him as a tailor. Boy was I wrong! I got an e-mail about a follow up comment. Below is a copy of the comment from Chrissi:

"Well, um errr not to get too technical but you weren't really totally brain cramped Daph :D
A tailor, a seamster, and a sartor are correct terms. Funny thing is "tailor" is defined as "a person" and not specifically a gal or guy. It appears only seamstress is gender specific, so go figure! lol :)"

So now my curiosity got the better of me. I had to check this out. I logged on to google and to dictionary.com. I typed in the words tailor, seamster, and sartor. These are actual words and they are correct to use.

• Tailor – a person whose occupation is the making, mending, or altering of clothes, esp. suits, coats, and other outer garments.


• Seamster – a person whose occupation is sewing; tailor. (This one really blew my mind. I still haven't collected all the pieces yet. Oops! There's another piece.)


• Sartor - a person whos occupation is making and altering garments. (I had never heard of this one.)

Definitions from dictionary.com accessed on 03/04/2009.

Notice each definition is gender neutral. The only one that I found that referred to a gender was seamstress. Other than that every other term could be used for either male or female.

Interesting...

Several years ago while cutting fabric for a high school girl, she referred to me as a seamster. I corrected her. A man should be called a tailor. I was thinking to myself, “Seamster!? That’s not even a word.” Wrong again, but hey those are the only two times in my life that I have ever been wrong. (LOL)

According to further information given in the definitions the term seamster is a Middle English word. Translation – the term seamster has been in use for a very long time.

So Daphne, I do apologize. You were correct to call your father a seamster. But I think that I would call your father a universal man given the list of things that he can do.

Waldon 20” Mohair Teddy Bear

This is what you all have been waiting for…

Waldon is an original design crafted from two tone mohair. He stands 20" tall and is fully jointed. He has been stuffed with a mix of excelsior, polyfil, and copper BBs. His black glass eyes are backed by felt patches.

Waldon has been highlighted with air brushed accents. His neck is adorned with a bow created from fabric and wired ribbon and a floral accent.

Waldon has been signed and dated.

He is looking for a home and would love to come live with you.

$435.00 USD plus shipping.

You can view him in my etsy shop by clicking here.

Thanks for stopping by and check back soon.

Jared

I Am Going To Try Something New…

Well at least for me it is something new.

I have noticed in the past year that more artists are using blogs to sell their work. I have seen that many are successful. I am planning on listing a few items on my blog in the next few weeks. Be sure to subscribe to my blog to get the updates.

Until the next post thank you for stopping by.

Theodore Society Bears

I am so excited mom & I were asked to design the Theodore Society Bears for this year. Below is the information about the bears.

“Gemma” and “Goldie”2008/2009 Theodore Society Bears

Commissioned EXCLUSIVELY FOR YOU! The Theodore Society celebrates its fifth anniversary with member bears designed by Jane Monroe of C. Riffenberg Bear Co. and Jared Monroe of Jare Hares and Bears! For the first time in Theodore Society history, each limited-edition bear will be handmade, hand-signed and numbered by the artists.

Club Bear

The club member bear, fully jointed 12-inch “Genna” by Jane Monroe, features hand-dyed mohair in cream, burgundy and mauve, air-brushed accents, hand-dyed wool felt paw and foot pads, hand-painted amber glass eyes with felt patches, a custom Theodore Society anniversary ribbon and a striped cloth bow. Genna is priced at $155.

Gold-Member Bonus!

In addition to the club bear, Gold-level members are entitled to purchase the gold member bear. Jared Monroe’s fully jointed 9-inch “Goldie” sports hand-dyed mohair in shades of gold, air-brushed accents, hand-dyed wool felt paw and foot pads, black glass eyes with felt patches and a custom-made “Celebrate” wooden bead necklace with a Theodore Society pendant and gold bells. Goldie is priced at $145.

Call (800) 331-0038, ext. 129, to order (be sure to have your membership number handy), or download the order form here and mail it to Theodore Society, P.O. Box 5000, Iola, WI 54945-5000. Order early to ensure you receive a low edition number!

Expo: Creating New Pieces

My life is filled with deadlines. Weekly deadlines to complete school work, deadlines to get orders to shoppes and customers, and deadlines to get ready for shows. The later is what I shall be blogging about this time. (And yes I prefer shoppes to shops).

It seems that I am always just around the corner from my next show. I never get everything ready for the show that I want. And in the next couple of weeks is the biggest show of the fall season for me. "A show in August?" you ask, "That really is a fall show?" Yes, indeed it is. Even though school hasn't started and the leaves are still green on the trees. In my world fall has arrived. The Doll and Teddy Bear Expo in Washington, DC gives me enough business to remain busy for the rest of the year. In fact, if it weren't for Expo, I don't think that I would have ever traveled to our nation's capital.

One of the biggest things in getting ready for a show is creating new designs. This can be hard after nearly 20 years. But somehow I manage to create new items for each show. It can be even more difficult to create a new pattern. My latest creation is my Bubbleheads. They came to life this week. There are now 5 of them ready to go to Expo and find new homes.

It all started with some google eyes that I found on eBay a few months back. I thought that they were different and that I sure could do something with them. So I purchased them and they have been sitting on my work table ever since. My mother asked me what was I going to do with them. I told her that I wasn't just sure, but I knew I could do something. My original thought was to use them on my existing big head pattern… but they were just too small for that. Finally, I decided that I needed to create a new pattern for them. In fact the idea for the head just flowed into my li'l ole brain. And a bubble shape came to mind. Designing the head and body were easy, but the arms and legs were another matter. But that is how creativity works. It comes and goes; ebbs and flows. There is no controlling that creative energy. Many times I will have dreams of what to create. Other times I can sit and draw the pattern while dissecting the piece in my head. Gwen Stefani did a commercial for Hp awhile back and she said basically the same thing. You can't control creative energy. Believe me I have tried.

Now back to the Bubbleheads. So, I figured out the easy parts first. And for about 24 hours I struggled with the arms and legs. They really can make a difference in how a piece is understood. I could have created long lanky limbs, short stubby limbs, or something in between. Many times that energy will hit and I know what to do. No matter what it was not coming around this time. Mom finally looked at me and said. "Well just make a little blob shape for the arms and legs. After all you can use the same for both." I drew a basic arm and mulled it overnight and came back the next day. I modified the arms a few times, each time asking my mom what she thought. After about 30 minutes I had something that I was happy with. (Ok, I know that I shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition, but sometimes that just happens.) I redrew that same shape and created the legs. Not really how I was hoping to get there, but I got there and that was what was important. In 3 weeks I have a show to do.

So in the last 3 days I have made 5 of these little guys. The last 2 I finished with help from mom, otherwise they wouldn't be finished. We needed them to have something new to show on the cards we were sending out for the show. I made them out of scraps of mohair in several different colours. I even went so far as making one in Christmas colours. So here they are:

Now I just need to come up with about 15 other new designs all before the 7^th of August. Any ideas?

If you are interested in purchasing one, two, three or more you can contact me @: jarehares@frontiernet.net