She also creates numerous patterns, many of them being purses. I was thrilled when I saw them and picked out two I thought would be great for gifts.
I have to say I am very sorely disappointed in her patterns. Far from professional and at times difficult. They are dumbed down really, for beginners to be able to sew them and as a first project, a beginner would probably love them. As someone who has sewn for years, I hated them. Their lack of detail and simplicity made them undesirable to me. They use velcro for closure (how unsecure is that?? Can we say pickpockets???), the lining is made the same size as the purse so when you turn the lining into the purse, it is often too big and bunches up. I tried sewing the lining smaller but it was hard to judge how much smaller and of course, no one can cut the pattern perfect so making it smaller didn't always work. For simple patterns, there are often very hard corners to sew around that I think would make any beginner scream, especially if they had no idea how to fix it.
The interfacings she uses, I couldn't find and had a hard time substituting when I had no idea what thickness I was substituting for. The one purse I did enjoy looking at afterwards, had no pockets inside or anything so those things you have to think ahead on and add yourself. I found on both patterns that the corners were very bulky because of all the layers and interfacing coming together at one point, quite annoying.
Let's see...here's a photo of the purse I made for my mother at Christmas. I made the same one for my MIL but in different fabric with fushia lining! You can't see any problems here, but it was all in the stiffness and texture. Patricia's purse came out very floppy and this one was actually over stiff, as you can kind of see in the handles.
And here's another Amy Butler pattern, for free on the web, called the Snow Mum Pillow or something like that. It was another Christmas present and turned out fairly well. The flower on it though, I had to put together myself because if you followed the template she gave you for the flower layout, it was much too spread out and you would have seen the bottom of the petals sewn down on each layer, underneath the one on top. So I had to scrunch it together and add an extra center to cover the smallest circle of petals. Again, the details lacked...detail.
And another pet peeve is that you can't order from her website directly. You have to find a company that carries her stuff and order from them or go to their store if you are lucky to live near one. I am not. I was greatly dissatisfied with Fabricana out of Vancouver. Their customer service was horrible and they charged me $25.00 shipping and handling to send two, flat patterns through the mail!!!! I was NOT told this up front and only found out when I got the bill with the first pattern. They had to order the second one which came 3 weeks after it was supposed to and then they sent it regular post for less than $2, when I had paid more than enough to have it Express Posted. I demanded and received $10 back on the S & H, but never once did they offer an apology for the lateness, overcharges and lack of communication with me.
For inquiring minds, I haven't tried Telus again. I have to wait for Daddy to call as I am unemployed and they don't care if he is as I am the one signing up so I am not paying a huge deposit b/c I am "unemployed". Have you ever seen any stay-at-home Mom who was unemployed??????? I would like to stop by the Shaw building and actually confirm from someone here if they do not have service out here. If they do, I'll be going with a digital phone service and avoiding Telus like I would love to do anyways.
Enough from me. I know I had other things to talk about but they have ran away from my memory and are hiding somewhere laughing at me and my easily-forgetful-baby-brain.
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