Clotilde's Sewing Savvy (magazine)

I didn't know it was taken over by Clotilde. I subscribed to it on the basis of a junk mail blurb I got in the mail. First time I ever did that and it will be the last. I find the magazine to be a waste. It's mostly home furnishing, but the stuff is pretty uninteresting to me. It's kind of amusing to read their "materials" lists. Sometimes they require a "Babylock Ellageo" embroidery machine. Oh yeah, I'm going out to spend multi-thousands on a new embroidery machine to make a table runner. When they have patterns (applique or whatever) they are almost never full size - you have to enlarge them 200 percent or something like that.

Of course your mileage may vary, but I usually glance through it and throw it away. I never found anything that I had an urge to make, or that I hadn't seen elsewhere in a more enticing pattern. I suppose I should have canceled the subscription but I'm a) too lazy; and b) curious to see if it gets any better.

Iris

Thanks for the comments. Ha, I was sort of wondering the same... I'd looked at Sewing Savvy when it was on the newstands, but the designs didn't interest me too much to incite buying my own copy. Maybe I am very choosy but some of the designs seemed too artsy craftsy ... I was/am hoping under the Clotilde direction it might change.... they have a trial issue available and I might try that route, tho I'd hate to have to go through months of red tape if it's going to be a problem to cancel when they begin to bill me. (I'm going through that now with a "book club" what a hassle with the returns etc)

Check out Sewing Savvy magazine at

unless the website has changed if Clotilde took it over. I've not had any correspondence to that effect, although I have been a subscriber since the very first issue and have given several subscriptions to people who like sewing for their home. Of course, it's "different strokes for different folks" as the old saying goes. I have gotten many ideas for things and have never ever given a thought to buying another machine, I like my Pfaff 7560 too much. I do know both Clotilde & Nancy Zieman have moved their mail order to Big Sandy, TX, a very small town near Tyler. There goes my sales-tax free orders now. Emily

"Emily" scribbled in news:No1Pb.71572$6y6.1419729 @bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net:

I did get something, but I'm not sure if it was Clotilde's newsletter or if I read it elsewhere. I hope it means something good. I cancelled my subscription way before it was over with when I got it some time ago.

Donna scribbled in news:Xns9475F2064D4B4donnasewingwebcom@68.1.17.6:

I found it. It's in the new Clotilde catalog - she says that she will ba associated with the magazine soon - it's on page 2 on the top of the page.

That's because both of their mail order companies are owned by new, bigger companies. Clotilde's was sold to DRG, and Nancy's Notions was sold to Tacony, I believe. They both have some contact with the companies, but to different extents.

Karen Maslowski in Cincinnati

I didn't like Sewing Savvy when it first came out. The copy seemed entirely to have been written by company reps, and therefore suspect from a journalistic point of view. Granted, we don't look for hard news reporting in a sewing magazine, but there are standards for special-interest publications and Sewing Savvy did not live up to the minimum of these standards. Perhaps under the new management it will improve. It also seemed to me to be exclusively about home dec, which is fine but the advertising wasn't exactly clear about that. Anne L.

It was soooooooo much better when it was Sewing Savvy. Clotilde just ruined it -- she doesn't seem to have any idea how to do a magazine. She should stick with her catalogues -- that all she's good at

Dru

journalistic

Jumping in here late.

I didn't like the magazine either. I sent for the free copy to see what it was like. Most of the projects were really simplistic. Not advanced techniques at all. And the finsihed projects in the pictures just looked....I hate to say home-made in a bad way, but that's the best I can describe it. They looked like 8th grade home ec. projects. Needless to say, I did not order a paid subscription. I marked the bill CANCEL and sent it back.

I really like Threads. And I like SewNews too. I know some on here don't care for SewNews at all. I've found some interesting ideas in there though. It's a much more basic sewing geared magazine than Threads, without a doubt. But useful. :) But Clotilde's Sewing Savvy is not going to be gracing the magazine section of my sewing library any time soon.

Sharon

I rather like SewNews, but then, I haven't been sewing all that long

The reason I didn't like Sew News was because it seemed to be geared toward sewing the latest fashion styles and "How you can make this $8000 designer outfit for only $695" and hte like, and I tend not to follow fashion trends, so it was rather useless for me. Threads focuses more on principles that I can apply to whatever sewing I am doing instead of applications of which I am not interested.

FYI, Clotilde does not have anything to do with the magazine, except to contribute a short column for each issue. They bought her name, and nothing else.

This came directly from Clotilde herself, who is a friend of mine.

It's too bad the magazine isn't better, though. I'm sorry to hear that, and I'll bet Clotilde would be, as well. She has very high standards, and if the magazine that has her name on it isn't up to snuff she won't care for that. Karen Maslowski in Cincinnati

Re: Clotilde's Sewing Savvy (magazine)

SewNews has its good moments. Sometimes there are some quickie projects or a technique (like the shelf bra article in the latest issue-someone here mentioned it and I went looking) that might catch my eye . I like the fabric reviews and the classified section is pretty good. I scan it for new websites and then go dream-surfing.

Of course, I do that with Threads, too. But I do have to give Threads the edge for more detailed technique articles. SewNews sometimes reads like People and the content sometimes seems like it is being "dumbed down."

Barbara Weiland's taking over as editor, according to a note posted on The Creative Machine today. It'll still be aimed pretty much at newbies, but I'd expect some good editing from Barbara Weiland. She's also soliciting article proposals, if anyone is interested in writing.

Kay Lancaster snipped-for-privacy@fern.com

That is interesting, Kay. Barbara's a good writer, and I believe she used to be editor of Sew News, way, way back, at the beginning of the magazine's history. (Linda Griepentrog has been there for a really long time.)

Thanks for the news about this!

Karen Maslowski in Cincinnati

I subscribe to both SewNews and Threads. I prefer SewNews because of the more baskic information. But Threads is great for dreaming over.

Maureen

Mike Behrent wrote: