Do you use Firefox? If so, you’ll enjoy this.

We’ve just released the latest Oliver + S persona for Firefox: our paper dolls dressed in the new Nature Walk and School Photo patterns. Why not use it to dress your browser in Oliver + S for back-to-school.

Back in design school, one of our best professors frequently gave our class the assignment to go home and each sketch 50 dress concepts before class the next day. To come up with that many unique ideas in one evening, on top of our full course-load of homework, felt unimaginably difficult. But it took that many sketches to really push out new and imaginative designs, and somehow we always managed to complete the task on time.

I recently gave myself the same type of homework and spent the past three full days filling a sketchbook with page upon page of ideas for future sewing patterns. Hopefully when I look back at the designs I’ll find some useful ideas, now that the fall patterns are at the printer and it’s time to start work on the spring collection.

While I was in the studio, looking for some inspiration, I also came across some other sketches and thought you might enjoy seeing them. These are the spring sewing patterns, not in their first incarnation as preliminary ideas but as part of the package I send to Dan, our illustrator, each season, so he can paint the paper doll clothing. Among the many ways that I communicate with Dan are sketches I make showing him what the clothes should look like on the dolls. I also send photographs, fabric and color swatches, and lengthy notes about each garment. But the sketches are the most useful part of the package, I think. I can show exactly what the silhouette is: how long a skirt should be, how closely (or loosely) a garment should fit, where the pockets are placed and how the collar sits. Here is the Ice Cream Dress (sorry for the smudges; I generally work with pencil on vellum so I can draw directly on top of the a paper doll to get the proportions right.):

I get to pretend that I’m an illustrator when I do this, except that I use a lot of words to show what I mean. Dan doesn’t have that luxury. (On the other hand, he’s a professional illustrator; I merely need to communicate an idea, thank goodness.)

Here are the other spring patterns, just for the fun of it:

So I spell out (literally) a lot of information here, but there is one area in which I let Dan have complete control: I always suggest a few props to coordinate with the name of each pattern, and Dan chooses exactly which prop to draw and how to show it. He’s never disappointed me. My favorite prop is still the bunny slippers. After he finished the painting, I found an exact match for them and bought them as a prop for Quilt Market.

Ok, back to my sketches.

Attention Firefox users. You already dress your kids in Oliver + S designs. Now you can dress your browser in Oliver + S too.

We’ve recently released our first two Firefox personas. One features Pearl, our spool dog. The other (shown above) features the Oliver + S paper dolls wearing our new Spring 2010 styles.

You can get them as free downloads from the Mozilla Personas site. Enjoy!

Remember our friend Pearl from last fall?

We’re happy to announce that Pearl is back!

Starting today, and while supplies last, all website orders for Oliver + S patterns will again ship with a complimentary copy of the Pearl spool dog postcard. Cut out Pearl’s front and rear, glue them to a long thin spool, and send Pearl out to play with your Oliver + S paper dolls.

Enjoy!

Every kid needs a pet, right? Even paper doll kids need a pet. So this season the Oliver + S paper dolls have adopted a new friend. Here’s Pearl.

Pearl is a dachshund. We’re not sure if Pearl is a boy dog or a girl dog, but that doesn’t matter much because Pearl is a great companion to the Oliver + S paper dolls.

And here’s the exciting part. Pearl can be a faithful desktop companion for you too. More on that in a minute. But, first, some credits are due.

Have you heard of John Martin’s spool pets? We hadn’t either until April, of April 1930s, sent us some reproduction postcards a while ago. In the early 1930s, John Martin (1865-1947) illustrated several animals for a series of Coats and Clark promotions. Each animal was printed on card stock and featured a rhyme along with instructions for cutting out the animal and gluing the front and back sides to an empty spool to make a stand up, paper doll-like pet. Martin did a dog, a pig, a cow, a cat, a bunny, a horse, and possibly a few others.

We loved the idea and decided (in honor of Martin’s originals) to update the concept. Dan Andreasen, the illustrator of our paper dolls, painted Pearl’s front and back sides which we’ve turned into a new Oliver + S postcard featuring Pearl. (Dan illustrates some interesting things, but this was the first time he has been asked to do a dog’s rear end!) Like in Martin’s originals, there’s a poem on the card that tells a bit about Pearl, and then Pearl provides instructions for cutting and gluing the images to a spool to create a standing pet.

Pearl has been designed with Gutermann’s long, thin spools in mind. (Remember, Pearl is a dachshund. Get it now?) Here’s what Pearl looks like with our paper doll friends.

Starting next Tuesday, while supplies last, all website orders for Oliver + S patterns will ship with a complimentary spool dog postcard so that you can make your own standing Pearl. Postcards will also be available on a limited basis at select retailers who are carrying our new Fall 2009 patterns.

We hope you’ll stand Pearl up on your worktable to watch over you while you’re busy sewing the new Jump Rope Dress and School Days Jacket and Coat.

If you’re in New York, be sure to stop by Purl Patchwork on Sullivan Street to see their Oliver + S window display.

Purl is well-known for its outstanding selection of fabrics. The staff stocks beautiful Japanese prints, a wide selection of Liberty tana lawn, and a number of other exquisite offerings inside this jewel box of a shop.

For these samples Purl selected a sweet floral Liberty print for the Birthday Party Dress and paired it with a coordinating Kona cotton solid for the tab. Because Liberty prints are very light-weight and ever-so-slightly sheer, we used a white cotton lawn for the facings to be sure they didn’t show through. (The Liberty print sold out within two days of setting up the window display, so I’m sorry I can’t give you a link to it.)

The Sailboat Top and Pants are made from a fresh architecture-inspired Anna Griffin print and a Kona cotton.

We raided the fantastic button selection at Purl’s yarn shop just down the street for the finishing touch. Those buttons on the pants are wool felt!

And here are some views of the window from inside the store. How about those giant paper dolls?

Located in historic downtown McMinnville, Oregon, Boersma’s Sewing Center offers a tremendous range of products and services, from sewing and knitting supplies to long-arm quilting machines for rent and sewing classes of all sorts.

Because the store is located in a former department store, Boersma’s also has enormous glass windows at the outside of the shop. We’re thrilled to be featured as their fall window display; the large-scale paper dolls from our banner at Quilt Market look terrific displayed among the clothing samples made from our patterns, with giant scissors in the act of cutting out the dolls and their outfits.

You can see more photos from the shop windows on the Boersma’s Flickr set.

Dan Andreasen illustrates the Oliver + S paper dolls. We were able to speak with him recently about his background and some of his most enjoyable recent projects. (Part 1 of the interview can be found here.)

What do you like to illustrate most?
Right now I’m getting a kick out of illustrating my own stories. I like that a lot. After doing piles and piles of book jackets and picture books, I started writing my own stories. I’m working on my sixth book now to be published next year.

Do you have a favorite?
I do. It came out last year, and it’s called The Giant of Seville. It’s based loosely on a giant who moved to a small town and spent his life in the circus in the 1800s after the Civil War. His name was Martin Van Buren Bates. He weighed 525 pounds and was 7’ 11.5” tall. He married a woman who was a giant too. She was even a little taller than he was. The way I wrote the story, it’s fictional. It’s about someone who’s different and can fit into a community. I think it’s a neat book for kids.

How did you find out about these people?
I don’t remember how I found out about them originally. I must have stumbled across an article at the historical society. There are a couple plaques there now indicating that giants used to live there. In one of the shops they may have had a pair of his boots in a window case.

When my kids were younger, we used to drive through the town of Seville which is not too far from where we live. My son was in a car seat, and I told him that giants used to live here. His eyes would get as big as saucers, and he would look around like he expected to see giants today. I used to tell my kids about the giant couple who lived in this town, and I figured if they were that interested there was something there that I could write about.

My story is a fictionalized account of these real people’s lives. It’s a made up story the way I would make up stories to tell the kids. I’ve met some real sticklers for historical fact. It bugs them that I don’t tell the true story, but I had a story I wanted to tell. I used a little bit of historical fact and built a lot of fiction around it to allow me to tell the story of someone different and how he was accepted.

What do you like about the Oliver + S paper dolls you do?
I’ve enjoyed creating the paper dolls. I think it’s a clever and unique way to feature the patterns. And I think the retro look, in a strange way, is really fresh.

Dan Andreasen, creator of the Oliver + S paper dolls, began his career as a sculptor and illustrator for American Greetings Corp. Over the past 25 years, he has illustrated more than 35 picture books. His illustrations have also been used to advertise iconic American products ranging from Orville Redenbacher to Harley Davidson.

This is something that our customers wouldn’t necessarily know, but your original illustrations for Oliver + S are really small in scale. How are you able to achieve so much detail in such a small space?
Good glasses, I guess! I usually work to size. When I illustrate a season for Oliver + S, the whole thing (a paper doll and five outfits) fits on an 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper.

My first job was working for American Greetings as an in-house illustrator and in their studio. I just got used to working small like that. It’s the way we did things. If I’m doing a book jacket, I’ll sometimes do that at 150 to 200 % of the reproduction size. But for most of my illustrations I work to size.

How did you get your start as an illustrator?
I was 19 years old when I was hired at American Greetings Corp. Back in 1980, I was at Kent State working on a fine art major. I decided to go look for a job, and I went to American Greetings with my portfolio.

When I was waiting for my turn to go in to interview, the receptionist took a phone call, and I heard her say she was sorry but there were no artist positions available—unless you can sculpt. Of course, my portfolio was filled with all two-dimensional work. When my turn came, I went in and showed my portfolio. The interviewer asked me what deep in my heart I wanted to do, and I said I wanted to sculpt. So they sent me home with a block of clay and told me to make something. I did. And I got the job.

I spent my first few years there using dental tools to sculpt figurine and picture frame prototypes. They would be shipped overseas to be mass produced. After a couple years of that I moved into the conventional design department.

Did you learn anything interesting from working in three dimensions?
I learned that I really wanted to paint, not sculpt!

I worked through the 1980s at American Greetings, and at the end of the 1980s I hooked up with an agent in New York who started giving me publishing work. So I started working for myself. I did two American Girl series—first the Felicity then the Samantha books.

When you illustrated the American Girl books, you based some of your work on your own children, didn’t you? What did they think about that at the time?
Anybody who hangs around my studio long enough ends up in one of my books.

My kids grew up with that. My oldest daughter is 22 now. Felicity’s younger sister and brother were my kids. Later when I did the Samantha books, I used my daughter as the model for Samantha and her best friend for Nellie. My youngest is five now, and she’s my new model.

I work with professional and neighborhood models too. When I hire someone to model for me, I pay them. So when my kids would pose for me, I would give them a few dollars. It was a real job for them, and they’ve always been good sports about it. When my oldest was in kindergarten, her teacher asked her what kind of work her dad did, and she said, “He colors.” As far back as their memories go, I was always working in my home studio.

Next: Dan discusses his favorite recent project.

We got fan mail!