Sarah Jane is an illustrator of children's books, an artist, an embroidery pattern designer, a fabric designer and mom to three young children.

She opened her Etsy Shop in October 2007 and has been going gangbusters ever since. She is one of Etsy's top sellers of art. She's also an all-round kind and gracious person.

 

Enjoy this peek into her life...

Bari:     Can you tell us a little bit about your design background? Are you trained as an illustrator? Did you go to school or are you self-taught? 

Sarah Jane: Well, like most artists and designers, I was born with a pencil in my hand. My first memories as a baby are of color and spacial relationships!  I was a very observant child, and can remember studying the human face and teaching myself how to draw eyes and hands as early as 3rd grade.

I’d stay up way past my bedtime with a notebook and a pencil sketching out stories and characters. My parents were so supportive, and at the age of 10, I stated taking priveat art lessons from a 70 year old lady on Saturday mornings. She’d paint in her studio, and I’d paint next to her. Once in a while, she’s show me her work, and critique mine. Mostly, it was the exposure to painting in a professional setting at such a young age, that instilled in me a great passion for fine art. By 13 my parents started having to constantly buy me new pillowcases because I’d sleep with pencils and charcoal in my bed at night after falling asleep drawing. 

Later on, my parents even gave into my nigh-time habit of creating, and even let me oil paint in my bedroom at the age of 15. When I was 16, I knew that I wanted to have a career in art, so I spent a summer at Interlochen Arts Academy where I spent 3 months wearing knickerbockers in the middle of the woods in Michigan with 500 other passionate teenage artists. I studied figure drawing and painting, but also vocal performance, another love of mine. After my studies there, I learned that if I ever wanted to have a career on the stage, it would be before marriage and family. So, I decided to get my BFA in Musical Theater, knowing full well that when I had my children, I’d be ready to spend the rest of my adult life as an artist. Interestingly enough, studying another art form, actually ended up enhancing my own artistic maturity in general, and have since considered my ‘non-studies’ in art to have been a great asset to my now artistic career. 

Bari: Which came first the embroidery or the illustration? 

Sarah Jane: The illustration always comes first. But once I have the illustration in my head, I have to format it for stitching. There are still some illustrations that I’d love to use as embroidery, but haven’t figured out how to use them for stitching...not all images translate over! So a lot of time is spent deciding how to make the stitching design standout in it’s own right, so it doesn’t just look like a stitched version of a pretty picture. 


Bari: What inspires your designs? 

Sarah Jane: Well, what inspires my designs are the same things that inspire me: I love vintage storybooks, Scandinavian and Dutch illustration and design, rosy cheeks and baby curls, poetry, twirling skirts, being with my children every day, rainstorms, picnics, beaches, wind, family dinner, lullaby’s, Children’s book illustrators: Marc Simont, Maurice Sendak, Jean-Jaque Sempe, Toni Ungerer, William Steig, and so many others. 


Bari: Can you tell us a bit about your new fabric line?

Sarah Jane: Children at Play is a dream collection for me. I took some star pieces from some already created illustrations of mine, and created a story out of them. Pinwheels, Playing dolls, Afternoon Parades, Making Paper Hats, Rocket Launch Clubs...all these designs were meant to reflect simple childhood play. 


There are two lines: Boy and Girl, and each have 2 colorways. This collection was a bit of a learning curve to say the least. Not only was it my first collection, but my intentions were to have the boy and the girl prints to all coordinate together. I have 3 children, and my boy and girl share a room...like many children I imagine. I wanted to create a collection where the boy and girl prints would all compliment each other...which was a monumental task with 52 prints! But, I did it, and am really happy with how it came together. 

Bari: How do you incorporate embroidery in your projects? 

Sarah Jane: I love seeing how the embroidery designs have made some wonderful Children at Play projects come alive. These pillows for instance are such stand out pieces, and it’s because the hand stitching adds such an element of color to the work.  And  adding aprons for instance to an already made dress pattern, can be just the right touch. 

Bari: Do you have a favorite stitch?

Sarah Jane:  I just really love the split stitch. It’s so simple, but when done nice and tight, it just looks so darn good! But I do have a favorite new stitch that I use in my MAKE IT DO and 3 LITTLE BIRDS patterns: The bullion circle stitch. It’s basically the bullion stitch used for wrapped circles to make a flower shape. It’s just so fun! 

Bari: Are there any books on embroidery you recommend? 

Sarah Jane: I really like Jenny Hart’s Sublime Stitching book. It’s simple and neatly laid out. But I really love the old, out of print embroidery books that give nice tutorials on the traditional methods.

Bari: Do you have any favorite materials/tools you like to use? 

Sarah Jane: I absolutely love my pink sheers. They make me so happy!

Bari: Where can we get your embroidery patterns? 

Sarah Jane: On my website. I have both PDF’s and Iron-ons available. And I also sell wholesale.