When we think about the sex symbols of the 1920’s, images of long legged flappers with short bobbed hair doing the charleston and foxtrot to the latest jazz bands in shapeless shift dresses and plenty of publicly applied makeup come to mind.A fashionista of sorts who epitomized the spirit of a reckless rebel with a boyish physique and a girlish charm dancing the night away in smoky jazz houses around New York consume the memoirs of the era simply known as the “Roaring 20’s”.
The look and the mood certainly redefined modern womanhood and broke the traditions of earlier years. No longer were rounded figures and older faces, the passé.Instead, grown women who loved to party all night long in youthful glory and tomboyish fashion were all the rage. One didn’t have to look far to see the effects of this contagious fever, on stage and screen. Enter Betty Boop!
Betty Boop is known as the first and one of the most famous sex symbols on the animated screens of the 20’s and 30’s. She was a symbol of the depression era and a reminder of the more carefree days of the Jazz Age flapper. In the world of animation, this fem fetal would go down in history as the first cartoon character to fully represent a sexual woman. But she didn’t start out that way. In the early stages of her career, this lovely lady was designed as a human-like dog. That’s right. For those of you who remember her premiere in the 1930 film “Dizzy Dishes”, she was the yet un-named anthropomorphic character with obvious feminine qualities and charm enveloped in a poodle like body.By the time she starred in the 1932 film“ Any Rags”, her floppy dog ears gave way to hoop earrings, her ambiguous form molded into a petite hourglass figure, and her pudgy black nose became the cute buttoned one that accompanied her high baby voice and black finger waved crop that would later become synonymous with the world famous “ Boop-oop-a-doop” girl.
Betty’s flapper style and innocent sexuality led to what some have called the “Boop-O-Mania “craze over the years. Fans from far and wide fell in love with her combination of schoolgirl flirtatiousness and womanly maturity.Her short dresses, high heels, contoured bodice and signature garter beltdidn’t leave much to the imagination and certainly caught the attention of male viewers who were used to the straight bodied, boyish female fashion of the19 20’s they had grown accustomed to. But while some adored, some also condemned as well. As moralists and public broadcasting systems concerned with sexual content and indecent exposure issues found support from the public, the somewhat risqué Betty Boop began showing far less leg and her décolletage was often hidden by prim buttons.Her lecherous suitors started disappearing from her grasp and soon her limelight was dimmed out by her cute little trouble making dog “Pudgy” and the lovable “Grampy” who helped Betty solve problems with his wacky inventions.As the country saw the rise of yet another world war (WWII), the market for the once popular and in-demand flapper started to fade. Betty Boop’s final film series aired 9 years later with the release of “Yip ,Yip ,Yippy!”
"Though Betty bowed out as a headliner in 1939, her popularity remains as intact as her boop-oop-a-doop. Maybe it lies in her sassy independence or the fact that she is the only female cartoon who’s not a foil for a male. Maybe she just came at the right time, when the feminist movement of her era needed her the most…for the cycles of life will surely repeat again. Whatever the reason, Betty Boop still haunts the dreams and inspires the imagination of artists, craftsmen and designers still today. With no limit to the creative well of our minds, everything from Betty Boop bedding and quilts to character clothing and accessories can be found and created. After what seemed like years of patient waiting and anticipating, J&O has come back with some of the latest and greatest themed prints of this historic screen star& siren, just for you! From the in demand “Betty Boop Biker Chic”, an ode to our fem fetal bikers worldwide, to the ever popular “Lucky Ladies”, a great decorative print for casinos and game rooms across the nation; now all her favorite characters and scenes can be relived over and over again for friends, family or even just yourself.
With so much history wrapped around her little spit-curled hair, Betty Boop has left her mark on world, her “ Boop-oop-a-doop “ on our tongues, and a space in our hearts.
When we think of New Year’s, parties and celebrations come to mind. The next thought is how to decorate your home and bodies for these events. This can be a fun yet challenging process, but it doesn’t have to cause your hair to fall out or your veins to pop. With a little help from J&O, the perfect fabric for the perfect New Years’ gathering or garment can be easily and effortlessly found and put to use. With our vast selection of dress fabrics and novelty prints, you and your shim-dig will come off with a BANG!
If your looking for fabric to decorate your home or office, check our holiday cotton noveltysection. Here you will be able to peruse through our party, mardi gra and 4th of July categories. Each one offers an array of celebratory fabrics that will capture what your imagination is brewing. Select wonderful material to garnish your holiday spread, dress your windows or trim your furnishings. Images of fireworks, party beads and masqueraders compete with party balloons, hearts and stars for your attention. Even our decorative and upholstery sections can offer a taste of festivity with our sheers and retro prints. When it comes to reflective prints and designs for the New Years ’, only the sky’s the limit, so if you can’t decide on one, just order them all!
When adorning your body, check out our fabulous dress fabrics section for the latest in select fashion material and designer prints. Strut your stuff in satin and sequence. Have fun with pima dots and stripes. Get "jiggy with it" in our classic lamesand funky furs. Even play with some of our decorative fabrics like our silks and oriental printsfor a truly creative style and flair. With an array of colors and prints to choose from, the ideas are endless.
Whatever your taste, whatever your style…. let J&O turn your New Years’ celebration into a fashion extravaganza!
Not to rip off John Witherspoon's famous saying from the movie Boomerang but, it's true. In order to take something from mediocre to excellent, ya gotta know how to coordinate. Mixing and matching your own fabrics is a fabulous way to express your creativity and personal style. If you struggle with coordinating the right fabrics, we've included a few tips to help you along the way.
Coordinating fabrics in any of your sewing projects is just as important as the actual construction. From our previous blog on Coordinating Fabrics, you'll be happy to know that J&O Fabrics is now working on adding matching coordinates to just about every fabric we carry.
Anyhow, most home decor textile manufacturers come out with new lines each season jam-packed with coordinate collections complete with decorative florals, stripes, supersoft chenille upholstery and more. In any given catalogue, a whole living room will be decked out with a complete set of fabrics to upholster the couch, ottoman, chaise lounge and even make drapes and decorative pillows. All this is excellent! However, not everyone wants a cookie cutter living room, sometimes you may want to mix and match fabrics on your own to suit your own tastes. So. . . you'll need to have some idea on just how to do it.
Firstly, feel free to express yourself and not be shackled by trends. Trends will come and go. Just because everyone matches florals with stripes doesn't mean that you have to. If you follow the reasoning behind why florals match well with stripes, you should be okay matching on your own.
While coordinating, one idea is to create balance with contrast. A straight line will contrast with a circle. Dark will contrast light. A tight structure will contrast with chaos and something large will contrast with something very small.
Here are a few examples of how these ideas manifest themselves on fabric combinations.
Linear to Circular
Busy to Textural (Plain)
Large to Small
Going along with the idea of creating balance by contrast, another way to blend fabrics is to combine HOT with COOL colors. Hot colors include, reds, oranges, yellows etc. And COOL colors include, greens and blues. In a project full of hot warm colors, a cool colored accent may be just the key to creating a perfect balance. Take a look at these examples.
You may also want to consider combining Contrasting Colors. The Contrasting Colors include Blue/Yellow Green/Red Purple/Orange
Overall, texture, color, print, and scale all play a part in how well two fabrics will match. These principles can be explained further in an upcoming blog.
If you follow the above guidelines and focus on creating balance through contrast your coordinating adventures should prove to be both rewarding and a lot of fun!
J&O Fabrics. . . sew many possibilities
If you're in the area, visit our store in Pennsauken, New Jersey, right outside of Philadelphia. The size of a supermarket, we have the largest selection of fabrics in New Jersey! Everything we carry is not on our website, so if you're in the area, check us out and browse our fabric aisles.
J&O Fabric Center 9401 Route 130 South Where Rt.73 and 130 meet Pennsauken, New Jersey 08110 856-663-2121 info@jandofabrics.com
Great news is on the horizon in the novelty fabric industry! J&O Fabrics is happy to announce that soon we'll be getting in NBA team fabrics! Our customers have been inquiring about professional basketball fabrics for years and we will finally be getting them in around June of this year. When all is said and done we will have every NBA team available for you to purchase.
With our NBA novelty fabrics you'll feel as though you are part of the action during the regular season and playoffs. These discount basketball fabrics are ideal for making quilts, garments, draperies, table covers, pet clothing, placemats, purses, backpacks, aprons and many other items that will show off your favorite team.
Today, the National Basketball League consists of 30 teams, each of which is represented on their own cotton novelty fabric. Soon, we will also have in NBA polar fleece, so keep your eyes open for the new arrivals.
These are the team designs that we will be receiving in June:
What do you do with all those fabric scraps mounting up??????
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You should see the buckets of remnants we develop here at J&O cutting orders all day. For people who make things with fabric it may seem especially hard to throw away the substantial size scraps. One of the most traditional uses for fabric scraps is none other than patchwork quiltmaking. Even though quilting seems to be the end all for what to do with fabric scraps, not everyone is into quilting. J&O has included a list of ideas to lessen that ever growing pile of fabric scraps.
Here's four things to do with all those beautiful and useful fabric scraps. ________________________________________________ Wrapping Presents
For most of our holidays in American culture there seems to be a requirement to buy someone a present. Whether it's Mother's Day, Christmas or someone's birthday, on some level there's pressure to go out and spend money. At times, buying wrapping paper or purchasing a pretty gift bag on top of your gift expenses can be pretty annoying. One simple and "green" way to rid yourself of this annoyance is to wrap presents with your fabric scraps.
Depending on the size of the present and how creative you want to be, just cut your fabric into a square or rectangle and simply gather to the top and tie. If you have time to make it extra special, sew a custom-made fabric bag. Overall, the fabric scrap is out of your hair and passed on to someone else to reuse and do with it whatever they please.
To go along with wrapping presents with fabric, you can also use fabric scraps to make ribbon. Be creative and play around with contrasting patterns and colors as you would constructing a quilt.
________________________________________________ Fabric Envelopes and Cards
This particular use may be a little more "craftier" then making ribbons and wrapping presents, however if you really get into it you can end up making some really incredible cards. To make fabric envelopes and cards, most likely you'll need a stiffener.
If you're interested, check out these few links that give pretty good instructions.
Another idea, if you have a collection of novelty print scraps, cut out a repeat or just one item in the design and attach with glue to plain cards or envelopes. ________________________________________________ Donate!!
At the end of it all, if you still have a ton of fabric scraps; too much to even save for other crafts, DONATE IT :). There are a number of non-profit organizations that accept fabric scraps. Some organizations have a size requirement and may only accept fabric that is a of a particular material. Check out these links for more detailed information.
Project Linus, a volunteer, non-profit organization with a mission to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer "blanketeers."
AIDS Baby Quilts, a international voluntary network program to make and provide baby quilts to infants with HIV/AIDS
Art Therapy Connection, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to serving children who are at risk of failure in their school setting. Participating children visit therapists during their regular school day. By making art, they develop a language of expression.
Many local Day-Care Centers accept fabric scrap donations , to use during arts and crafts projects.
Overall, making good use of your fabric scraps can prove to be very rewarding. It will push your creativity and foster the idea that everything can have a use. ________________________________________________
If you're in the area, visit our store in Pennsauken, New Jersey, right outside of Philadelphia. The size of a supermarket, we have the largest selection of fabrics in New Jersey! Everything we carry is not on our website, so if you're in the area, check us out and browse our fabric aisles.
J&O Fabric Center 9401 Route 130 South Where Rt.73 and 130 meet Pennsauken, New Jersey 08110 info@jandofabrics.com
Here at J&O we're constantly thinking of new ways to help our customers and make their shopping experience on JOFabrics.com simple and as effortless as possible. In case you haven't noticed, J&O Fabrics is currently in the process of adding coordinating fabrics to each type of fabric we carry. Everything from our most popular Cotton Novelties, to our wide selection of Upholsteries, will now be featuring two to six coordinates, in addition to washing tips and J&O's very own fabric dictionary.
Take note that the fabrics we choose as coordinates are not always coordinate sets straight from the manufacturer. Noooo, the coordinates we choose are selected with care irregardless of designer or manufacturer and are rarely apart of a collection. However, in some cases if a certain print is apart of a collection, we make sure to let you know.
Shopping for fabric online is a very different experience than wandering through the cozy aisles of a local fabric store. When at a store, you can see the fabrics' color, feel the weight and place it next to other prints to make a judgment. Relaxing at home on your computer, (or at work), you don't have the experience of seeing the fabric for yourself; feeling its' texture and weight. For this exact reason, J&O is implementing a new idea that we hope will help our customers make decisions about purchasing fabric. Allow us to be your eyes and hands by trusting our selection of coordinating fabrics.
Each fabric coordinate we feature on a given page was selected by walking around our huge store in New Jersey with charts and fabric samples; squinting our eyes, saying hmmm while holding prints up next to each other. . , going through the exact process of a shopper. This is the kind of dedication J&O Fabrics has for its customers.
On the contrary, shoppers typically already have in mind what type of fabrics they need for a particular project. We don't know how someone may be using the fabric they purchase, so on the most basic level, while coordinating fabrics at J&O, we first look for solid fabrics that are exact color matches of a similar weight. We know that upholstery fabric is not always used to upholster furniture, and decorative cloths aren't always used to make curtains. So, with some Home Decor fabrics we may add a dress fabric as a coordinate, to offer range in case you may be making something like a handbag or a hat.
Since we have such a huge selection, we at J&O don't assume that we know our customers' taste. While coordinating, we don't infer that all our customers are daring enough to put apples with oranges, if you know what we mean. Our most important goal is for you to know that there are other fabrics that we carry in the same color range. Many ideas of coordination matter on opinion and level of artistic expression. For example, if a lightweight cotton fabric print is black and white, we'll show you other coordinating fabric prints that are black and white. We won't automatically throw in an upholstery weight hot pink floral that doesn't have a hint of black or white, even though under certain conditions it may coordinate great. You see? Most of our suggested coordinates are on the safe side. To see a few examples of our new Fabric Coordinate feature click on a few of the following links.
Overall, J&O Fabrics' goal is to continue to bring the widest variety of fabrics on the Internet at affordable prices. We really hope that our new Fabric Coordinate feature is helpful. If you have any questions don't hestitate to send us an email at info@jandofabrics.com or call us at856-663-2121.
J&O Fabrics. . .sew many possibilities
If you're in the area, visit our store in Pennsauken, New Jersey, right outside of Philadelphia. The size of a supermarket, we have the largest selection of fabrics in New Jersey! Everything we carry is not on our website, so check us out and browse our fabric aisles.
J&O Fabric Center 9401 Route 130 South Where Rt.73 and 130 meet Pennsauken, New Jersey 08110 info@jandofabrics.com
The world that the fabrics of Timeless Treasures inhabit is one where anything can happen and your imagination can compel you to fabulous heights of creativity. The designer fabric from Timeless Treasures are wonderful for quilters, crafters and sewing enthusiasts of all stripes. The home decorator can also find something charming amongst our huge selection of truly timeless Timeless Treasures novelty cotton fabrics.
At J&O Fabrics' online fabric store you can find a incredible array of fabrics from Timeless Treasures. We currently have in stock thousands of yards of about 850 different prints from this company. We also receive weekly shipments from Timeless Treasures with their latest fabrics.
Part of the appeal of these novelty fabrics is the designers whose distinctive work can only be found adorning Timeless Treasures prints. Following are some of the works of individual designers.
