It's official. My first collection of home decor fabrics is in the works. I mailed out the artwork earlier this week. I'm so excited. And relieved. That last part of the design process is pretty grueling.
I can't show any sneak peeks till the copyright process is completed. I can let it slip that one of the prints is called Cakewalk. A great name with an even-better history. (There are no cake illustrations involved though.) I love learning about weird stuff.
Here's the skinny.
The cakewalk is a dance from the civil-war era. It was a tradition begun by slaves which developed into a parody of high society ballroom dancing and dandy mannerisms. Instead of taking offense, plantation owners encouraged the comedic dance. Many would host Sunday cakewalk contests to determine who could high-kick, saunter, curtsy, and tip his hat to best effect. The prize was usually a cake wrapped in cabbage (I'm guessing early Saran Wrap here). It is from this tradition comes the saying, "That takes the cake!"
The dance hit the mainstream around 1890 or so — Victorian society was due for some silliness.
The high-stepping march of a band majorette stems from the cakewalk as well.
After discovering old-timey cakewalk footage on You Tube yesterday, Isaac and I took a stab at the dance ourselves. Right here in my office. Flag that one for the next church talent show, right? If you need a stress relief, I highly recommend it. Odds are you'll win a good belly laugh and burn off some cake while you're at it. Then again, you might need to be punch-drunk with exhaustion to fully understand.
So excited to see this collection!!!
Congrats! Can’t wait to see some sneak peeks!
Can’t wait! Finally cute (I assume) home dec fabric.
Oooooh, I’m excited to see your home dec fabric. I can only imagine how fabulous it will be! I really enjoyed the cake walk video!
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Cheers
yuzz
I can’t wait to see it!!1
Awesome! I’m so excited for you…another collection and home decor fabric! Really great. I’d love to see your dance. I framed one of your pop garden fabrics in our new place in Ann Arbor. I love how it gives my old stuff a whole new look, plus it’s fun when people come over and love the fabric that I can say, “Yeah, she’s my friend.” It’s pretty cool to have stuff that you love and that means something in your house. I have a picture of it on my blog…though I have a crappy camera that doesn’t do it justice. Sorry so long! Hope all is well over there and cooling down.
What fun!
I’ve very excited to see the reveal of the dec fabric. I plan to put some of it to use…. and not for home decorating! Home dec fabric are great for making purses and wallet too.
Suzanne
Congrats and enjoyed reading about the origins of cakewalk stuff!
Thanks everyone!
Wow Heather,
I’m loving your new layout and especially the colorful pattern. Well, I don’t really know how new it is cause I usually read your blog via google reader.
I guess I’ll stop counting on my reader and start visit here more often 😉
Sending a sunny smile from Israel,
Einat
This is so great! I love the name! Can’t wait to see the new line! And the story behind it…who knew!! Hmmm….you’ve given me an idea….next spring I think we will host a neighborhood cake walk….have everyone march around the block extravagantly, with the reward being a giant piece of cake at the end!
Seriously, Dreaming Bear!? You are awesome. I would love to hear if you pull that off.
Well I guess I’ll just have to wait on sewing anymore drapes or recovering all of my couch pillows until I get a peek at the new collection. 🙂
our elementary school always had a cake walk for Halloween Carnival. you’d buy a $1 ticket and dance around a big circle and when the music stopped, a number was called and whoever was on that #, got to choose a cake from a long table of cake donations. great fund raiser. the kids decorated wild and wacky Halloween cakes and there was a prize for the kookiest one, as well.
How do you start designing a fabric? It sounds so daunting! Do you sketch by hand or on the computer?