Maison Sajou

It’s possible that I’m the only person in embroidery-land who hadn’t heard of Maison Sajou. It’s a French company that sells things to do with embroidery: books, fabric, needles, patterns, pins, thimbles, threads, thread cards, scissors…browsing through their online catalogue is a wonderful way to daydream for hours! In fact, they seem to know embroiderers quite well; they call their catalogue a “bedside book for embroiderers!”

This is a company from the past resurrected for all of us today. Here’s a part of the tale as told by the owner, Frédérique Crestin-Billet, on the Sajou web site…

“Those of you I have had the opportunity to meet have often asked how I got interested in vintage haberdashery and needlework and where the idea came from to re-launch Sajou, as well as my involvement with the renowned Fil Au Chinois brand.

No, my mother was not a famous seamstress, my parents weren’t haberdashers, nor were they thread or needle manufacturers and neither they, nor anyone in my family were linked in any way to the world of needlecrafts.

It all started when I was not yet 20 years old and I bought a box with the letters C.B. printed on it. I was amused because the initials were those of my family’s surname. It was only later that I discovered the initials stood for Cartier-Bresson. It would have been easy for me to go into the family spectacle business to earn some pocket money as an adolescent, but by chance or premonition, I preferred to work in a haberdashers – Le Bébé rose (The Pink Baby), in the Jura (east of France).

Only an avid collector can understand that one box leads to another, followed by the bobbins that go in the boxes, followed by a vintage haberdashery catalogue and the discovery of a whole new magic world. And that is how my collection of vintage objects began…”

Maison Sajou is a shop – a wonderful shop that sells beautiful, delightful things. However, it’s much more: Maison Sajou is a living piece of haberdashery history.

One of the collections that caught my eye is their thread cards. How charming is this cyclist thread card? It comes as part of a set of 6 each in a different color.

Do you wish to have many colors on a thread organizer for one project? Look at the choice! My favorite is the one in the bottom right corner covered with pansies!

I’ve needed some pins with glass heads for a while now. I have plain pins but for blocking embroidery when they’re finished I’d like the larger, easier to handle glass heads. I think these fit the bill nicely.

While I don’t need any needles, if I did I would be tempted by these, simply for the darling wooden cases and, if I was a seamstress who used lots of different kinds of needles every day, I would be tempted by the stand for my needles. I would be the most organized seamstress in the world! (At least for a minute!)

Of course they have scissors. Some of them were mentioned in the article about scissors that so many of you contributed to last week (Thank you!) These are so elegant and would be my choice.

Have I won the lottery I hear you ask? No…one must buy a ticket first.

Sometime soon make youself a cup of tea, sit down and take some time to read about the woman who has a passion for all things haberdashery and see what she has to offer. It’s fun to daydream isn’t it?

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 at 07:30. It is filed under Embroidery, Maison Sajou and tagged with Maison Sajou. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.