Pillow Talk with Home Accessories Designer Deborah Main

By Amy Gabriel
January 26, 2012

A “somebody in Louisiana loves me” t-shirt. Salt and pepper shakers with an embossed Georgia peach. A set of porcelain figurines shaped like New York skyscrapers... What once was viewed as cheesy travel memorabilia is now considered coveted retro relic. And joining the revival circuit is Austin-based creative Deborah Main with her re-purposed vintage souvenir scarves turned eye-catching pillows.

Deborah Main Designs

Pillows made from souvenir scarves by Deborah Main Designs

Voted Best Home Accessories Designer for the past three years at Austin Fashion Week, this former jazz singer and mother of two began considering a career in pillow making without any formal design background. “I dreamed of Deborah Main Designs before I even knew how to sew and when I didn’t even know what the business was going to be,” reveals Main.

Deborah Main Designs A lover of cross-stitch, Main was no stranger to a fabric store, and over the years had begun to collect various monogrammed fabrics, ribbon and silk just because she found them beautiful. One day while shopping, she sat down at the store's cutting table and laid out a square design pattern in French ribbon. “I was using a pillow my best friend made me for inspiration, and when I was done, I stepped back couldn’t believe how great it looked,” said Main. “It was a total epiphany and I just knew what I wanted to do.”

left: Pillow Designer Deborah Main

Working from home, she began to play around with different fabrics and adornments, honing in on the type of pillows she wanted to create. “As a child, I was exposed to exquisite furnishings at both sets of my grandparents’ homes, so I developed a real love for anything vintage or antique with color and texture.”

Deborah Main Designs

After beginning to show her designs to the public in 2004, Main was quickly catapulted to local stardom with her collection one-of-a-kind pillows adorned with luxe accents like Italian linen, peacock feathers, French trim and vintage brooches.

Then after a fortuitous visit to a favorite Austin vintage shop, Amelia’s Retro-Vogue & Relics Main, happened upon a 1940s Paris-themed travel scarf that sparked the idea of a line of location-inspired pillows. “I knew it was a great idea, but it’s not like I can afford to travel every time I want to make a design, so I started looking on eBay for my materials.”

Deborah Main Designs

Main began to actively search eBay for large satin souvenir state scarves and scallop-edged state hankies from the '40s and '50s. Using searches like “state souvenir scarf” “Texas souvenir scarf” and “state Franshaw hankies," she steadily began to build a strong collection of international and domestic themed options.

Her newly launched souvenir scarf collection, dubbed DizzyHappySummerFun, has resulted in hundreds of custom order requests countrywide, and has been picked up by several local retailers. “People are really responding to the scarf collection,” said Main. “For the young (generation) it’s the retro appeal, and for older, it’s nostalgic.”

Deborah Main Designs

Check out Deborah’s top five eBay search tips:

1) Photos: "Excellent photos, showing true, bright colors, and several different angled shots are so important. Often, if there’s a flaw or spot, a great seller will put a coin on the scarf to point out a flaw."

2) Description: "When I see detailed descriptions, I know the seller knows what they’re talking about. Not only does it reveal details about fabric, size and texture, but it also helps to validate authenticity."

3) Sellers' rating scores: "Sellers are rated with a percentage and a star. I go for Top-Rated sellers and generally buy from any seller that is above 95%. This is key for me in my decision process of whether to bid/buy or not. The score validates the integrity of the seller, how they deal with questions, problems, shipping, etc..."

4) Shipping/delivery: "When I see a seller charging more than necessary for a shipment, that tells me a lot about seller and whether or not to trust the quality of product. Also, many sellers offer 'combined shipping.' If you bid on several items from the same seller, [you only want to be] only paying one shipping cost."

5) Search: In the search for vintage items, it’s key to type in the word “vintage” and be as specific as possible, narrowing down your search, i.e. “vintage Texas souvenir scarf." Then, if you don’t find what you’re looking for you can broaden your search to, i.e., “vintage souvenir scarf” or “vintage state scarf”. Be careful of “vintage-like” and “vintage-style” and “vintage-type” when you find something. These are dead giveaways that let you know it is not vintage.

Here are a few of Deborah’s eBay wishlist items...

Vintage White Lucite Buttons

"I love the white Lucite buttons because they look great on fabric."
Vintage La Mode Rhinestone Buttons

(buy it now price $4.99)

"It’s great to find buttons like this in their original packaging."
Vintage Light Blue Rhinestone Buttons

(current bid, $11.49)

"These are great because the dealer shows the back of the buttons."
Vintage Mexican Souvenir Scarf

"I love the rich and bright colors, and the originals from the '40s and '50s have actual specs of glitter on the fabric that makes scenes like the bullfighter pop even more."
Vintage Texas Lone Star Souvenir Scarf

(current bid, $11.49)

"I love anything Texas!"