French General, an online company and vintage craft workshop started by sisters Kaari and Molly Meng over 20 years ago in New York?
The Beginning of French General
Before there was French General, Kaari was a jewelry designer specializing in unique designs made from vintage glass beads, buttons and notions. Her work was first shown at Bergdorf Goodman in New York in the early 1990’s. Later, when retailer Anthropologie started in Philadelphia in 1992, Kaari’s work was featured by them. For several years, Kaari enjoyed designing for retail shops, museums and catalogs with all her jewelry pieces utilizing her vast collection of antique beads found all over the world. Kaari brought Molly on to help manage the business. When Kaari’s daughter was born in 1997, Molly and Kaari were burnt out with the jewelry business and retired. Wanting to share their passion for everything French, they opened a workshop in an old barn in their backyard and began French General as it’s known today: French-inspired lifestyle items including textiles, notions, ephemera, and household items found only in France.
Their first French General retail store was located in SoHo. When Kaari and her family moved to California in 2003, French General’s headquarters were relocated to an old Spanish style warehouse on the edge of Los Angeles. Only open for one day a week, customers come in and browse French General’s ever-changing collections that Kaari and Molly find on yearly trips to the South of France.
What does French General Specialize in?
In addition to offering vintage craft kits, jewelry, embroidery floss, French General self-designed quilting fabric and patterns, and their own brand of scissors on their website,
French General also teaches craft workshops on jewelry making, stitching, paper crafts, sewing, shibori, indigo dyeing, and weaving using their vintage craft materials. French General has expanded from Kaari and Molly as the only teachers to now including other talented teachers from around the world who visit to share their techniques and inspiration.
One of their most popular (and exclusive!) items that they sell is their brass ring embroidery hoop.
Available in three sizes, its French design incorporates a steal coil wire that fits in the rim channel, providing excellent tautness for any embroidery project. It can also be used with sewing machines by simply raising the pressure foot and inserting the hoop on the brass side.
Every summer, French General sponsors a women’s trip to the South of France. The trips run for one week at a time during the month of June and sell out quickly. As their employee, Cathy Mogull explains, “It is a summer camp for grown women to experience French food, crafting, and treasure hunting.”
Road to California 2018 was French General’s first time at the show.
Not only did they feature their online products in their booth, but they also offered several of their crafting workshops. Kaari commented that Road “was a fun show.” They saw many of their customers and made new friends. Road had “been good for us.”
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Cathy, Molly and Kaari of French General[/caption]
Road to California 2019 looks forward to having French General return and again share its French accent with our guests.]]>
While Kai Scissors are sold in stores, the company enjoys going to a quilt show like Road to California to meet with customers face to face. Jeff Belvill, Director at Kai Scissors, says that they always have an overwhelming response from consumers when they try out in person Kai’s line of scissors, knives, and beauty tools.
At Road 2018, the Long Beach Modern Quilt Guild created the beautiful quilt exhibit that rose above everyone’s heads as they entered the venue. 
Marie also has a strong love for America. It stems from her father’s experience of meeting a U.S. soldier during World War II. Her father was just 13 years old, living in South Africa. The soldier gave her father a ring to remember him and America by. Knowing the story, Marie had wanted to come to the U.S. ever since she was a little girl. In all, she has visited America 20 times.
Quilt Market in October, 2017 was Marie-Claude’s first foray into the United States retail quilting community. After that successful show, she sent her fabrics and quilts back to France. Then, she found out six weeks before Road to California, that a booth was available. It would have been too expensive to ship everything back to the States, so she had to become creative in introducing her product line at the show. That’s when she came up with the idea to have miniature versions of her projects, packaging them in small wooden boxes.
