Jen Beeman

{{short description|American fashion designer}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Jen Beeman

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| nationality = American

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| occupation = Designer, author

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| known_for = pattern design

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| website = {{URL|https://grainlinestudio.com/}}

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Jen Beeman is an American fashion designer and patternmaker based in Chicago, Illinois. She is best known as the owner of the sewing pattern company and blog Grainline Studio. She is a graduate of Columbia College where she studied fashion design with a focus on pattern making and technical design.{{cite web |last1=Carestio |first1=Amanda |title=Grainline Studio interview |url=https://www.sewnews.com/blogs/sewing/2017/08/09/linden-sweatshirt-sew-along-meet-the-designer/ |publisher=Sew News |accessdate=2 December 2019 |date=9 August 2017}}

Grainline Studio started as a blog where Beeman, then a freelance pattern maker, wrote about her experience designing and sewing her own clothes.{{cite journal |last=Kirby| first= Megan|title=Jen Beeman, What's the Stitch? |journal=DEMO Magazine |date=22 December 2016 |url=https://blogs.colum.edu/demomagazine/2016/12/22/jen-beeman-whats-the-stitch/}} She began working on the site full-time after realizing there was a modern design gap in the offerings of the commercial pattern making industry. Beeman worked with her partner John Krohn, a graphic designer, to lay out her first commercial patterns. Krohn joined the company full-time in 2015 overseeing graphic design and shipping.{{cite web |last1=Glassenberg |first1=Abby |title=Together at Work: When Your Spouse Joins Your Creative Business |url=https://craftindustryalliance.org/together-at-work-when-your-spouse-joins-your-creative-business/ |website=Craft Industry Alliance |accessdate=2 December 2019 |date=8 December 2015}} The motivation behind Grainline Studio patterns was described by Beeman in a 2017 interview with Making as "clean, modern designs that women can wear every day and that can be made again and again".{{cite journal |last1=Hoge |first1=Carrie |title=FAUNA Contributor Spotlight: Jen Beeman of Grainline Studio |journal=Making |date=22 March 2017 |volume=2 |url=https://makingzine.com/blogs/news/making-no-2-fauna-contributor-spotlight-jen-beeman-of-grainline-studio |accessdate=2 December 2019}} Her Archer Shirt pattern won the PatternReview.com award for Best Woven Top four years in a row (2014-2017).{{cite web |last1=[Unknown] |first1=Deepika |title=The designers behind the Best Patterns of 2017 |url=https://sewing.patternreview.com/blog?s=2387855 |website=PatternReview.com |accessdate=2 December 2019 |language=en-us |date=12 February 2018}} In addition to selling patterns, Beeman provides step by step tutorials and pattern variations, and hosts sewalongs as part of Grainline Studios online offerings.{{cite web |last1=W. |first1=Alexis |title=Grainline Studio Contest Winners & New Pattern |url=https://sewing.patternreview.com/blog?s=1859050 |website=PatternReview.com |accessdate=2 December 2019 |language=en-us |date=7 July 2014}}

In a 2014 Marketplace interview about disappearing jobs, Beeman talked about the human element of pattern making and the impact of mechanized production explaining that: "We're so removed from how our garments or products in general are made that they never assume that there's a person who does that".{{cite web |title=Pattern making: A stitch in time? |url=https://www.marketplace.org/2014/04/16/pattern-making-stitch-time/ |website=Marketplace |accessdate=2 December 2019 |date=16 April 2014}} Beeman has also talked openly about her experience operating a small business. She appeared on the podcast Love To Sew in 2017 where she discussed balancing professional and personal demands while running a company.{{cite web |title=Episode 16: Work/Life Balance with Jen Beeman |url=http://lovetosewpodcast.com/episodes/episode-16-work-life-balance-with-jen-beeman/ |website=Love To Sew Podcast |accessdate=2 December 2019 |date=21 November 2017}}