Area native to show Martha Stewart her crafts Monday

A Mount Prospect native will hit the big time Monday, Sept. 22, when she appears on The Martha Stewart Show, which airs in Chicago at 11 a.m. on NBC.

Jen Istwan Hopwood will demonstrate two of the most popular products she makes for her e-commerce site at www.myperennial.com. Her product line includes colorful handmade felt brooches, hats, scarves, pillows, blankets, children's clothing and handbags.

She will show Stewart how she makes silk-screened bags in one segment and in the other she will demonstrate how she creates children's T-shirts with colorful felt animal embellishments that snap on and off for variety.

Hopwood's journey into e-commerce began with a blessing in disguise. She was teaching at a high-end public school in the TriBeCa area of New York City when she noticed that the sweater she was wearing had developed a noticeable hole.

"I couldn't escort my students to the door and face all of those parents and nannies with a hole in my sweater," said the 1995 Prospect High School graduate. "So I quickly grabbed some felt from my craft supplies, cut out a big flower and attached it to my sweater with a button, effectively hiding the hole."

She immediately received compliments on the embellishment.

Soon her fellow faculty members started asking her to embellish skirts and other items of clothing that they felt needed a fresh look.

Then one day a friend took Hopwood aside and suggested that she seriously consider starting a business to market her work. It seemed ridiculous to her at the time because teaching took up so much of her time.

But she did agree to make up some scarves and hair accessories for the school's winter fair where she promptly sold them all. For the next three years she sold items at that fair and to people she knew, methodically adding designs to her repertoire.

Then, in early 2005, she left teaching to start her business and soon afterward she and her husband, Steve, an Arlington Heights native, moved back to Chicago and settled in Wrigleyville.

Shrugging off her meteoric success, the 1995 Prospect High School graduate said, "It is amazing how word spreads online. I got a mention in In Style magazine that winter and since press begets press, I started getting mentions in lots of other magazines like Time Out Chicago, Philadelphia Where, Real Simple and Parenting."

And MyPerennial took off.

But after only a year in Chicago, her husband's job took them to Budapest, Hungary, for 15 months.

"When I heard that we were going somewhere, I actually pushed for Hungary because they have a very rich tradition of felt work and I wanted to learn it," she explained.

"I had always been fascinated by the way Hungarian women sew layers of felt together and then use their scissors like paint brushes to create art. It is the opposite of a normal appliqué and I was desperate to learn it," Hopwood said.

So while her husband worked, Hopwood connected with a small women's cooperative where she learned the traditional artisans' craft and came up with fresh designs, while continuing to make and ship the items sold on her Web site.

This year the Hopwoods returned to Chicago and Jen jumped into the business with both feet. She still makes most of her products herself, but has contracted with her friends in Hungary to produce about a quarter of the items she sells.

She also works with other artisans to give them an outlet for their work. For instance, one of her best sellers, Hopwood said, is the hand-blocked hats that another woman makes and Hopwood embellishes and sells.

Hopwood said her true apprenticeship came at the feet of her mother who spent many hours tailoring store-bought clothes to fit Hopwood's petite frame.

Her family also came in to play when Hopwood named her Web site.

"My grandfather was a greens keeper and a wonderful horticulturist," Hopwood recalled. "My mother is also very gifted with plants."

"I, on the other hand, can barely keep a house plant alive. I lost that genetic link and it is a family joke," she explained.

"So when I started making flowers out of felt, I told them that I was making my own perennials that I couldn't kill."