NEW YORK (AP) — Jane Seymour is at a crossing point.
After spending six years (1993-98) as TV's "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" and devoting most of her time since then to her paintings, parenting books and her children, Seymour is venturing into the fashion world. She is designing a collection for Crossing Pointe, a mid-priced catalog and Internet retailer (www.crossingpointe.com) of women's ready-to-wear clothes.
Actually, it's sort of a return to the fashion world.
Seymour, 51, says she learned to sew at age 6 and by the time she was a preteen she was making her own clothes.
"I wasn't thrilled with my mother's choices for my wardrobe," she explains, "and the budget was minimal so I took the money she would have spent on my clothes and I went to Liberty of London or a vintage store — which we called a secondhand shop then — and put together an outfit."
(Liberty of London is a famous fabric store in England.)
Seymour, who also learned how to knit and crochet as a child, was so deft at making clothes that she turned it into a business when she was 15 and needed a way to pay for ballet shoes.
Over time, she added pattern-making and lace-making to her list of craft skills. But what she eventually lost was the time to devote to clothes once her acting career took off.
Seymour, however, says she always took an interest in her costumes, from her days as a Bond girl in 1973's "Live and Let Die" to Dr. Quinn, the 19th-century, Wild West character she continues to resurrect for TV movies.
She has one outfit that she regrets: a Versace beaded catsuit she wore to a red-carpet event on the same day she broke up with a boyfriend. "I looked like I belonged in a Las Vegas rock 'n' roll show. I looked at myself later and said 'This is not happening again."'
Seymour describes her style as "washing machine." With six children in her house, wash-and-wear clothes for daily life are a necessity.
That requirement doesn't mean sacrificing style, though, Seymour says. Putting on stretch jeans and coordinating colorful tops takes no more effort than sloppy jeans and an old T-shirt — but you'll look better, she explains.
But this day is a "dress-up day" because she's showing her paintings at an art expo in Manhattan. She wears a silk, logo "JS" dress from her spring Crossing Pointe collection.
Seymour says she decided to work with Crossing Pointe, a division of the Blair Corp., because "I have kids, I catalog-shop. <#201> I wanted to make clothes that I could wear anywhere."
She uses her paintings as inspiration for scarfs and fabric prints for dresses. The collection also includes pastel-colored silk shantung lab coats, a 1930s-inspired beaded bias-cut dress and floral-print jeans.
Buying new clothes — and especially buying a pair of new shoes — makes women feel good, reasons Seymour, but not everyone looks their best in slinky or skimpy styles.
"I have had weight problems at different points in my life and I know the tricks," she adds. "I'm aware of women who don't want to show their arms."
Crossing Pointe clothes typically are available in size 4 to 22.
If the company was looking for a celebrity spokeswoman, it got much more.
"The concept was to bring my ideas from my paintings to fabric designs and then into clothes that literally everyone in America could afford," she says. "They (officials at Crossing Pointe) didn't know that I know how to do it all."
Seymour says she likes that the catalog displays the clothing as a total look, with accessories and shoes, offering a little fashion guidance in addition to a style number. To request a catalog, call 877-392-7098.
