taken against the light at about dusk late in March
taken at dusk in summer ~ luuuve the buttons!
Interesting challenge this week, and one I was eager to find besides-the-obvious meanings. Sure enough, according to Wikipedia, the golden hour can also mean . . .
the first hour a customer spends with a new product (software engineering)
the first hour “after major traumatic injury” (medicine)
7 to 9 pm telly in Japan (Americans say prime time)
GOLDEN, a. Made of gold; consisting of gold. 1. Bright; shining; splendid; as the golden sun. 2. Yellow; of a gold color; as a golden harvest; golden fruit. 3. Excellent; most valuable; as the golden rule. 4. Happy; pure; as the golden age, the age of simplicity and purity of manners. 5. Preeminently favorable or auspicious.
this pattern fired my imagination & sent me searching cyberspace for similar designers ~
this 70s pattern was purchased on a field trip with Ms Karen – it reminds me of comfy things I used to make
owned this pattern & gave it away – AGH!!! ~ cowl is perfect for velour in the stash
one pattern that’s made it thru many moves – love wearing cammies under jackets & sweaters
Am a bit behind the weeks here, but hope you’ll forgive. Considering this is being written by a person who loves sewing vintage & retro clothes, do you really wonder what nostalgic means to me ~ tee-hee !
Doing our usual – here and here are the definition(s) from our fav dictionary:
Nos*tal”gic, a. [Cf. F. nostalgique.] Of or pertaining to nostalgia; affected with nostalgia.
Being fair, not to mention thorough, we go to ~
Nos*tal”gi*a, n. [NL., fr. Gr. a return home + pain.] Homesickness; esp., a severe and sometimes fatal form of melancholia, due to homesickness.
Am I nostalgic for life in the 20s, 30s, or 40s? Nope. Wouldn’t ‘specially want to have lived then. How-E V E R . . .
The styles of fashion then are more feminine to my eye, far more practical, and actually fit real women. Before I discovered my fabulous fabric store in California (and after it closed) I hardly sewed at all because the whole sewing world seemed to be moving somewhere I didn’t like, or want to go.
New, and often not very good (remember early polyester knits – YUCK!!!) fabrics were coming on the market, and the patterns started going into a strange sizing realm, with not a dart or princess seam for fitting. Making a pattern fit was like making a new one, and who needed that when pattern prices sky-rocketed?
Nostalgic? You betcha ~ for patterns of the 60s and 70s, when I sewed almost everything I wore, from coats with interlining & bound buttonholes, to nightgowns ~ and they fit.
But my love/lust relationship with colour, fabric, and texture never left, so I was delighted to begin finding out about the huge world of vintage/retro sewing (see Decades of Style pattern above).
Not to mention all the independent pattern makers, who knew exactly what appealed to sewers like myself. I am immensely grateful to them for keeping me sewing, and for keeping the concept of practical sizing and styles for real women in today’s world alive.
And guess what? Looking through July 2013 fashion mags at the hair dressers I saw countless NY & Paris designers’ Fall Seasons previewed. More & more they’re also getting the idea – vintage/retro ain’t nostalgic. It’s practical, and women want it!
Com*pan”ion, n. [F. compagnon, OF. compaing, fr. as assumed LL. companio (cf. companium fellowship, a mess), fr. L. com- + panis bread. See Pantry.] 4. [Cf. OSp. compa\’a4a an outhouse, office.] (Naut.) (a) A skylight on an upper deck with frames and sashes of various shapes, to admit light to a cabin or lower deck. (b) A wooden hood or penthouse covering the companion way; a companion hatch. Companion hatch (Naut.), a wooden porch over the entrance or staircase of the cabin. — Companion ladder (Naut.), the ladder by which officers ascend to, or descend from, the quarter-deck. Syn. — Associate; comrade; mate; compeer; partner; ally; confederate; coadjutor; accomplice.
Australian aboriginal art by John Smith Gumbula
Great good friends Karen & Gary made a flying visit Saturday & Miss K brought an addition to my Australian art collection. These two do look happy together, don’t they!
It was pattern week last week, because I added several patterns to my stash. One I’d had & loved, one I’d been drooling over for a couple of years, and Karen brought a new-to-me blouse pattern, very similar to one I’d made in the deep, dark, distant past and wished I still had. This version doesn’t have bodice & sleeve cut as one piece, so much less fabric is needed. Yippee!
And the bonus book is the Simplicity 1979 book, which has excellent embroidery directions & styles. Might get some inspiration for the Metro Middy blouse. 😉
owned this in the 80s & loved it – so glad to find it again!
have been drooling over this for a couple years & can’t wait to get started on it!
Karen & I’ve traded this back & forth! currently it’s reminding me of 70s-style embroidery – research for metro middy blouse! 😉
been wanting a drapey neckline and a cowl – this one’s perfect & reminds me of a pattern i used to own
fabric piles on chair (yes, there IS a chair underneath) – reminding me I want to use these SOON
Well, you know I’m thinking fabric and colour and pattern all the time, so what better things to share in this week’s challenge?
Warning! You are about to enter into the strange and wonderful thought processes of moi, matching fabric with pattern, style & colour. Proceed with caution!
Balenciaga dress – 20s fashion that’s very current: Love it! (click to go to original post on Mizhattan.com)summer pattern board
Inspiration: On left is a feminine and fresh Balenciaga that, minus that fuzzy hat, would look great for a 1920s day or night on the town.
On the right is my current wish list/pattern board, which I see all the time. It contains patterns from 1930s to 2013 styles.
It’s supposed to remind me of all those gorgeous things I want to make & wear NOW!
(Hope the un-subliminal messaging works – hee-hee!)
Which brings me to fabric bought last December, but meant for this summer because they’re very light cottons.
2 light weight 100% cotton fabrics (ignore the beige with berry branches at top right)
I really wanted to use the white with cherries for Folkwear’s Metro Middy Blouse, but when I started laying out the pattern Sunday afternoon I realized there wasn’t enough. Rats! (Went with medium weight linen & cotton blend for that pattern, but that’s another post.)
Still thinking in blouse & skirt mode, I wandered over to me board of patterns … I kept seeing the red, in me mind’s eye, as a circle skirt. Scanning the pattern board, I started thinking about elongating the bodice of Folkwear’s 1930s Day Dress. Hmm… that might work as a blouse – just button it down the front a bit more. Plus, it’s high on my Must Make This Summer list.
click to move to Folkwear’s page!
A light bulb moment! Why not go whole hog & make a skirt & blouse instead of a dress, using the bottom right view. That’s my Plan B… to see if there’s enough of both fabrics to make a tail on the bodice for a blouse, & a waist band for a separate skirt.
In your mind’s eye, can you visualise cherries on white fabric for the blouse, with maybe the red for the collar & sleeves? Then I’d do the skirt with the solid red, and maybe cherry fabric for the adorable pockets?? If there’s enough fabric….. and must use some cute buttons… that cherry fab needs cute buttons…
If not, no doubt there’s a Plan C or D or even E available, all from the pattern board. Decisions!
(Have temporarily given up the idea of a circle skirt outta this red, of course.) But not the idea of doing a circle skirt. 😉
(Oh, that ‘extra’ beige fabric with the berry branches? It’s slightly heavier 100% cotton & perfect for a-nother blouse with longer sleeves to wear with that skirt.)
Sometimes I wonder about meself… and need another creative person to bounce an idea off of.
As I was telling my aunt tonight, one of the things I couldn’t find at fabric.com but could be had on amazon is the above. What on earth will I use it for?? To keep the top curve of a sleeve pattern piece in tact whilst doing something totally different down below. Like changing a fitted sleeve into a flouncey sleeve. Make sense now?
Fleet”ing, a. Passing swiftly away; not durable; transient; transitory; as, the fleeting hours or moments. Syn. — Evanescent; ephemeral. See Transient.
What’s fleeting about sewing? We spend our time creating fashion that is durable, classic, unique, that fits us & our lifestyle. Fleeting??? Hmm… evanescent?… ephemeral… ah — buttons!
What do we do when we want to update a blouse? If it’s got buttons, we consider changing them. A blazer/jacket needs updating? Change those buttons!
In late April a bunch of lovely New Zealanders got together and declared a May Burda Sewalong, and they posted several helpful articles so we, too, can learn to speak ‘burdamagpatterns.’
I’d just bought my first Burda magazine, after hunting for several years, so the timing seemed perfect. Ah! Then life crept in with a dose of reality.
But! I’ve been given a reprieve – they’ve kindly extended everyone’s deadline until end of next week – and I am extremely grateful!
So, if you’d also like to take part, or just wanna file away for future use – here are more details…
top of shelving unit – note white shelves in background on left & right
Am sooo pleased!!! Scored a great bargain from a yard sale. It’s very sturdy & will provide LOTS of storage for fabric, books, notions, etc. Now need to start stacking me stackable bookcases (those white things in the background, lower left & right) to make use of vertical space, a la designer Christopher Lowell.
And speaking of organizing, how cool is it that this week’s photo challenge coincides with The Organising Project?! What, you say? She’s bought another shelf for that tiny space when she’s already got 6?!
It’s all about that stuff in the background, Possums – those places of I-wish-obcurity, unnoticed & unseen (see definition #2, next para.) that should be a sofa for sitting rather than book & fabric storage.
From my favorite dictionary: BACK”GROUND, n. [back and ground.] Ground in the rear or behind, as opposed to the front. 2. A place of obscurity, or shade; a situation little seen, or noticed.
In other words, it’s all about that stuff in the background – fabric strewn over sofa, and boxes & books on the floor – cleverly mostly cut out of the frame. Besides, who doesn’t need storage for all their sewing inventory & gear???
amongst the piles, current project is bright yellows/orange on tippy top of fabric piles & actually under the pressure foot
Borrowing from Urban Rustic, I think of this as my sewing slum, and it’s a delightful escape. Having spent so much time getting machines cleaned, & finding infrastructure (fabric, patterns, thread, bindings, ribbons, laces, buttons, interfacings, etc.) it’s such a pleasure to just sit down and sew.
Decided this morning to make up a seersucker fabric purchased last weekend. Am doing an extremely simple gathered straight shift with tie shoulder straps. It’ll do for either nightgown or house dress when it’s super hot… which is what I was vainly looking for this morning.
If you can’t find it/don’t have it, sew it! Which makes this not only an escape to a pleasanter, though decidedly crowded place, it’s also a process whereby to escape from heat, and add a needed item to me wardrobe.
Here’s one photo for both subjects, as it was taken from above the table, and displays pattern upon pattern. Note the white-on-white embroidery and edgings, plus the unusual shape of the white cloth (used in a bread bowl with each corner folded across said bread). Underneath is the tablecloth itself, also full of pattern, via the colourful veggies. Things to come in Northern Hemisphere summer months!
