Enchanted By Sewing

Dress creation brings out the romantic in me. When I looked ahead to my summer sewing, I thought if I could sew only one garment for the season, it would be a dress. Fiona, the Irish Laurel dress, satisfied my yearning to design and sew the perfect summer frock.

This dress was a very satisfying project for my arty romantic style. In between sewing summer essentials - shorts and tees - I worked off and on to determine what design lines spoke to me about summer, mock up a miniature sloper pattern to test my ideas, draft a pattern from my sloper, and then finally to sew up Fiona, while summer was still on!

*Pensamientos Primeros - Thinking through my idea for this summer dress

*Technicos - Pattern Drafting and Kissing Zipper using a Prick Stitch

*Pensamientos Finales - Fiona's Design Lines have roots in my own history

Pensamientos Primero

Reflecting on Making

For some people, sewing is just practical . For another segment of society, and I’m one of them, sewing is an important creative outlet that helps us to stay healthy and happy.

-Entonces /Then

She B. Coole

Live talk from our local Makers Faire includes extempore interview with professional embroideress (Tapistres?) Barbara Coole (B. Coole)

oB. Coole Shares

•Thoughts on the realities of garment sewers investing both time and money into modern machine embroidery equipment and know-how

•Her advice on choosing an embroidery machine

-Pensimentos Finales: What I’m thinking now, when it comes to my dream embroidery machine

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An interview with Esther, owner of a local sewing business, Tocci Quinces & More.

Highlights of our conversation include:

How Esther learned to sew on the job sewing in Mexico for a maquiladora in Mexico City and how her desire for a different life for herself and her daughters, motivated her to come to the US, where she trained for and worked at medical jobs for several years.

Eventual acquisition of her business

Esther’s dreams, experiences and plans for the sewing and business education, that are helping her to grow her business.

Flights of fancy from both ladies in regards to sewing inspiration for specialized Mexican techniques and garments.

Show Notes at http://EnchantedBySewing.blogspot.com, include links to cutural, artistic, and geographic resources.

Enchanted by Charles James - Stepping into a liminal space to study and enjoy glorious fashion designs and analyze the construction of those garments is the kind of thing that keeps me ... enchanted by sewing.

Hey let’s go to the show together!

Links and notes- http://EnchantedBySewing.blogspot.com

Some months the Enchanted by Sewing podcast, journals my own sewing project accomplishments, techniques and creative ideas. Other times I share the source of some of my sewing inspiration. This month is inspiration time, as I take you along on an another in-the-,moment fashon exhibit - a visit to the beautiful Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco , where I went repeatedly to view the exhibit, High Style: The Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection exhibit of the Brooklyn Fashion Museum.

This collection – which is housed and curated by the Metropoliton Museum of Art in NY City- includes a wide range of the work of 20’th century designers and couturiers.

There was no way I could share all of what I saw with you.

By my third visit, I realized that , despite the charms of designers and coturiers in the exhibit- Elsa Schiaparelli and Madeleine Vionnet, just to name a few of the big names, and some that have been almost forgotten- the hands-down winner for sharing with you, was Charles James. That’s because James, and his clients and admirers, worked to see to it, that more than his beautiful garments were saved in this collection, to motivate and educate future sewists, designers and couturiers. This historical treasure trove includes sketches and muslins which really tell the story of how he worked, and what went into the garments he fashioned. They are an inspiration for the creative process.

The body of Charles James work extends from the 1930s into the1950s. The garments he designed, constructed and created were worn by high society types like Austine Hearst, the wife of Mr. William Randolph Hearst, Jr., Millicent Rogers and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney. They were also made for women with less blue blood like Jeanne Bultman the wife of the artist Fritz Bultman, and Gypsy Rose Lee!

James didn’t just sketch up a gown and expect others to produce it. He worked in the true couture tradition (some say the only American designer who did). He draped fabric in complex ways to get what he was after. Often he created specialized support systems under his gowns, to enhance and extend their third dimensions . Charles James also used fabric in studied ways working with color, light and reflectivity in addition to the hang or drape of the material. He also focused on developing seaming techniques that molded the fabric into directions he wanted it to move.

My experiences creating a) a Duct Tape Dress Form (with a friend) b) a Uniquely You Dress Form (Instructor Judith Jackson)

1)What is a dress form? (also see Sew Forth Now Podcast)

2)Why I wanted a dress form3)Body Issues and your Team

4)Two types of dress forms I experienced.

5)Cost

6)Materials (tools) and Resources (web stuff)

7)Safety- Cautions about Standing - also -Working around kids - Two good reasons not to !

8)Social Comfort/Body Issues and Your Team

9)How I've used my dress forms and other Ideas for Use - Wedding/Special Occasion Sewing?

10) Technicos: In-depth details about how I made these two different styles of dress forms

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Show Notes http://EnchantedBySewing.blogspot.com