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Shortening Lined Sleeves - Tahari Jacket

8/27/2018

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First, a picture of a delicious galette I made, all from locally foraged fruit and fancy cheese from the store!  The dough is a simple olive oil and flour mixture (though I added almond meal).  The filling is layers of thinly sliced apples fallen on the sidewalk, figs from a neighbor's tree, and a sweet soft cheese.  Gotta love Portland's summer! 

Today I am shortening the sleeves of a lined Tahari (brand) jacket.  It's made of a poly/rayon/spandex blend in an unbleached linen color, and fully lined with polyester. 
Picture
Wonderful galette!

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La Reine Margot - Costumes and Lace!

8/25/2018

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PictureLow-res DVD cover; fair use claimed.
Four hundred forty-six years ago yesterday, the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre began in France.  Today the killings continued in the city of Paris, before the King ordered them to stop (then start again, then stop, no really, stop).  They didn't stop; they continued throughout the country into the autumn, but royal permission had been withdrawn so the crown could avoid blame for the later murders. 

Yesterday I looked at the history and the 1994 film about the massacre, La Reine Margot.  Today, I'm going to look at the costumes and especially the lace in that movie.  The pictures in this post are all screencaps from when I last watched it, cropped to focus the attention on specific characters/costumes.  Click any one to see it full size! 


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La Reine Margot - history and film

8/24/2018

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The 1994 film La Reine Margot (Queen Margot) is very artsy, very French, and bloody as a butcher shop.  It tells a "romantic" and fictionalized version of the events surrounding the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France in 1572, 446 years ago today.  It's compelling-- once I was watching it while sewing, and I sewed right over my finger!  (Don't watch movies while sewing unless you've seen them a bunch of times and don't need to pay too much attention.)  Today, I want to talk briefly of the history of the massacre and review the movie.  Tomorrow, I'll highlight the movie's costuming choices, especially the lace. 

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Is it Vanity to Care About Clothes?

8/20/2018

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When I look at my life over the past few years I see two streams of thought: thoughts of God/faith/Christianity, and thoughts of clothes/sewing/external presentation.  To many, these would seem incompatible.  Doesn't Christianity frown on thinking too much about clothes?  Or, in some denominations, doesn't Christianity obsess about clothes in a censorious way that denies wearers any joy in their raiment? 

(All Bible quotes in this post are from the NIV.)

Picture
Stove tile (1530's) showing vanity, from South Tyrol. UBC Museum of Anthropology, Cat. No. Cg102/103. By Wolfgang Sauber [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons.

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What's a Galloon? Some Lace Terms.

8/16/2018

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The first time I heard "galloon" I though it was a pirate thing... it sounds like doubloon or galleon or maroon!  Arr, matey!  But actually, galloon is a textile term.  Wikipedia's stub of an article about it simply says it's a woven or braided trim, and gives as an example the gold trim sewn all over 1700's style liveries.  Merriam Webster gets closer to the word as I've heard it used, specifying that the narrow trim has both edges scalloped.  Do an image search to see the different shades of meaning: "galloon trim" yields a mix of narrow metallic trims and lace trims, while "galloon lace" yields lace trims with scalloped edges.  Today, I'll try to delineate these different uses and meanings of galloon. 
Regarding copyright: The pictures illustrating this post come from various sources... Wikimedia Commons, my own work, and lace/fabric retailers.  I have included usage rights and copyright information under each picture, as well as off-site links for pictures which are not mine to claim.  This post is educational and not for profit.

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Hussifs

8/13/2018

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Men going to sea or joining the military miss women... for so many reasons.  But when they wear a hole in their socks or tear their pants, it's the "feminine" art of mending that they most require!  And, since there are no women about, the men have to learn a little handwork.  I remember listening to my uncle, a US marine (there's no such thing as a former marine), tell me with pride how he learned to keep his clothes nice, how he wouldn't trust his wife to properly launder his uniforms, and how every stray thread had to be clipped close to the fabric in a procedure called "Irish pennanting". 
Picture
Sewing kit, or hussif, belonged to NZ41868 Flying Officer Derek Vaughan Bullock, 218 Squadron, Bomber Command, WW2. Auckland Museum [CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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NAME THAT LACE: Kate Middleton's Collar

8/9/2018

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Lace identification is tricky.  For one thing, different types of lace imitate each other, as for instance bobbin lace imitating needlelace, or crochet lace imitating bobbin lace.  Carrickmacross lace imitates more expensive needlelaces, and Battenburg (tape) lace imitates bobbin lace by using the techniques of needlelace.  Even tatting can be a chameleon, in pieces like the Queen of Roumania's (below), where she tatted flowers and appliqued them on net to look like a grounded lace:
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(Carmen Sylva was so cool. Another blog post for another day, though!)
To complicate identification, unless you're looking closely at a lace, you can't see how it's put together; from a distance, a cheap chemical lace could mimic an expensive handmade antique!  Laces made on Schiffli embroidery machines or Leavers looms can be very good imitations!  Check out the side-by-side comparisons in this Lace Booklet from the Dress and Textile Specialists. 

Naturally, that won't stop me from playing Name That Lace, which is a game I just made up!  I shall start with an image of a lace in use, being worn or used in film, photograph, or painting.  I will then do a bunch of research to decide on its most likely style, place of origin, method of manufacture, and whatever else I can figure out.  My conclusions will most likely be guesses, since (as mentioned above), lace identification is tricky.  Maybe some of my readers can help out? 

Let's have fun and learn things! 

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Mending a Cut in a Plaid Shirt

8/6/2018

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I once heard a tragic tale: a man ordered an expensive winter jacket from a sportswear company, and when it came in he eagerly opened the package using a blade... which went too deep and sliced right through the front of the jacket!  The company wouldn't take the coat back, since the damage wasn't their fault, so there went several hundred dollars down the drain!  True to my preoccupations, when I heard the story my first thought was that I wished I'd been around to try to mend it.  I reckon some latex patches on the inside of each cut edge, carefully ironed with a press cloth, would have been a good start...

I'm such a sewing geek!  So when a friend buys a shirt from Goodwill with a cut in it, I am pleased to take on the task of mending it.

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Berets for my Niece!

8/2/2018

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When I told my six year old niece I would make her a hat, and asked what color she wanted, she answered: "Teal and sparkly pink!"  Well, I found sparkly teal and pink, so I decided--close enough--and set out to make the hat with them. 

THE PATTERN

I picked up a Maw-Bell pattern from Fabric Depot a while back, during their warehouse sale.  It has a plaid skirt and hat in it, but I was just interested in the adorable hat.  As it turns out, it's a super simple pattern! 
Picture
So simple that I can just explain to you right now, which is a good thing, since Maw-Bell might not be in business anymore.  (At any rate, their website is gone and their blog hasn't been updated since 2014.)

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    Karen Roy

    Quilting, dressmaking, and history plied with the needle...

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