Togetherness: Mother-Daughter Sewing (Ench By Sew-008 )

(This post is co-published with my sewing story-journal, Me Encanta Coser,  http://MeEncantaCoser.blogspot.com)

Hey, the May 2013 "Enchanted By Sewing" Podcast is available in the pod-o-sphere!

Why so early this month?

We Want to be on Time for Mother's
- or is that Daughter's? -
 Day!

You can listen to the show right on the web by clicking on this link. Or, download this podcast free from iTunes, to play on your favorite mobile device/mp3 player (like an iPhone or an Android), by clicking on this link to iTunes.

~~~

• This podcast episode is dedicated to Lori Van Monan, a mother who has influenced my sewing, blogging and podcasting tremendously. Lori is the creator and producer of the long time Sew Forth Now Podcast, as well as the Girls in the Garden Blog, which she continues to host. Lori  (who recently became a grandmother !) continues to sew for her four daughters, who are now young women. She also often shares ways that her mother and grandmother influenced her sewing. Thanks again for sew much inspiration Lori!

Daughter Kristen and her mother Tammy
are sewing cohorts and classmates
in the Cañada Fashion Sewing Program

In celebration of Mother’s Day… Laurel reflects on her own experiences with mother-daughter sewing. She also finds out that this relationship doesn’t always fit into a traditional pattern. This conversation with sewing cohorts, who happen to be related, may surprise you as much as it did the show hostess.

   

• In this month's podcast I spoke with daughter Kristen, and her mother Tammy in the  Cañada Fashion Sewing Program lab. In the illustration on the left, Kristen is wearing the dress she sewed for class, that we talk about in the 'cast. Below you'll find the alteration Kristen made to the sleeves she wasn't happy with.

•  Kristen is a died-in-wool Romantic, like me. You'll hear us talking about this Romance of Hats book just before our official interview time began. Kristen and I both took the millinery class on campus through the Cañada Fashion Sewing Program

The romance of hats / the editors of Victoria magazine ; foreword by Nancy Lindemeyer. http://catalog.plsinfo.org/search~S1/?searchtype=Y&searcharg=millinery+victoria&searchscope=1&sortdropdown=-&SORT=DZ&extended=0&SUBMIT=Search&searchlimits=&searchorigarg=Ymillinery+hat%26SORT%3DDZ

–       

Updated sleeves Kristen created for
her purple dress

Stone Mountain and Daughter is a fabric store in Berkley,  is a favorite of many in the Cañada Fashion Sewing Program

o   Tammy is a fan of Katie R. who works there and has helped this new sewer feel confident about choosing fabrics

o   Kristen likes the cotton sateen sold at Stone Mountain and Daughter

-       Tammy is sewing Kwik Sew pattern, hoodie style 3693

o   http://sewing.patternreview.com/patterns/29811

o   “Easy and great for beginners”   http://sewing.patternreview.com/review/pattern/66379

Yes! I admit that I bought this pattern from Pattern Review, after hearing about Tammy's plans!!

-         Sewing Velvet

o   Woops, Laurel, when it comes to pressing velvet,  it's a nail BOARD not a nail brush!

• Tammy and Laurel are both into crinkly/ruffled knits

Laurel's Fashion Forward Mermaid Tee
This is the kind of fabric Tammy and I were talking about
sharing a liking for

* This "Bisou Stretch Mini Ruffle Knit" (the link below is for Fabric.Com) is one of the styles of ruffled fabric Tammy and I were talking about. I bought my mint-green version at Stone Mountain and Daughter, and made my "Fashion Forward Mermaid" tee shirt  (above) with it, using a deconstructed (non-finished edge) at the neckline and sleeve edges. (Sorry I can't find a link for this fabric there. If you can find it there- or at some other favorite source- feel free to post a link)

http://www.fabric.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=1958a8df-d243-4199-a706-f422e4357168

This Morton Salt Girl's dress, may well have been Mama's inspiration for my own butter yellow outfit as a kid.

Ench By Sew-006 Conversation with a Pirate Queen

Hot Dog, the latest "Enchanted By Sewing Podcast" is available in the pod-o-sphere! 

You can listen to the show right on the web by clicking on this link. Or, download this podcast free from iTunes, to play on your favorite mobile device/mp3 player (like an iPhone or an Android), by clicking on this link to iTunes.

~~~

This conversation is about more than sewing, it's about a Californian who admits to having fun with her two teenage sons, drawn together by their shared joy in living history. How many boys this age have so much fun hanging out with their mom in social situations? I think Laura's found a secret that others might add to their parent-skills database!

What first drew me to Laura is that, in addition to costume sewing, she has a flair for  integrating elements of costume sewing into her daily wardrobe. Though she she sews for well-known living history events, such as the Renaisance Faire and Civil War Reenactment Days, it was our chat  about her experiences creating unique garments for  local San Francisco Bay Area personal theater - the Nor Cal Pirate Expo,  that had us both laughing, and me reaching for the edit button when it came time to clean up this interview to keep this podcast rated 'clean'!

Laura's enthusiasm and creativity in costume creation and sewing, is the kind of passion that keeps me enchanted by sewing!

~~~

Please post other links and other pertinent information that you would like me to include in these show notes.

Heart of Silicon Valley (Mountain View, Red Rock Cafe)

You can hear about the big names and hot companies in the Silicon Valley, but if you want to feel it happening, come by Castro Street in Mountain View.

Go on into the Red Rock Cafe and head up the narrow stairs to find people plugging away on their laptops, working and talking together. This is where they come to informal working groups, Meetups, like those for Android App and IOS (apple/Mac) developers. This is where it's actually going on. 

History is happening here.

Postcard from OZ

Dear Auntie Em,

You'll never believe who I ran into here on vacation! The old guy who runs the city used to work in a circus that went through Omaha every year. I guess this is a step up for him. 

Also I made a couple of new friends. One of them used to be a field worker and the other one was a forester. They've been good to travel with, and they're really respectful, so you don't need to worry.

I've definitely got some new ideas about my career, so I know that will make you happy. There's a woman who travels around in a bubble and does a lot of good in the country. I'm also pretty sure she makes a lot of money because she dresses super nice. Doesn't that sound like me?

Hope the chickens are still laying well. I expect I'll be blowing in again any day.

Your loving niece, 

Dorothy

Oh Baby, it's a Wild World

We all gotta come to terms with it. 

Sometimes the world is a little wilder than others.

CA Style Eatin' Enchiladas

We have been making enchiladas a lot. Doesn't that sound very California? They are easy and we feel virtuous making them. Yeh, I used sauce from a jar! - Trader Joes makes a good one. We mix in a bunch of vegetables - vary the veg, depending on what's handy. Tonight used 4 kinds of vegetables - 3 fresh (spinach, celery and yaller squash)  and one can of drained corn. Doesn't that sound like every nutrient you could imagine?  Oh, also leftover shredded chicken, and corn tortillas spread with a tad of whipped cream cheese. A tiny, tiny sprinkling of cheddar on the top - but nothing like Paula Deen style (I love that woman - but we dont' need the stick-o-butter style casseroles here). Also I made Chocolate-Covered-Katies frosting shots as a mousse style dessert. That's canned coconut milk with cocoa poweder and vanilla whipped up in the mixer and sweetened to taste with whatever you use. I used just a little bit of  Blue Agave, just enough to take the edge off the cocoa powder. There is a little bit of saturated fat in coconut milk but my Nutrition Major daughter said it is not excessive, and we don't eat much red meat, milk fat, etc. So I think that's about as much saturated fat as we have in our occasional bits of cheese.

Should have a productive evening of work after a nice supper. I hope you do too.

Pedaling Home:The California Shopper

At our local Farmer's Market,
I filled my bike basket with
CA persimmons, tomatoes, narcissus and
a locally grown orchid

The landlady of our vacation flat rental in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome, a few years back, told me she pitied Americans, as we have no open air markets. When I told her that in California we did indeed have such markets, she laughed at me and told we didn't. Such markets, she told me, are one of many things that makes Italians more fortunate than those we live in the U.S.

Yes, I know how lucky I am to be able to pedal home with my basket full of produce from our local farmer's market.