Laurel Loves London (PODCAST - Enchanted by Sewing)

Co-Published with MeEncantaCoser/Enchanted By Sewing

Laurel Love's London's Liberty

Hey, the June 2013 "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.

~~~
Did I miss any links? If so, please post here and let me know, or else email me at,  EnchantedBySewing AT gmail
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London's got what a sewist yearns for, historically inspired fabric and fashion, not to mention the regular inspirations we bring back from vacation tripping in an historically rich area. When this California sewist vacations in London she does more than promenade along the Thames. She visits historic Liberty to buy soft delicate Tana Lawn fabric and the Victoria and Albert to study historic fashion. She also looks both ways before she crosses the street (cuz she can never remember which way the traffic flows) to check out street fashion.
~~~
I prepped for travel to London by sewing

• http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2013/05/el-debut-my-pearly-wannabe-jacket.html

• http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2013/06/sewing-for-travel-butterick-5526.html

In the 'cast I talked about the hand sewing I took alongfor plane and train- a buttercup purse. I've loved sewing many MadeByRae's buttercup purses. Busy sewing my CA Romance Dress (yes it's done! the posting will be out in a few days on my MeEncantaCoser blog), I haven't yet finished the purse strap, though I finished the rest of the sewing and embellishment on the trip.

Here's my detail showing a few of the buttercup purses I've made in the past, and more info about accessing the free pattern. I wrote this when I was prepping my bluebird buttercup purse http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2012/09/do-you-love-butter-in-praise-of.html

Here's something more about the vintage tatting I added to the finished purse http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2012/09/tit-fortatting-embellishing-my.html

Fashion Fabric Buying in London 

• http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2013/06/lovin-londons-liberty-fabric-shopping.html

http://www.tillyandthebuttons.com/2012/05/fabric-shopping-in-london.html

Liberty's Tana Lawn
Poppy and Honesty on the left, Strawberry Thief, right

Historical Fashion Inspiration in London

Victoria and Albert (V&A )  

      Search the V&A Collection http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/t/the-collections/

      V&A organizes beautiful stuff by design styles http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/d/decorative-and-design-styles/

http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/exhibitions/in-fine-style-the-art-of-tudor-and-stuart-fashion-QGBP

In a London Mood

• I like the book...Shopping, Seduction & Mr. Selfridge by Lindy Woodhead as much as I like the show "Mr. Selfridge" I've been watching on PBS 

• D.E. Stevenson is a classic British author who wrote traditional women's novels for about 30 years. If you're unused to old style class and racial label references however, you may be surprised by some of the attitudes that this author sometimes expressed so casually. Does it reflect attitudes among the power structure of the time? You bet it does.

• Other classic British Authors include: Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie and M.C. Beaton (modern)

Travel Thoughts

• Portobello Market in the Notthinghill area, is a popular shopping spot, especially on Saturday's when many small vendors have booths. On many other days you can still buy good produce there

• We've rented flats short-term in London on several trips, usually for a week through A Place Like Home http://www.aplacelikehome.co.uk
• Contours Walking Holidays setup our walking trip along the coast in Cornwall . They make reservations at B&B's, arrange for our luggage to be sent from place to the next, and gave us directions and an itinerary. We did the walking and self-guiding. http://www.contours.co.uk/walking-holidays/south-west.php We used another agency Mickledore two years ago when we walked for three days along Hadrian's Wall and were very happy with them. Mickledore doesn't do trips in Cornwall however. http://www.mickledore.co.uk/walking-holidays/hadrians_wall?gclid=CIDjsZ2k77cCFSeCQgodV3YAyA

Technicos Threadin' The Needle (Hand Sewing)

Co-Pubished with my Sewing Blog 

Me Encanta Coser/Enchanted By Sewing

http://MeEncantaCoser.blogspot.com

Bet you already knew that Thread the Needle is an old children's game, and also a dance step patterned after the game. I always get a kick from learning more about common events in daily life, by reading about old recreational pastimes. 

Though, in historical times, working with a sewing needle was probably about as typical an activity as other domestic tasks, I've never heard of a game called Wash the Dishes (though let me know if you've heard of one!). I'm guessing that's because dish washing is a more straightforward process. Hand needle threading has always been just ever so slightly challenging. And of course you often come up against it when you least want to deal with that finicky little task. These days we can typically change into another shirt if we rip a seam heading out the door, but only a generation or two ago, that might not have been an option. It was your day clothes or your Sabbath garment. So you quickly threaded a needle and ran up the seam. And it was just as important as it is today,  to get that thread into that needle eye quick-like-a-bunny.

As I've already mentioned in my post about threading a sewing machine needle, a little spit goes a long way. Yes, I lick the end of the thread (and I do wash my hands before I sit down to do this), but I also spread a little, well I just have to say it again - spit - over the eyehole of the needle. Just as in the case of the machine needle, the water molecules want to buddy up, and the thread is more likely to be attracted to the eye of the needle.

My other favorite needle-to-thread technicos include... beeswax. You can buy beeswax in the notions department, but I keep the stumps from the beeswax candles I buy from the farmer's market and use those. (I like to support those businesses because, and I know you know this too,  local honey promotes good diverse hive health, which is one of those save-the-planet kinda things. Agricultural mono-culture is a big concern for the future of my favorite fruits and vegetables.) Beeswax stabilizes the thread and makes it easier to push through the needle - less fibers on the end of the thread to push against that tiny needle eye.

Also I always make sure to cut the end of my thread at an angle. That makes a point that slips through more easily. I learned this from the same Viking Sewing Machine dealer who taught me the spit trick!

These are the tips that keep me in stitches. 

About.com has needle threading tips, including - but not limited to - those I use
http://sewing.about.com/od/beginner1/tp/needlethreading.htm

Definition
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/thread-needle

Dance Description and cool wood cut illustration from Webfeet
http://www.webfeet.org/eceilidh/dances/thread-the-needle.html

Technicos Threadin' The Needle (Hand Sewing)

Bet you already knew that Thread the Needle is an old children's game, and also a dance step patterned after the game. I always get a kick from learning more about common events in daily life, by reading about old recreational pastimes. 

Though, in historical times, working with a sewing needle was probably about as typical an activity as other domestic tasks, I've never heard of a game called Wash the Dishes (though let me know if you've heard of one!). I'm guessing that's because dish washing is a more straightforward process. Hand needle threading has always been just ever so slightly challenging. And of course you often come up against it when you least want to deal with that finicky little task. These days we can typically change into another shirt if we rip a seam heading out the door, but only a generation or two ago, that might not have been an option. It was your day clothes or your Sabbath garment. So you quickly threaded a needle and ran up the seam. And it was just as important as it is today,  to get that thread into that needle eye quick-like-a-bunny.

As I've already mentioned in my post about threading a sewing machine needle, a little spit goes a long way. Yes, I lick the end of the thread (and I do wash my hands before I sit down to do this), but I also spread a little, well I just have to say it again - spit - over the eyehole of the needle. Just as in the case of the machine needle, the water molecules want to buddy up, and the thread is more likely to be attracted to the eye of the needle.

My other favorite needle-to-thread technicos include... beeswax. You can buy beeswax in the notions department, but I keep the stumps from the beeswax candles I buy from the farmer's market and use those. (I like to support those businesses because, and I know you know this too,  local honey promotes good diverse hive health, which is one of those save-the-planet kinda things. Agricultural mono-culture is a big concern for the future of my favorite fruits and vegetables.) Beeswax stabilizes the thread and makes it easier to push through the needle - less fibers on the end of the thread to push against that tiny needle eye.

Also I always make sure to cut the end of my thread at an angle. That makes a point that slips through more easily. I learned this from the same Viking Sewing Machine dealer who taught me the spit trick!

These are the tips that keep me in stitches. 

About.com has needle threading tips, including - but not limited to - those I use
http://sewing.about.com/od/beginner1/tp/needlethreading.htm

Definition
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/thread-needle

Dance Description and cool wood cut illustration from Webfeet
http://www.webfeet.org/eceilidh/dances/thread-the-needle.html

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.

Pensamientos: Machine Embroidering Tee Shirt Creations

My machine embroidery setup is not totally modern and up to date. I bought my Viking Iris new maybe 7 or 8 years ago. I had to buy the embroidery designs on cards, not as digital downloads. When I bought the machine I only had the bucks to buy one extra card. There was also one that came with the machine. A couple of years ago I thought I would break down and buy another card and, guess what? I found that Viking no longer sells the cards, because this machine is now considered to be out dated.

I managed to find a few cards on EBAY. The good thing is that I have enough cards now (5 I think) to provide me with enough designs to keep me happy for several years. It's still sad that a sewing machine goes out of style with the manufacturer so quickly. Maybe in 5 or 6 years I will buy a used machine for embroidery that uses digital downloads, probably a machine that is just coming out now. I wonder what technology will replace that and make it impossible to get designs?

I like having the machine embroidery capability and enjoy stitching out the designs and choosing colors, but I don't spend a ton of time doing it. Sewing time is part of my recreation time and most of my sewing recreation time goes into sewing the actual garments. But I've been doing machine embroidery on tee shirts lately. I love making tees because

a) My time is well invested. I get a lot of regular, every day use out of them.

b) I can fool around altering patterns and re-cut inexpensive boxy tees for fabric to test out pattern alterations. I buy two of the same color (which I often find on sale for $2.50 each) and turn those two into one. That allows for darts, gathers, and any other goodies I come up with. These budget fabric test garments are highly wearable, they aren't just toilles. They help build my confidence for sewing tees when I buy a pricier knit, at Fabric.com or that great fabric store in Berkley Stone Mountain & Daughter.

When I machine embroider my tees, they really look like something special.

Technique: What works for me is to use two kinds of stabilizer. I put a regular stabalizing layer for knits underneath the hoop. Then I put the wash-away kind that looks like saran wrap on TOP of the hoop. That seems to work pretty durn well.

Part 2: Retro Polka Dots, Why I Don't Love Lucy

In my last blog post, I wrote about my recently sewn polka dot tee shirt. I’m a brand new convert when it comes to these retro-style spots, but I also knew there was some vaguely uncomfortable memory, that I associated them with. When I put on my new sleeveless tee, with it’s draped neckline,  I really liked what I saw in the mirror. The wisps of what I disliked were the the shades of a far-from-favorite old television show, in those vibrant polka dots.

Though I’ve come to love that tee shirt, what I still don’t love is the I Love Lucy television show, because Lucille Ball's portrayal of Lucy Ricardo was no role model for a budding, mid-twentieth century, feminist kid. In my modern-woman household, those polka dots represented some pretty old ideas of woman's place in our society. And they were ideas we were still fighting through in the sixties. In my mind, those old-style feminine behavior patterns were linked with images of the ubiquitous polka-dot dresses* that Lucy wore on the show.

I’m the first to admit there are things to admire about the television and movie comedienne whose career in film, television, stage and radio spanned a period of over forty years. No pawn for the film moguls, Lucille Ball was a hard-working woman, driven to succeed on her own terms. For those of you gals who weren’t around in the fifties and sixties, I can tell you that wasn’t an absolutely stellar time to stand up for yourself if you were born female.

Lucy made the most of her unusual looks. Instead of fitting into a standard style, she created her own. Her personal-style sense back then, is an example for us sewists who are always working to create fashions that make the most of what we were born with.

Besides that she was the first obviously pregnant woman on television. Before that, maternity was considered not very nice. Children were great, but the evidence of where they came from, and the affects of gestation on the body of a stylish woman, were something that weren't on display on the box.

My problem with the show is Lucy Ricardo's relationship with her husband. As a television star, Ms. Ball was in the role-model business, and the model of married womanhood that she represented was one that made irrational, dependent, subterfuge looked cute. Lucy, as the center point of the show, was always doing something silly because, apparently, she didn’t have any wits. The show made it clear that husbands really adored a lack of brain in their women. Cute, huh? 


Almost as cute as the fact that Lucy needed to wheedle money out of her man whenever she went beyond the financial parameters he laid out. Another great life lesson for the sixties-era female, particularly those like more than a few of the adult women in my extended family and town, who were married to somebody who were physically or emotional controlling. 


There’s also nothing cute about fooling your spouse to get what you want (instead of discussing important issues and finding ways to compromise on the priorities for a joint partnership) Pretty much every episode played up this amusing angle.

So what does Lucy’s story leave me with?  


Just fashion.


The women I see around me these days have come far enough from the dependent, ditsy, second class role that we saw on the screen back then, that we can begin to have a little fun with Lucy's style.

Nowadays, when I think of Lucille Ball, I'm just going to see spots - polka dotted spots that is. 

~

* And I’m not the only one. In an article in “Flaunt” (“A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE POLKA DOT”), Jake Levy says that a polka-dot dress was a staple wardrobe item in the “I Love Lucy” show. I would go so far as to say that Lucy was the Queen of polka-dots.

Part 1: Retro Inspires Sewing with Polka Dots

Associating Them with Skin Problems,
LR Shimer's Never Been A Fan of Polka Dots Before
Until She Picked Out the Wrong Fabric and Decided it  was So Right

A couple of months back, I was searching for a tee shirt knit with a print of white pin dots on a black background. I was so happy to find my black with white dotted cotton interlock material at Fabric.com, that I didn’t think to check the online sample image that showed the size of my dots. So I was disappointed when my order showed up, to realize that my pin dots were polka dots. I also wasn’t crazy about the fabrics hand, that tactile response we sewists get to the heft and feel of our yard goods.

How is a pin dot different than a polka dot? For me, the individual spots in a pin dot print are about the size of the head of the basic little flat, metal pins I use for marrying a couple of yards of cotton to it’s tissue paper pattern. The tiny points on a piece of stiff dotted swiss are about the right size. (Does anybody sew with dotted swiss these days? When I was a child, that was a real glamour material.)

On the other hand, I would say that a polka dot is a bigger spot. Anything the size of the rubber eraser on the back of a yellow number 2 pencil and beyond, qualifies as a polka dot in my book.

And what I had ended up with were four yards of polka dots, a print I wasn’t at all fond of, because they reminded me of the story about moucheron, the tiny patches that historical ladies like Marie Antoinette and her court wore as a fashion statement, a practice that originated in times even before those stylish gals came along, as a way to cover pimples. (Talk about making lemonade when you’re handed a lemon!)

Polka dots also reminded me of some of some aspect of my childhood I didn’t like, but couldn’t really identify. I just didn’t like them. What's the story there?

The material’s price had been right, why not use some of it to make a test garment out of my new McCalls pattern, M6078?  I fashioned view B, a sleeveless tee with stitched front pleats, neck drape and shaped sides.  That test garment changed my entire attitude about polka dots. When I put on my new tee shirt I felt suddenly glamorous and pulled together. The shirt cried out for some earrings that mirrored the dot shapes and a string of pearls. I have twice worn my pearls with the tee shirt to parties, but for my usual walks and school work they stay at home in my jewelry box and I just pop on some dropped, jiggly multi-pearl earrings that echo the shapes on my tee. The top goes with my black capri jeans and my straight legged black pants. It would go great with a slim-fitting black skirt if I possessed one (or indeed ever wore skirts) . 

Despite the fact that I intend to make a new version of the tee with some of the remaining fabric, (see Planned Alterations* below ) my polka-dotted tee shirt has really worked out for me. It's become what sewists with a plan call a '... go to wardrobe item'. And oddly enough the fabric's hand feels fine to me now. I've gotten used to the slightly stiff fabric that doesn’t stretch unexpectedly over time, like some of my other knits. It also seems to breathe just fine on a warm day. It’s not what I was used to but I’ve grown to like the feel of it and the way it works.

But what was the story from my childhood that affected my attitude about polka dots? More on that in my next blog piece, Why I Don’t Love Lucy. 

* Planned Alterations

I like this tee so much, I'm going to sew up a new and improved version from my remaining fabric. Next time:

• I will definitely not use a white fold over elastic to cover the armhole edge. I plan to try a self-fabric band using the same techniques as I use for self-fabric tee neckline bands. I learned how to do this from Lori (of Sew Forth Now fame). Here is her tutorial for neckbands. I sew it out of a slightly stretched cross-grain strip and I always, always baste these first, and test it folded down with pins in place, as every knit stretches differently. 

• I'm going to add 1 -2 inches to the torso length because I'm long waisted.

• I'm going to cut a deeper (higher) self-lining part on the top of the front piece. The entire front is one piece and the top part falls back and lines the drape. But the drape wasn't quite long enough to hide a glimpse of the wrong side of the fabric at the neckline. I added a strip of selvage and it could still use a bit more inner lining. I will probably add another 1-2 inches to that curve.

• I will add more to the sides and make it a tiny bit less fitted. I have a rectangular figure (I don't go in much at the waist or out much at the hips) and the shaping on this top fakes a waistline. More curvaceous ladies wouldn't need to do that.