How To Invite Fairies to Live in your Garden (Tutorial)

There are Fairies at the Bottom of My Garden!

Fairy magic adds enchantment to my gardening life

Wegman's Nursey ( Redwood City)  helped me prepare for fairies

How To Invite Fairies to Live in your Garden

Ice plant and succulents enhance this tea party garden

1)Find a nice pot - I got mine in my Wegman's Fairy Garden Class /Workshop.
 You might get creative here and re-purpose a pot, large bowl, can, or any open vessel you already have. Fairies are not picky. Make sure you have a hole in the bottom, or some kind of drainage.
2) Fill the pot nearly full with potting soil

3) Decide on a story you want to tell in your garden - the sleeping green fairy below had a very warm bike ride to a cool lake. He parked his cycle, walked across the stepping stones over the lake, and is enjoying a  snooze next to some frog friends on a leaf that's big enough to serve all of them as a little island bench in the lake
4) Pick out a few little outdoor or indoor plants to enhance the story. Tiny ground cover  plants might work well. In my Wegman's class, I included Australian violets/Australian bluebell and some Irish moss. I had some spider plants at home that had shot out spider plant babies, so I added several of those as well. 

In other fairy habitats - such as the tea party themed one above - I've been using (flowering) ice plant, thyme and a lot of the succulents I've been repurposing from pots. With these I often use pea gravel to fill in as a natural stream or landscape. Non-miniature plants like geranium/pelargonium and iris stems can stand in for trees.

5) Find a fairy, and some items that she or he might enjoy. I used a

There are Fairies at  the Bottom of My Garden

fairy, a leaf bridge with frogs, and a fairy bicycle. You could also use little toys - like tiny dolls. You don't even have to include a fairy. Just creating the perfect environment , may well encourage a fairy to move in with you. Just because you don't see one, doesn't mean they aren't living there.
 6) Rocks, gravel, broken pottery shards, sand and other textures add greatly to the story. In the Fairy Garden class I went too we had access to crushed blue and green glass (you can buy bags of it) and broken shards from a turquoise pot. Those items made me think lake when I spotted them.

Waiting for fairies Just because you don't see them, doesn't mean they aren't living there.

Fairy garden is in-progress - keeping my eyes peeled for additions

If children live in or visit your house, make sure they have access to and maintenance rights over the fairy garden.

My fairy gardens live on my patio. I hand water them when it gets dry. Small garden like these are great during our drought, because they takes very little water. In fact, when we often re-purpose leftover water from other domestic events for watering our pots.

Books

Both these Disney Garden books inspire my theme gardening style, which is so vital for a fairy gardener. I like the tabbed-cookbook style of DISNEY'S GARDENING WITH MICKEY when I want to quickly review the steps for creating a hanging basket or well illustrated how-tos for small topiaries. (There's lots of good info for larger topiaries and garden sculpting as well - I just haven't tried it out) In addition, there is good gardening (yard or pots) basic techniques as well as many recommendations for plants that work well for specific themes and temperatures. I highly recommend it, because I have used it a lot over a period of several years.

I also turn regularly to my Secrets of Disney's Glorious Gardens book. It has a lot of similar techniques and information as DISNEY'S GARDENING WITH MICKEY and it also has lovely, lovely photos that inspire me. So when I want to sit down and just get ideas for themes or gardening styles, I pour through the photos in this book.
                

Fairy magic is adding enchantment to my life, when it comes to gardening.

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There are Fairies at the Bottom of My Garden

Border Terrier Hand Embroidery - How Shalll I use it?

My Border Terrier - one of my practice mini-projects on my trip

What do you think I should use this little embroidery motif for? I haven't decided yet. A pocket maybe? It could go on the outside of a tote bag or be added to an existing shirt. I could even stitch it, as a patch, onto a pair of jeans - like we used to back in the 60's and 70's. Do you have any other ideas?

In my June Enchanted by Sewing podcast, I mentioned that while on vacation in the United Kingdom for two and a half weeks,  I kept my sewing hand in by practicing hand embroidery stitches, using the smallest hoop I could find. It didn't take much room in my luggage and I took a great guide book -Embroidered & Embellished: 85 Stitches Using Thread, Floss, Ribbon, Beads & More • Step-by-Step Visual Guide -  along as a Kindle iBook on my iPad.

(You can also buy  Embroidered & Embellished: 85 Stitches Using Thread, Floss, Ribbon, Beads & More Step-by-Step Visual Guide in regular book format)

In my June Enchanted by Sewing podcast  I mentioned that dogs are a big travel theme for me. I pet every dog I get the chance to visit with. Not only do both pooch and I get a lot of pleasure from the interaction, it's a great way to chat casually with people around me. No tourist pressure - people can either talk or not. I had several quite long talks with dog owners on the trip.

I took along this piece of recycled linen (it used to be a pair of pants I got a lot of wear out of) for practicing my stitches. Here I was practicing a split stitch. What better design could I choose than a dog?  I bought a soft lead pencil for less than a pound in a stationary store, then drew the design by looking at a photo on my iPhone. I tested my drawing out on a piece of scratch paper a couple of times to build my confidence, then started trying it on the linen. I did a little redrawing around the nose, but it wasn't really that all hard to look at the lines in the photo and get what I wanted. The pencil washed out fine after I got home. I just ran it under a little cold water in the sink and rubbed in some hand soap.

The photo was of a  darling Border Terrier I encountered in one of many parks we visited. I saw a number of Border Terriers in the Lake District, where we walked. You may know that the Lake District is close to the border between the Lake District and Scotland, so it's the origin of this darling breed. I'm not really a breed person - frankly I'm happy with whatever mixture of pooch comes to live with me, but it's fun learning about where different breeds come from. Like me, many pups have ancestors that come from different places.

Practicing hand embroidery, something I hadn't done in years - since I got a machine capable of emboridery - is just the kind of travel activity that keeps me . . .

Enchanted By Sewing!

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 Resources
                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Enchanted By Sewing Audio Podcast: Back In Town- A combination of a field trip report and sewing reflections http://www.enchantedbysewing.blogspot.com/2015/06/ench-by-sew-33back-in-town.html

                                                 

Once Upon a Time In California (Time Travel)

Rosalinda, la voz melodiosa, ella canta las viejas canciones. Y sólo puedo oírola.
Debo volver a los días perdidos, los viejos tempos en California. 

Rosalinda, she of the melodious voice, sings the old songs. And only I can hear her.
I must go back to lost days, the old days in California.
 
Un día, cuando aprenda a escuchar con sólo mi corazón, su melodía una vez más me llevarás a mi amor.
One day, when I learn to listen with only my heart, her tune will once more carry me home to my love.

                        
Time travellers need helpful tour books. UCSC professor, famed journalist, and  California State Librarian,  Kevin Starr, has a true sense of California. He's more than a superb historian, he's a born story teller. Starr weaves together a tale that includes not only the appeal of the state - it's agricultural promise, natural beauties, ethnic diversity, and economic potential - but also it's historical exploitation.

 If you read only one history of the state, make it Starr's California: A History (Modern Library Chronicles) 

                 ~ ~ ~

 Other volumes on my California Favorites Book Shelf

  

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Romancing the Dress - Periwinkle Blue Anjelica Cotton Knit Cutie

Laurel in Anjelica at San Francisco Legion of Honor

Did You Make That? 

Yep!

I 'm pretty pleased with this new periwinkle blue cotton knit dress I sewed, using one of the many  patterns included in my recently purchased  Famous Frocks: The Little Black Dress: Patterns for 20 Garments Inspired by Fashion Icons. I'm pretty cautious about buying books with included patterns (what if I only like one?) , but I find the entire book very inspirational, and I'm envisioning sewing several of the other dresses.

This romantically styled frock is the "Anjelica Jolie" dress. I used the darts and no-sleeve styling from the top variation, and the straight of grain and cotton knit from the dress version. I tried wearing a narrow belt at the true waist, but it looked awful on me - it just didn't suit my H-shaped figure. Also I think, maybe, it's too blousy at the top to suit a woman with more bust if it's belted too low. Emphasizing the bosom with a wide belt worn just below the bust line looks better. Sometimes I just have to try every belt and waistline in my wardrobe to get it right. This is the belt I created for my peaches and cream shirtwaist dress. It's 3 inch wide black elastic with a simple slider no-tongue belt buckle.

I felt very Cinderlla-ish wearing this dress to the San Francisco Legion of Honor museum this last week, especially since I was going to see a fashion exhibit, High Style, The Broklyn Museum Costume Collection. I got a nice compliment from the young woman who rented the audio head set. She liked it that I had dressed up for the exhibit. I enjoyed that being dressed up feeling, and I was really comfortable too. I'm thinking this light frock will be nice for travel, what do you think?

Yes, this book is inspiring me to make more. I've already begun making a muslin for the princess-seamed Princess Diana sheath dress and I have my eyes on the Grace Kelly dress, based on one she wore, and I loved, in the classic Alfred Hitchcock movie, Rear Window. Do you remember the scene towards the end, where Lisa (Grace) hides her Vogue magazine inside a very studious looking hardback book to fake Jimmy Stewart into thinking she's getting serious about important issues?

If I sew each of these, that's three patterns. I interested in trying the variations on them as well - some of which aren't typical of what you'd find in a pattern envelope. I'm going to try the top variation for this Anjelica pattern (in a woven) as well. I'm attracted to a couple of the other patterns, particularly the Coco Channel jersey dress, in the sleeveless variation. My guess is that I'll be sewing at least half the patterns in the book, if not more.

One thing I found great about using patterns from this book,versus buying an individual pattern, is that there  is an extensive part of the book that covers sewing techniques. These are different than just following directions from a pattern instruction sheet, because they help me to better develop my overall sewing skills, and I'm not blindly following steps that I might not understand. Once I've used two or three of these patterns, the cost of the book compares favorably with the purchase of the same number of pattern (even with pattern discounts), and the educational sewing skill-building advantage makes it worth more to me, than buying those individual patterns.

                               

Draping Lucy - Terminado! New Dress and back to Rec Sewing

Lucy is the first garment I've
created  from a pattern I
made entirely myself, on my
custom dress form.

I haven't done any regular, recreational sewing all semester (one semester = 16 weeks) because I've been focused on the class work and final projects for my two fashion classes at Cañada College. The first class was Pants Drafting, taught by Lynda Maynard (that's the woman who knows what we really want to sew, and teaches us how to do it!).   In that class, I used drafting techniques,  and many fitting followups, to produce inumerable muslin garments, tissue pattern drafts, and my first pair of jeans. Can't wait to use that pattern again and again!

My second class was Draping. This class is excellently taught by Judy Jackson. Again I went through a lot of muslin, this time learning to design my own patterns by draping them in muslin fabric on a dress form, then creating tissue patterns from those draped garments. You may have seen some of my posts this fall that showed off some of the basic garment shapes I created on a standard sized 10 dress form (I called her Babs, a name that seemed appropriate for a mannequin who came to life in the early '60's). I also began draping on my own custom dress form that I created over the summer. 

When I last talked about my custom dress form I was calling her Colette, but I've since realized that she is really a Conchita. 
I found working with Conchita even more challenging than working with Babs, and Babs wasn't an easy customer. Was it because Conchita represented clothing I actually plan to wear? I'm not sure yet. But if I figure it out, I'll let you know!

Starting around midterm time, I spent several weeks creating a muslin sloper (a fitted bodice and fitted straight skirt) for Conchita. For some reason I found this very challenging, though I had produced the same garments for Babs. My teacher seemed to think that there should be the same amount of challenge, if only I was careful with my measuring. I worked very hard to be exact but all I can say is that it was much harder for me and just took a lot of time, muslin, tissue and patience.

Another view of Lucy

As you can see, I moved on from my sloper to make my first garment. I had originally planned to make a traditional shoulder-yoked, dropped shoulder, shirtwaist dress with a collar and front button plackets. I was of two minds as to whether the dress would have a separate skirt joined by a waistline seam or be a one piece dress. I was planning to use a beautiful piece of deep forest green silk noil (raw silk) that I have for that dress. In my mind the dress I was planning to drape was named Ivy. I'm still planning to take up with Ivy in the not to distant future. But I got distracted by Lucy....

I'll be writing more about the process of draping Lucy in upcoming postings in this journal. One thing I know I'll be reflecting on repeatedly, is learning to read the fashion fabric's story. This lesson came from my experiences in both my pattern-creation classes this semester. In both cases I saw that constructing beautiful garments is not just about designing a piece in my mind or on a sketch pad. It really comes down to watching the behavior of the fabric I've chosen to sew with, after it's cut out and initially put together on me or my custom dress form. Creating a muslin test garment is an important part of the pattern making process, but once I start the ball rolling with muslin, I then really have to listen to the story the actual material for that garment is telling me. That's what is going to guide me to bring the garment I'm sewing to life.

Learning to listen to, and read the fabric's story really keeps me

Enchanted by Sewing

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Resources

You can drape on a person or on a dress form. When creating for ourselves, it's easiest to use the dress form approach!

In the September Enchanted by Sewing Audio Podcast Dress Forms Episode, I described my experiences creating two different dress forms. You can listen to this talk either online on the web, or you can download the show to your mobile device (like an iPhone, Android, etc.)
http://www.enchantedbysewing.blogspot.com/2013/09/ench-by-sew-12-dress-forms.html

I'm just beginning to learn the historic and modern art of draping. It's a very artistic experience !  I've begun to develop my skill set in a class taught through the Cañada College Fashion Department. I'll be continuing my draping journey by continuing to follow the richly illustrated draping tutorials and examples in our class textbook, The Art of Fashion Draping. This excellent, and highly regarded book, by Connie Amaden-Crawford has been in use for decades. both within the industry, and by home sewists. 

Thanks Sponsors! 
When you buy products through links in this blog, you support the regular work of this blog and The Enchanted by Sewing Podcast.

Waistlines: Designing Without - The No-Waistline Look

This gorgeous no-waistline frock is from the

 Dolce & Gabbana Fall/Winter 2014 Collection

This month I'm musing on the different waistline levels I select to sew.

The no-waistline look in this Dolce & Gabbana dress, sets off the gorgeous fabric* the designer used. No sewist would want to cut through this print!

When we choose a waistline style - or lack of one - by selecting a pattern, designing a flat pattern, or designing by draping our own pattern, we are choosing where the garment, or a part of the garment, hangs from on the body for which we are sewing. 

In this case, where there is no waistline, the garment hangs from the shoulders. The folds of this garment drape from the high bust point. If the model were more curvaceous in that area, the folds could hang differently, and the way that the print is displayed might be different too. 

We drape material on human-shaped dress forms, to see how different body types affect the fall - or drape- of a particular piece of fabric. We also look at how the material's textures and prints will hang on a similarly shaped human form.

~ ~ ~

Resources

I'm just beginning to learn the historic and modern art of draping. It's a very artistic experience !  I've begun to develop my skill set in a class taught through the Cañada College Fashion Department. I'll be continuing my draping journey by continuing to follow the richly illustrated draping tutorials and examples in our class textbook, The Art of Fashion Draping. This excellent, and highly regarded book, by Connie Amaden-Crawford has been in use for decades. both within the industry, and by home sewists. 

Thanks Sponsors! 
When you buy products through links in this blog, you support the regular work of this blog and The Enchanted by Sewing Podcast.

Fabric Notes

* The print in the Dolce & Gabbana frock above is quite reminiscent of one of the Alexander McQueen fashions I talked about in the fashion gallery audio podcast tour I shared from the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum in London last summer. In that tour, I give catalog information, so that listeners can use links from the show notes to look up further museum cataloging information about, and find images of, garments that were mentioned during that tour. 

For links to the V&A collections database, follow the show notes link at http://enchantedbysewing.blogspot.com/2013/07/ench-by-sew-010-v-fashion-gallery-tour.html

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You May Also Like 

Waistlines:  What's Natural? (Haiku)
http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2013/11/waistlines-whats-natural-haiku.html

Enchanted By Sewing Audio Podcast: Dress Forms http://www.enchantedbysewing.blogspot.com/2013/09/ench-by-sew-12-dress-forms.html

My Virtual Bulletin Boards on Pinterest

Draping Inspiration Images and Articles - http://www.pinterest.com/lrshimer/draping-inspiration/

Dress Forms Articles, Arty, Make Your Own, Etc - http://www.pinterest.com/lrshimer/dress-forms/

I have several other sewing related Pinterest boards - http://www.pinterest.com/lrshimer/boards/

Ench By Sew-11 Fashion Engineering for Work and Play (Interview)

This month, the Enchanted by Sewing Podcast returns from a London vacation, to it's California Roots

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Following up on last month's podcast, the tour of the V&A Fashion Gallery Miss Firbank's Pink Linen Cuff  and Elsa Schiaparelli's Roses Get Me Dreaming ... two recent Vintage Threads postings in my regular blog

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Please send your thoughts about this month or next month's topic - Dress Forms-in the Post a Comment section,  below :-)

Early on in the show Susan and Laurel talk about Susan's
creation of this wonderful snake skirt using patterns and
techniques from
The Colette Sewing Handbook,
Inspired Styles and Classic Techniques for the New Seamstress
A denim skirt from the same pattern has also been a mainstay garment in
Susan's wardrobe 

Snakes Alive ! Environmental Consultant by Day

Sewist by night 
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No coyotes or mountain lions slipped through the parking lot (as we'd both hoped they might), but snakes alive, did we have a good time talking late into the night! Come along and listen in.

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Hey! The latest and greatest Enchanted by Sewing Podcast has been published!

Two Ways to Listen
i) Listen Right on the Web

i)You can listen to the show right on the web by clicking on the following links

http://traffic.libsyn.com/enchantedbysewing/SnakesAliveFINALCast11Aug_2013EnchantedBySewingPodcastSUSANS.mp3

~ OR ~
ii) Click on this link to iTunes to download these shows to your mobile device (iPhone, Android, etc.) free from iTunes 

Did I miss any links mentioned in the show? If so, please post here and let me know, or else email me at,  EnchantedBySewing AT gmail
~~~ 

I never would have guessed that this self-described fashion engineer came to fashion sewing fairly recently. It seems Susan S. owes many of her early sewing creations  to The Colette Sewing Handbook, Inspired Styles and Classic Techniques for the New Seamstress.

Colette has an extensive pattern line

Susan bought her fun snake skirt fabric (pattern from that Colette book above)  at Satin Moon in San Francisco (Richmond district). 

Britex, just off of Union Square, is another favorite fabric shopping spot for San Francisco Bay Area sewists.

Partial to Colette's patterns, Susan prefers tailored and fit styles  often with, a hint of a retro vibe.

Professional and weekend wear are well integrated in Susan's wardrobe. Business casual is her everyday look and skirts and dresses are important for Susan's girly-girl style, whether at home or work.

In the interview, we touch on... 

• Wardrobing, Sewing With a Plan (SWAP), Susan’s work-home wardrobe is well integrated

• Susan gets her fabric prepped and her creations pressed at Broadway Cleaners, RedwoodCity (San Mateo County, San Francisco Bay Area)

• "Nancy donned a sheath" As well as being an inspiration to professional women since the 1930's, Nancy Drew has always been a woman with a distinctive fashion sense.

• Deadlines and Special Occasion Sewing

• Dedicated Sewing Space and Crafternoons

• Google Sketchup is billed as 3D modeling software

• CA Fashion Styles

      One of both Susan and Laurel's favorite field trips in San Francisco ...Walk from Union Square, down Market Street, out to the Ferry building, for beautiful bay views, and the Farmer’s Market, for people watching and scenery

• CA Work Styles
     Styles vary throughout the Bay Area. Ferry Building commuters in San Francisco have their own sense of style. If you visit the heart of Techie Silicon Valley it's all about tee shirt and jeans. One classic Meetup spot where this look dominates is the Red Rock Café on Castro Street in Mountain View. Venture Capitalists? They've got another look all together.

• Personal Fashion Style, and what's the point of it

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Following up on last month's podcast, the tour of the V&A Fashion Gallery Miss Firbank's Pink Linen Cuff

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Please comment on next month's topic - Dress Forms- 
-in the Post a Comment section,  below:-)

Last Stop Before Oz (Hiking Edgewood)

Planning a trip to Oz?
You won't find a better way to get there, then a hike up to the top of
Inspiration Point at Edgewood Nature Preserve
Click on the illustration above for an enhanced view of this Oz portal.

Traveling Through Time into the Commyne Place

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person out there who's running on sensory overload when it comes to hoarding digital photos, recipes, great quotes, patterns and lists of library books I'm definitely going to read within the next year. Too much technology makes it kind of easy to hold onto too much.

So I was glad to read that even 400 years ago, Elizabethans were overdoing things when it came to collecting the wisdom of the ages too. Apparently  Common Place books , a repository for all the things you mean to get around to, memorize, read and pass onto your friends were the latest thing. Gee.... this sure reminds me of something I do on my computer. Now gee, what could it be?

Isn't old Will the best playwright ever? Quick before you forget, go ahead and write down those quips about asses and wise fathers, that made you laugh so hard you almost bust your stay laces. What better place then your new Common Place book to keep them from getting lost.

Did you finally score the world's best receipt for grouse pastry puffs? Into the Common Place book it goes.

Managed to sneak in a detailed description of the perfect knot garden when your hosts weren't looking? Slip that drawing in your Common Place book.

Found a wonderful new method for poisoning rats? Tuck it in.

The idea, of course, is that you'll know right where to go when you next  tie on your pastry apron or slip on your rat-taming, gardening gloves. Oh you bet.

Now we know why somebody invented the search key.

A fun blog entry with great detailed info about common place books (and other fun reads as well).

Elders and Others: Free Audio Book Resources. Have at it Jeff’s Daddy!

My Pick-of-the-Month

(Better than a Starbucks Pick-of-the-Week cuz I brew it myself)

The Simple Romantic singing a traditional American spiritual on youtube

 On the way back from the pre-supper dog walk tonight, I ran into my neighbor Jeff . He might have been planning to finish unloading his car from a trip to the snow, and I might have thought I was going to go in and make supper. Well, so…. instead there we were visiting at the foot of our driveways, while Dave went on in and got the cornbread started.

Jeff mentioned that his father has recently gotten an mp3 player and started to listen to audio books. As anybody might expect, elder citizens commonly have vision and auditory issues. Reading may just be harder than it used to be. Their own headset attached to an mp3 player, ipad, kindle, or good old-fashioned computer,  can make a big difference to their leisure reading. Heck, audio books are easier for me to process now that I have to pull out a pair of reading glasses.

Hmphhffff! When did they start making that print so small?

I listen to both audio books and podcasts on an mp3 player quite a lot, while walking and also when I have domestic tasks. Not being a big fan of housework I’d rather be listening to Michael Krasny’s “Forum”, NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me”, or Mark Twain’s,  Roughing It  then focusing on a greasy dish or dusty piano lid.

Though I’m glad to hear that Jeff and Chris bought several audio books for his Dad, that he’s apparently enjoying quite a lot, there are a  resources for FREE audio books that are particularly useful for people who might be on a fixed income. Just for a start those include:

·     Public Library Systems Online

·     Project Guttenberg

·     Librivox.Org

Jeff asked for some form of electronic communication he could send on to his dad that listed just a few of these resources. Here it is. The links are both spelled out and displayed, in case you want to print this for somebody.

Have at it Jeff’s Daddy! 

1) The public library. My library system allows me to check out an audio book from home, via the web and the barcode on my card. Yes, I do know that barcode by heart. I can get audios from different libraries within our county library system. The audio will be available for me to listen to for three weeks. My local reference librarian told me that I should be able to get a library card at most libraries in California by showing them my local card. I currently have cards for three different nearby county systems.

Figure out how you, and an elderly relative, might get creative with that between the two of you.

Most public libraries also have books on cd that you can check out by visiting the library. Or maybe your library has a Book Mobile that stops in at the senior center. Our library system has an excellent online catalog that allows us to search for materials we want delivered, from libraries throughout the county.

2) Project Guttenberg is the Grandaddy (or is that Grandmama?) of the free, public domain ebook. They have audio books as well as ebooks and full-text  public domain books people still read the old-fashioned way but on new fashioned electronic readers like their home computers, iPad, Kindle, Sony Reader, iPhone, Android or other portable device. As of today Guttenberg says that they have 33,000 free public domain volumes.

Go to  http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Full text is handy also when you’re looking for that elusive reference. I was once surprised to find  that somewhere in a Jane Austen novel, she used the word ‘lame’ just as it might be used today. Wait a minute while I check the full text of “The Complete Project Gutenberg Works of Jane Austen, A Linked Index of all PG Editions of Jane Austen” and tell you where I found that. (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31100)

I’ve used Project Guttenberg on the web since 1993, but  the project goes back a lot further than that http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:About

3) I’m also a fan of Librivox. They specialize in free public domain audio books.

Some people find favorite books by reading book reviews. I tend to find them by wandering around in the stacks in a library. The Search by Genre link on Librivox reminds me a lot of wandering around within the collection itself.

http://librivox.org/newcatalog/genres.php

My sister prefers the Advanced Search page.

http://librivox.org/newcatalog/visitor_advanced.php

Here’s the  main Librivox cataloglink.

http://librivox.org/newcatalog/

….