Lounging in the '40s

I've been meaning to make reproduction vintage pants all summer, and it finally happened. I'm tremendously pleased with how they turned out. I used Simplicity 3688, which is a reprint of a 1940s pattern, with relatively little modification. They're very easy to wear, as well, which was my main goal, and the pockets I added turned out well.

You can't really tell from these photos, but the fabric is denim and has a thin stripe (blue/navy). Excuse my headlessness. These were a pain to take, and I couldn't get the exposure right on any of the ones where I had a head.

More fashion from LIFE, 1946

Here's the second half of the fashion photos from the 1946 LIFE magazine. These hats are glorious. If you click on the photos you can probably read some of the captions."On 'New England Street,' one of 20th Century-Fox's permanent sets in Hollywood, models pose in the newest churchgoing fashions for spring."
"NEW SLEEVES can be identified by how they are cut at the shoulder and by their fullness. Sleeve at left, on a Trigere coat, is not attached in usual manner at shoulder but has an unbroken side seam. Sleeve at right, on a Maurice Rentner coat, has the fullness gathered onto a round disk. Scene is a chapel on the 20th Century-Fox lot."
"Suits and blouses are made to complement each other this season. Many suit designers, realizing that a suit can be made or marred by its blouse, are now designing their own blouses. Even when a woman clings to the classic custom of not removing her jacket, enough of her blouse is visible (as above) to warrant special attention."
"WITHOUT JACKETS, blouses worn with suits (above) become all-important. Tally-ho print at left is a Maurice Rentner design made for his green suit. Medallion print in center is used for blouse and lining of gray flannel suit by Jo Copeland. The full-sleeved blouse at right designed by Dorine Liebert is made of a pure-silk print."

Fashion from LIFE, 1946

Last March I bought a copy of LIFE magazine from April, 1946, which I posted an article from at the time. There's a lot of other fun stuff in there, though, so now I've finally got around to uploading images of their fashion article, which is what's advertised on the cover. "DOUBLE-BREASTED COAT from Monte-Sano is made of soft wool in a light sepia color. Shoulder is round; sleeves are full but pulled in at the wrist. FINGER-TIP COAT from Anthony Blotta is so called because it is as long as the wearer's extended arm. This is made of a gray-beige 'pussy-willow' gabardine. Hood is detachable.""Light spring shades range from pastels to copper. Suits above are from Maurice Rentner (left), Samuel Chapman (center) and Fox-Brownie."I want this suit so bad."FOR CHURCH ON SUNDAYS when little girls are on their best behavior and want most to act and look like their mothers, Sally Victor has designed identical bonnets of plaid gingham. It takes special skill not to make mother look childish or the child adult. The picture was taken in St Thomas Episcopal Church in Hollywood."

I have a few more, but I'll leave you with these for now.

Sewing and design

Purses are one of those things I'm never fully satisfied with. I've been on the quest for the perfect purse for years, and I've been trying to get around to making such a purse nearly as long. This is made in canvas, the green stripe is also canvas, the binding is a pack of ordinary yellow bias binding from JoAnn's. I wanted a purse that was the perfect size for a book, and that I could display my pin collection on (I have more pins than that). I'm not sure it's the perfect purse, but I like it pretty well and it'll serve for the moment.Possible typefaces for a poster project I'm contemplating. Sorry about the vague shadows from the next page, that was me playing with the stitching design on the purse and obsessing about Turkish tile.

Friday Ephemera #45

Still thinking about sewing. This makes me think of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, both because of the style and the designer's name. Not sure where I got this photo--possibly off ebay.

New clothes

I've been sewing! I've got all sorts of plans for making my wardrobe both more interesting and more condensed. I'm also trying to use up fabric I bought for ideas that never panned out. I had a shapeless dress in linen/rayon blend plaid, and one day I was possessed of a vision for it and made this.Several months ago, I had an idea of a blouse I wanted to make, and went and bought a lovely heart print cotton fabric to make it out of. Naturally, it never got made. So last week I went through my pattern box and found this blouse pattern, and made the shirt.

Photos and baking and making, oh my!

I'm apparently on a photography/baking/crafts kick. I did say this was going to be my spring break of making things. So here are photographs of the baking. None of the crafts, yet, just of crafty tools.Those are cheddar muffins, made from this recipe (only I added garlic powder, because I put garlic in everything). The stuff on top is just leftover chicken, spinach, and garlic (told you) in a frying pan with olive oil. I made ginger cookies, a couple of days ago as well, but they don't photograph prettily.

Some links again

Maybe this is going to become a Saturday thing, who knows. This time two of them are even bookish.

First, The Book that Contains all Books, an article on how the Kindle has just become the first e-reader available globally. I don't know how I feel about the Kindle, really, but I do like what this article says.

Hats by Behida. I want to win the lottery just for these hats. I also want to have the kind of head that can really pull off cloches well, but ah, such is life. I can only ogle. And plot to take a hatmaking class.

Books By the Yard from Half Price Books. This is befuddling, isn't it?

"Break Downs" and "Blow Ups" 1936-1947. Blooper reels of old movies, essentially. I haven't actually watched much of this, because I haven't seen enough old movies to recognize actors and find this funny except in that bloopers are generally funny. But if you are familiar with old movies, this should be great. I'm told there are some pretty famous people in there.

Have fun with these! Also, Happy Halloween!

Creation

All right, so I'm going to have to admit that I never actually got any sewing done yesterday. I had the best of intentions! I cut out the pattern, anyway, but never quite got up the energy to get the pattern properly ready or cut out the fabric, which I always find the most enormous chore. But it was very nice to sit around in my warm living room all day while it poured rain outside and not have to worry about getting too much done. I watched Elizabeth: The Golden Age and a couple of episodes of The West Wing, and made jewellery.

This is a pendant that's going to be attached to a chain, but I haven't got any chains that will work so I might venture out and find one today. Don't bet on that, though. I'm rather pleased with it. I was going for a sort of mishmash cobbled together look of different elements, and I'm not sure that's what I got but I like it anyway. The picture in the frame says "victoria," I cut it out of National Geographic. I made a couple of earrings, too (not matching ones), but I couldn't get my camera to take a good photo of them (the camera is definitely on its way out).

I always make jewellery just because I want new jewellery and don't think it's worth buying it, but there is definitely a certain pleasure in creating something. Sewing is about beginning from scratch, something flat that can then be given shape and some element of personality. Jewellery is more to do with taking different pieces that already have personality on their own, and seeing how they fit together. Two very different kinds of creation, but they both satisfy the need to make things.

I may not have done any sewing, but I did read! I'm very much starting to get into Brideshead Revisited, and you'll no doubt hear about it very soon.

Rainy days

Yesterday I went to the fabric store because I need a new duvet cover, and of course came away not only with fabric for that but also some soft pale green plaid cotton flannel which I had to have, and a skirt pattern. Today's weather is forecast to be grey and rainy, and maybe thunderstorms too, so it seems like the perfect day to sew. And I've never had to match plaid before, so that ought to be an exciting venture.

There's something inexpressibly pleasant about a rainy day spent indoors sewing, and maybe I'll get some reading done too, while I'm at it. It wouldn't be bad weather for Brideshead Revisited either, which I've started over and have some musings about already.

Look out for photos of the finished skirt at some point, but I make no promises as to the timeliness of this.

Summer reading

Summer has begun in earnest, and while there are many things I dislike about summer, I do like having the time to read and sew, and update this blog.

And I have been using my time, even! I made myself a pair of shorts, navy blue with red apple-shaped buttons, which are pleasingly picturesque. I'm plotting all sorts of other sewing projects, like a lemon-print cotton dress, and various skirts and shirts and whatnot. I have also been reading, and catching up on everyone else's book blogs, which I am sadly behind on (I have 30 or 40 entries to read for at least four different blogs). Reading all these bookish thoughts are making me contemplate doing JulNoWriMo again, which I hadn't planned on (last year I started it half way through the month and still managed to finish in time--there are a couple of blog entries in which I mention it).

I finished reading The Hero and the Crown, yesterday, by Robin McKinley. It's a bit of a classic, I guess. It certainly has numerous elements of classic fantasy, though it's so good these don't really bother at all. I loved the style of the writing, although the style sort of changes part way through, and then changes slightly again. The middle section moved the slowest, and then toward the end it picked up and I fairly raced through.

It's the story of Aerin, daughter of the king by his second wife, who was never very well-accepted, and whose daughter is now a bit of a stranger in her own home. Of course, Aerin is not entirely who she thinks she is.

The book was often rather surprising. It doesn't follow quite the expected pattern, but I think this is a side effect of the way the style changes. In the beginning I expected it to be a conventional fantasy and follow conventional fantasy plotlines, what with dragons and swords and princesses, but then it changed and fell more into the pattern of authors such as Patricia McKillip or John Dickinson, a silvery, dreamlike sort of writing and action. And then it changed again and became sort of a cross between the two. It is a very satisfying book in that it wraps things up very nicely for Aerin, though it's almost too nicely, but there's enough that goes wrong along the way that this ending isn't really a problem.

It was given to me as the favourite book of the giver, so I'm glad I enjoyed it.