All posts filed under: Miscellenia

Earthquake – We’re safe

Thank you everyone who has commented and messaged with kind thoughts after last night’s 7.5 earthquake here in NZ. Mr D and Fiss and I, and his extended family (and, as far as I can tell, all of my friends) are safe, but rather shaken.  Our house is just fine, though every door in the house  (including those dratted kitchen cupboards) did slam open and shut for two minutes while the quake went on. There has been a bit  of damage around Wellington, and a lot further south, where the epicentre was, and injuries and at least a couple of deaths.  It’s not good news. Please keep NZ in your thoughts and prayers – the aftershocks have gone on all night, and there is still a tsunami watch, though it has been downgraded. If you want to follow the news as we are in NZ, you can check Stuff.co.nz  

Felicity the cat and cushions thedreamstress.com

A little light sewing (with cat)

You can always tell when I’m in the mad finishing stages of a garment or a pattern: my blogging dwindles away to practically nothing. Sadly (for me) I’m not working on some fabulous frock: the only thing of note I’ve made since returning from Costume College is a wedding dress for a friend, and of course I can’t reveal it until the bride agrees! Happily (for you), I am hard at work on a pattern. I have managed a little light sewing.  Here are two cushion covers I made as teaching samples along  with a class: The zig-zag one is an envelope cushion, and the birds cushion is made using the same techniques as this tutorial. Students learn how to do appliques, piping, invisible zips, and buttonholes, all in one class.  It’s pretty awesome. Because the cushions aren’t that exciting on their own, I roused Felicity from a nap to come make her pose with them.  She was somewhat less than delighted by this, but was easily mollified when I included ‘throwing her toy for …

Can you complete the fashion history quiz from 1916?

One of the (many) highlights of my trip to the US was visiting Lauren of Wearing History: we shared patternmaking tips, played ‘date the vintage garment’, geeked out over fashion history, and generally had a fabulous time.  She let me go through her vintage magazines, and we laughed over the advice columns and sighed over the fashion plates. In her McCall’s Magazine from March 1916 I found something of particular interest: a fashion history terminology quiz! Lauren kindly offered to let me share it with you, so you can see the fun: Lauren & I collaborated to finish the quiz, and then, when we were pretty sure we had it right, flipped to page 115 for the answers…. ….only to find a message advising us to write to the editor for them! Oh wailey wailey! Still, we think we got them.  Do you think you can? Leave your answers in the comments (no peeking!).   Don’t be afraid to be honest and fess up if you collaborated or had to use google – it took …