All posts filed under: 20th Century

Oakland, 1912

Published by The Dreamstress

I love old photographs: the details of clothes and faces in them, imagining what happened just before and after the photograph, and the stories of the people in them. This is one of my favourite old photographs: Click through to the large version and look at all the details in it.  The girl in the tartan dress, regarding the camera so seriously.  The suntanned woman in the bottom right corner, crossing her arms and grinning in delight.  The man peeping out from behind the ivy at upper centre left (and the one that is even more hidden amidst the ivy, can you find him?).  The man with the truly impressive mustache holding the placard in the centre.  The adorable little boy at centre front, trying to sit still for the picture, while his even more adorable little sister slides off his fathers lap. That’s what I notice first.  That, and the focus of the picture: the turbaned man in white at the centre of the group. That man is ‘Abdu’l-Baha, and he is the reason …

Pre-washing pretty period prints

Published by The Dreamstress

I know there is some debate about whether you still need to pre-wash cotton fabrics before you sew them up these days, but I still like to.  For one thing, I have no idea what the conditions on the factory floor were like, or what the fabrics were exposed to in shipping!  And it can’t hurt to make doubly certain that no unwanted shrinkage will occur. In my machine are a beautiful monochromatic ’50s floral from Nana’s stash that reminds me of charcoal sketching, and a sweet pink and green and yellow ’30sish number and a sassy yellow and grey and white 30ish number, both from reproductionfabrics.com. I say ’30sish, because (to the best of my knowledge) most prints from reproductionfabrics.com aren’t perfect reproductions, but modern prints that match the aesthetic of the era.  Still lovely, but not exact matches.