All posts filed under: Crafty stuff

The right fabric for the right project

There has been a bit of a debate on the sewing-focused internet world lately regarding what those who sew and create should call themselves.  Are we sewers (but it sounds like a waste disposal network!)?  Are we seamstresses (so confining, old fashioned, and gendered)?  Are we sewists (but it’s a made up word – gasp, shock, horror!)? I’m actually OK with all of them.  I tend to use seamstress because, well, I’m an old-fashioned girl. Really though, they are all slight misnomers, because the things that make the biggest difference in the final result of your project often aren’t the seams themselves: they are fabric choice, cutting, and pressing. Pressing is so, so important – I’ll talk more about it later (the most accomplished draper/dressmaker/seamstress/costumier/pattern cutter, whatever you want to call her that I have ever worked with used to say “Never trust a seamstress who doesn’t use her iron more than her sewing machine”), but today I want to talk about fabric choice. Fabric choice can make or break a project.  A really, really, …

Retro cuddlies

I found a couple of vintage knitted stuffed toys recently and just had to have them (or at least have them for a little while).  They didn’t come together, but are about the same size, and are the only two knitted stuffed toys I have ever come across, though I have seen lots of patterns for them. I don’t know a lot about them, as knitting and toys aren’t my areas of textile expertise by a long shot (if you do, please speak up!), but though they were too cute not to share. The first one dates back to at least the 1940s, and probably a little earlier. Isn’t it adorable!  It’s just so cute and simple and cunning! It’s pure wool, and, except for the beak, is worked all in one simple stitch – very characteristic of early 20th century knitted items, including toys. I’ve seen patterns for similar stuffed toys in pre WWII women’s magazines, but haven’t seen this exact pattern. It doesn’t look like it was every really used or carried around …

Ninon’s accessories

I can’t really trim Ninon’s dress because I can’t get the right trim in Wellington, and I feel I shouldn’t make a special trip up to Brian Gaskin’s in Palmy because I have to go up there on business next week. So instead I’m researching what jewellery and accessories she should wear. It’s pretty easy actually: every-single-painting shows the sitter wearing a collarbone level necklace of large pearls, and large pear-drop pearl earrings. Some ladies went for simply the pearl necklace and earrings, and nothing else: Most sitters added a few more accessories of her own to go with the ubiquitous necklace and earrings. This one has bracelets: Brooches at the centre front holding the fichu in place are common, usually with pearl drops: And of course, I have Elisabeth d’Orleans as my inspiration for Ninon with her pleated fabric/shell with a bow and jewelled bodice trimming. There are other portraits that show the same pearls in the bun at the back of the head And one lady went all out to gain Louis XIV’s …