The Dreamstress

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A bit of fun sewing: cushions

Do you know that I do lots of sewing that never makes it to the blog?

I do! Mostly cardigans and t-shirts. This would be a really boring blog if I showed you all the cardigans and t-shirts I make. And knickers. This would be a really weird blog if I showed you all the knickers I make.

But I also trial patterns, and make class sample, and make stuff I just forget to blog about.

Here are a few cushions I made a couple of weeks back as class samples. One with buttons (and sailboats! Mr D likes sailboats):

And one with bobbles (because bobbles make everything better):

And lastly, one with an appliqued kiwi (because New Zealand!).

The fabric for the sailboat, and the wool plaid and red for the applique cushions are things I picked up at Fabric-a-Brac in Palmy and Wellington, respectively. The bobble cushion is made with fabric I inherited from Nana, and have held on to because I knew that one day it would be perfect for something.

I’m liking these so much I’m beginning to think I should make a blue slipcover for the couch and go red, ivory and blue in the lounge for a while…

I photographed the process of making the applique and button cushions so I could do tutorials, but the photos are a bit problematic because bright red isn’t great for details. Silly mistake of mine!

Children’s sizing – help a sewist out!

Published by The Dreamstress

Apparently it’s kiddie week on the blog – on Monday it was children’s fashions from the early 1920s, and today I’m hoping to get your help with a children’s sizing question.

One of my sewing students is making children’s fashions, and she’s noticed a gap in the sizing charts which affects how she sizes patterns.

In order to understand the gap a bit more, we’re taking a very informal survey. Do you have access to a child between the ages of 2 & 11? Could you take two measurements on them and tell us the following:

1: The child’s age, gender, and:

2: The measurement from the top of their head, to the point where the neck joins the shoulder (taken straight, as if you were holding a ruler from the shoulder up past the ear to the top of the head)

3: The child’s torso length, from the hollow in the centre of their neck, to their true waist.

I’m doing this as a leave-a-blog-comment survey, rather than using a survey form, because I think it would be interesting for other people to see the results as they come in.

Obviously it will be neither comprehensive nor scientifically accurate, but will still give us a little more of an idea of the ranges.

Many, MANY thanks in advance to you, and the children you measure, for your assistance!

I shall leave it up to your discretion whether you would like to reward them with the treat suggested in this 1920s ad, of ‘famous’ Plain Suet Pudding with “that splendid natural laxative – Golden Syrup.”

Yum.

Rate the Dress: Titian’s Lady in White

Published by The Dreamstress

There was no Rate the Dress last week due to frantic-business, so we have to go back two weeks, to the end-of-the-crinoline-era, what-is-this-thing gown? There were a number of suggestions, but after a bit more research I think it is basically an early tea gown, which makes it (as Daniel and a couple others suggested) essentially a morning dress – something for informal, mainly indoor wear. Things you liked about it included the impressive applique, and the lush fabric. Things you didn’t like were the tassles (universally), shoulder bows (mostly), and the colour (mostly). As a group you were divided on the loose fit and the peplum. All that division really divided the score as well – down to a 6.9 out of 10

For this week’s Rate the Dress I present the serene simplicity (in a Renaissance sense of simplicity) of Titian’s Lady in White, with her fortune in pearls and flag fan.

Lady in White, Titian, 1553

What do you think? Does the monochrome frock make an impact with just a few (in a Renaissance sense of few) jewels to ornament it, or is it too boring?

Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10