Christmas this year has not gone according to plan. It’s been full of family, and love, and goodies, and delicious food, and bits of fun, but far too much sadness, and I’m not ready to talk about it properly on the blog. Instead I just thought I’d keep things cheerful and show you the lovely things that I was given for Christmas or bought at my favourite antiques store with holiday money. It was a very vintage Christmas for me. From Mr D, a fabulous vintage handbag from Japan. The Japanese import shop I love so imported a few in, all in different colours, and I told Mr D about them, and he went in and picked his favourite. I love the way this combines a Western aesthetic with a very typically Japanese fabric – a silk with little tiny dots arranged in scales. From my darling Mother-in-law, this gorgeous necklace: Did you guess what is so exciting about it? It’s made from Roman glass dated to between 60-200 AD. (I do have my doubts …
One year, a challenge every fortnight, and at the end of it, 26 fabulous historical garments. How it works: Every fortnight in 2013 I’ll post a themed challenge and we’ll each sew (or knit, or crochet, or tatt, or embroider, or whatever it is you call making a hat, or otherwise create) a historical garment or accessory that fits the theme. I’ll post the challenges 7 ahead, so that you have plenty of time to plan and work on more elaborate challenges. You can do as many or as few of the challenges you want — I’ll be trying my best to do all 26, but if you can only do 6, that’s fine. For the purpose of the Historical Sew Fortnightly, ‘historical’ means 75 years or older, so pre 1938. Your item can be as basic or elaborate as you want, from a simple fichu to fill in the neckline of a gown, to a full ensemble from the undergarments outward: whatever you need and can can handle time and skill-wise. I’m hoping …
Living in New Zealand, and especially Wellington, it’s impossible for me not to be aware of and interested in Peter Jackson’s Middle Earth films. I first came to New Zealand as a student the year that The Return of the King came out, and Wellington had its first international film premier. I really didn’t come for that – I was probably the only American student to come to NZ on foreign exchange that year who wasn’t madly interested in either LotR, extreme sports, or rugby. In face, I barely knew that any of those things were happening until I got on the airplane (the rugby and extreme sports were a bit of a nasty shock actually). But in New Zealand I was constantly thrown in the company of students who had specifically come so they could visit all the LotR filming sites and attend the premier, so I travelled with them, and did all these things. And took lots of pictures, which I’ve illustrated this post with, because I’ve been really lazy and haven’t …
