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I haven’t blogged properly the results of our trip to The Way We Wear fair because the natural light in our house sucks. So I took along my finds to my mum’s house where it has lots of windows so people can see during the day without turning the lights on. Freaky, I know.
First up is this utterly beautiful spool of silk thread.
It is barely enough for a neckline edging but even if I never use it, it will still look beautiful sitting quietly on a studio shelf.
I found two of Madame Weigel’s patterns. I’m fascinated by such a strong reminder of the roaring rag trade in Melbourne (well, it roared until the 1950s). A brief bio of Johanne Weigel and her family appears here, courtesy of Shirley Joy and the Brighton Cemetorians (thanks to a post by Shula for the tip off).
I particularly love this next one because it may be very nearly my size. The design of the bust shaping is so sleek – shoulder pleats to fullness, nipped back in with three little darts on each side.
Next, two editions of ‘Marion’ a quarterly (?) pattern catalogue from a Dutch patternmaker. The first is 1968 and the second 1970, giving a really good sense of the fashion shift from the 1960s to the 1970s. Each edition carried a few free patterns and these are still with the catalogues. I think you’ll see why I’d prefer to draft my own pattern and it has nothing to do with not knowing Dutch.
Finally, Stitchcraft No. 242 (maybe the late 1950s) with a hint of batwing, berets and bonnets. There is also a stocking cap with contrasting bobbles but I didn’t want to scare people.
I’ve had a good couple of weeks with craft and design. Last weekend I spent a few hours at the Stitches and Craft Show; this weekend the lass and I drove up to Bendigo for the Golden Age of Couture exhibition.
I haven’t been to a Stitches and Craft show before, despite best intentions, and this year’s show was a major revamp of previous shows. It had a definite ‘yoof’ edge to it. Which means it appealed to people under the age of 45. I think this is attributable to the involvement of Living Creatively, an online magazine. They got the indie designers and the bloggers (usually one and the same) and put them together in an area that just felt vibrant and enthusiastic. This part of the main exhibition was noticeably lively, with lots of chatter between exhibitors and visitors. That part of the crowd covered a good age range – 25 to 45 – and that will no doubt warm the cockles of the hearts of the organisers. What is really fabulous about this incubator concept is that there’ll be regional variation between the Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney shows. I know that some indie designers are going to two or three shows but there will be a spot for the local designers that have built their own customer base and will be able to meet those customers.
Among the main displays, I really enjoyed Kelani Fabric and Amitie. Kelani had brought in their gorgeous range of Japanese cottons and linens as well as sharing space with Aunty Cookie. We could have a good look at the beautiful, hard-to-find, usually order on-line fabrics and Shannon Lamden had brought new designs to the show. That stall just rocked the whole time I was there.
Amitie had some of its most popular fabric available on bolts but had decided to go for kits and small pieces of fabric. It was a great idea that worked really well. They were selling 30cm x 110cm strips of fabric, arranged by colour, for $6.50. Some of the designer pieces were $8 and you may recall the flap bag I made for the lass – that was a piece I bought at Amitie. I wasn’t the only one enjoying the range of colours and prints – the stall was buzzing and the poor staff had barely any time to scratch themselves.
But what I enjoyed most of all was the two hours I spent as a volunteer in the Wardrobe Refashion area. Nichola Prested (Wardrobe Refashion and BurdaStyle) had set up a reconstruction zone with sewing machines, overlockers, cutting area and tables full of op shop clothes, as well as thread, trims and buttons. It was free to wander in, choose your garments and then let your creative juices flow. During my stint there were two women who had never touched a sewing machine before. One produced a bag out of an old pair of trousers and the other sewed an apron and a baby sheet with applique. There were quite a few mother/daughter combos, one guy and a couple of sets of friends. The average age of the refashionistas would have been 20. I had a ball!
They also had craft bars in the main display area, where you could sit at a bar stool, select your craft cocktail of choice and be served by experienced crafters. There was one each for embroidery, knitting and crochet. These seemed to have a regular turnover of under-30s trying their hand, especially at the embroidery bar where they were serving up Sublime Stitching patterns. I really liked the idea of a craft cocktail bar but I’d suggest a cozier setting next time. It was all white and stark and maybe I’m showing my Melbourne bias but I was thinking of baroque, smoky, hidden in a laneway and up the rickety stairs kind of look.
The Golden Age of Couture finished on the weekend so we made a dash for it on Saturday (after my plans for me and the lass wagging a day on Friday came unstuck). Although I had forgotten to buy my tickets online and therefore condemned us to an hour long wait at the gallery, I had looked up the details of the exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum’s website. This meant I’d read all the stuff beforehand and didn’t have the hassle of trying to read labels in a very crowded space.
It was a great deal of fun. The lass thoroughly enjoyed it and I found it more enjoyable because she was there. We zigzagged across the rooms going from one display to another, pointing out the fabulous and the ridiculous and marveling at the intricacy of some creations. The lass pointed out a number of suits I could wear to work and we tried to pick our favourite dresses. It seems we both like minimalist lines in our frocks but the lass likes more bling on her shoes than I do. I suspect that she was slightly disappointed at the lack of pink but the pale blue cape made up for that loss a little. The choice of colours was interesting – all these dresses had been made for clients, so they reflected the client’s colour preferences. Beige was popular, a few greens, a couple of yellows, and a few dramatic reds. Beading and embroidery were popular and dark blue made a good showing. It seems that I like Dior (the original) quite a lot, followed by Givenchy. In terms of design I thought the suits were the most interesting since it was these that embodied the ‘New Look’. I particularly liked the use of diagonal lines in construction, often in the form of an overlapping collar piece or in the line of the jacket’s front placket.
If you missed the exhibition, tootle around the V&A’s website. It has all the info and a great deal of the costumes.
Edited to add: if you pop over here, scroll down a little until Nikki starts writing about the Stitches and Craft Show. The very happy lady showing off an apron is one and the same lady I’m talking about! And if you hop over to Nikki’s flickr set, you’ll on the second row the apron and bag ladies (!) and on the third row you’ll see the back of me (shoulder length brown hair wearing the yellow safety jacket).
Further edited to add: I’m here!
A few weeks back, I came across an announcement for a by-the-kilo button sale at Buttonmania. I nipped down to the Nicholas Building in Swanston St, a beautiful European warren of artist’s studios and indie retailers. On sale? A roomful of Brazilian, depression-era buttons. I swooned.
But recovered quickly so I didn’t miss out on choice picks.
I bought in sets – between four and twelve – depending on size and gorgeousness. There are two sets I haven’t photographed yet but they were special enough to be separately packaged. There were four tables’ worth of buttons in trays and a large dish dedicated to the special ones. All up, it cost me $14.
And completely unrelated, this is the finished Asymmetry:
It’s so comfortable and the linen is already softening with wear. It drapes as easily as I hoped and it’s perfect for hot day with a cotton cami underneath. I’m wearing a brown wool cami because it wasn’t hot last evening and you can see the detail better against a dark background. Thanks to the lad for his fashion photography.
In an unexplained fit of excitement I put my hand up to host a stall at the kids’ school fair. The theme this year is ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ so I’m going to sell stuff that I’ve made from vintage fabric or repurposed clothes. I also mentioned fashion jamming. Apparently when the fair coordinator read this, she started squealing and had to be provided with mild sedation.
Fashion jamming is refashioning or repurposing clothes – the Craft Cartel in Melbourne staged one last weekend at Fed Square. I figure kids love doing stuff to their clothes, given half a chance, so I’m going to put on two demos during the day. One will be for Cycle 1 (3-6 yrs) and the other for Cycles 2 and 3 (7-12 yrs). It needs to be simple and still fun for the little kids so fabric paints in the forms of textas or pastels will be the way to go. For the older kids, I’d like to show them photo transfers, sewing accessories, cutting, re-modeling, templates for patches and reverse applique, what to look for in the op shop, that kind of thing. Tip sheets to take away at the end of the demo seem like a good idea.
Once I had the photo transfer idea, I started playing around with some of my images and this is what I came up with. This is the original shot:
This image was a tree silhouette at sunrise. Using an online photo editor, I inverted the image so the black branches became white and then chose different colour rotations to get the background colours.
Then I played around with the fluoro options:
And you can do nightvision as well:
Some of the items I’ll be selling are my own photo transfers; neck pads for guitar and saxophone straps (old t-shirts, quilt batting and velcro); reading cushions from soft, old denim; wristlet bags; simple totes; and fashion jamming kits for the kids – little packets of choose your own template, fusible interfacing, and choose your own remnant fabric; and pick your own buttons and embroidery threads. If you have any ideas you’d like to share, do tell!
On the morning of the bushfires, when it was already white hot in the morning and 41C at 11.30am, I set out to pick up a pair of mid century modern chairs I won on ebay. Unusually, I was in the car by myself so I was able to listen to my CDs. As much as I enjoy the BareNakedLadies kids’ album (Snacktime), I do like to like to sing loudly to more grown up stuff. For the life of me I can’t remember what I listened to on the way but I do remember listening to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ live album on the way home.
It was an eerie drive. It was always going to be an intense day and the fire weather warnings were loud and insistent. I was skirting the north eastern fringe which is heavily wooded or lies next to scrub and the light through the scrub was white, bleaching everything. I’d been anxious for the last two days realising that the chances of the state escaping the weekend without a bushfire somewhere were remote. The threat felt closer than I ever remember and it put me in mind of the Ash Wednesday fires. We lived near the edge of the action then and it was a possibility now.
It struck me that we live in such a gothic landscape. And I was listening to the most gothic music written by an Australian artist. It was raw, death and sex. Cave’s lyrics are elegant and spare against a guttural sound wall (Papa won’t leave you, Henry) or a clear melodic line (The Ship Song). Death is ever present and it’s against that background that life is lived. It’s the danse macabre for a modern world.
It seemed rather ludicrous to be picking up something so transient as a pair of chairs.
Which is pretty much why I signed up for Wardrobe Refashion for six months. Wardrobe refashioning is about using what you have (fabric or yarn stashes, garments you no longer wear) or what others have discarded (op shops) to create something new. It’s not about being a fashion designer, or a postmodern Scrooge. It’s about mindfulness: can I reuse rather than throw out, do I really need to buy this garment, can I make something that is unique? I already do the making something new thing, so why not take up the challenge to recycle? So by signing up, I’m committing to six months of making my own garments from ‘raw’ materials (yarn, fabric) or recycling op shopped (‘thrifted’) garments/items. There’s a get out of jail free card but I’m really hoping that I won’t need it. Shoes and underwear are excluded (for the benefit of mum, who may read this!).
I sew and knit a lot, for me and the kids. My bloke gets a look in once a decade but I have good intentions on improving that strike rate (if he weren’t so bloody tall..). I like to play around with patterns and ideas but I don’t necessarily translate them into garments or artifacts. I can be a little risk averse and the idea of working from my stash or op shop stuff is what I need to try out new designs, colours and pattern combinations. And I really will have to use those kimono scraps and pieces of vintage fabric that were bought to be used.
I’ve started off well by making a pair of shorts and a t-shirt (miss tadpole) and a long skirt for myself (stash fabric with a vintage fabric detail). I’ll sew up a knitted top tonight, I’ve cast on for another summer top (me, stash yarn) and a pair of socks (miss tadpole, again with the stash yarn). I don’t usually keep a tally of what I make so it’ll be interesting to see how much I get done over the next six months. And slightly embarassing since I don’t expect to run out of stash yarn or fabric.
The project fits in with my decision to schedule time for sewing. Instead of seeing if I have time on the weekend, I’ll make sure I have the time. Sunday morning is looking good, since we’re fairly slow then and everyone tends to move at their own pace. I’ll have to adjust my expectations about how much sewing I get done. I prefer to work from scratch to finish in the one day and this really isn’t going to be the norm. If I don’t think I’ll get a complete garment in one session I think I shall do packages of work, like pattern tracing and cutting a group of garments and setting up for the next weekend. Knitting is taken care of – 10 hours a week on the train gets a lot of stuff done.
And best of all – I can be a complete refashionista and use all those vintage patterns I have!
I realised at a ridiculous hour of the morning (while I was knitting without wearing my glasses because that helps me go back to sleep) that I hadn’t talked about any of the actual sewing and knitting stuff I’m doing at the moment. Plenty of patterns and op shop stuff (but wait, there’s more!) but not the actual making thereof.
I’m working on the trouser pattern. I went ahead after the muslin to make up the trousers in linen but somehow got them far too big. I’ve since unpicked, reworked the muslin a little bit and I’m about to recut the linen. In the middle of that, innercitygarden displayed commendable faith and accepted my offer of a how-to on trouser pattern drafting last Saturday. I definitely think going from muslin to wearing-around-the-house pants is a more productive trajectory than muslin to really-nice-Italian-linen-workpants. Still, they’ll turn out fine and I’m looking forward to wearing them by next weekend.
I discovered that I had a few more skeins of Elspeth Lavold’s Silky Wool in teal than I first thought. So I’m knitting this vintage top (scroll down to ‘lacy top’) with a slight different lace pattern. I’ve resized to fit, of course, but I’m going with the figure-hugging style. I reckon it should look okay with the linen trousers.
There was the tote as a present for a friend:
Chinese silk tote
On the more mundane side, I’ve altered a skirt so that it no longer falls down (I’m picky like that) and I have a padded sleeve for a neck strap to finish. Master Tadpole is finding the alto sax and electric guitar heavy going on the neck so I’ve fashioned six layers of quilt batting covered by an old t-shirt formerly belonging to the tadpole. Velcro straps will make sure it can go from one instrument to the other. And by the way, he has completely appropriated my old music stand. I managed to defend it from the acquisitiveness of a professional muso for fifteen years and within three months of taking up an instrument, it now belongs a 9 yo rocker.
I’ll probably be able to rescue two non-finished trousers with my personal pattern which does increase the production output with remarkably little effort. Then I can move onto all those other things I want to make. Like 3 blouses, 2 dresses, 1 skirt, 3 hawaiian shirts (not for me), 6 t-shirts (the tadpoles), 2 skirts, 3 dresses, 2 shorts, 1 trouser (miss tadpole), 1 dress, 1 skirt (the little person in Sydney)…
I keep hearing this voice in my head.
“Tell her she’s dreamin’”.
The tray that formed the backdrop for all those patterns was quite a find at a large garage sale. It’s an art deco tray – simple marquetry and the signature lines of the handles and the combination of metal and wood. It was bought as part of a small lot of goods so it’s tricky figuring out how much we paid for it. Possibly as much as $1.
The woman who sold it to us commented that it was a really old tray, perhaps from the 1960s and 1950s. And this meant of course that it was worth less. That’s fine by me.
Marquetry with metal handles
It will need some restoration – the varnish has crazed and is missing in some places. Overall though, it’s in remarkably good condition.
wood, metal and lines
This other tray I bought in Geelong a few months ago. I suspect it’s from the 1940s and it has a more everyday look to it. It’s unvarnished with a layered wood trim around the edges. I can imagine this in a weatherboard home for afternoon tea on Saturdays. This was one was hugely expensive – about $30.
1940s, perhaps?
Afternoon tea
And a gratuitous flower shot:
Native orchid after rain
Courtesy of 1 garage sale, Savers, Yooralla op shop in Elgin St (Carlton) and the other op shop across the road. It’s amazing how far $4 can go.
Some love from the 1970s
Raggedy Anne dresses, apparently
Tres chic for the under 10s
Are they dress ups?
It may look safe on the cover...
but the contents of “Beach Knits” are so horrendous they will soon have a post of their own.
Today’s pattern photos are the work of an emerging artist, Miss Tadpole. Fair* rates were paid for her work – a chocolate cupcake and a large glass of milk.
* As defined by socialist-minded 6 year olds with no concept of the contemporary art market.
I was temporarily defeated by my new latptop and media uploading, so the post two days ago did not see the light of day. That and I’ve had the most wonderful fun frying my brain at work every day, so the non-work words haven’t been tripping off my tongue. And yes, I know some of you just thought they still aren’t.
My summer wardrobe, or the complete lack thereof, has been occupying me over the last month or two. I’m over trying to find overpriced clothes that almost but don’t quite fit in a shade that is not quite what I was looking for. So I’m going vintage: a bit of fun, a bit of class and a whole lot of what suits me. Now I just have to sew the damn things.
This photo is sideways. And I can’t get it stay right way up. I promise not to do it again.
A possibility in Japanese double gauze (when the Aussie dollar goes up again)
A little something for summer evening cocktails
Just right in an Italian teal/orange/ivory print
1971 was a very good year
Perhaps a skirt with a modified jacket - maybe a mandarin collar
Linen or a Japanese cotton print (and the currency exhange..)
Here’s to a summer full of clothes I like. And fit. And suit me. A few champagne cocktails wouldn’t go astray either.
