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Old 12-01-2017, 07:39 PM
 
Location: 39 20' 59"N / 75 30' 53"W
16,077 posts, read 28,497,719 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gentlearts View Post
Here’s the jumper I made for my yet to be born granddaughter.
Loads of talent here...

Lucky little girI, its beautiful gentlearts. Happy Holidays.
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Old 12-01-2017, 08:29 PM
 
6,079 posts, read 4,444,164 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gentlearts View Post
Here’s the jumper I made for my yet to be born granddaughter.
It's wonderful. What a lucky girl!
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Old 12-01-2017, 09:50 PM
 
6,757 posts, read 8,262,812 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gentlearts View Post
Here’s the jumper I made for my yet to be born granddaughter.
How adorable!
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Old 12-04-2017, 11:29 PM
 
6,904 posts, read 7,566,225 times
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I got something fabulously wonderful in the mail today!

I had ordered the "fabric school swatch kit" from Mood fabrics, and received it today. It is a wonderful collection of labeled swatches of different types of modern fabrics, all organized by type of fiber (cotton, linen, wool, silk, specialty fabrics and knits), all bound together in a book format. Well, not really bound - grommeted together in a plastic thingy would be more accurate.

I know fabrics pretty well - but this is a great resource for when you forget exactly what the hand feel and opacity of the more obscure fabrics like batiste, mohair, haboti, and etc. is like. There are about 80 or so large swatches of many, though not all, of the kinds of fabrics currently sold in fabric stores. This kit is meant to be used with an on-line tutorial Mood markets called "Fabric School" (https://www.creativebug.com/classser...h-mood-fabrics). I don't think I'll take the class, but the swatch book will be a great resource for future sewing adventures. And besides, it's just fun to leaf through and fondle .

Receiving this reminded me of some wonderful books/booklets I own that also contain labeled fabric swatches that you can feel between your fingers and eyeball to your heart's content. I highly recommend these - even though they're really intended for people who work at historic sites or who sew costumes for other sorts of historic reinactments. But if you at all have an interest in learning what Lustring and Osnabrig and Nankeen and Cassimere and Tow and etc., etc. actually feel and look like, you will really enjoy this series of books/lets:

Textiles for Colonial Clothing by Sally A. Queen, Textiles for Regency Clothing by Lynne Zacek Bassett, Textiles for Early Victorian Clothing by Susan W. Greene, and Textiles for Victorian and Edwardian Clothing by Diane Affleck and Karen J. Herbaugh. That takes us up to 1920. I wonder if there's a 1920 - 1980ish book in this series? Now I'm going to go hunt and see. (Thought I'd mention that obviously these booklets are geared toward fabrics which were available in America, and may not be appreciated by Asians or Europeans interested in pre 1700 fabrics from other areas in the world.)

Anyway, I love me some textiles!

Happy sewing, all!
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Old 12-09-2017, 09:28 AM
 
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I'm just bumping the thread because I'm tired of the gun creepies dominating this forum.
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Old 12-09-2017, 11:01 AM
 
Location: 49th parallel
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Good for you,601. I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of 2 skeins of ladder yarn, to make two fancy scarves with for Christmas gifts. One is a great aqua/green mixture and the other is called Anubis and it's cream, blue, purple (I think). Should make interesting narrow lacy scarves, I hope. I'm going to do them on a knitting loom.
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Old 12-09-2017, 11:30 AM
 
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ndcairngorm - those colors sound lovely.

601 - there wasn't much to be said about your love of your fabric book. Are you still fondling it? I was thinking how helpful that would be when shopping at a discount fabric place where things are often irresistible and poorly marked - and then I remembered there aren't any more discount fabric places within 100 miles of here.

I got a county booklet - from the next county, but whatever - and it lists classes at the libraries and community centers and such and I was purely gobsmacked to see a lace making class, with bobbins and thread. Talk about a lost art and there was someone teaching it. I couldn't take the course because you had to have taken the first one that I didn't know about and you had to rent the bobbins and all from the instructor and the course itself wasn't cheap. But it made me happy that people are keeping these crafts alive. Maybe if I get the booklet in spring and they have the first one I can think it over.

Latest craft thing I've done is to press freezer paper hexagons to some fabric and cut it out for the binding of my quilt. I did it over two days and on the second day I realized I had pressed them all to the wrong side so am going to have to re-do them. Ugh. But I got the 40 hexes I needed to finish the edge - I'm leaving it without a border, just its own shape, which is fine top and bottom, but needed a bit of fill-in on the sides. So they have to be 20 groups of two and then sewn on and I will have a 100% hand sewn quilt top. Then I'll have to learn to hand quilt. Wish me luck.
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Old 12-09-2017, 03:12 PM
 
Location: Southern MN
11,981 posts, read 8,320,397 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 601halfdozen0theother View Post
I got something fabulously wonderful in the mail today!

Anyway, I love me some textiles!
Me too! Even if I have no use for them. "I might someday." I had DH build me extra shelves in a large closet upstairs where I stash it. Someone will be pleasantly surprised when I'm gone.


And all the nearly unwearable clothing I've sewed over the years just to practice my skills and create an artistic garment - it would look better on the wall than on me while I'm grocery shopping.


I've finally taught myself not to go fingering every interesting piece of cloth I see in public places other than fabric shops. But back in the day when I was really interested in it and sewing for others I rarely could resist.


It got to be a subconscious habit with me. And I remember one time I horrified myself when we were attending one of my husband's colleague's piano concerts.


It was after the concert and the man was dressed in full formal regalia. The tux was fabulous. We walked over to compliment him and, quite without thought, I reached out and felt his lapel with my thumb and finger. He stiffened and looked down his nose as I realized what I had just done. There was just no recovering from that!


After that for a while when we were out DH used to tease me, "Look Lodestar, but don't touch."
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Old 12-09-2017, 05:30 PM
 
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Lodestar - how could you sew for others and make nearly unwearable things for yourself? I don't get it.

I don't like making clothes for myself because they never fit and I hate having to try and fiddle the pattern and make muslins - uck, waste of sewing time. So now I sometimes get a few of the same plain shirt and copy some of the artistic embellishments I see in expensive catalogs. Sometimes they have a printed design and I sew it on. People think I'm a genius but I know I'm a fraud. But it still feels good to get the compliment.
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Old 12-09-2017, 09:57 PM
 
Location: Southern MN
11,981 posts, read 8,320,397 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NYC refugee View Post
Lodestar - how could you sew for others and make nearly unwearable things for yourself? I don't get it.

I don't like making clothes for myself because they never fit and I hate having to try and fiddle the pattern and make muslins - uck, waste of sewing time. So now I sometimes get a few of the same plain shirt and copy some of the artistic embellishments I see in expensive catalogs. Sometimes they have a printed design and I sew it on. People think I'm a genius but I know I'm a fraud. But it still feels good to get the compliment.
Oh dear. I don't think that makes you a fraud. There are many people who can't do that at all. There are all kinds of clever things you can do with inexpensive garments to create an item that is unique.


What I meant about sewing things for myself that are nearly unwearable is that I'll be attracted to a special piece of cloth or a method or some really wonderful notions on sale and I'll sew something for myself that's pretty unrealistic for the kind of lifestyle I live. Perhaps a multi-layer skirt of various velvets and shimmering lace. Or a quilted Western jacket with ultra-suede fringe, silver buttons and embroidery. Or a sun dress layered with ribbon and crochet lace all in white.

They are very pretty things and I am enchanted to sew them but once I am done I think I really don't have anywhere to wear them. They are more suitable as works of art than as garments. Or I need to live in an artist's commune.


I often think it would be fun to volunteer for the local community theater so I could sew these fantasy costumes with feathers and capes, masks and bodices and have people see them. The one thing that keeps me from doing that is knowing how that really works - you end up having to turn out thirty children's identical red, white and green cotton surplices before Christmas!
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