Original Sewing Machine Design

It's hard to imagine a world without sewing machines. Can you imagine if we had to hand sew everything we wore? I honestly don't know how our ancestors did it.

Thankfully 150 years ago Elias Howe developed a design for the sewing machine -- a device which went on to revolutionize how and what we wear.

A few weeks ago I got a link in my comments directing me to a picture of the original sewing machine designs. I've been meaning to share it with all of you, but real life craziness kept getting in the way.

Anyhow, for those of you who are sewing nerds, check this out: http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/index.html?dod-date=910#2011

Pan Am Costume Article

Remember how I was raving about the costumes on Pan Am? Well now you can read about the show's costuming process in this interview with the designer!

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Pan-Am-Stewardess-Costume-1038550.aspx

I don't know about you, but those stockings sound like a nightmare! And I'm so thankful we don't have to wear all of that intense underwear anymore.

If you haven't checked the show out yet, I highly recommended. It's well written, fairly clean, engaging, intriguing, and (of course) beautifully costumed. It airs on Sunday night, but if you don't catch it then, you can always watch it later in the week on Hulu.com

Why I've been silent...

Oh my poor neglected blog! I'm so sorry. I've been working myself up to post some pretty difficult news.

Despite all of our hard work, my health has continued to be debilitating. It finally became clear that there was no way I was going to be able to make school work, so I made the decision to withdraw from college.

It was a hard decision, but I've had a lot of peace and calm about it. Just as I knew I was meant to go to NDSU, I also know that withdrawing was what had to happen. All the whys and hows aren't clear, but I'm able to believe that God has a plan (something that I definitely struggled with for awhile).

And surprisingly enough, things have been going pretty well despite being very sick. My family has been absolutely incredible. They all deserve medals for being so supportive. My friends have been pretty amazing too. And God has brought some other kind of lovely things into my life as well.

Anyhow, it's been a really insane and totally unexpected turn of events and I appreciate all of you being patient as my attention was drawn away by all of this.

Also, I promise that I will still maintain this blog! I still am a seamstress and will always be a student of fashion, style and costume with plenty of new things to share.

Costuming a visit to the past

Part of being a costumer is nitpicking costumes on tv shows and movies. For example, don't even get me started on Braveheart.

This week we saw the premiere of two shows with unique costuming challenges -- period drama Pan Am, and the science fiction adventure Terra Nova.

Pan Am is right on the money and the costumes are just one piece of creating a beautiful picture in every frame.

Terra Nova has me curious, though. The prehistoric colony definitely does not have any sort of clothing production line, much less a fashion industry. So why do all of the characters wear fairly fashionable stuff? Is it all imported from the future? Each new group brings bales of clothes with them?

The show canon seems to indicate that the colony has been around for at least a decade. So they have to have some system for getting clothes and it seems that function would be a greater issue than style.

I really want to know what the costumer of the show is thinking and whether we'll get any answers to this in the future.

Geeking out about Fibers

I am such a nerd.

I don't mean computer/sci-fiction nerd (although I'm that too). I mean a fabric/costume/fiber nerd.

For instance. Some people might think that a class called 'Textiles' would be boring beyond belief.

But me? I sit there soaking in happily everything about fibers and filaments and natural vs. manufactured and am overjoyed when we actually get to touch fibers and fabrics.

On Wednesday we learned all about cotton. We got to see pictures of it through the beginning of the process, including some from a cotton factory in Ecuador. We learned all about it's attributes, what it is good for, etc. We also discussed different kinds of cotton and what they are each good for. I asked why Egyptian Cotton was called Egyptian -- was it really from Egypt? I wondered. My Professor wasn't sure enough to answer then, but today she came back with a whole website on the subject. Sure enough, Egyptian Cotton is grown in Egypt and something about being grown by the Nile makes the fibers especially long and fine.

Today was flax and a brief discussion of other plant fibers. Did you know you can get fibers from the leaves of pineapple and banana trees? Or that hemp is in the same family as marijuana?

Of Sewing Baskets

Nowadays you don't see sewing baskets much anymore. I mean, everything sits in there in a pile and you have to dig around to find things. Who wouldn't prefer one of those nifty boxes with trays and pretty patterned fabric coverings?

Me.

I find the boxes rather clunky and difficult to carry, and things tend to fall out too easily. When I was in Virginia last year I had my sewing supplies, but nothing to keep them in, which was pretty frustrating. Then I got a really perfect basket for Easter and decided to turn it into my sewing basket.

It worked pretty well, but I started to accumulate too much stuff and... yeah, things got lost at the bottom. So this weekend I cleaned it out and decided to put in a lining with pockets.

The only suitable piece I had was white satin, but I figured I could spare a bit of it and it would actually be the ideal fabric.
Cut out a circle for the bottom and a long rectangle for the sides. And yes... I decided to hand sew it!
Laid out all of the things I wanted to make pockets for...
And cut appropriately sized pieces.
I did a sort of rolled hem.
Tada! Doesn't it look beautiful and organized???

What is that lovely smell?

It's a warm evening in Alexandria, Egypt. The year is roughly 1000 BC, give or take a century or two. You're dressed up in your finest linen tunic, perhaps you're even wealthy enough to wear two layers, or a beaded net dress over a simple sheath. You certainly have plenty of jewelry to accent your white robes. You probably are also wearing an elaborate wig. After all, a wig is much easier to clean, care for and style than your real hair, and then you can keep your head nicely shaved and cool at night.

You're going to a party at your cousin's estate and are excited for a chance to see your best friends and hear some beautiful music from the visiting musicians. Of course it is rather warm and there will be a lot of body odor, but everyone will be wearing their wax cones so you don't have to worry about the stink.

Uh... wait... wax cones? What wax cones?

We've been studying ancient dress in my history of fashion class and I have to say, the Egyptian practice of placing scented wax cones on their heads at night for parties and stuff is probably the weirdest custom I've come across so far. It makes some sense, of course. Wax melts at a very low temperature, so all you'd need to do is have a hot evening and... trickle trickle. As it dripped down into the wig it would release a pleasant scent. Sort of an early form of deodorant, I guess.

Don't believe me? Search 'Egyptian Wax Cones' and check out all the pictures and blogs that come up. No joke.