Seasonal segue

Christmas came early this year when I was given a handknit jumper, knit and passed on by a friend who claimed it needed a smaller person to wear it. As someone who simply cannot part with the garments I laboriously knit in the glory days of the 80s and 90s, I value the time and work that goes into handknits and was so happy to give this one a new life. I've been wearing it often.

But on Christmas Jumper Day - Friday 13th, this year - which was set up by Save the Children as a fundraiser in 2012 and has raised over £21million, I'll be following the advice to get my xmas jumper from a charity shop. In fact one such is already to hand! This handknit woollen "Nordic" beauty has been in my cupboard for some years now - I love it - and best of all, it's not specifically "xmassy", but it is special...

We should be rethinking our xmas buying practices, says this article (and many more articles) - but why stop at xmas? "Less is more" all year round, and green isn't just for xmas.

Horror statistics are everywhere, and here are the ones that got me writing this post.

Acrylic, a plastic fibre, was found in 95% of 108 garments currently on sale from 11 high street and online retailers

Acrylic releases nearly 730,000 microfibres per wash, five times more than polyester-cotton blends, a recent study found

Two out of five Christmas jumpers are only worn once over the festive period

One in three adults under 35 buys a new Christmas jumper every year

Especially that last one. How many over-60s buy a Christmas jumper ever??

Christmas is, of course, "a time for giving". A time for buying useless stuff for people who have too much already, in my bah-humbug view. Then comes the post-xmas letdown and the darkest, coldest weather sets in and thousands of kids go to school without breakfast, not to mention all the other evils brought about by lack of, or poor distribution of, resources.

If you've got financial security, how lucky you are. This article, about someone who gives away a huge proportion of his substantial income, was a wake-up call for me. I know I can now afford to be more generous, though this is very different from the decades of frugality growing up in an immigrant (post-war to Canada) family, and then as student, wife of a student, and single mother; you get in the habit of holding on to what you've earned.

But which charities use their donations most effectively?

This article pointed out that charities with less than £5000 of income don't need to be registered - news to me! It has good information about how to assess the effectiveness of a charity, and how to find local charities.

It also points out that if you're a higher rate taxpayer, you can claim back tax on part of the gift aid added to your donation ... ah yes that's the rich taking care of the rich, bah-humbug...

Playing dress-up

The child in us likes to play dress-up now and then, so to give my inner child this opportunity I invented Jacket January. It consists of everyday wearing one of the many "little jackets" that accumulated in my cupboard during The Working Years. 

One of those jackets is not so "little". It's made of Collier Campbell (furnishing) fabric - probably a remnant found in Liberty's in the 1980s, that era of shoulder pads and power dressing. I was all set to wear it today, to brighten up a gloomy day, but either the fabric is overwhelming or the day isn't quite gloomy enough -

 So I went for this ensemble instead -

Note the jaunty cuffs! This jacket too is from the 1980s (I think) - it was found in a charity shop early this century, unfashionable because of its huge shoulder pads. But the fabric is superb, and the label says Jaeger - and I love the cuffs - so I took the trouble to remove the shoulder pads and restyle the shoulders. (Inside was some proper tailoring, a delight to behold.)

The ceramic pin that rests on its lapel came from a craft show at Somerset House in 2009, and I don't remember the name of the maker. It's been printed with various layers of coloured slip, and the design, or the method, cries out to be turned into a woodblock print -

 Back to that Collier Campbell fabric -

The name of the designers hovered near the tip of my tongue for an agonising length of time - how to find it if all you know is that sounds like duh-duh and duh-duh and one of the names starts with C? Finally I remembered seeing an exhibition at the Fashion and Textile museum and could scroll through their archive of shows, what a relief!

Many of their fabrics are shown online, but I haven't been able to find "mine" - I'd love to know what they called the pattern ... "leftover paint", maybe?

Perhaps the best known is Kasak -

(via)

Or maybe Bauhaus?

(via)

 Or Cote d'Azur?

(via)

 In 2013 The Collier Campbell Archive was published; its blurb says:

For the five decades of their partnership, the sisters were at the forefront of textile design, with their vibrant hand-painted patterns.  

They were renowned for their handling of colour with a painter's aesthetic and their signature ability to cheat the repeat in printing: qualities that infuse their work with a sense of fluidity, freshness and exuberance.  

Launching their careers in London during the Swinging Sixties, they made their names with stunning collections for Liberty of London Prints, and their renowned patterns, with a painterly aesthetic, marked a significant turning point in textile design. 

Together, Susan and Sarah painted textile patterns for international clients including Yves Saint Laurent, Liberty, Habitat, Cacharel, Jaeger, Fischbacher, Marks & Spencer, House of Fraser and many others in the UK.  

In the USA, Collier Campbell became a sought-after brand for designer bedding with Martex, Westpoint Stevens, Springs Wamsutta, and Homestead; their decorative fabric was taken up by P. Kaufmann and Fabricut, and their wallcoverings by Manuscreens and Imperial Wallcoverings. 

In 2011, The National Theatre, London, celebrated fifty years of their exuberant designs to great acclaim. Important examples of their work are held in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York. 

Susan sadly died in May 2011; Sarah is now working independently under her own name, undertaking one-off special commissions from hand-painted fabric pieces, scarves and stationery, to patterns and textiles for the high street with collaborative lines in both Marks & Spencer and West Elm.

This scarf, which also emerged from years of dormancy in my cupboard, is not a Collier Campbell design, but rather in that spirit -

Out of the closet - or rather, the wardrobe

Since my art school days, round about 2010, I've been wearing jeans, black jeans, on a rotational basis - one pair on the body, the other in the wash. It's been a liberation to be freed of "the tyranny of the closet", never being able to find the "right" thing to wear. So much easier to put on the jeans, add a teeshirt and other layer, and it's all done, you're set for the day.

And, in theory, it reduces the number of garments in one's wardrobe.

But recently I bought a dress, and then another, "just for a change". In the past few years, dresses have been flooding onto the market. Goodness, I even made one last winter.

Also recently, I became aware that the dresses, and much else, are simply languishing in the closet, probably picking up that unwelcome whiff of oldness that starts to inhabit clothes that rarely see the light of day.

As a result of these actions and thoughts, I came up with a personal project: 

Jeans-Free July

Can a jeans addict wear other garments for an entire month? Are YOU a jeans addict - would you like to try??

Excited by the idea, I had a little rummage in the closet and put a few outfits together in readiness. (Only 10 days to go!)

Dresses -

Latest acquisition - I felt the need of some COLOUR

"Just a long loose teeshirt" - but the golden colour
is so wonderful!

The smocky dress is bit short, needs leggings...

Without the teeshirt, this is perfect in the heat

Oldies but goodies - in fabulous fabrics. I whipped up
the jacket back in the 80s from a remnant, as one did
in those good old days

 Skirts -

That's probably enough* to be starting with, whatever the weather -

Just in case the weather turns chilly, as it can and has done, a number of LBJs (little black jackets) are ready for action. I do love an LBJ...

Leggings, if I dare, "at my age" - and why not! -

With other teeshirts, other shoes....

Love those long loose linen shirts!

Various non-jean trousers emerged, along with some other beloved linen shirts -

Candidates for studio-wear

... and a drawerful of teeshirts -

Too many stripes? No! You can never have too many stripes!!

*A while back I purged my wardrobe, with the help of a friend, in a couple of days of "japanese tidying". This involves gathering everything and going through it piece by piece. In our so-rich western culture, when we gather everything together, it becomes plain that we (I use "we" loosely, there are exceptions...) have SO much and often too much in our fortunate lives ... but that's another story.

At the risk of becoming a little old lady who is still wearing the clothes she bought during her working life - clothes that are now looking a little tired, emitting a gentle whiff and hanging loosely on her gaunt frame - I probably need buy nothing more for the next two decades, just rotate what's already there.

But goodness, isn't it nice to have something new to wear!! 

Historic dresses

As I sort out the accumulated souvenirs of my life so far, items large and small come to light. These dresses emerged from a plastic bag, smelling a bit musty - but the washing machine sorted that out. What to do with them now?

This folksy smock is of my own design, and I made quite a few of these either short or long, to wear when I was pregnant. Very 70s, don't you think? 

1976

The sleeve attaches to the yoke in a way that makes the join at the underarm a little tricky - the body doesn't have a side seam, instead the seam follows on from the line of the yoke, and there are pockets in that seam (must have pockets!). Apart from that one point needing attention, it was quick and straightforward to sew. They looked good with a jumper underneath, and a short red version was my favourite, I wore it forever -

5 Dam Head, Holmbridge, W.Yorkshire, 1977

Dress #2 is from Monsoon, at a time when I'd stopped sewing. The thick cotton fabric has floating white threads on a black background; it still looks like new (and doesn't need ironing). I wore red beads with it, and wore it often - first to the job interview at BMJ and thereafter to work. Loved the dress and loved that job.

1987

Happy memories ... but what to do with them now?

More garment sewing

The rain (and laziness) kept us in yesterday, so instead of going to see an exhibition I settled down to making "the ladybird dress" from: the fabric impulsively bought at Olympia earlier this month, a pattern that's been hanging around for five or six years, a zip picked out of a charity shop garment years ago, thread that didn't match but was the right tone ... and just when I thought I had everything needed, it turns out that the bodice needed to be lined (to finish the armholes) ... at which point the stash obligingly supplied some plain cotton, a bit stiffer than the ideal but "it'll do".

First difference from sewing as I remember it from my youth was that the pattern needed to be cut to size - in this case, a different size at the top and bottom, to match my measurements. In the aforementioned youth, patterns came in different sizes, and types - Misses, Juniors, and (do I misremember?) a type for mature figures - and in the envelope you'd find just the one size, 10 or 18 or whatever. Then as now, the pattern pieces were printed on enormous pieces of tissue paper, and had to be cut apart anyway, so cutting out to your size isn't extra work, just needs a bit of care and is more accurate in terms of eventual fit. 

Soon the pattern was laid out and ready for cutting out - double check and take a deep breath -

2 metres of 60" wide cotton = a sleeveless summer dress

The dress has a dropped waist and panelled flared skirt, perfect for adding pockets - you can see them integrated into the seams of the skirt front. There was just enough room - once the hem was taken up to my length - to fit everything in. The fabric requirements given on the envelope were rather more than the length I had bought so optimistically. I did wonder whether to piece the bodice lining out of the same fabric (in my youth I was a dab hand and that kind of thing) but went for the easy way instead. Too much danger of attaching it with the wrong side out!

Here are the lined bodice on the left, and the pockets inside the skirt on the right. Next time I'll take the top of the pocket up to the waist, to be sure it won't flap around inside the skirt; this time, if the pockets do flap around, a finger-crochet thread cord will join them.

Bodice and skirt are now joined, awaiting insertion of the (dreaded) zipper ... some research is needed on that one - I vaguely remember a method of basting the seam, machining the zip to one side (were teeth centred? maybe not), flipping it and top-stitching, then laying it on the other side of the seam and stitching from the right side of the fabric, which - once the basting was removed - created a perfect overlap. 

Another difference in sewing "then" and "now" is that I seem to need to constantly check the instructions, even though a few moments before I was perfectly clear on what needed to be done. Mind you, even "then" I did a lot of checking and re-checking. And "research" - for several teenage years, books on sewing were my favourite reading, either learning something new or revisiting familiar techniques - they were vividly re-created in my imagination, with underlying skepticism about whether something would actually work in reality, and an eye open for short cuts. 

While sewing I remembered the joy of spending the day, or the afternoon, making something new to go out in that evening. That would be one of my favourite ways to spend the day, even now.

Getting back into garment sewing

Since seeing the asymmetrical top on the last episode of The Great British Sewing Bee, I've wanted to make it. The pattern is in a book, and this involves tracing it off from the sheet -

 Not my favourite task, but while I was at it I traced the pattern for the top with big pockets, shown on the cover. The vintage tracing wheel that came to me via Sally Douglass (thanks, Sally!) got good use, as did the weight that came with some ancient scales at one point and has proved SO useful since -

Much paper was pieced to make sheets big enough.

Nor was there table space big enough for laying out the fabric.

Ah, the fabric - I was attracted by the "dazzle" pattern and the fluidity of the fabric ... which will be causing me problems, as it shifts all over the place. Trying out sewing threads, I'm not having much luck with what's on hand, and don't seem to have nylon or polyester in navy blue. 

The serger is threaded up with black thread, which might do - but when I tried it out, one of the threads promptly snapped. Which will involve finding the manual and re-learning the threading. Or sticking with the ordinary machine ... either way, some research is needed.

At the moment I feel that this will be another trying-to-sew-knit-fabric disaster ... the jersey dress I made in 2007 is still unhemmed, gathering dust on Esmerelda the dress form, in a corner of the hall outside the weekend studio.

Several hours later
After cleaning and rethreading the serger, and a visit to the local [how lucky to have one] fabric shop to get ballpoint needles and polyester thread, and some fiddling around with stitches and tension on the other machine, I worked through the instructions in the book ... and cursed my choice of fabric. Then, once the neck was done, I cursed myself for not following my instincts - to staystitch the neckline, for a start: the fabric stretched, and the strip for facing will be much shorter next time!

The fabric feels lovely to wear, or would if it was warm enough to wear this yet. Even in summer, thanks to the stretched neck (and floppy facing) it will have to be layered over a teeshirt -

The next version will be made in cotton jersey, something irresistible from the local shop.

Lots of lessons learned. I don't have much experience of sewing with knits or with stretchy fabrics ... more research needed, for a start - and two garments are waiting to be made in cotton jersey.

Greek pins

These pins, in the Greek section of the British Museum, are a good 20 cm long. The label tells a story:

Two bronze pins for fastening the peplos on the shoulder. Greek, 8th century BC, said to be from Lake Copias, Boetia
Herodotus relates how the sole survivor of an Athenian expedition against Aegina brought news of the death of his comrades to the women of Athens, who overcome with grief stabbed him to death with pins. As punishment the women were made to change their dress from the Doric peplos to the Corinthian chiton, which could be fastened without pins.

Versatile garments

Traveller's friend, the Kooshoo shawl can be worn in 12 ways. Made from Tencel and sourced from sustainable eucalyptus trees, it's very eco-conscious.

Even more bang for your buck - the Versalette has 30 configurations! It also has an instruction video, and an interesting story of how this idea led to formation of a company, Seamly.co, that makes all its garments from deadstock fabric, ie. fabric discarded by other manufacturers.

Seal gut parkas

For protection against the wet - waterproof seal gut parkas made by the Inuit. Sometimes grass was sewn into the seams - it swelled when it got wet and made the seams waterproof. This one is in the Glenbow Museum, Calgary -

and these (photographed in 1910) both seem to be decorated with feathers -

This is what they start with (read about the process here)

Fine fellows

These tiny bears (held in a gloved hand to give an idea of scale)were made by Karen Apps, another student on the book arts course. The smallest is 3/4" high, and all are jointed. The largest is about 3" high.
Yes, she sewed the dungarees and knit that red sweater with the tiny stitches. See more of her bears, and read about how they relate to her current work, here.

One man and his serger

My neglected serger/overlocker is finally getting used - by my son for making T-shirts, prior to printing them:
Stage 2:
Rear view, with logo:A T-shirt in a heavier double-knit is proving more difficult altogether - but it's all part of the learning curve - for me too, as my knowledge of sewing knit fabric is practically non-existent.

Frankenstein stitching

Last week my son was walking across the road and got hit by a car. He was lucky - just a few cuts and bruises, but did get taken to A&E by ambulance, and they cut off his trousers to check for damage to his legs.

While recuperating, Thomas thought it would be a good idea to sew up the cut trousers with a "frankenstein stitch". I found some iron-on interfacing to hold the legs together, and did the tricky parts - then showed him the stitch (sort of a two-sided buttonhole stitch) and gave him the needle and thread.It took a while - he has long legs -
Here it is before stitching -
and here it is, finished -
- except for the embelishment of a designer label on the back pocket - Thomas had a heraldic idea involving Corgis -
I gave him various types of fabric, showed him my textile paints and collection of rubbers for cutting a stamp, found the freezer paper in case he wanted to make stencils, and then went away for the weekend.

Coming back, I found the worktable clear except for this neat array of paint, and replacement rubbers -
In another part of the room, evidence of activity -
Haven't looked at the results - I'm waiting for him to come home from work and tell me about it. Where next ....