79 posts tagged with sewing.
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Swatchbook
"a miniature world, inhabited by stylish ants"
Ann Wood's house of fabric ants who like midcentury furniture and modern art. And their Christmas preparations. More information about making the Beaumonts and their house. And some ideas for having ideas.
And, via a comment from MeFite umwhat in Ask in 2015, Ann Wood's workspace.
Textile Eye Candy
CLOTH#20 is 2020's online offering of an annual textile makers and designers exhibit and sale. Just barely international, but mostly Scottish, the exibition showcases 50 craftspeople and designers. You can ogle the goods and some demo videos from the main page, or click through to individual maker websites.
she's a sewing machine mechanic
Asks for masks
These medical facilities are requesting masks. Instructions here for simple masks, here (pattern here) for the kind that takes a filter. (Hepa filters apparently work - also these.) Joann's is donating fabric (shipped or curbside, at some stores - contact info at link), and also taking in finished products.
Embroidery tattoos: needle work of needlework
People Are Getting Colorful Tattoos That Look Like Embroidery on Skin (My Modern Met): "From thread painting to freestyle, stitchers have a lot of choices when it comes to making images with thread. Embroidery tattoos feature two predominant methods that are inspired by the ancient practice: cross stitch and crewel. The cross stitch tattoo, first made popular by Eva Karabudak, has designs formed by tiny "X" marks, while the crewel approach mimics the satin stitch on the skin." Brazil's Duda Lozano is the the master of the patch tattoo. [more inside]
The Warmth of Beauty, the Beauty of Warmth
"Parkas have been here for centuries. And now people around the world are starting to clue into what Northerners have always known: if you want to stay warm, there’s nothing better than a northern parka." Jessica Davey-Quantick's "The Art and Science of Staying Warm" (Canada's Up Here) explores the great beauty and utility of handmade parkas. [more inside]
Clever Seamstressing
18th Century Dresses From Ikea Textiles. Apparently, Ikea has a history of reproducing 18th century textiles. And, since it can be difficult to find modern natural-fiber fabrics in prints that feel historically accurate, costumers use them to make dresses. American Duchess offers her advice on selecting your fabric from Ikea home furnishings here.
Attaching Doll Hair
The machine. The full doll-making process from 1968 (this valley, it is uncanny), from 1963 (very similar). Anna from Frozen gets hair. Barbie gets hair. Large-scale Barbie gets two-tone hair. Another small-scale fashion doll gets hair.
You can automate a lot of things. Sewing isn't one of them.
This is your occasional reminder that robots can't sew clothes, and that every garment you own - yes, even that $5 t-shirt - was stitched together by a person. [Twitter thread — view on Threadreader] [more inside]
You literally cannot mess this up
How we Lost our Ability to Mend [clothes] from Die, Workwear!, "A semi-daily blog about classic men's tailoring and semi-casual attire."
Classical Art & Real-Life Doppelgänger
In which costumer and historical sewing enthusiast Bernadette Banner recreates the dress from Jacques-Louis David's "Portrait of a Young Woman in White": Making a Regency-Bodied petticoat. Making the gown. Bringing the portrait to life.
Sew Profane
Meet the Profanity Embroidery Group: How a sweary stitching group is helping women through loss, loneliness, and rage (metro.co.uk). But is it safe for work? NOPE. [more inside]
Quilting is fun! Row by row, or as a big, ugly sleeping bag
Do you like to travel AND sew? Great! Row by Row Experience is an annual collaboration between quilting shops in the U.S., Canada, and some locations in England, Scotland, Germany, and the Netherlands with an annual theme to unify designs, available in four different shapes. There are also some patterns available online and mail-order from past years. Or if you already have surplus fabric, old blankets, or any cloth, you can make an ugly quilt sleeping bag for the Sleeping Bag Project to help the homeless (existing groups are in the U.S., but you can start your own, or maybe just do your own thing).
putting boning in a binder
THINGS I NEED TO FUCKING KNOW: Why every fuckin trans man or nb person I know who binds is like “oh binders are the worst, you can’t breathe in them, I know someone who broke a rib once”. And meanwhile over in historical costuming, we are fucking eating, sleeping, swordfighting, riding horses, and feeling great in smooth-bodiced corsets. What if the secret to making a better binder is to add boning? What might be possible?
Handmade heritage
The stories from Atharna's project to document and archive Middle Eastern crafts are now up on their website: portraits of artisans and skilled craftspeople, from Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, Egypt and the countries of the Gulf. via
Have You Seen This Fabric?
Since 1999, Missing Fabrics has offered a free*, crowd-sourced service for locating hard-to-find fabrics for quilters, upholsterers, and other crafters who need just a little more fabric in order to complete a project. It is also a glorious example of early web design and community. [more inside]
Biscornu? I hardly know you!
How to Make Biscornu Make a complicated looking octagonal pincushion out of two simple squares. They can be made with embroidered or plain fabric and you can add a button in the middle to make it look more like a doughnut biscuit spaceship. Biscornu is a French term that means 'bizarre' or crooked.
This post is so sew.
Sometimes I find a thing that is not in my wheelhouse but I think will be of interest to my fellow mefites. This is one of those posts. Open Culture has compiled an Online Trove of Historic Sewing Patterns & Costumes. They all appear to be free to download, including the very cool looking Custom Corset Pattern Generator. Enjoy!
My kid could do that! Oh, wait, no. Never mind.
Callum Donovan-Grujicich is an twelve year-old artist who lives in Whitby, Ontario with his parents, his younger brother and his beloved dog Jiggs. From about the time he was learning to walk, Callum showed a strong inclination towards expressing himself through art, preferably in three dimensions. At the age of ten he began experimenting with the creation of art dolls and has been passionately constructing them ever since. They are made from a variety of materials, including paper clay, wire armature, acrylic paint, fabric, stuffing and various found objects. He hand sews all the clothes.
VIRTUE AND DEVOTION
What Sewing Samplers Tell Us About Women’s Lives from the 17th to 19th Centuries.
The Fitzwilliam Museum's exhibit Sampled Lives exhibition shows how samplers (needlework training and practice) hold hidden messages in symbolism and contain clues of the lives of women and girls who made them. [more inside]
The Fitzwilliam Museum's exhibit Sampled Lives exhibition shows how samplers (needlework training and practice) hold hidden messages in symbolism and contain clues of the lives of women and girls who made them. [more inside]
Thrifted Transformations
Thrifted Transformations is a YouTube series by April aka coolirpa, and it is all about transforming thrift shop clothes (and sometimes not-clothes) into entirely new creations. (See also ReFashionista, previously on MeFi.)
Come for the weaving, stay for the hedgehog washing
Tien Chiu is a textile artist, a writer, a person of colour, someone with bipolar disorder, a semi-pro chocolatier, and the creator of her own museum-quality wedding dress. [more inside]
Best in Fashion, Make it Yours
The Vintage Pattern Wiki is a collaborative dedicated to Vintage Sewing Patterns (25 years old or older) and well worth browsing through for how some styles rarely change dramatically and how some things really do. Currently it lists over 83,500 patterns from companies you probably recognize (Vogue, Burda, Butterick, McCall/McCall’s) and ones you may not (Academy Patterns, ABC Schnitt, Pictorial Review). And lots of Mail Order Companies. Not sure about those vintage fabric suggestions (Barathea? Vicara? Poor boy?)? The Vintage Fashion Guild has got you covered.
Sewing, Blogging and Feeling Fabulous
The Curvy Sewing Collective is a group blog that addresses the particular needs of curvy sewists. [more inside]
There’s something about making something to last
As we all practice expressing our opinions on current events, MeFites (and Americans) have been thinking about protest materials which can be carried everywhere in case of emergency protests. Fortunately, we're not the only ones: Stephanie Syjuco thinks fabric banners and signs are *awesome*. They tap into a long history of using textiles to protest, for one thing--textiles have marched alongside everything from suffragettes to AIDS activists, especially alongside activist women. Plus they're easy to carry, and they clearly demonstrate how much you care about a topic--and they can be great household decoration when the march is done. Best of all, she's written up a helpful guide on how to make your own, complete with instructions suited to a variety of experience and skill levels. [more inside]
Southern Culture in the Threads
"For most of us, thread is something we think about only when it breaks — a lost shirt button, a ripped hem, a dangling end waiting to be trimmed. But for Natalie Chanin, thread is the tie that binds her to Southern textiles and to the relatives who worked at Florence’s Sweetwater Mill during the industry’s heyday." Kristi York Wooten writes about the history and resonances of Alabama Chanin, a "homegrown fashion line," for The Bitter Southerner.
i want that LED dress as my wedding dress
18-year-old self-taught costume designer Angela Clayton makes incredible, highly detailed outfits based on history, fantasy, and (formerly) cosplay. Some standouts include a medieval gown with accompanying escoffin, an Elsa costume with over 100,000 hand-applied rhinestones, and a Christmas costume with LED lights. She documents her progress regularly and provides sewing tutorials for her work.
When in doubt, I just start removing the things that annoy me.
ReFashionista: Jillian Owens takes out-dated, oversized or was-this-ever-fashionable? thrift store clothing and turns it into wearable clothing. She's been blogging since 2010 so her archives are lengthy, but she's also just started an update-a-day challenge for 2016. Want to skip the lengthy explanations and just see some before-and-after photos? Try this slideshow of her work on the Grist.
“We Patch Anything”: WPA Sewing Rooms
During the Depression, the Works Project Administration put American men to work on large-scale, highly-visible undertakings, like dam building and highway construction. Women, too, needed work, and some of them found it through WPA Sewing Rooms, where they earned wages for making clothing for low-income Americans. [more inside]
Where else do you keep your needles?
The Avery Needle Case Resource Center is your comprehensive source for information about brass needle cases created by the W. Avery & Son company between 1868 and 1890. [more inside]
Filmless Animation
Tentmakers of Cairo
"In the tomb of Princess Isinkheb was found an entire tent – its inside lined with animals and flowers, the blue ceiling studded with appliqued stars..." and the ancient Egyptian craft of tent making is still alive today. Australian filmmaker Kim Beamish spent three years immersed in the lives of craftsmen, filming his documentary The Tentmakers of Cairo, which premieres this April. It also tells the story of Egypt's struggle with democracy through the lives of a community of artisans whose craft has remained largely unchanged since Pharaonic times. [more inside]
Extreme Makeover: Corset and Bustle Edition
Do you know how to sew or would you like to learn? Have you ever fantasized about dressing like a sans-culotte or a dowager countess? Do you enjoy historical research and like hunting for or improvising archaic materials and accessories? Are you entranced by the costumes on Outlander or, alternatively, are you horrified by the anachronistic use of chunky yarn and clan tartans? If so, historical costuming may be the hobby for you! Historical costumers amuse themselves by creating authentic (to varying degrees) outfits from a variety of historical periods. Bloggers share pictures of their creations, as well as information and ideas about patterns, techniques, and materials. Here are ten historical and costume sewing blogs to follow for inspiration! [more inside]
The $3,500 Shirt
This is the thread about threads that dance across your screen
For your viewing pleasure: one music video made with sewing and embroidery tools, one music video made of sewing and embroidery tools.
On Sewing as a Universal Language
Cousu Main (which starts here) is an adaptation of The Great British Sewing Bee, and the blog of one of the participants features significant spoilers for this season. Although it's in French, the show is not hard for an English speaker to follow, just as Project Runway Vietnam (2013: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8), Project Runway Korea (2009: 1 2 3 4 5 6 ...), and Projeto Fashion from Brazil--among others--make some sense to those familiar with the English-language series Project Runway Australia, Project Runway Canada, Project Runway Malaysia (2007 finale: 1-5 and 6), Project Runway Philippines (2008: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15), and Mission Catwalk from Jamaica.
More than just Granny Squares
Yarn Bombs: In the '70s, Knitting Was Totally Far Out is a fun and frightening collection of knitting patterns from the 70s.
FPP: Foundation Paper Piecing
Many types of quilt blocks can be built by stitching together
simple geometric shapes.
Then there’s paper (sometimes called foundation) piecing. [more inside]
You realize your body is bespoke.
There are many reasons people start sewing their own clothes: to break out of some of the cycle of fast fashion’s humanitarian and ecological issues (MF link), to be creative, to make quality clothes, to support local fabric shops and independent pattern designers, and to express their own style. A sometimes-overlooked benefit, though, is that of examining body acceptance. [more inside]
Give Respect to Get Respect
Cotton + Steel is five Southern women - fabric design artists - who convinced "an industry giant to let them build an entire new division of the company according to their own particular vision." Tough, creative women making beautiful fabric in a time of renewed interest in sewing and quilting, and succeeding in business. interview with company founder Melody Miller here.
I haven't got a stitch to wear
Drag queen and insult comic Bianca del Rio (a hopeful on this season of RuPaul's Drag Race) makes herself a dress in less than 5 minutes live on stage.
Bras in Space
Bras in Space: The Incredible True Story Behind Upcoming Film "Spacesuit"
When we think of the Apollo 11 moon landing, what do we think of? President Kennedy’s bold vision. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s heroism (unfortunately we rarely think about Command Module Pilot Michael Collins). Perhaps we even think of the incredible engineers, rocket scientists, astrophysicists and all the other geniuses at NASA who made it possible. Now we want you to think about your grandma’s bra.[more inside]
Lisa Kokin: Sewn Found Photos
Sewn Found Photos "Sometimes there are inscriptions on the back (“Susie, 7 years old”) but more often they come to me stripped of all identity. I sit in my studio and speculate about the nature of the photographed people’s lives. I will, of course, never know the truth, so I feel it is my job to give them new lives and rescue them from the obscurity they would be headed for were it not for me, humble servant of the arts. I try to invent an altogether different identity for them but of course, in the final analysis these works are more about me than any of the hundreds of anonymous individuals who appear in my work."
More from Lisa Kokin.
"It does not give you conspicuous, ephemeral extremes [..] You can absolutely rely on the styles given you in Butterick Patterns"
The New Dressmaker; With complete and fully illustrated instructions on every point connected with sewing, dressmaking and tailoring, from the actual stitches to the cutting, making, altering, mending, and cleaning of clothes for ladies, misses, girls, children, infants, men and boys; The Butterick Publishing Co., 1921; 168 p. illus. [more inside]
Making a case for making your own laptop case
If you’re looking for a way to carry your laptop about, want to protect it from scratches, or just hope to make the fact that you’re carrying a brand-new laptop slightly less obvious to shifty-eyed individuals who seem to be overtaking you on a deserted, dark street, and you have been disheartened by the cost and ugliness of the laptop cases and sleeves on the market, take heart. You can make a laptop case or sleeve that will not only protect your computer but will proclaim your individuality and style. Like yoga? Make a case out of your yoga mat. Love to travel? Use a vintage suitcase. If you’re a Jim Henson fan, make a Furry Monster case (but just don’t keep your computer under your bed at night because your aging parents are already terribly tired of running down to your basement lair every time you have a nightmare). [more inside]
Thoughts about women and homemaking in the 21st century
"This blog is a look at the social movement I call ‘New Domesticity’ – the fascination with reviving “lost” domestic arts like canning, bread-baking, knitting, chicken-raising, etc. Why are women of my generation, the daughters of post-Betty Friedan feminists, embracing the domestic tasks that our mothers and grandmothers so eagerly shrugged off? Why has the image of the blissfully domestic supermom overtaken the Sex and the City-style single urban careerist as the media’s feminine ideal? Where does this movement come from? What does it mean for women? For families? For society?"
"...I can climb walls..."
Dang, sun!
What did they wear Down Under?
What kind of uniform did prisoners transported to Australia in the 19th century wear? How did you keep yourself in underwear despite WWII rationing? Check out the Australian Dress Register--it's more than just dresses!
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