Weekend Review: Crafting a Getaway

 

Crafting a Getaway / Barbara Emodi
Concord, CA: C&T Publishing, c2024.
240 p.

I found another volume in the Gasper's Cove mystery series by sewing writer Barbara Emodi! I enjoy this series so I snatched this one up. It's another episode in the mystery-solving life of amateur sleuth Valerie Rankin, resident of Gasper's Cove, Nova Scotia. 

There have been some changes in this story; Valerie is now the manager of the family hardware business, where she also runs her crafting workshops and studio. Her cousin Rollie has moved on to managing a local inn with his girlfriend. 

The action starts off with a mistake by Valerie (as it often does). She is planning a crafting retreat but realizes that she entered the dates wrong on her event listing -- she got them backwards, so instead of August 7 like she is planning for, the retreat has been advertised for July 8. Which is now. She only has a day or two to pull together her instructors and try to run it immediately, since the retreat guests are already in town. 

So she runs around, finding herself in just the right place every time to add some clues to the upcoming mystery. Her final stop, at the Inn (where the retreat is scheduled for August, and has no room now since there is a corporate event going on) is where she comes across the dead body of the marketing specialist from the corporate event. 

Valerie continues rushing around into multiple blind alleys -- it's her modus operandi in each book. But in this one, the plotting is a little more intricate and there are both more characters and more suspects. There are also tons of references scattered in about Nova Scotia ecology and history, which I always find so fascinating and a very enjoyable part of this series. Valerie also talks about craft, of course; she's taken on teaching the quilting class, which is not her specialty, so we hear all about that too. 

I really enjoyed this one. The story was more complex than the first books in the series - Emodi's writing style is growing and the setting is more developed after four books, too. The solution to this mystery was a bit out there, but it was a fun journey. 

Sewing paper - recycled books to be exact!

I have a new test project underway -- I am trying to sew together some recycled paper circles! This is an idea I had for my workplace, to create a backdrop for an event. I think I'll have to sew together a lot of these to get there. Maybe I'll just make a garland! 

To get these circles, I used some discarded paperbacks from our collection, all with the same kind of paper but slightly different fonts and sizes of type, for variety. I tried to avoid anything that would have explicit language on it, also! I then used the large button punch from our makerspace. It is a manual punch so I could only do a few at a time before my hand hurt. Thankfully some of my coworkers took turns and so between us we got quite a few ready. 

How did the sewing go? Well...much easier than I'd anticipated! I used some old needles that I save for just this kind of thing, and used up some of my partial spools of random beige/cream threads. Sewing on air is actually simpler than I'd thought it might be. I made piles of 25 circles, then started by sewing a lead in -- held the threads behind the foot and sewed a few stitches, then fed in the first circle. I just kept feeding them, leaving a few air stitches between each one. Then I tied off the threads after the final circle. 

I've made a batch of them, enough to definitely use as decorative garlands. Not sure I have enough to hang together as a photo background but I can make a few more and see it that might work. One thing I noted is that it does take some time, as you can't sew too quickly, and it takes a lot of thread. But the result is really lovely and I'm enjoying it! It's a good project for listening to audiobooks since it doesn't take much focus once you get started :)

Weekend Review: Keeping Up Appearances

 

I'm always interested in fashion history, so I picked up this book from my library and dug right into it. It is exactly what it says: a look at fashion codes between the two World Wars, and how they delineated class. I think it's understood from the title and cover images that it is entirely focused on the UK - but if not, it is definitely 100% England focused. 

With a lot of research (the bibliography is lengthy!) and some fun additions like editorial cartoons of the time that poke fun at fashion topics, this is an interesting read. There were descriptions of the minutiae of dress and how even a glove or a tie had so much cultural meaning. She brings up Rational Dress societies and how they tried to change men's dress habits, with very little success -- menswear seldom changes much, or quickly. There was a photo of a man striding down a street in white knee length shorts and an open shirt, surrounded by men in full suits and hats, giving him a bit of a stink eye. The photo makes you realize how startling it would have been to see that "Rational Dress" outfit in context, and why it wasn't quickly adopted. 

Another thing I appreciated was that the author used novels as part of her research. She quotes some parts of Rosamond Lehmann, Dorothy Whipple and Nancy Mitford, all authors I've read and so these felt resonant to me. I enjoyed the addition of fiction and cartoons into an otherwise quite academic book. I felt that it was a little dry, a little too detailed at times, so these elements helped give it more of a popular read feel. 

Overall I enjoyed this one and it made me very glad that dress restrictions are not quite so particular these days! 

Maya Top Two Ways

I had some fabric left over after I finished my "retro" 90 sarong McCalls recently, just enough to make a boxy top. I have quite a few options, but since I bought the Maya pattern from Marilla Walker before she shut down, I thought I'd finally try this one! 

My nice fabric is quite soft and drapey, so I thought I'd make a fit muslin first, using a remnant in my stash that I would not be using otherwise (left over from this Burda dress). I got the fit right with few adjustments (size 5 and grading out to 6 at the hip) so went ahead with my final. It's pretty shiny here but the weight was right for a test! ;)

I added an inch to the length of the real top, although I don't know that I really needed to. In the muslin I didn't finish it with french seams as the instructions tell you to - it was just a test. But I did do all the fancy finishes on the final version - it has frenched shoulder and side seams and gives a lovely finish. You sew the curved hem prior to sewing up the sides and I think that works really well, but you do have to have the length set ahead of time! 

This is cute, although I find it slips toward the back a little, maybe because I added extra width to the back and the weight is pulling a bit? Not quite sure, but it's not bad enough to make this unwearable, just a little annoyance now and again. The flowiness and the fabric makes it worth it for me. Enjoyed finally trying out this pattern! 

Weekend Review: Madly Marvelous: the Costumes of the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

 

The funny thing about me picking up this book is that I have only seen the first two episodes of this show. I couldn't get into it at all. But the outfits are amazing - and really the only reason I tried to watch this! 

This book, by costumer Donna Zakowska, is fascinating nonetheless! I really enjoyed it. It covers many seasons, so if you are currently watching or plan to, you may find some spoilers. Otherwise you are good ;) I liked the way it was arranged, showing the progression of the costuming with the character development. There were some sketches of the outfits, and explanations of how and why Zakowska decided on a specific look. And then lots and lots of beautiful photos of the outfits that Mrs. Maisel wears throughout. Good closeups of some of the details and fabrics for those of us looking for that, too. 

But it's about more than just the main character. There are sections about other characters (namely her manager and her mother and a bit about the men too) where the costume decisions are explained. Zakowska saw the outfits that she was putting people in as reflections of their characters and their emotional states, and wanted to communicate it to viewers, even if as a subtle or subconscious message. 

And I was shocked at how detailed she got -- with the main characters of course, but also for the extras. SO MANY extras and so many outfits. And all had her eye over them before they were approved to be on film. 

If you're interested in movie costuming, and in one of the most notable shows for wardrobe in recent times, you'll really enjoy this too. I am proof that you don't need to have seen the show to get a lot of this book. I thought it was beautifully put together with plenty of photos to engage the reader, and was a great read for anyone who loves clothes. 

Hinterland #1

Well I made up my first Hinterland Dress, after much pattern fiddling & two muslins (two more than I usually do!) I had to make a lot of changes to this one for a variety of reasons. 

First I had to make a small bust adjustment, as this pattern is designed for a C cup. This was the first time I've actually gone to the trouble to do it, and I'm glad I did, it really worked out. Because of the size differential, this adjustment actually got rid of the bust dart entirely. 

I also added a 1/4" neckline dart (something I often do) and then had to take in a 1" dart on each back shoulder. It was a lot! But the back neckline still wasn't sitting quite right, so after reading a bunch of online reviews both on IG and in the blog world, I adjusted the shoulder slope. When I change the shoulder in a pattern, it's usually to take up the outer edge of (usually) just the right shoulder. But here I took 1/2" up from the NECK edge, tapering out to nothing by the shoulder seam. This was unusual for me, but it really worked. After that the bodice seemed to fit quite well. And so I went ahead with a wearable muslin! 

The changes I made to this particular dress were to lengthen the pocket bag so that I could anchor it into the waist seam - that reduces floppiness, which is great. I used an old rayon from my stash that I'm not overly attached to, so that I wouldn't balk at making mistakes! 

There are still a couple of things I would like to adjust with this pattern. First, the front neckline does gape a bit -- I hope I didn't stretch it out (staystitched it right after cutting but...) but thinking it might need to be adjusted by another 1/4" dart. I often have to take up to 1/2" out of the centre front so this doesn't surprise me terribly. 

The other change is that the waistline, after all my adjustments, is too hi-low for my tastes. I like the height of the front waistline, but then it dips down quite a bit to the side seams and across the back, and I'm not fond of that. I am going to straighten out the waistline to the length of the front bodice all around, and then make another to see if all these adjustments do the trick.

I don't usually spend so much time on fitting a simple dress like this. However, I bought the Creative Hinterland design course, so want to get the fit perfect so that I can begin on the design options and know any issues I'm having are from my redrafting and not the original I've begun on ! 

In any case, this is quite a wearable, light summer dress and I'm sure I will get some use out of it. It was a challenge but I'm happy I followed through on it. 

Weekend Review: Vintage Fashion

 

Vintage Fashion / Ottilie Godfrey
London: Arcturus, c2013.
128 p.

I picked up this little book at the library -- I mean, look at that cover! It's so charming. The subtitle of this one is "Classic 20th Century styles and designs", and it does sort of live up to that. It covers the vintage eras of the 20th C., namely the 20s to the 80s. Each chapter covers the highlights, with famous names of the decade, particularly memorable looks and trends (including models), and lots of photos. 

It's entertaining to flip through, even if it is really focused heavily on Europe and North American designers and fashions, and features so many of the models of those eras.

I enjoyed the overview; if you know fashion already, you're going to be familiar with nearly everything in this book, but there were a couple of photos that I hadn't seen before, and it was nice to be able to study some representative examples closely. 

Not a must have, but a fun book to look through from the library. Lots of great details to enjoy, and a bare bones historical tour for those new to the field.