Cover Designs! #37: Dear Mrs. Bird

 

Cover Designs is a feature in which I try to match up the outfit on a book cover with a dress pattern and sometimes even potential fabric matches as well.

Today's pick is Dear Mrs. Bird by A.J. Pearce.

Summary from the Publisher

London 1940, bombs are falling. Emmy Lake is Doing Her Bit for the war effort, volunteering as a telephone operator with the Auxiliary Fire Services. When Emmy sees an advertisement for a job at the London Evening Chronicle, her dreams of becoming a Lady War Correspondent seem suddenly achievable. But the job turns out to be typist to the fierce and renowned advice columnist, Henrietta Bird. Emmy is disappointed, but gamely bucks up and buckles down.

Mrs Bird is very clear: Any letters containing Unpleasantness—must go straight in the bin. But when Emmy reads poignant letters from women who are lonely, may have Gone Too Far with the wrong men and found themselves in trouble, or who can’t bear to let their children be evacuated, she is unable to resist responding. As the German planes make their nightly raids, and London picks up the smoldering pieces each morning, Emmy secretly begins to write letters back to the women of all ages who have spilled out their troubles.

This retro inspired outfit could be put together fairly quickly - you could use the Astoria Sweater pattern by Seamwork to sew up a knit top; you'd just have to shorten the sleeve to get this look! It even has a nice ribbing at the bottom to copy this cover image really closely. 

The skirt is a crisp A-line and could be replicated with the Liesl & Co. Garibaldi Skirt, in the mid-length view. This is an easy sew and a great fit for big prints like the cover image, since there are no front or back seams to worry about! 

Finish up your look with a nice pair of pumps and some fun upcycled typewriter themed jewellery!  

Enjoy this charming story with its vintage flair and make yourself a bright vintage inspired outfit to wear while reading! 

Weekend Review: How to Embroider Texture and Pattern

 

How To Embroider Texture and Pattern / Melissa Galbraith
Mount Joy, PA: Landauer, c2023.
160 p.

It's nice to see an embroidery book that moves beyond the basics to something more unusual and challenging. This one lives up to its title -- it has many ideas for creating texture and pattern with stitch.

This was a really great read. It explores many areas that are fresh, and has a definite style of its own, one that's intriguing and colourful. I was inspired! It starts with an overview of the basics (supplies, transferring patterns and so on). Despite this, I think this book is aimed at the intermediate stitcher, one who is ready to learn new techniques and add to their repertoire.

There are 20 projects included, growing in difficulty as you go. The focus is on landscapes, using a variety of stitches, which are all outlined in a glossary. One of the ways that these stitches can create movement and variety is to pay attention to stitch direction - she shows how it can change a piece and create vibrancy. The book also explores how to use fabric prints to add to the effect of a landscape. 

But she also uses other elements to create striking pieces. There is tufting (textured stitching) and using 

organza overlays and stitching in layers to create depth and shading. I found this particularly lovely, and I haven't seen it done before. She's not just stitching an image and then shading with a piece of organza; the background has some stitching, then the organza is added and more stitching as well. It creates visual depth and is really effective. I'd have read this book just for this technique! 

She also goes into framing and finishing. This assumes that you'll be framing most pieces in a hoop, so there is guidance on finishing the back of your piece neatly. This is a useful element that isn't always found in an embroidery book. 

I would definitely recommend this to any stitcher who wants to learn some new stitches or techniques. The way that Galbraith approaches her embroidery is focused and artistic, and I think gives a wider view to what's possible for a newer stitcher. I thought the projects were well laid out and beautiful as well. Great ideas if you are a landscape lover! 

Impulse Sewing: a yellow print top

I made a quick boxy top this week, totally unplanned and not at all what I had scheduled in the sewing room! I was given just over 1 m. of this yellow polycotton by a coworker, and I picked up a couple of older sewing patterns at the thrift store a day or two later. They came together serendipitously and I quickly made a pullover top; the square neckline appealed to me! 

This is a crisp fabric, even after washing, so the shape is really boxy. But I really like the print and the way the neckline holds its shape. I can wear it tucked in or loose over something, although I think I might add some side slits to make that option a little more comfortable. 

I used a pattern from a series that was connected to a book that you got pattern instructions to file into, and then the matching patterns. I've seen quite a few of these patterns while thrifting (even own a few more) but have never seen the instructions to go with them. The patterns are all pretty clear, though, if you've been sewing for a while, and this one in particular was very easy so no instructions were needed. 

I measured the pattern pieces, and took 1/2" out of centre front as well as shortening it by using the lengthen/shorten line on the pattern - that was perfect. I added interfacing to the facing pieces, and sewed it all up pretty quickly. The sleeves had a bit too much ease in the sleeve cap for my liking; there were puckers in the shoulder seam. They are minor and unnoticeable due to the print but I will probably redo them to get a smoother finish at some point! 

This was a fast project, and a colourful one. I like a pullover top, and I love the colours of this fabric. It's very simple, so not perfect; there are no bust darts so the fit can't be adjusted much, for example. But as a quick & easy make it did the trick!

Weekend Review: Daydream Journals

 

Daydream Journals / Tilly Rose
Tunbridge Wells: Search Press, c2022.
128 p.

This was an unusual read for me, a book of embroidered projects which I found via the library. The title and cover make it clear that this is a book about making cloth books! But there are a few other 'wrap' style projects as well. 

The first half of the book is made up of instruction - tools, techniques, and lots of inspiration. The second half then shares projects for readers to make themselves. There is also a small stitch guide section included at the end. 

There are 8 projects in total:  a journal wrap (cover), sewing case, project bag, jar cozy, and 4 kinds of books/booklets. There is nice variety and some intriguing artistic concepts here. The projects are heavily photographed and simple enough to people to follow along. Some of the steps require hand sewing along with the embroidery to finish up a project, but it's all easily done by someone with fairly basic stitching skills. 

But the book is in the 'messy' English style of textile work, and so includes more than the stitches as part of these projects. The design and decoration of many of these textiles includes painting fabric with watercolours to give a gentle wash effect, solar dyeing and even using squished berries as ink sources. I wonder a bit about the lasting power of these techniques but they do give an interesting effect! 

If you like this kind of shabby chic English aesthetic, you might find some appealing ideas for techniques to try in this book. I'm not sure I'd make any of the actual projects in full, but some of the parts of the projects could be adaptable to other things. It's not 100% my style of making but still interesting enough to look at and see how someone else approaches this kind of project and technique.

The "Stitch Wrap" - probably my favourite idea in the book!

And Lacey Makes Three

To recover from my missing sewjo in June I decided to make a pattern I've made twice before, the Lacey Dress by Style Arc. This is a great pattern to use with stripes, and it's also a nice loose summer dress to wear on hot days.

I had some rayon that I bought at a PatternReview weekend in Chicago in 2016 so it was time to use it! I really like the print but I do find the colours a bit duller than I'd remembered; the pale blue with red gives a mauve-y feel to the dress as a whole. Not sure I completely love it - but it is comfy! 

Because I've made it twice before I just cut without worrying about any pattern alterations. I cut the central bodice pieces with the stripe horizontal, and the outer sleeve and skirt with vertical lines. But I was challenging myself to see if I could sew it all together in 3 hours like a Great British Sewing Bee challenge -- I just made it -- but just like with the timed challenges on the Bee, there are therefore mistakes. I think I will take the skirt off and resew it more neatly and evenly. You can't really see it in the photos (or probably in real life much) but the waist seam is uneven, it's higher in the front, and it's driving me nuts! The problem with rayon that likes to shift and stretch... 

I wore it to work this week on a very warm day and it was cool and airy to wear. I stopped to take photos in the rose garden in the churchyard that I cut through on my way to work; it matches with the dress nicely! It certainly was quick and stress free making a pattern that I was already familiar with, but I have to remember the maxim, Haste Makes Waste, and not try to compete with Sewing Bee timing ;) 

Weekend Review: Mindful Embroidery

 

Mindful Embroidery / Charles Henry & Elin Petronella
Salem, MA: Page Street, c2020.
157 p.

I have followed Charles & Elin on IG for a long time, and was pleased to find their book recently. This is a book focusing on sketching with thread, essentially -- it is a series of projects in their most well-known style, street scenes from across Europe. 

It begins with a short intro and a guide to fabric, transferring patterns, and stitches. They are proponents of simple stitches to create work with impact -- all the projects can be completed if you know five basic sttiches: straight, backstitch, split, satin, and french knots. Instructions for all five stitches are shown, with photos, at the beginning of the book. It really is accessible to beginners, although to get the polished results of their final projects, some practice will likely be necessary. 

I enjoyed this book - it's different from many of the embroidery books I have looked through recently, as it's focused on images that are black and white and sketched, mostly, although colour is included in some of the projects with a bit of satin stitch or french knot detail (often florals, but also a cool tile detail). They talk about combining stitches for different effects, ie: multiple rows of straight stitch give a different look that just one row, and also show how the number of strands you choose can affect the visual result. (they use DMC stranded floss as their main thread), It's a different way of approaching stitching, rather than simply covering ground with full strands of floss. I'm really impressed by the artistic impression of this style of stitching. 

Each of the projects has a pattern you can trace off, plus a colour and stitch guide. There are easy ones, are more advanced ones, with the levels marked - and I found them all appealing. I like this style of stitching, and have always enjoyed following the authors' embroidery journey. This book has solid, unique content that makes it worth owning, even if you already have a bunch of stitching books! 

Framing Up an Embroidery Project at Long Last!

This week I finally had a chance to frame up the embroidery project I finished in October of 2022 -- it was a stitchalong, and a fundraiser for Ukraine, designed by Embroidery Art by Nat. 

I've been looking for the right frame for this for a long time. I wanted the right size but also a shadow box style, so that there is space between the stitching and the glass. I finally found this frame at Goodwill, with a commercial image still in it. It has three spacers inside, and I removed the middle one so that this piece could still right in the centre, with plenty of space before the glass. It's perfect! 

I started by steaming and pressing my embroidery carefully to get all the crinkly bits out. It's been sitting a while! Then I cut a square of foam core just the size of the frame spacers. I centred the embroidery on it and was planning on lacing the back but I didn't have quite enough fabric to do that well. 

So I used painter's tape to tack it down so I could try lacing, but realized that painter's tape was holding really well. So I just stretched the whole thing with tape. I carefully did it on all four sides to make sure it was being stretched evenly and the embroidery stayed centred. This is not heirloom framing -- the foamcore probably isn't acid free and the tape is not going to stay forever. But it doesn't bother me. I'm just happy to have it done and ready to hang!

 I had to redo a bit of it a couple of times but finally got it nice and even without any big ripples in the fabric. I think it looks pretty great, and am now just trying to decide where the best place to hang it up is. It's not that heavy so I have lots of options. It looks nice on my sewing table in this picture...but I need that space! I will hang it somewhere where I can see it often and think of Ukraine.