Waving from New Zealand

I suggest you grab a cuppa and if you have not already done so browse the CQMag online which was released last week. As many of you will know by now, due to Nora’s illness and problems with getting a visa in a timely manner, my teaching tour to the United States has been canceled. I must admit to being very disappointed as I had hoped to meet many people who I have been in email contact with over the years. That disappointing news aside, do check out the issue as Barbara Blankenship has proposed a challenge for all Crazy Quilters. After reading Marsha Michler’s reasons for hand piecing will have me hand piecing before long, and don’t miss Rissa Root’s article on Biscornu Basics. The whole issue is worth reading if you have not already done so.

Now on to the travel news I am still in New Zealand writing from the Christchurch City Library. You know all those picturesque postcards you see of the New Zealand south island? Well they are true. The landscape is really beautiful and more than any romantic could want. To an Australian eye after seven years of drought the first thing you notice is that the landscape is green.Green, green and more green. Seeing so much lush growth is really a rest for the soul. New Zealand is definitely scenic. I am not going to inflict scenic photographs on you however as the landscape is somehow reduced by my camera and the grandeur of the place is simply not caught.

We are staying in a backpackers hostel in Christchurch which has had some interesting moments! Everything, perhaps I exaggerate but bear with me a moment, everything here is about heights and jumping off them. People are either bungie jumping, hurling themselves out of air planes, taking hot air balloon rides, hand gliding or climbing some impossible slope and then telling tall tales about it. So it is a real pleasure to sit and have a simple non energetic cup of coffee as I feel exhausted just listening to the chatter in the communal kitchen!

What have we seen other than beautiful green scenery? Well on a trip to the Christchurch museum we discovered a small display of Maori artifacts. After being accosted by a very enthusiastic and proud museum guide we took our time to enjoy the spiral patterns expertly carved in wood. These designs are endlessly fascinating and I am sure attractive to many textile practitioners. The photograph is part of a roof support from a meeting house. It was apparently carved between 1860- 1880. The figure is Tutekawa who came to area many generations earlier.

The Christchurch museum also has an interesting exhibit of buildings and items that were from Cape Hallett Station in Antarctica. The station was in operation from 1956 to 1973 and the Museum holds some of the accommodation huts used on the station. This sounds boring but the plywood panels of the huts and buildings have been weathered in the harsh conditions to produce the most wonderful textures.

Never let it be said I strayed too far from the topic of textiles and to keep this post on topic this ivory wool winder caught my eye as well as some ivory tatting shuttles and the display of sewing equipment that accompanied them.

The museum houses a small costume collection. Some of the dresses from the 1920s are really lovely. The first photos is of a beaded dress which I am sure the beaders out there will enjoy.

The second had a design which consisted of couched ribbon which I think is an uncut chenille ribbon or tape.

As you can see the effect is very dramatic.The ‘belt buckle’ design was couched gold thread and beadwork. I thought readers would enjoy seeing this.

 

The basics of Fashion Sketching

Threads Magazine is currently hosting a very useful article on Fashion Sketching for Untrained Artists . Jennifer Sauer covers some key tips on how to make visual notations of what you see and create sketches of garments.

As anyone who has done any sewing knows, your figure type will dictate the look of the finished garment. In order to develop a sense of what a garment might look like on a particular figure fashion designers use croquis which are outlines of various figure types. The article even provides a number of these in pdf format for readers to download.

 

Fashion and costume trivia

Did you know that denim jeans date back to the 18th century? Or, that in 1923 the U.S. attorney general declared it legal for women to wear pants? Perhaps the history of shoes is fascinating to you and you know that heels originated in the middle east where they were added to shoes to lift the foot away from the burning sand.

Over a cup of coffee I have been poking around the fashion and dress section of the Cool stuff website. If ever I need to come up with a trivia night question I know just where to visit! It’s a fun and informative browse through the history and culture of fashion and costume history.

 

Fashion Flashbacks exploring Retro Style

I think everyone will enjoy Fashion Flashbacks exploring Retro Style as there is some fascinating stuff on this site. For instance, a history of the uplift and a bra and the associated add gallery made me smile. For a chuckle check out the 50’s adverts for underwear that was a “joy to wear” although I must admit the under wire bra called the “whirlpool” had me more than a little worried. Also on the site is a gallery of panty hose 1970s packages.

The fashion by decade section is a huge directory of links to fashion and costume history resources organised by decade. After having a chuckle Fashion Flashbacks is worth browsing and exploring some of these.

 

1905 McCalls Magazine online

If you like browsing old fashion plates you will enjoy the June 1905 edition of McCall’s Magazine which is online. Since it’s a June edition, it is an interesting insight into Victorian Weddings.

You can download the file in a zip format and fashion plates are available in high resolution versions at 300 dpi.

On the same site another Victorian era fashion magazine, the July 1883 edition of The Delineator is available. This resource is also worth browsing.

These magazines are a free resource for personal use which means many of these images can be printed on fabric for use in Victorian style crazy quilts. The copyright information is available here

 

Hand Held Fans online

I know Monday morning is not the time to say grab a cuppa but yesterday afternoon browsing led me to discover these sites. These are ideal for anyone interested in the history of fashion accessories or Crazy quilters who are designing embroidery motifs of fans. These sites are great visual resources to spark ideas.

The Fan Museum Greenwich London has a site that contains information about the history of fans, making fans, current exhibitions which have photos to browse. Throughout the site there are numerous images of fans.

The Fan Museum has over 3500 fans and fan leaves which include the splendid Hélène Alexander collection and further gifts and bequests which have been received since the museum’s incipience ten years ago. The collection is comprehensive, with examples from all over the world from the 11th century to the present day. However the collection is particularly strong in 18th and 19th century European fans.

If you have an interest in fans the Fan Circle International is a society established to promote an interest in fans.

The Hand Fan Museum is another site which is about fans. It is a very small site but does contain a few images of fans.

 

Getting lost on the NYPL Digital Gallery site

I still get lost on the NYPL Digital Gallery site. This morning I am running late because of a section of the site titled Dress and Fashion: Design and Manufacture Click on the collection contents link and you will be lost. Not lost in the site because of bad navigation but I warn you, your morning will be gone! Don’t resist just make yourself a cuppa and settle down for some fun browsing.

For anyone who enjoys fashion plates or fashion illustration a real gem is a 1904 publication titled Enter! Wash dress fabrics  Click on any of the images for details and from there you can zoom in on the images further.

The site is described as

Several rare and unusual published resources of interest to students of western dress and fashion from the 19th to the early 20th-century. Includes historical surveys as well as manufacturers’ booklets and sample swatch catalogs.

Simply put this description is underselling what is here.

If you have an interest in the history of dyes and dyeing fabrics the mordant dyestuffs of the farbenfabriken vorm. Friedr. Bayer & Co swatch books will fascinate you.

Another swatch book that had me hooked is the 1930-1933
Imported French fabrics, of E. Meyer & Co. The fashion illustrations are just gorgeous. (Double screen shot below)

I told you that you need to settle back with a cuppa – now go make one and enjoy!

 

Dress for the Occasion

Dress for the Occasion is an online exhibition of the clothes and accessories worn by the Queen. Click on the images as this will take you to feature that enables you to zoom in on the details. There is some fantastic bead work on some of them.

Thanks for the link goes to Caitlin of Princess and Pea

 

Making your own hat

Curiouslycrafty has published an illustrated step by step tutorial on making your own hat. When I saw this I immediately thought of embellishing it with buttons or going further and covering it buttons!

Link found with thanks via Whip up.

 

Victorian Magazine

Victorian Magazine is an ezine that devotes itself to all things Victorian which I think many readers here will enjoy.

I particularly liked this embroidered silk costume and for silk ribbon embroidery fans take a look at this robe

The rest of victoriana.com is also worth exploring as there are articles on Victorian needlework and crafts as well as costuming and customs.