Just where does time get to? Been cruising eBay a bit recently. Yeah, it’s under control, just. Got some chic vintage French fashion magazines, a wonderful German pattern magazine that is killing my eyesight with deciphering it’s spider-webs of pattern sheets, and a couple of Weldon’s Lady’s Mags from the 20′s and 30′s complete with tissue lingerie and dress patterns. This 1920′s Weldon’s Fancy Dress issue is the One That Got Away. 
” Oh darn it…!”
I really do wish I’d bid that little bit more on it. It reminds me of this wonderful early 1920′s photo of my Italian grandmother in a fancy dress costume. She was a dressmaker too.
Also during WWII she was the only woman out of 4000 employees in the U.S. tank parts factory where she worked who became a Journeyman Machinist. To be honest I don’t actually know what Journeyman Machining involved but I am quite sure it wasn’t a sewing machine. Probably explains why I’m the one in our household who actually can put Ikea stuff together -hah! Family lore says she used to swear a blue streak when sewing difficult things… guess that’s also in the blood. This recently finished bias satin dress brought out the worst language over the last weeks that my family says they heard since the last wedding dress I made. I hope to have photo’s of it in action late summer.
Fortunately the dress left just as this little bundle of joy arrived. Buster puppy + silk gown = potential disaster, besides I’m getting nothing much done when he’s awake, squared.
And on a final note the re-vamped Circular Knicker Tutorial is FINALLY back up on the Free Stuff page! All that was wrong with it, and not even very wrong, was how I’d done the math to work out the waist line. A kind reader who obviously knows her number stuff pointed out the correct formula for a smooth fitting waist (the way I’d done it made for some waist ease that in less fine fabrics became gathers) so I thought between that and it being the first tutorial I’d posted here a re-vamp was in order. Until I looked up Pi. And simple as that equation is it literally made my head hurt to even think about it. Even as I type these words a thick fog hovers over my head threatening pain. Fortunately I very rarely find myself needing to draft circles to precise measurement. A small mercy. I’m going to go play with my new puppy now.
See you soon..
