"Make it work!," says Swatch, the mascot of Mood Fabrics. Swatch is the star of Mood's new blog, the Mood Sewciety Blog. Check it out for the cute pics of Swatch, who's an incredibly good sport of a dog.When I sit down to write my blog posts I usually have clear topics in mind and can quickly bang a post out. Today I'm feeling a little all over the place and lacking focus—ever have those days? So please forgive the randomness of this post and I'll do my best to get back on track next week….
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Did you catch the documentary "Schmatta" on HBO yet? I'm so glad I did. I found it fascinating, illuminating, funny, troubling and sad. Annie was on the computer in the family room as I watched it, and I kept pausing the TV to "share" with her some of the points "Schmatta" made, like that only five percent of the clothes Americans wear today are made in the U.S. and that the fashion industry used to be the source of most jobs in New York City. And talk about the nostalgia "Schmatta" evoked: Do you remember these "Look for the Union Label" ILGWU TV commercials? And Russ Togs? Those days are long gone….Looking to fight the disappearance of NYC's garment district in your own quiet way? Join the Save The Garment Center mailing list. I wish I could have been at the rally yesterday afternoon at W. 39th and Seventh Avenue; Michael Kors, Nanette Lepore and photographer Bill Cunningham were all there to help draw attention to this worthy cause.
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Annie's Saucy Sailor Halloween costume is coming along and I'm almost ready to tackle the confrontation point—the hemline. Annie wants it short-short-short ("It doesn't look good long, Mom!"); I prefer not to spend my limited time sewing a dress that's going to get her in trouble dress code-wise. (The school dress code police are watching Annie's hemlines like hawks.) We are working on compromise solutions, like micro-mini but with tights—which will appease the code enforcers—or longer for school on Friday the 30th but short for a private party on the 31st. Hopefully photos to come next week.•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
I'm thinking about adding pickstitching as a detail to my blue wool doublecloth coat. Even though I separated the cloth on the facings to reduce bulk, the facings tend to roll forward enough to irk me. I've pickstitched the neckline in place from the facing side, but now I think I might like to pickstitch—in white thread—from the front, as a decorative touch along the neckline, the front coat edges, and possibly the sleeve and coat hems. Am I crazy to attempt all this hand-stitching? But I do like where this coat is heading so far and the white buttons I picked out for it are to die for. (photo from Kenneth D. King via Threads)•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Have a great weekend everyone! It's Homecoming Weekend at the high school and the whole town gets into the festivities. Too bad it's supposed to rain. I'll be back next week, hopefully a little more focused.
22 comments:
The pick stitching seems like a perfect detail for your coat. Go for it. Try various threads with a sample before committing. Buttonhole twist as well as embroidery thread work up really nicely. It all depends how visible you want them to be. My experience is that with coating woolens they can embed, so don't pull too tight and use a bolder thread. JM2¢
On the pickstitching: I am pretty sure I am going to pickstitch on my coat project too. With the napped face, the machine topstitching just sinks right into the nap and can't be seen, even at 6mm length. So I ordered silk thread for this since I couldn't find any rayon locally. I wanted a shine to it.
IOW, if you're crazy to do it then so am I. I can live with that - this is my "big" project for this year.
Thank you for the link to the Mood Fabrics blog. My heart simply melts in front of a cute dog...
While the pick stitching will be time consuming, it will be worth it. I made Vogue 8576 dress and hand topstitched. It just made the dress.
Another Annie, aka redhotpepper
Hand stitching always seems like it's going to be a bigger pain than it actually is in the end. Do it, you won't regret it!
Have fun at Homecoming, sounds like a good time!
How cute is Swatch?! Can't wait to see the sailor costume and that coat!
Thanks for the link to "Save the Garment District" - I joined up.
I was fascinated watching Schmatta. It's a travesty that the United States has lost so many jobs in the clothing industry.
I say do the pickstitching. It will be an investment in time now, but it's a detail you'll love every time you put on the coat!
I should get Annie's opinion on my Halloween costume. It feels plenty short to me but I bet she'd tell me to go shorter.
The pick stitching will be a nice touch.
I saw Schmatta and wasn't surprised at all by the 5% production number. Do you know that there are only 5 shoe manufacturers in the US? We have outsourced all of our production to third world or Asian countries. We make nuthin. We shop and that is why our economy has gone to hell in a handbasket!
As someone who has worked in and out of the garment district until 10 years ago, I could tell stories about what use to be made in the district and what no longer is. People like Nanette Lapore, Anna Sui and Norma Kamali all go against the grain trying to have goods manufactured in NYC!
It is a sad situation and I don't even know if there is a remedy for it!!!!
Really cute mascot :)
Were our daughters separated at birth? DD's cocktail dress must SHORT. Am I suffering from my mother's curse "We you grow up I hope you have a child just like you!"?
When I've been to Mood, I've been a little afraid of Swatch, but then I don't like dogs. Glad to hear about the blog. More than one person I know thinks the Project Runway association has gone to its head. Whatever.
"Schmatta" did bring back poignant memories of the union commercial and the "Fashions of the Times" supplement that ran ads for Russ Togs. I'll never forget the season they assigned Diane (pronounced "DeeAhn") Arbus to shoot children's fashion. Not your traditional photos.
Of course the handwork is worth it. A person of ordinary income can't afford to buy a couture garment with extensive handwork.
Besides, the prickstitch is not hard; it's basically a small backstitch. You might want to buy some tick tape (that's what Kenneth King called it) to make it easier to stitch every 1/4 inch. Greenberg and Hammer has a tape that's like that.
In the basic Haute Couture Sewing class at FIT we had to do a sample of a mini skirt back. We put in the zipper by hand and prickstitched (or "pickstitched") the skirt back.
But I like handsewing. I'm hoping to take tailoring so I can learn to do padstitching, and other methods.
Re the pick stitching, do samples (which your friend, Kenneth King, always recommends).
Just last night I was thinking about pickstitching the collar of a wool jacket I'm doing for a class. I was considering using embroidery thread for that and some arrow tacks on the pockets, as suggested by a tailoring book, but a recent four-year FIT grad suggested I used buttonhole twist because of the flannel I'm using.
I must say that Swatch is way cuter than Ric and Rac (As they presumably don't read the web I won't worry about offending them.).
Any post by you is a good post! Re the reduced number of clothes being manufactured locally may not be the cause of all your grief. Here in Australia we outsource most to China. But in turn China needs our resources and buys off us. We have been very lucky here and the GFC has barely affected us..(touch wood).
And finally, today I saw a lot of pickstitching on garments in the stores. Looks great.
Okay , here's my two cents on the hemline issue. When I was a teenager, my mom nevr said a word about my rising hemlines. Know what fixed it for me? Walked past a few construction sites, and I was cured! Or, if someone had snapped a picture of me, insisted it was cute, and posted it on the fridge or something, it would have solved it sooner! It is just that mismatch between how you feel and how you want to be perceived that take a while to catch up with each other...
Ooooo - I just finished altering a client's dress with pickstitching in all the top seams (lots of side front, side back, center back seams), and they did it with a double buttonhole twist which made a really nice effect. It seemed to me that the stitch itself was very tiny, but that the space between the stitching was a lot longer. I loved the effect, although it wasn't anything you could see except up close. It was on a print so the pickstitching didn't even show up until you were at least 2 feet from the dress. As a more distinct contrast, it would show and make a fabulous accent on a piece.f
OK - I know I just made another post, but this is in response to the Schmatta special.
The funny thing is that I'm noticing a lot more cheaper things being made in the USA. It seems that as the rest of the world catches up to our (good) working conditions, that the price of products seem to level out with the USA.
From my little perspective in my little studio and my little business, this is nothing but great news as this means that clothes will be made by more fairly paid employees and therefore will be far more comparable to my pricing.
In just my little nitch as a wedding/debutante/special occasion garment designer, I'm finding that my RTW competition is almost equal to if not more expensive than I am, when I am fairly priced (not under-priced as so many seamstresses tend to be).
Hopefully this will mean more business for USA workers, however it will take forever to turn the tide.
I still have some clothes made from that era, and they were beautifully made, not made like today's RTW with a 1/8" seam having no more than 3 or 4 woof threads in each seam making it a miracle that the seam can remain in place, much less together.
During the last PR Weekend I attended, the guy at Paron's was lamenting about what will happen in 10 years in the fabric district. It was pretty much, "Please support us so we'll be here." I think that's why I highly support PR Weekend NYC every year. If there were PR Weekends for different cities throughout the year at different times, it would be a great thing.
I've always remembered his comment and was concerned that there was no PR NYC day or weekend last November. I think the store owners really forward to the large groups like PR that come and support their stores.
I always have more projects (including things like laundry and buget balancing) in progress than I have time to properly execute. After years and years of just being 'Mom', I've headed back into the workforce on a toe-in-the-water part time basis. Sewing is my creative outlet; Bible study is my plumb line. Writing is my dream.i am satisfied
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