Enchanted By Sewing

At this time of year, I particularly love to sew plaids. In this Show *Tartans and Plaids – What’s the difference? *Tartans – Who’s got the rights to wear them? (Myth Busting) *Visit to Edinburgh Weaving Mill * Final Pensamientos...  

October is a month when many of us in the Western Hemisphere get in touch with our own emotions and comfort dealing with mortality. Folks in my neck of the woods celebrate Dia de Los Muertos – Day of the Dead. Dia de Los Muertos is a day for celebrating ritual death tradition- engaging in crafts, creating and eating special foods, and putting out images – colorful, beautiful, and also macabre – that may touch on a connection with departed family members. In our neighborhood we put out beautiful pumpkins, scary dancing skeletons and bright lights. Then we celebrate our connection to another world, by welcoming in the trick or treaters- be they costumed beautifully, colorfully, or gruesomely - by handing out free Halloween candy. Fashion designer Alexander McQueen focused on designing beautifully romantic, avent garde fashion. He also had a strong interest in the macabre. His masters fashion exhibit “Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims”, was a hint that this emerging designer was not going to be run-of-the-mil

Dress creation brings out the romantic in me. When I looked ahead to my summer sewing, I thought if I could sew only one garment for the season, it would be a dress. Fiona, the Irish Laurel dress, satisfied my yearning to design and sew the perfect summer frock. This dress was a very satisfying project for my arty romantic style. In between sewing summer essentials - shorts and tees - I worked off and on to determine what design lines spoke to me about summer, mock up a miniature sloper pattern to test my ideas, draft a pattern from my sloper, and then finally to sew up Fiona, while summer was still on! *Pensamientos Primeros - Thinking through my idea for this summer dress *Technicos - Pattern Drafting and Kissing Zipper using a Prick Stitch *Pensamientos Finales - Fiona's Design Lines have roots in my own history  

Enchanted by Charles James - Stepping into a liminal space to study and enjoy glorious fashion designs and analyze the construction of those garments is the kind of thing that keeps me … enchanted by sewing. Hey let’s go to the show together!    Links and notes- http://EnchantedBySewing.blogspot.com     Some months the Enchanted by Sewing podcast, journals my own sewing project accomplishments, techniques and creative ideas. Other times I share the source of  some of my sewing inspiration. This month is inspiration time, as I take you along on an another in-the-,moment fashon exhibit - a visit to the beautiful Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco , where I went repeatedly to  view the exhibit, High Style: The Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection  exhibit of the Brooklyn Fashion Museum.   This collection – which is housed  and curated by the Metropoliton Museum of Art  in NY City- includes a wide range of the work of 20’th century designers and couturiers. There was no way I could share all of what I saw with

This month’s show is Fairy Inspired… Fairy Gardens that is– where my sewing (like my gardening)  knows,  It’s the Story that makes it. I was feeling pretty serious about my sewing when I got back into town last month. I was thinking that any day I’d get on with some serious pattern drafting work. Well, I haven’t! As a matter of fact whenever I thought about doing intense pattern work – either drafting or pattern alteration – I just found something else to do. And, as this has been an unusually busy summer for me, both professionally and personally, it was easy to put sewing off. Finally I just quit worry about what I’d planned to do, and responded to materials and projects that were singing out to me from the bins over my machine. And I was, once more, reminded of Lori Van Monnans’s advice to ‘sew forth now’. Sometimes you just gotta sew. By just responding to what I had on hand, I was working on getting in some summer garment essentials. They were essential because there items I really use at this time of ye

After three weeks vacation in England and Scotland, I'm not yet caught up and engaged in my sewing projects. I am, however, reflecting on historical and travel sewing inspiration from my trip, putting some good hard thought into planning sewing projects, and continuing to learn about working on my sewing pattern skills, using my sloper and moulage patterns.   Quick Fashion: When it comes to a summer state of sewing sometimes I just want to zip zap up 3 tees in a tried and true pattern and never mind about careful seam finishes or hems – maybe a deconstructed neckline or too. Other times I want to focus on slow careful pattern work, practice my sewing techniques and create a garment that I expect to see me through a number of seasons.   Slow Fashion: I also like to put time into developing patterns with personally crafted fit, carefully finished seams and well-thought techniques.   Planned Sewing: Other times I need to step back from sewing and give my fabric and pattern inventory and choice of sewing projects

I first signed up for Lynda Maynards' French Pattern Drafting Class to help me improve my fit and alteration of commercial patterns and was surprised to find that Lynda's class opened my eyes to the idea of drafting my own patterns - an aspect of sewing I’d never expected I’d get involved with, and frankly considered beyond my skills. Studying with a teacher like Lynda and being inspired to try new things – that’s the kind of thing that keeps me, enchanted by sewing!1) Pensamientos Primeros – The Art of French Pattern Drafting   My Pattern Work Postings   Early Days in Pattern Drafting Class - Includes Kenneth King Link http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2015/02/drafting-my-back-block-learning-pattern.html   More from Class http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2015/02/french-pattern-draftingmoulage-first.html  and   http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2015/03/fitting-in-sleeve-sloper-pattern-work.html  Using My Sloper and Moulage to Draft Patterns http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2015/04/pattern-wor

Bathing and swim wear has certainly changed from the cover-em-up days. This month I’m sharing a walk around an historical bathing suit exhibit I saw at the Vancouver Maritime Museum in the fall of 2014. I get a kick out of hearing and reading about how bathing suits have changed over time, and thinking about what a shock people must have had to suddenly start seeing others, especially women, revealing so much of their flesh on beaches! The big changes in swim suit styling around the 1920’s seem to have been about the time when the  sport changed from ‘bathing’ to ‘swimming’ in the English speaking world. It wasn’t enough just to immerse ourselves in water outside, as we did indoors anymore. Now more people wanted to get some exercise when they went into a pool, river or ocean.

This Month's Show - Hats Off to Downton Abbey! In this month's Enchanted by Sewing show, I talk about the role Downton Abbey played in inspiring  the hats I've been making. I also share what I've learned about how to make hats, and a variety of historical and modern links.   In this Month's Show 1)  Pensamientos Primeros – Making Hats -  inspired by Downton Abbey , and enabled by local milliner Wayne Wichern   Why do I love to watch Downton Abbey over and over ? 1) The Romantic setting 2) The fantastic British trained actors 3) The Fashions - my favorite part of Downton Abbey. The best part of the those fashions? -  Hats!     2)  Technicos A summary of the Techniques I learned something about while making Hats with Wayne Wichern 3)  Pensamientos Finales – Pretty as a Picture Hat - Grandomther Lily’s Wedding 

Ench By Sew-029: The Importance of Scrap  A cada quien su gusto – To each her own   As well as being useful and cost effective, using up the Scrap from our garment sewing, opens up a world of personal creativity, as well  Coming up with different ideas for utilizing my scraps, keeps me . . .  Enchanted by Sewing. The Enchanted by Sewing Podcast is, an extension of my regular sewing blog - Me Encanta Coser,  (http://www.meencantacoser.blogspot.com) which,  roughly translated means, Enchanted By Sewing   My blog is written in English. The name celebrates the historical and modern use of the beautiful Spanish Language in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, where I live. * * * Clearly, scrap is important to the newest member of our household, Izzie the teenaged tabby cat. Scraps are just as important to me as they are to any cat. Working with scrap, gets my mental processes humming,in ways not so different than they do for Izzie. I have a habit of going to my scrap bins when I feel the need

Recently I went to visit with my buddy, Susan, and her household’s two dogs, Bruce and Bain. You’ll hear Bain’s comments at various times during the show, just the way you occasionally hear some of the audio from things in my house like the train that runs just behind our yard. I’m partial to including a little locally occurring audio ,because it adds another sense to the personal journal style of the show. Don’t you feel like you know Susan by now?  I’m always mentioning her and the time we’ve spent together in this show. This month I got a chance to share a sewing day at Susan’s house with you. It started out as an interview, but it became a duologue – even when I cut out several of the places where I interrupted! Pensamientos Primeros/First Thoughts . . . we talked  about our sewing relationship and some of the non-sewing things that give you a sense of who Susan is and what drew us together. Entonces/Then . . . we talked about some of the things that she learned about fitting patterns, that I’ve benefitte

Socializing at this time of year, sharing a cup of tea and a light meal, admiring something a friend has made, engaging together with a sewing project, and getting advice on it, that’s the kind of thing that keeps me . . . enchanted by sewing. Our best holiday episode ever! Of course, every year it's better than the last :-) Listening Option I) You can listen to the show right on the web by clicking on this link http://traffic.libsyn.com/enchantedbysewing/CastFINALNov2014VancouverEmbellishmentD6.mp3 ***** ~ OR ~ Listening Option II)  Click on this link to iTunes  to download this and other Enchanted by Sewing shows to your mobile device (iPhone, Android, etc.) free from iTunes  ( https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/enchanted-by-sewing/id566370325)     The Enchanted by Sewing Podcast is, an extension of my regular sewing blog - Me Encanta Coser,  (http://www.meencantacoser.blogspot.com) which,  roughly translated means, Enchanted By Sewing    My blog is written in English. The name celebrates the historical an

This show  is  EMBELLISHMENT VIA VANCOUVER B.C. Recently I visited western Canada - Vancouver BC - for a six days trip. My husband attended a conference for GSA. Not being a geologist, I went along for fun!  I’ve taken four trips to Vancouver in the last six years. It's a place we really love to go. We are all really drawn to the city and the vicinity. We identify with the city as fellow westerners. There is a strong bond of shared history and culture, between people in the western Americas, particularly down along the coast. There's also a lot of ross culture with my home in the San Francisco Bay area.  That said, there is a spice of difference and Canadian feeling. We feel both comfortable, and excited with the sights sounds and smells(!).   In the show I discuss . . .  On this trip, my sewist's heart was drawn to embellishment. I kept that in mind when I   - Shopped - Looked for inspiration for sewing projects - Designed and Worked on a small sewing project   I also included a lot of travel notes. You'll h

This month’s show  is “ Restylin’. It all came about when I started shaking the dreams from my hair. Restylin' is about my transition in sewing and wardrobe style . It involves looking at patterns, and working my brain around how it makes sense for clothes to fit me. The Enchanted by Sewing Podcast is, an extension of my regular sewing blog - Me Encanta Coser, which,  roughly translated means, Enchanted By Sewing    My blog is written in English. The name celebrates the historical and modern use of the beautiful Spanish Language in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, where I live.  This month I’m working on creating two tee shirts M6078 and V8323. The details are in these blog postings from MeEncantaCoser.blogspot.com V8323 - Princess Seamed - Katherine Tilton Tee http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2014/10/princess-seamed-tee-shirt-pattern-work.html M6078 - Retro Style Polka Dot Cowl Neck Knit top - Reminiscent of I Love Lucy http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2014/10/reworking-retro-style-polka-dot-tee

This month I sewed two dresses – a shirtdress for me and a fitted sleeveless bodice full shirt for my daughter. There was a lot going on emotion ‘wise for our family this month and I sewed those dresses for a siginificant family event. Creating something tangible was a way to work through those emotions.   In this September 2014 episode  1)         Pensamientos Primero s Shirtdressing Entonces/Then  . . .  2) Technicos  How I altered a new-ONLY-to-me shirtdress pattern  to fit and flatter me 3)         Pensamientos Finales Wrapping up Summer and  the Fun Fall Sewing Questionaire – Visit the Show Notes http://EnchantedBySewing.blogspot.com to post your responses to the questions J   Sewing up fall – whether it’s imaginary experience or creating something tangible – is one of the things that keeps me Enchanted by Sewing.   This show is created, produced and brought to you by me! - Laurel Shimer.   THE Enchanted by Sewing PODCAST IS, An  EXTENSION OF my regular sewing blog - Me Encanta Coser, which,  roughly tr

I’ve worked on a couple of different sewing projects in August. Of the four I’ve worked on I’ve finished three - a wardrobe building elastic waist black denim skirt (like the blue one I finished in June and have been wearing so much), another semi-fitted sleeveless cotton blouse (like Amaryllis the subject of last months 'cast - I haven't post about this yet, but plan to soon) and a tapestry cap.   That cap is especially important to me. As you might have noticed in previous shows I am kind of a preacher when it comes to protecting our skin from the elements. I listened back to my shows from the last couple of months, and it seemed like I went into great detail in both ones about wearing my sun screen and a cap whenever I head out the door, whether for a walk or even a ride in the car.   I figured if it was so important to me, it was time to do an episode about the kind of skin protecting garment I’ve made a few times now, sharing the techniques and some of my inspiration.    1)         Pensamien

In my slow sewing July, I focused on sewing just one pink and white striped seersucker sleeveless blouse.  Like my  CA Summer skies shirt– (that was blue and white checked seersucker shirt ) I sewed and talked about last months show, my new sleeveless blouse, who I call Amaryllis (in honor of the musical, "The Music Man"),  has quickly become an important staple of my summer wardrobe. And sewing a few more blouses, as a result of what I thought and learned about sewing this most recent garment, is something I’m considering when it comes to more summer sewing.   In this month’s show   1)Pensamientos Primeros Slow Summer Sewing – Budgeting my sewing time and energy and coming out on top by improving sewing skills. Increasing my wardrobe choices. It’s about Feeling satisfied with my sewing recreation time and output. The show notes (http://EnchantedBySewing.blogspot.com) include links to the slow living movement, including the slow stitching movement. 2) Entonces, Technicos y Mas i) What’s a shirt what’s a b

  I know your June weather may not be the same as mine. Here in CA it’s time for summer skies, a little more heat, and a vacation feeling whether or not we’re able to leave town. (Hey,  feel free to post about what kind of sewing your climate inspires below!)   Sometimes I’m able to take an actual summer vacation and other years I focus on treating the summer like a vacation, even when I don’t leave the San Francisco Bay Area, where I live. This summer I was able to take a mini vacation weekend trip to Disneyland this year. As a matter of fact I just got back☺  I went with my beautiful, kind and funny , young adult daughter. Getting to bond her at this age is really fun!  I took along a newly finished garment from my summer wardrobe on the trip and I’ll talk more about sewing that in the show. I’m going to continue to focus on treating the rest of the summer like a vacation, no matter what I get to do. And I’m going to continue to sew for my summer vacation, no matter how far afield of home I manage to go.  

- Pensamientos Primero   Reflecting on Making For some people, sewing is just practical . For another segment of society, and I’m one of them, sewing is an important creative outlet that helps us to stay healthy and happy. -Entonces /Then She B. Coole Live talk from our local Makers Faire includes extempore  interview with professional embroideress (Tapistres?) Barbara Coole (B. Coole) oB. Coole Shares •Thoughts on the realities of garment sewers investing both time and money into modern machine embroidery equipment and know-how •Her advice on choosing an embroidery machine   -Pensimentos Finales:  What I’m thinking now, when it comes to my dream embroidery machine ~ ~ ~

A bustier is an alluring garment, one many women would like to wear - if they dare. When I began to notice that women of all shapes, sizes and ages sewed and wore their bustiers with pleasure and pride, I decided to take a chance and learn to sew this very structured garment, that can be designed to flatter a wide variety of figure types. Last month I talked about Cut and Cloth This month I focus on Construction