 I’ve lived in Massachusetts for 33 years, longer than any other place in my life. I went to college here, married here and my children were born here. Ted Kennedy has always loomed large in this state; and like anyone who has been in the public eye for many years people got used to him and either disliked him intensely or voted for him out of habit. Massachusetts is a funny place, it’s a small state with a big personality and Senator Kennedy was in many ways an archetypal Massachusetts politician. He had the twinkle. He had the reach. When he wanted you do something you did it. He never cared who got the credit as long as he got what he wanted. Despite his chaotic personal life, it cannot be denied that the man wrote a mountain of legislation that will stand as an enduring monument to the best ideals of this country. In a way I’m glad he was never elected president because by staying in the Senate he was able to accomplish much more in 40 years than he ever could have done within presidential term limits. He was the youngest Kennedy and his family had low expectations of him, and yet in the end he accomplished more than any of them.
Thank You and Rest In Peace Ted.
Sure – I’ll go see it because I have a tabloid streak in me just like everyone else. But really, the fashion press reminds me of another industry I worked for in my younger days: the music business. Fashion magazines have about as much real connection to the creative end of the business as radio and ticket companies have to the musicians they promote, that is, their financial models really have nothing to do with the industry they represent. Ticket companies could not care less who is on stage and how well they play; all they care about are economies of scale, ticket volumes and service charges. Radio stations care about advertisers just as much, if not more, than the music they play. Fashion magazines care just as much about their advertisers as they do the blood, sweat, tears and financial ruin behind the latest collections.
If the people at Vogue are smart they already understand that they are on the precipice of the change experienced by newspapers in the past 15 years since the internet became a force to be reckoned with.
Mu husband is a musician and his mantra has always been: you can’t stop the music. Artists will always find a way to circumvent any industry that makes their creativity subservient to third party commercial interests. It’s just a matter of time before this happens with Vogue.
This article in today’s New York Times has some provacative ideas for saving clothing manufacturing in the Garment District but I’ll you, it’s missing one crucial detail: the burgeoning interest in home sewing. As we all know sewing retailers in NYC (M&J Trim, Greenberg & Hammer, Kashi, Pacific Trims, Mood, etc) etc sell things those of us outside NYC just cannot find at local stores. The city needs to bring an educational component into the district by partering with schools like FIT and Parsons to offer adult education in sewing skills so that it drives sewing related tourism. An attempt to revive the district solely by encouraging clothing production is fool hardy – that boat left for China a long time ago, and NYC has neither the capacity nor the cost structure to do cost effective manufacturing today’s fashion climate. I think I need to write a letter to the Times about this.
  This little PC desk came from IKEA and it was easy to put together; the size is perfect as a base for my Touch n’ Sew buttonhole station. The white bins are IKEA as well; I have eight of them in various sizes. One interesting thing about their stuff is that its all designed to fit together, the space on the right is normally where the PC tower would stand. The keyboard tray pulls out and has been pressed into service as a place to stash my collection of scissors and hemostats. A piece of non-skid shelf liner has been added to keep things from sliding around.
 regular, keyhole and bound buttonhole For a few weeks now there has been a discussion on Pattern Review about Greist and Singer buttonhole attachments, and I’ve had a Singer for a long time. I never used it because it never dawned on me to see if it fits a vintage Singer Touch n’ Sew 648 that I have stashed under my cutting table. Well – it fits! And it makes a better buttonhole than my fancy Bernina. Here it is set up on the Touch ’n Sew.  This machine is perfect as a dedicated buttonhole machine because its small, 14 inches wide and the footprint is only 18 inches wide. I can leave it set up permanently with the buttonholer attached. The only downside is that 648 bobbins hold just 20 yards of thread, however the bobbin winds in the machine too, which is very handy. I may go to IKEA and get small table so I can leave it set up next to my industrial full time. Singer made thousands of these little machines and they are easy to find on Ebay and Craigslist. SewUSA sells Touch n’ Sew manuals and their web site has instructions for winding a bobbin and a thread diagram, which is also inside the cover plate in the head. This is a simple all mechanical machine and after a few test runs I was cranking out great buttonholes easily.
The buttonholer attachment is also widely available on the web. It appears that Greist and Singer sold them from roughly the 1940′s to the 1970′s. So if you’ve been thinking about setting up a buttonhole station here are the basics:
- Make sure you find the attachment that fits your machine; the buttonholer came in vertical shank and slant shank versions.
- Make sure you use the right throat plate. The buttonhole attachment has its own feed dogs and the plate covers the feed dogs in the machine. There are three different types of throat plate (scroll down to see them) . If you have a newer machine that can drop the feed dogs you don’t need to worry about the throat plate. A Singer Touch n’ Sew 648 requires the throat plate on the left in the link above; there are no screw holes because a 648 has an “elevator” feature that raises throat plate with a lever and the buttonole plate slips under the indentations on either side.
- For both the Greist and Singer attachment buttonholes are sized and stitched with small cams. The buttonhole cams drop into the top of the attachment. There are 20 cams in a complete Singer set, a complete set of Greist cams seems to be about 13 to 15 based on what people were saying on PR. Greist cams are pot metal, Singer cams are pot metal or plastic depending on the age of the attachment.
Buttonhole attachments of either brand seem to run $10 – $25 depending on how complete they are (cams, manual etc), and Touch n’ Sew machines can be had for short money too; maybe $50. All in all this is a great machine + attachment combination if you’re seeking better buttonholes.
 copyright 2009 Lindsay T Sews Again  When Lindsay blogged about these faux-tortoise giant snaps I fell in love! Then I noticed in the Latest 8/2009 Burda Style that they would be really great on jacket #119. So I called Pacific Trimming, emailed them the photo and they did an order. Its been about two years since I’ve been there; there is a lot of great stuff on their web site, but it’s just a fraction of what’s in the store. I bought the size 32 Ligne in the upper left hand corner (a tad samller than 1 inch – here is a link to button sizes) and as you can see in the photo they come in a few sizes. Lindsay told me in an email that they also have black, red and ivory snaps – the black ones are at the bottom of the photo. The fabric will be a charcoal grey Italian wool. For a lining I have some great silk charmeuse in my stash. The snaps arrived today and I just traced off and cut out the pattern! This is a simple style and it should not take much time to make up.
 Cell Disruption  From Gorgeous Fabrics For about a year now I’ve been obsessed with particle based patterns and I think this is happening because the company I work for, Microfluidics, makes machines that are used to reduce substances to submicron particles. These machines are used to manufacture inks, cosmetics, food, cancer drugs and vaccines. The flu shot you’ll get this fall will very likely be manufactured on one of our production-grade machines.
 From Fabric Mart  Carbon Nanotubes So all day I hear about things like deaglomeration, cell disruption, liposomes and carbon nanotubes – clearly this has begun to seep into my fabric consciousness!
 A liposome from Encyclopedia Britantica  Max Studio RTW liposome print What influences your fabric choices?
I think this 08/2009 Burda Style pattern is an even closer match to the Marc Jacobs original, especially the raglan shoulder. Must.Find.This.Issue!
 Allure August 2009  
 Wovens & Interfacings  Knits The best part of this activity is getting rid of ugly/cheap fabric from swaps that I will never use. Knits are now stashed in bins in the left closet and wovens/interfacings are in the right closet on shelves. These closets are on either side of our bed, and when we added a stand alone closet system in the room I decided to move my stash out of my sewing room. For the longest time I had knits stored on shelves, which is a really dumb idea, bins work much better. Now on to the sewing room, which is in dire need of a major purge. I’m too embarrassed to show you what both of these closets looked like before I cleaned them out!
Page 10 of 25« First«...89101112...20...»Last »
|
Phyllis - one of the original "Sewing Divas". Please visit my other sites.
This is where I write about organic gardening, raising backyard chickens, cooking and eating and green ideas for a more sustainable lifestyle.
|
Recent Comments