Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure

Yeah yeah, I know, I never write I never call.  You have to forgive me, I'm selfish and as Jane Austen wrote, "Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure."  I've been using up all my spare time freakishly addicted to Pinterest. Thanks for that Cheryl and Natalie, I owe you one.  So I thought I would give you a gift from my sewing closet.  A Tutorial!  Are you excited?  It's my first, I hope you like it.

So this is the goal:  To create Jane Austen cover up, using an old sweater or t-shirt. Like this one:

List of Materials:

1. an old sweater or t-shirt
2. sewing machine
3. scissors
4. pins
5. matching thread
6. safety pin 
7. ribbon   
8. Fray Check or clear nail polish                

 I'll wait while you gather everything you need...

First up, cut garment up the middle and cut off collar if it has one. I would suggest doing this on a flat surface. It was easier to illustrate the how to on Ava.

When cutting neckline add a slight V-shaped curve

 Serge or zig-zag edges so they don't fray, this is very necessary on a sweater!

 To create casing for ribbon fold over edges to inside about 3/4 of an inch,  pin.

 Sew 5/8 from edge all the way around removing pins as you go.

 You will need about a yard or more of ribbon, I usually leave it on the spool and cut it the length I need when I am done.

 Fold over the ribbon edge and attach the safety pin.

 Insert into the casing you just made on the sweater and use the safety pin to feed the ribbon thru the casing

 Keep feeding the ribbon thru until the safety pin comes out the other end.

 Try on sweater and gather the ribbons, adjust the gathers until you are comfortable, gather the front only and and leave the back neck edge flat.  Because the front hem is now being pulled up and forward the side seams will no longer lay straight but curve towards the front.  (Think about when you were a teenager and would take the front hem of a t-shirt and bring it up and thru the collar of your t-shirt, kind of the same thing.)  Finish off ribbon edges by cutting at an angle. Use Fray Check or clear nail polish on the ends of the ribbon to keep them from fraying.

And that's it, you are all done!  Now pair this with a pretty cotton high-waisted dress and find your own Mr. Darcy, Captain Wentworth or Colonel Brandon or try it with a tank top and jeans and find your modern equivalent!  Happy husband hunting, because every one knows: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."  I love Jane Austen! And so I am off to watch a J.A. movie and to sew!  Let me know if you try this with your old sweaters or t-shirts and how it worked out for you!
Take Care,
Terri  

Fashion should be worn like perfume, splash it on and forget about it...

I think I have finally tracked down where my love of fashion began, Rio San Gabriel Elementary School in Downey, California. Not because it was a hotbed of haute couture mind you, this was the early 70's after all, it was because my mother made me wear the same outfit 2 days in a row, along with 2 pairs of underwear. Let me repeat that, same outfit - 2 days with 2 pairs of underwear.  The 2 pairs of underwear was in case 1 pair ripped the other covered it, I never had a pair rip. The repeat outfit, I have no idea why but you can of course understand the psychological scars this would leave on a 5 year old.  After being teased repeatedly I learned to get as dirty as possible so the outfit was unwearable the next day.  The other reason I love fashion, the Saturday Family Film Festival, I used to watch this with my dad. I fell in love with those wonderful movies from the Golden Age of cinema.  As a teenager I knew the stars from the 30's. 40's and 50's better than the ones from my generation.  I know this made me an oddball but I realized early on that John Glenn High School was not the be all end all of existence. I knew I wasn't going to find my future there or the love of my life there.

So back to fashion, today I want to talk about designers I love, and being me these are designers long dead. Each of them left their mark on the world of fashion and left it changed for the better.
First up, Paul Poiret, he was a French Designer during the 1910's, we have Paul to thank for liberating us from corsets. He was heavily influenced by the Eastern culture and many of his designs featured a kimono like gown over harem style pants. Here are some examples of his work.

                The Hobble skirt, probably not the best idea, women could hardly walk in it. When the "Tango" dance craze hit, brilliant Paul solved the problem by creating the slit in skirts! 

The Lampshade Gown: concept and reality.
Monsieur Poiret was a lover of turbans also.













Next designer: Gabrielle Chanel, according to stories, she and Poiret hated each other. She thought his fashions ridiculous and he thought hers made women look like shop girls and factory workers.  Chanel created her fashions according to her needs and when supplies were scarce during WWI she worked with what was available, mainly jersey.  With this fabric she was able to drape gowns that moved with the body and were light weight.

Chanel was the inventor of the the "LBD"  the little black dress. That's her on the left. What I find amazing about this photo of her is that you can't tell what decade it was taken in. The 20's, 30's, 50's? Now that is classic fashion at it's best.  In fact, it's more than fashion, it's a personal style.

One of the other items Chanel is famous for, the Chanel suit.  This is also something that every woman should have in her closet, it looks good on all shapes and sizes and the jacket can be worn with jeans and look amazing! The House of Chanel still includes a jacket every season. Again this is more than fashion.

Next up: Christian Dior
Christian Dior rose to prominence after WWII and helped Paris regain it's standing as the "Fashion Capitol of the World" during the war, factories were shut down and fabrics hard to come by.  In 1947 Dior was in business and introducing his "New Look" to the world. Suddenly women's fashions were ultra feminine again.  If I had to pick a favorite era of fashion, for me it's the 1950's.

Dior's design was so iconic, even Barbie was outfitted in the New Look when Mattel introduced the designer series. 

Last but not least: Cristobel Balenciaga
Dior called Balenciaga "The Master of Us All" quite a compliment, I mean have you seen Dior's work?  If everyone else's designs were just ice cream, his designs were gelato. His designs were sculptures, no one else has been able to come close to what he could do.   When he retired and shut down his fashion house his customers cried all the way to Dior.  Two of his proteges were Hubert de Givenchy and Oscar De la Renta

 Here are 3 different examples of his work.

The other thing that makes this era in fashion so wonderful, the models.  My personal favorite is Dorian Leigh. She started as a model late in life (for a model) and already a mother.  She lived an interesting life to say the least. She was a personal friend of Chanel and Truman Capote, in fact Capote based Holly Golightly from "Breakfast at Tiffanys" on Dorian.  Feel free to press the link and read about her.  Her life would make a great movie and what's more she was the older sister of model Suzy Parker.  Below is a photo of her from Revlon's most famous ad called "Fire and Ice" it was so popular that recently they brought it back and tried to duplicate it using Jessica Biel, I prefer the original.  Oh, and they brought back the lipstick shade too.

Don't you just envy Dorian's figure? 

Now on to my other reason for loving fashion, while movie costumes aren't really fashion they can influence fashion. Does Jennifer Beal's ripped sweatshirt from "Flashdance" ring a bell?  The movie that gave me my love of historical fashion was "Gone With the Wind." WOW! What a movie!  Even the extras wore  historically accurate costumes from the skin out. Pantaloons, corsets and crinolines all made from the best fabrics.  The costume designer?  Walter Plunkett, he was Hollywoods go to designer for historical accuaracy.  About 20 or so minutes in to the movie the heroine Scarlett O'Hara gets married.  The time is 1861 and the Civil War is about to start, since her hubby is headed off to war to lick the Yankees a wedding is quickly arranged.  Scarlett is 16 at this time and wears her mother's dress from 1844. The dress is done in the earlier style with the larger sleeves of the Romantic Era. Vivien Leigh, the actress who plays Scarlett is about 5'2" Barbara O'Neal who plays her mother Ellen O'Hara is considerably taller, the wedding dress is too long for Scarlett and is slightly ill-fitting.  Details!

Here's another costume from the movie, the hat was created by John Fredricks of New York. The entire costume cost about $3000.00 in 1939!

 





Walter Plunkett's original design

And a publicity photo of the costume. It was only seen on screen for a few minutes.   The one on the right is my all time favorite costume from the movie. 

                              

One of the most talented men I have ever come across in my research is Cecil Beaton, he was a photographer, set designer and costume designer.  If you have seen "My Fair Lady" you've seen his work.  He didn't just design the costumes, he designed the hats and the sets of the movie. Tell me if you think the costume below looks familiar.

That's the lovely Audrey Hepburn modeling for Cecil Beaton's camera.  While this costume was not for her, it was designed for an extra in the Ascot scene, she was a great admirer of fashion and loved Beaton's interpretation of Poiret's lamp shade dress.  Here are a few more samples of this amazing man's work:

 The exquisite Vivien Leigh in Anna Karenina

Leslie Caron as the title character in "Gigi" one of my favorite movies.  I have pictures of my mother in law from a few years back, it's amazing how much she looks like her. Absolutely gorgeous!

 

And finally to wrap it up, my current favorite costume designer who happens to still be alive, Colleen Atwood.  Again she pays attention to detail and her costumes allow the actors to lose themselves in their roles.  She has costumed, Memoirs of a Geisha, Chicago and Mars Attacks! but in my opinion her best work has been with Tim Burton.  Her costumes help set the mood and personality of the characters. This costume is from Sleepy Hollow and is on my bucket list of things to make before I die.

  Memoirs of a Geisha

Sweeney Todd

So that's it for now, I haven't even mentioned Lanvin, Elsa Schiaparelli, Adrian, Travis Banton and Edith Head!  I could go on for days!  So from the little girl who was forced to endure the humiliation of wearing the same outfit 2 days in a row I was able to find where my talents lie.  So I guess I owe my mom a thank you? Who would believe it.

Terri

Holy Cow! Could it be any hotter?

The kids are back in school, and the weather is ridiculous.  I feel for my kids and their friends having to go to school in this heat!  It's been 105 this last week and while I'm sure people in Vegas, Phoenix, and Death Valley think that's nothing, on top of heat it's been humid.  Humidity just sucks the energy right out of you. I finally understand when you comment on the heat and someone always says, "well at least it's a dry heat."  Give me 100 degrees 0% humidity over 90% degrees with 35% humidity any day of the week!

Okay, enough about the weather, what have we been up to this summer?  Lots of stuff.  I never did get to my kitchen cabinets this summer, I got zero cooperation from my boys when I asked them to remove the cabinet doors for sanding.  I should have unplugged all forms of electronic entertainment and social media.  I drew out a plan of possible improvements to the back yard and trust me anything would be an improvement.  The hubby and I took a quick turn around trip to Vegas to see his D.O.D. (dear old dad). We went on a week long (sort of) vacation up the coast.  I finally got to the Garment district in LA and I sewed.

On they way home from our Vegas trip, we stopped at Peggy Sue's 50's diner.  We usually stop either in Baker at the Mad Greek or Barstow at the In n Out.  When the kids are with us, we  hardly ever get past the In n Out, for them it's the ultimate.

My cold frosty Diet Coke at Peggy Sue's! It was over 100 degrees in the high dessert on this day so this was totally worth it!

 Part of Peggy Sue's, the place is bigger than it looks from the freeway, not too far away is a Marine Corp Base, they apparently deliver.  (Peggy's delivers, not the Marines base) They also have a "Dinersaur" park that fronts the freeway. It reminds me of Tom's Farms near my house but quirkier. They also have a duck pond, with ducks that aren't shy about quacking at you if you get too close.

  Next up our vacation up the Coast, first stop was for lunch in Downtown LA, we stopped at Phillipes and had French Dip Sandwiches, THE BEST!!! I don't know anything about this woman but she has been there for years and makes the best sandwiches!

So we hit the road and traveled onward. Next stop, the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo.  This is the place with the themed rooms. The hubby was able to cross off visiting the men's room from his bucket list.  The men's room has a waterfall urinal.  My boy's didn't want to use it.  The ladies room was an extremely tacky shade of pink and gold.  Now I like the color pink, but this was even too much for me. Below is the dining room of one of their restaurants.

We stopped for the night in a little coastal town called Cayucos and stayed in an old fashioned motel/motor lodge. After checking in and freshening up we headed into town, so to speak, for dinner.  We parked right on the beach and then went for clam chowder at a place called Duckies. I highly recommend this town and restaurant!

 Cameron digging in and Jordan mocking me for taking pictures.

The next morning we headed out about 8:00 and hit the road again. Prior to leaving we stopped at the Post Office so John could send a post card off to Andrew while waiting in the car I spotted this gorgeous house across the street. I could happily retire here.

We stopped about 10:30 for something to eat in Big Sur at the Big Sur Bakery. While the boys thought the place was gorgeous they were not impressed with the food.  Very organic and as they put it, very much a hippy place.  Well you can't please everyone.

This is the ladies restroom, very picturesque with a fully functioning toilet inside.

 John walking one of the paths.  I stopped in the gift shop because I love little shops.  I was neither impressed with the prices or the wares.  It was the same stuff I have seen for years at the Renaissance Faire but at 3 times the price!  And believe me the prices at the Renaissance Faire are ridiculous!

Next stop Carmel, gorgeous town! I could retire here too.  Of course I would have to sell everything I own including my kids.  This is where I learned something about my son Cameron.  He likes traveling but he likes getting to where we're going.  He doesn't like stopping.  We told the kids we were going to spend a few days in San Francisco so that's what he was focused on. All the stops for him were annoying because they delayed him from where we were going. Who knew?  Jordan and Jonathan just sat back and enjoyed the trip.  We used to call Cam our 100 mile kid.  When he was little he was good in the car for 100 miles, 101 miles and he would start to scream.  Not great on trips where you have a hubby who is competing against some past record where he made it to Vegas in 3 hours 37 minutes.

The Carmel Mission this was about an hour or so side tour.

My boys looking at the bell tower

We stopped for a late lunch/early dinner in Santa Cruz at the Santa Cruz Diner.  We're big fans of Diners Drive inns and Dives with Guy Fieri, I also have the Flavortown app on my phone and this was on it so we decided to try it.  Not great, I was underwhelmed by the food.  Santa Cruz is a cute town I wouldn't have minded spending a day or 2 there. Sorry no pictures of the diner.

As we traveled up the coast, I realized I didn't bring any jeans with me for San Francisco where the weather was in the balmy high 60's.  So we stopped at Walmart north of Monterrey.  John had forgotten to pack a belt and Jonathan a jacket.  John and I found what we needed but we couldn't find one sweatshirt in all of Walmart!  We did see some interesting people in there. I wish I had gotten some pictures.

Here is Cameron in the car after Walmart, Jordan pointed out that he had color coordinated his clothing to his snack: That's my boy! As you can see he is just done with this road trip. I also promised him I wouldn't post this pic on Facebook, I made no promises about the blog.

We arrived at our lodgings for the next few nights and decided to hit San Francisco early the next morning.  We stayed in Millbrae about 20 minutes south of the city.  The first place we took the boys was the Golden Gate Bridge. This is from the car driving across the north bound side

Alcatraz from the North side of the Golden Gate

 My boys on the bridge.  Jordan and Cameron decided to walk all the way back across the bridge, we drove back and picked them up on the other side.

 Cameron at Ghiradelli Square.  Did we have lunch here? Nope, we had lunch at In n Out on the Embarcadero so Jordan could cross that off his bucket list.

 It said photo spot so I took a photo

 A woman's biggest complaint, restroom lines.  For every one restroom built for men 4 should be built for women!

This was the next morning, before we boarded the Duck Tour, we stopped in at the Musee Machanique or however it's spelled.  You may recognize this machine from the movie "The Princess Diaries"

 Jonathan on the Duck Tour.  They tour you around the city then drive right into the bay in the same vehicle.  It's a lot of fun and they let you steer the vehicle when you're in the Bay.  

 After lunch we took a trolley bus to Union Square so I could visit Britex Fabrics. 4 stories of amazing fabrics.  I was with my boys so I'm happy for the 20 minutes I got in the store.  I could have just spent an entire day in there. Then an uphill climb to Chinatown.  This is the first vacation I've been on where I lost weight even though I ate everything in front of me. 

 We walked from Union Square through Chinatown (lots of fun souvenirs) back to the Embarcadero. From Union Square into most of Chinatown it was all uphill when we exited Chinatown and got to Little Italy it was mostly downhill.  By the time we got back to the car I could hardly move, I told John I would no longer gripe about the tiny little hills in our neighborhood.  Since we got back I have been trying to walk most days.  So we ended up back at the Embarcadero and I saw this!  Coit Tower, the Pyramid and fog rolling in!  Loved it!

 Jordan wanted to buy rainbow shoes for school this year and we found these.  He decided not to get them since he is not a big fan of Converse.

 Jonathan found this hat.

 After we got home my some Andrew emailed me this picture of him and a lady he has been teaching.  I love how happy he looks.

Our trip home was accomplished much more quickly than the trip up. We came down the 5 fwy through the Central Valley. We stopped outside of Gilroy at the Casa de Fruta for fruit and snacks.  I found sugar free chocolate covered macadamia nuts the size of large cherries. It was excellent.  We had a few beach trips this summer and most of the sewing I did was alterations.  I have two other projects to do for friends that I need to start then hopefully my time can be spent cleaning out and organizing my house and garage.  I always have these ambitious plans at the beginning of the summer that never happen because like my kids I like to play in the summer.  I was invited to Los Angles by my friend Natalie last week and I scored some sweet deals on fabric.  I found a few pieces that will add to my fall wardrobe and some other stuff I can use to make clothes to sell. So many ideas I don't know where to start. 

Well it's now 10:05 in the morning and I am still in my robe, I need to get going, eat something then get laundry sorted. I will try to post again soon.

Take care,

Terri