Who's that girl on the needle threader?

this bundle:  https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/Fy8AAOSwPc9Zxmhn/s-l1600.jpg

I've been shopping for them in bulk, as I am beginning to lose the ones I have, and need them more and more. 

There's a whole lot of needle threading going on with this Haptic Lab map quilt.

Somewhere between poor lighting, old eyes, and fussy thread ends, I can't eyeball it the way I used to.

Super fun tip: put a dab of glue on the wires on the back before you use it. Of course, let it dry first. This stops the wires from slipping out after the third use. Can't help it when they break, because those wires will eventually.  

various images from the internets

There are a lot of variations on this mystery portrait, but let's go look this up at the one stop  info mall.

Pretty much all made the same way 

https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=65524

I love the Straight Dope.

The take: it has to be Minerva, Roman goddess of handcrafts.

AKA Athena, in her Grecian identity.

Her helmet evolves into a hairdo

I ALWAYS sew in a helmet

This version is definitely the outlier of the portraits; it looks more like a Gallic caricature by Toulouse-Lautrec or Daumier.

http://www.everypainterpaintshimself.com/article/daumiers_the_orchestra.._..during_a_tragedy_1852

Daumier’s The Orchestra.. ..During A Tragedy (1852)

And to keep things handy, a little DIY needle threader for you

https://makezine.com/2012/08/06/how-to_diy_needle_threader/

and a little history cause

https://trc-leiden.nl/trc-needles/tools/embroidery/needle-threader

"A popular, late nineteenth century form consists of a small plate (often stamped with a profile image of a woman), with a diamond shaped loop of fine steel wire attached to it. The wire loop is flexible and easily passes through the eye of a needle. The sewing thread is passed through the loop and the loop (with thread) is then pulled back through the needle eye. This form is still available in the beginning of the twenty-first century."

Well, yes!

and while we're here: it's summer. Get a stack of coasters.
https://www.zazzle.com/power_tool_round_paper_coaster-256904353820157476
or just look at stuff
https://www.zazzle.com/store/erniekdesigns/products

The value of women's wear: Smith College Clothing Collection

A Girl Scout uniform worn by Sylvia Plath.CreditShana Sureck for The New York Times

Should These Clothes Be Saved?

Thousands of articles of everyday women’s clothing are being preserved in lockers in a college basement. But where, exactly, does their value lie?

By Vanessa Friedman

Things to read right now

A paper dress from the archive. CreditShana Sureck for The New York Times

https://nyti.ms/2LqsiF5

Should These Clothes Be Saved? by Vanessa Friedman

You have the five minutes to go read this article about Kiki Smith's work with the Smith College Historic Clothing Collection. Sylvia Plath's girl scout uniform should get you there. 

 If anything, go look at the pictures. It's a great article about collections, about clothing, and about institutional process. And very much worth your time.

I'm working on a longer piece and am missing a photo for it. Back with the content in a day or two.

Thinking about textiles and history

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Because blogging does not pay the bills, I'm back at the summer job and posts will be when I can. 

There's been lots of sewing of summer dresses, and some photos of them on Instagram, just not lots of time to write about them. 

 Reads and Watches:

Cool article about textile history by Virginia Postrel

a screengrab of Unravel

documentary short about textile reuse in India

by Meghna Gupta

"Maybe the water is too expensive to wash them"

Given how brown our Cascade and Olympic Mountain ranges are, perhaps it will be.

Who Survives and Who Thrives

One good thing I took from recent online seminars: the Internet is a neighborhood. The people in your neighborhood, your peers, are your neighbors and you should be....neighborly.

So the online version of shopping locally is what? 

I look to the independent pattern makers when I am shopping for a pattern.

I look for the indies first, because I assume there will be good new ideas there. Since I'm largely drafting my own stuff now, I am looking for inspiration or a kick in the pants. It's no different to me than paging through the big Two companies catalogs with their endless repetitions. 

Hey, they do have good and interesting stuff now and then. And they have a wider audience to appeal to than me.

Targeting your audience as a company is a good way to get repeat business. Lots of folks aim at the the newbie sewist, combining a sewing lesson with a pattern.  Others have a design niche (pockets! trending styles! Princess Kate! Remember when Style Arc was all over her?) This is all good news.

There are always new businesses coming up and older ones fading away (either age, death or real life intervening with business). 

https://thestitchery.wordpress.com/2010/06/19/lafred-patterns/

I miss LaFred terribly. But the patterns are still there.

https://sewingpatterns.com/collections/la-fred

And look who else is there!

https://sewingpatterns.com/collections/park-bench

This is still one of the greatest dress patterns ever. Loes Hinse made several of the best patterns ever. the pull on pants were genius - the secret is you don't pull your pants on straight up, so you can cut the waistband down a couple inches by putting two darts in the back to soak up some of the excess you need for the elastic casing. Less extra bulk around your waist is better.

In the case of the Barcelona dress, the bodice is cut on the bias, the sleeves ongrain, the 3/4 round skirt on bias so that the front seam is a chevron.

I've been reading A History of the Paper Pattern Industry, and you would not have known that the one that survived would be Butterick from the companies over the years (and even that is just a nameplate since 2001). And when the PDF format turns into something more practical for the home sewer (and when we find a better term than that, cause I am not sewing a home)....

I have a tight deadline on those grey hems. More later.