Podcast Togetherness: Mother-Daughter Sewing ( Ench By Sew-008 )

Hey, the May 2013 "Enchanted By Sewing" Podcast is available in the pod-o-sphere!

Why so early this month?

We Want to be on Time for Mother's
- or is that Daughter's? -
 Day!

You can listen to the show right on the web by clicking on this link. Or, download this podcast free from iTunes, to play on your favorite mobile device/mp3 player (like an iPhone or an Android), by clicking on this link to iTunes.

~~~

• This podcast episode is dedicated to Lori Van Monan, a mother who has influenced my sewing, blogging and podcasting tremendously. Lori is the creator and producer of the long time Sew Forth Now Podcast, as well as the Girls in the Garden Blog, which she continues to host. Lori  (who recently became a grandmother !) continues to sew for her four daughters, who are now young women. She also often shares ways that her mother and grandmother influenced her sewing. Thanks again for sew much inspiration Lori!

Daughter Kristen and her mother Tammy
are sewing cohorts and classmates
in the Cañada Fashion Sewing Program

In celebration of Mother’s Day… Laurel reflects on her own experiences with mother-daughter sewing. She also finds out that this relationship doesn’t always fit into a traditional pattern. This conversation with sewing cohorts, who happen to be related, may surprise you as much as it did the show hostess.

   

• In this month's podcast I spoke with daughter Kristen, and her mother Tammy in the  Cañada Fashion Sewing Program lab. In the illustration on the left, Kristen is wearing the dress she sewed for class, that we talk about in the 'cast. Below you'll find the alteration Kristen made to the sleeves she wasn't happy with.

•  Kristen is a died-in-wool Romantic, like me. You'll hear us talking about this Romance of Hats book just before our official interview time began. Kristen and I both took the millinery class on campus through the Cañada Fashion Sewing Program

The romance of hats / the editors of Victoria magazine ; foreword by Nancy Lindemeyer. http://catalog.plsinfo.org/search~S1/?searchtype=Y&searcharg=millinery+victoria&searchscope=1&sortdropdown=-&SORT=DZ&extended=0&SUBMIT=Search&searchlimits=&searchorigarg=Ymillinery+hat%26SORT%3DDZ

–       

Updated sleeves Kristen created for
her purple dress

Stone Mountain and Daughter is a fabric store in Berkley,  is a favorite of many in the Cañada Fashion Sewing Program

o   Tammy is a fan of Katie R. who works there and has helped this new sewer feel confident about choosing fabrics

o   Kristen likes the cotton sateen sold at Stone Mountain and Daughter

-       Tammy is sewing Kwik Sew pattern, hoodie style 3693

o   http://sewing.patternreview.com/patterns/29811

o   “Easy and great for beginners”   http://sewing.patternreview.com/review/pattern/66379

Yes! I admit that I bought this pattern from Pattern Review, after hearing about Tammy's plans!!

-         Sewing Velvet

o   Woops, Laurel, when it comes to pressing velvet,  it's a nail BOARD not a nail brush!

• Tammy and Laurel are both into crinkly/ruffled knits

Laurel's Fashion Forward Mermaid Tee
This is the kind of fabric Tammy and I were talking about
sharing a liking for

* This "Bisou Stretch Mini Ruffle Knit" (the link below is for Fabric.Com) is one of the styles of ruffled fabric Tammy and I were talking about. I bought my mint-green version at Stone Mountain and Daughter, and made my "Fashion Forward Mermaid" tee shirt  (above) with it, using a deconstructed (non-finished edge) at the neckline and sleeve edges. (Sorry I can't find a link for this fabric there. If you can find it there- or at some other favorite source- feel free to post a link)

http://www.fabric.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=1958a8df-d243-4199-a706-f422e4357168

This Morton Salt Girl's dress, may well have been Mama's inspiration for my own butter yellow outfit as a kid.

Quick Tutu Keeps a Girl Happy (Doll Sewing)

Kaity Rose (above) likes to imagine  herself
on stage at the San Francisco Ballet

Kaity Rose had been after me for a tutu of her own, ever since she heard me speak about my fascination with that garment in the final Pensamientos/Reflection part of the Enchanted by Sewing January Podcast. Of course I had made the mistake of mentioning that I had a piece of tulle and a bit of purple satin in my fabric bits inventory, not to mention a sparkly embellishment or two. Any doll would bug you once they knew that.

Did I use a pattern? No.

Is this costume going to hold up to the rigors of long-term play? No.

But I did make one doll happy. And if another little child ever comes along who wants to play with a ballerina doll, then I'll just get busy and sew up a sturdier version.

I may focus on sewing for my own wardrobe, but occasional sewing for dolls is another one one of the things that keeps me Enchanted by Sewing.

You may also enjoy Cracking Nuts at the Opera House

The Lady Wears Shorts: Part 1

These shorts are a little loose at the
fitted waistband now because
I lost a little weight.
I made the first pair with belt carriers and
I think I'll do that on the third pair too. 

A few  favorite postings

OK, I admit it's not all shorts with me 

Romancing the Dress Part 1: Dainty

Romancing the Dress Part 2: California Romantic asks do skirts really fit into her active and arty modern life?

Romancing The Dress Part 3: The Dress Comes to Life

They aren't glamorous or high fashion, but I probably wore shorts every day this summer.

Since I much prefer to wear things I create myself, I was really happy that I found a shorts pattern that worked well for me this summer, McCalls 6403. I made two pairs of shorts out of this pattern, and could have used three. (Yes, your right I have another pair cut out in my sewing basket .)

Actually I created a third pair from another new pattern. In the process I found a style that is decidedly unflattering for my H-shaped figure. I'm never going to make those right-at-the-hip cargo pockets again. However, shorts are still so practical that I have even gotten a lot of wear out of the never-again shorts. I wore them several times in the garden and for hiking. They only work with my big loose boxier tees, and I only have a couple of boxy tees that I've made that I like.

I walk or hike every day, and shorts seem like a basic, practical requirement, but I remember when women couldn't always put practical first.

When I was growing up, there were lots of places where women were discouraged from wearing anything other than skirts or dresses.  During elementary and middle school (we called it junior high then), we were required to wear skirts and dresses. Our public school system saw themselves as the gatekeeper when it came to teaching us how to be ladies. When we challenged the rules and wore pants, they sent us home to change, or called our parents. Unhappily for the school administrators, when they called my liberal mother she gave them an earful of her ideas on females making their own choices when it came to what a lady wears!

Shorts make hooping work. Try this in a skirt!

Before my family moved to California, we lived closer to a small town in Mexico than we did to the U.S. town to which our mail was delivered. When we crossed the Arizona border into Mexico we always changed our shorts for a skirt, because at that time prostitutes were recognized by their clothing, and nice women didn't wear any kind of pants. Even my feminist mother wasn't going to battle the norms within another culture. On went the skirts as we once more assumed the accepted role of ladies.

I'm really glad my modern day California culture supports my wearing the practical clothes that makes my life comfortable.


Coming Soon Techniques and Challenges for this pattern