(Into) the Fray

A custom order got me into the rhythm of paper piecing patchwork again.  While I was at it, I made a similar item for the shop.

The colors made me think of Strawberry Shortcake, hence the name.

I was appalled to see Macy’s decked out in white Christmas trees with a little throne waiting for Santa Claus the Sunday after Halloween.  I try to put off thinking about the holidays until Thanksgiving (though I do get started on some of my handmade gifts before that.)  But I’m going to break my own habit of pretending Christmas carols aren’t playing wherever I go by mentioning the holiday cards I bought.

Ever since I discovered Etsy 3 years ago, I’ve gotten my holiday cards from a variety of sellers–I like to mix up what I send out.  These are by Kooties Closet, Pell Mell Press and  Paper Schmaper.

& please forgive me for mentioning the holidays early.

Living in a tech driven region, I was skeptical when I was introduced to TED by a friend.  Even the acronym, the first letter of which stands for ‘technology’, sounded a little too IT focused to me.  However, the ‘E’ and ‘D’ stand for ‘entertainment’ and ‘design’ so you can imagine my delight when I saw amazing talks by Isaac Mizrahi on fashion and creativity as well as talks by Al Gore & Jane Goodall (and for the readers out there, Dave Eggers and Malcolm Gladwell have talks available, too.)  The talk by cultural critic Virginia Postrell on glamour, however, has to be my favorite.

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As someone whose dress collection has only grown over the past few years, I definitely get annoyed when the first reaction is wonderment at my having gotten so dressed up.  Erin at A Dress a Day provides a great rant about my second annoyance, the wonderment at attempting to do anything other than sit with legs demurely crossed.

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I realize it may come across as sacrilege but wait.  I once drank the Kool-Aid, worshiping at the altar of vintage-inspired clothing and pretty, pretty advertising.  But repeated purchases have shown a real hit and miss aspect to the quality of the clothing; tops that pill after one wash, sweaters that pill with zero washes and buttons that go loose with two or three wears.  I’ve long known about the connection between Richard Haynes and Rick Santorum and have made a conscious choice not to shop there in the past few months, a shopping habit reinforced by this recent piece of news.  Despite the comments on this article stating that it is sometimes the norm for retailers to destroy merchandise, the two major retailers I worked for did not have this practice.  Pretty appalling really.  Via love maegan.

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I’m so sorry, I can’t remember who tagged Sal, thank you for tagging me to list the five things I love about my state!  Google has not helped and neither has my reader so huge apologies.  That said, here are the 5 things I love about Washington.

1.  Diversity.  Though my sister complains it’s not half as diverse as other cities (and Susan would likely agree) Seattle and a good deal of Washington rarely leave me feeling isolated.  ‘Nguyen’ passed ‘Smith’ to become the most common name in the phone book sime time ago.

2.  Industry.  There are so many companies that call the Seattle area home; that means people relocate here, the local economy generally does well and talking work at a party doesn’t sound like the bore it often can be in other settings.

3.  Food.  This is the direct result of number 1 in my mind.  I was drinking chai years before Starbucks started carrying it, eating home made hum bao and lumpia at fairs & slurping pho from any number of local restaurants.  & it’s more strange if you haven’t tried those things than if you have.

4.  Scenery.  It’s just a pretty place.  From the orchards and grape fields of eastern Washington, to the coasts, to the rain forests on the peninsula and the Puget Sound.  Driving around never gets tiresome because the view is just that great.

5. Music/Culture.  Living in Prague made me appreciate how lucky I am that artists like M.I.A. and Santogold include my home town when they’re touring.  I actually subscribe to the mailing lists for the smaller venues in town because it’s so easy to find out about a show long after the band has passed through.

I’d been contemplating finally knitting a cowl for myself but after seeing the lovely one Krissy made, the equally lovely one by Jean C’est Quoi, and this post by Fashion Spinach I finally picked up my long neglected needles.

I don’t know if I’ll want to wear my scarves again.

I can’t recall how I stumbled across this flickr stream but I adore it.

The hair styles remind me of sculpture, like the new wave cuts of the early 80s crossed with the hip hop precision of the 90s.

There are shorter, simpler cuts too, still interesting with asymmetry and wisping pieces.  Not that I could justify going to Lisbon just for a hair cut.

We’d been on the look out for a bench sofa to replace the generic thing the boyfriend got from Ikea a few years ago.  A department store brochure featured one for a more than reasonable price so we hiked into downtown and placed our order.  It came last weekend.

We weren’t insane about the color but the only other option was near-white (no way) and purple.  From the second photo, you might guess why we weren’t crazy about brown; our coffee and side table are dark brown wood–as are most of the furnishings in the apartment.  Obviously we’ll get some colorful pillows–and in a year or three, when we buy a place with hardwood floors, there will be colorful carpets.  Another option that Julie of Belle Maison brought to mind is a colorful tray.

These are both by Marimekko available at Relish.  Seeing them brought to mind Velocity, whose trays I think I first saw on Kingdom of Style.

This was perhaps my favorite though the price is far more than I can justify.  When we hit up the antique mall earlier this week, our intent was to find some kind of colorful tray.  Unfortunately, everything vintage was covered in flowers.  Or brown in color, the very thing we’re trying to avoid.

We’ll just have to keep looking.

Loving the dresses at Mociun.

I thought I saw this one in gray too but it looks like it’s gone already…

via Lena Corwin

Did anyone else have a strange attachment to The Last Unicorn?  I realize it may have come out after some of you were born, but I remember it being shown on TV when I was a kid and just being enraptured by the story.

Which doesn’t have much to do with this post, but it is my last agate.

In the form of a simple necklace.

The boyfriend’s mom was in town this past week so we repeated our trip to the Aurora Antique Mall, one of her favorite stops when she was here last.

We had housewares in mind while we looked (more on that later), but I also kept my eye out for vintage capes.  I found several but bought zero.

The same booth that held a 1930s/1940s dress I did end up buying also had a drawer full of fur collars and scarfs.

This one was dyed a dark green and made me feel like Oscar the Grouch.  I had to get a picture.

My favorite booth held more hats and gloves than ever.

While we didn’t find the housewares we were looking for, I did find an insanely wonderful coat along with the dress.  I’ll be sure to share them later this week.

Related Reading:

Antique Mall Extravaganza

Antique Mall Extravaganza II

Seriously, I could just cut a hole in one of the boyfriend’s old lap blankets and save myself 30 bucks.

Thanks to Urban Outfitters.

I managed to catch the majority of a Harold Lloyd movie the other night.  Lloyd, along with Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, was one of the most recognized and highest paid comedians of the silent film era.  I was enjoying the slapstick of Doctor Jack when I was caught off guard by the beauty of the leading lady.

While I’m frequently inspired by the style of the between-the-wars era, I’m not always enamored of the actresses of early silent film.  Theda Bara’s appeal completely mystifies me while the girlishness of many other big stars of the day leaves me cold.  While I understand that cultural constraints pretty much necessitated women be paragons of innocence and child-like virtue, it doesn’t really do much for me (except maybe Lillian Gish, who is an amazing actress even to modern eyes.)

Mildred Davis’s beauty and feisty demeanor in Doctor Jack, however, really resonated with me.  Not only is she funny, she’s absolutely lovely with an oval face and crooked smile that oddly reminded me of Drew Barrymore.

I found myself trying to learn more about her and smiled to see that Lloyd married her shortly after the movie.  She quit acting to raise their children and remained his wife until her death–a rarity even then.

If you ever have a chance to see her, please do.

Loving this calendar, the result of a collaboration between Betsy and Sara:

I love both of their styles so am thrilled to see a joint project.

Available here and here.

I couldn’t stop smiling as this apron, from a vintage pattern I picked up in Walla Walla, came together in two quick sessions.

It’s just so whimsical!  The rick rack, the zigzag hem, the sheer sweetness of it–I don’t think I’ve ever grinned so hard upon finishing a project.  I bought some bright red rick rack so should have another one done shortly.

These two little projects seem to suggest I’ve been drawn to metallics and all things shiny–the quilted case features another one of those purple snap flaps.  The wrist cuff features the metallic fabric I’ve only used in small quantities so far–maybe I’ll work up to a purse with the rest.

Rain is promised for the coming week marking the official arrival of the northwest winter.  I’m feeling ambitious, especially after zipping my way through most of a sewing project last night–expect the results tomorrow, along with other handmade things.

For those of you who use Bloglovin’ (and apparently a few of you are already following (Into) the Fray there), I’ve added their icon to the list of links on the lower left.

Have a good weekend!

My copy of the Vogue Sewing Book comes courtesy of Jill at Inside my Sewing Box.  A revised edition issued in 1975, the pages which first caught my eye were the fun collages breaking down colors & patterns.

It’s funny to me how even the shade & tone of colors can change with fashion, the yellows, greens and pinks seeming so very 70s in a way I can’t really articulate.

Upping the nostalgia and hilarity is the chart cross referencing necklines, silhouettes, and sleeve styles against every conceivable body shape–and telling you which is flattering and which is not appropriate.

For all of the retro craziness, this is an extremely useful book; I’ve kind of guessed as to how to alter all those vintage patterns that I’ve used for sewing.  I didn’t really know what to do until I saw the guides here.

Jill is an impressively talented seamstress herself.  I’m super tempted by the sweet coin purses and dog coats she makes–though I might be partial to the dog coats since they’re being worn by one of my favorite breeds.

You can see more in her flickr stream.

Quite standard for me, I bought an item well knowing I would switch out the boring buttons for something more interesting.  Instead of a coat, this time it was the long searched for and sometimes reviled shirt dress.

It felt quite festive to wear it on election day.

I wish I could say the middle picture sums up how I feel today but it really is so much more than that.

‘Brownie shots’ does not mean tiny glasses filled with chocolate goodness–though Enc of Observation Mode might wish otherwise.  For vintage camera nuts, the Brownie is a stalwart and Kodak’s longest-running model, many of which still work despite having sat on shelves for decades.  In other words, imagine if iPods were not just as popular as they are now, but could be used to listen to music in the year 2088.

Having hunted down the appropriate film, the boyfriend finally got the results back.

He used his Brownie Holiday to take photos in Los Angeles and La Conner.

I love the soft black and white and slight glares of overexposure.

Given the settings, it almost seems like the photos could have been taken at the time of the camera’s release.

Photos from all of the boyfriend’s film cameras can be found here.

While you all reassured me that I wasn’t crazy when I questioned my love of peacock print tights, a few people did wonder how to wear them.  I definitely saw that as a fun challenge and took advantage of my barely-used Polyvore account to create a few outfits.

First, a casual look with a denim shirt, some neutral colors and a pair of earrings that vaguely echo the peacock print.

And a dressier look with a feather fascinator (naturally), bronze t-straps and a gorgeous dress.  I tried to incorporate to some degree items I already own (wood bangle, t-straps, denim skirt) but this exercise reminded me of why I stay away from Polyvore–far too tempting to hit purchase for a lot of these items!

You may recall I wasn’t quite sure which ring was best.

I really cannot say how much I love my choice.

The colors have gone muted, it seems.

With a few exceptions.

1. Pewter Fleece Cowl, 2. but one i ve been staying up too late to get myself up early and two have you noticed how chilly it has been…10.28.08, 3. Vintage Fashion, 4. Untitled, 5. gold texture, 6. spools in Fire King, 7. Survival Tip, Blend In, 8. boots and leaves, 9. first, 10. time passes, 11. califoregon show by jill bliss + brittany powell at office pdx: artpiece. sold., 12. Sep. 21, 2008, 13. a tree, 14. sleep precious sleep, 15. Vagabond patent heels, 16. golden, 17. Yarrow, 18. You’re Being Watched, 19. Reef - by Arcane Arts, 20. basic indian spices, 21. mustard and plaid, 22. Genipabu, 23. eggoutrements, 24. august 18, 2008, 25. August 23