Ench By Sew-47: Oscar de La Renta Field Trip

Click on this link in iTunes  to download the 47'th episode of the Enchanted by Sewing Audio Podcast,  produced in September of 2016. Or listen directly on the web by clicking on this link.

This Month’s Show 

Come along on a field trip to the Oscar De La Renta Exhibit at the De Young Museum in San Francisco

Show Notes Oscar de LaRenta Retrospective at the De Young Museum in San Francisco - Spring 2016 

( https://deyoung.famsf.org/exhibitions/oscar-de-la-renta-retrospective0

Errata

Bolero Jacket was style I couldn't think of  in regards to the gold lame outfit

Alluring Spanish dances I was trying to think of might be a tango or flamenco.

Ench By Sew-44-Part 2: Embellished and Printed Fabric, Reflections on an Exhibit at the Met in NYC

The Third Knot”. Interlaced Roundel with Eight Wreaths and a Scalloped Shield in its Center  - After Leonardo - Before 1521

Click on this link in iTunes  to download the 44'rd episode of the Enchanted by Sewing Audio Podcast,  recorded in June
of 2016. Or listen directly on the web by clicking on this link.

This month's show is, PART 2 of Embellished and Printed, Reflections from a Historical Exhibit from an Historical Exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City - Fashion and Virtue: Textile Patterns and the Print Revolution, 1520–1620

In this Show

*Primeros Pensamientos/First Reflections – Chatting about my sewing and a little more

My Kensington Gardens Shirt - Terminado!/Finished! http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2016/06/kensington-gardens-shirt.html
*D’accurdo, tambien/OK also 
       And a little more /y un poco más
At work on Pinto another summer shirt http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2016/06/fitting-pinto-m6076sleeveless-princess.html

*Entonces/Then Back to the exhibit at the Metropoliton Museum of Art in NYC -  Fashion and Virtue: Textile Patterns and the Print Revolution, 1520–1620

Web Resources 

I mentioned the Tanna Lawn fabric for my cur.rent sewing project, that I purchased a few years back from Liberty of London. In this podcast "Laurel Loves London" I talked about a trip to Liberty

http://enchantedbysewing.blogspot.com/2013/06/ench-by-sew-009-laurel-loves-london.html

One of the items in the exhibit we visit in this cast comes from the Victoria and Albert in London (V&A). Below is a link to a walk I shared with you around the fashion gallery at the V&A.

http://enchantedbysewing.blogspot.com/2013/07/ench-by-sew-010-v-fashion-gallery-tour.html

-Fashion and Virtue: Textile Patterns

and the Print Revolution, 1520–1620

http://www.metmuseum.org/press/exhibitions/2015/fashion-and-virtue

- “The Third Knot”. Interlaced Roundel with Eight Wreaths and a Scalloped Shield in its Center

Artist:

Albrecht Dürer (German, Nuremberg 1471–1528 Nuremberg)

Artist:

After Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, Vinci 1452–1519 Amboise) (or workshop)

Date:

1521 before

http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/388791

- Link to the 10th century block printed lions - that I think would make a great quilt block - Spoonflower would be my ticket! http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/448647

Ancient Egypt print block

http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/448512

Many wonderful links turn up when I searched on 'printed textiles' at the Met

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=www.metmuseum.org+printed+textiles&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

"Nineteenth-Century European Textile Production

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/txtn/hd_txtn.htm

Ench By Sew-43-Part 1: Embellished and Printed Fabric, Reflections on an Exhibit at the Met in NYC

http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/448647

Click on this link in iTunes  to download the 43'rd episode of the Enchanted by Sewing Audio Podcast,  recorded in May
of 2016. Or listen directly on the web by clicking on this link.

This month's show is, Embellished and Printed, Reflections from a Historical Exhibit from an Historical Exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City - Fashion and Virtue: Textile Patterns and the Print Revolution, 1520–1620

In this Show

* Primero Pensamientos/First Reflections - 

I reflect on this exhibit at the Met and also on how the exhibits I saw there, relate to my own current sewing and  my interest in patterned fabrics  history.

*Entonces/Then

#FashionandVirtue

We go to the exhibit together. Remember that this is only Part 1 of this exhibit. I’ll take you back with me again, next month in the June show, for Part 2.

Web Resources 

I mentioned the Tanna Lawn fabric for my cur.rent sewing project, that I purchased a few years back from Liberty of London. In this podcast "Laurel Loves London" I talked about a trip to Liberty

http://enchantedbysewing.blogspot.com/2013/06/ench-by-sew-009-laurel-loves-london.html

One of the items in the exhibit we visit in the current podcast comes from the Victoria and Albert in London (V&A). Below is a link to a walk I shared with you around the fashion gallery at the V&A.

http://enchantedbysewing.blogspot.com/2013/07/ench-by-sew-010-v-fashion-gallery-tour.html

-Fashion and Virtue: Textile Patterns

and the Print Revolution, 1520–1620

http://www.metmuseum.org/press/exhibitions/2015/fashion-and-virtue

- Link to the 10th century block printed lions - that I think would make a great quilt block - Spoonflower would be my ticket! http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/448647

Ancient Egypt print block

http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/448512

Many wonderful links turn up when I searched on 'printed textiles' at the Met

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=www.metmuseum.org+printed+textiles&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

"Nineteenth-Century European Textile Production

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/txtn/hd_txtn.htm

Ench By Sew-37: Savage Beauty of Alexander McQueen (Halloween Style)

 

 October is a month when many of us in the Western Hemisphere get in touch with our own emotions and comfort dealing with

mortality. Folks in my neck of the woods celebrate Dia de Los Muertos – Day of the Dead. Dia de Los Muertos is a day for celebrating ritual death tradition- engaging in crafts, creating and eating special foods, and putting out images – colorful, beautiful, and also macabre – that may touch on a connection with departed family members.

Listen directly to this audio/podcast on the web by clicking on this link OR.... to download the show from iTunes Click on this link to iTunes  , 

In our neighborhood we put out beautiful pumpkins, scary dancing skeletons and bright lights. Then we celebrate our connection to another world, by welcoming in the trick or treaters- be they costumed beautifully, colorfully, or gruesomely - by handing out free Halloween candy.

Fashion designer Alexander McQueen focused on designing beautifully romantic, avent garde fashion. He also had a strong interest in the macabre. His masters fashion exhibit “Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims”, was a hint that this emerging designer was not going to be run-of-the-mill when it came to setting his artistic tone. Other chilling exhibits followed. “Highland Rape” and “The Widows of Culloden” , among others, carried McQueen’s historically inspired fashion artistry farther into the dark side of the human soul.

Morose? Yes – often- but his work was also drop dead gorgeous. Many of McQueens materials, embellishments design lines, colors, technology and elements inspire my arty-romantic sewing nature, even as I am frightened by other aspects of his work.

As you accompany me in the show, I’ll share the beautiful, and the colorful as well as the scary.  Because that’s what this time of year is all about, where I live.

Antique-Retro Threads: Plum-Purple Pocket Dress - Mid Twentieth Century

                        

 I have  been thinking about adding embellishments to basic patterns lately, as I've been working on creating a rather

challenging embellishment on the straight skirt I've been sewing, using a pattern I created from my sloper. I haven't blogged about that project yet, other than a posting describing how I created the pattern.  

My own embellishment work got me thinking about this plum-purple frock,  that caught my eye at  the exhibit From Rationing to Rationing at the Museum of Vancouver. I saw it on our visit to Vancouver Canada in the fall of 2014. Yup, that's the visit, for which, I created my audio show  Embellishment Via Vancouver B.C.

 ~ ~ ~ 

Pensamientos/Thoughts for this plum-purple pocket dress...

Fashion doesn't necessarily move as fast in real life as it does on the pages of a magazine. I recall dresses from my own childhood, in the 1960's, that harked back to many of the design elements in this dress, which is probably an end-of-the war, or just post-war creation.
* The fitted bodice is very mid-twentieth century
* Dainty collars added a popular innocent look
* No-button buttons were a simple embellishment many home sewers added. Buttons were often recycled from worn-out garments, so sewists had them around
* Short puffed sleeves stayed in style for several decades, certainly through the seventies
* Yokes also stayed popular through the late seventies
* Lots of pretty edging and trims like these, served up on plain fabric backgrounds,  are really reminiscent of the mid-century, before the mid-sixties, when dresses got much shorter and styles became all about crazy prints. Sewing up prints was in vogue, because printed fabrics were suddenly much more affordable and available.

And what about that pocket!

I created a similar pocket on my favorite black velvet bath robe, a few years back, by angling out the sides of a rounded pocket pattern. This one looks even more full. I must try fooling around with a pocket pattern to get a similar effect.

The pocket also  dips down in a heart shape in the center. And what about that beautiful embroidered velvet trim! It really tops off the pocket nicely.

* Lots of detail on the yoke was again very popular. It works because of the plain-colored background, even this peach colored lace can be over-embellished. I think that trim worked with ribbon is called insertion.
* Dark colored velvet bows at the neckline have a very mid-twentieth-century look as well. Doris Day often wore bows like this in her movies, especially black ones. Velvet bows were also popular as hair adornments. That was a signature style for Rosemarie in the Dick Van Dyke show, of course. Well into the sixties we could buy velvet bows on hair clips at the 5 and 10 cent store. I guess that would be the 5 and 10 dollar store now!

Reflecting on styles that affected fashions from my childhood, and considering embellishment elements that still work today - That's the kind of thing that keeps me ...

Enchanted By Sewing!

Ench By Sew-31: Historical Bathing Beauties

The April Enchanted By Sewing, Episode 31 Audio Show is Up !

Option I) Listen to the Audio right on the web by clicking on this link - No need to download 

~ OR ~

Option II)  Click on this link to iTunes  to download this and other Enchanted by Sewing shows to your mobile device (iPhone, Android, etc.) free from iTunes

Bathing and swim wear has certainly changed from the cover-em-up days!

 Have you ever sewn your own swim or bathing suit? I created a couple of bikinis way, way back in high school, but since then, frankly, I’ve been happier to buy my suits. I do however often stop off at various sewing blogs to sample bathing fashion creations that other sewists have created, and daydream a little at trying my hand at another suit one day.

I also get a kick out of hearing and reading about how bathing suits have changed over time, and thinking about what a shock people must have had to suddenly start seeing others, especially women, revealing so much of their flesh on beaches! The big changes in swim suit styling around the 1920’s seem to have been about the time when the  sport changed from ‘bathing’ to ‘swimming’ in the English speaking world. It wasn’t enough just to immerse ourselves in water outside, as we did indoors anymore. Now more people wanted to get some exercise when they went into a pool, river or ocean.

This month I’m sharing a walk around an historical bathing suit exhibit I saw at the Vancouver Maritime Museum in the fall of 2014. Won’t you let me know if this show gets you in the mood to sew your own modern day or historically inspired bathing or swimming suit, by posting below?

Babes & Bathers: History of the Swimsuit
http://vancouvermaritimemuseum.com/press/babes-bathers-exhibit-opens-maritime-museum.

Here is the promotion for the exhibit, from the web link at the museum. Please note that the show is no longer running.
‘
"In a city surrounded by water, swimsuits have always been an essential part of our wardrobe as Vancouverites. From swimming costumes to bikinis, bathing suit styles have fluctuated from the modest to the more revealing, all in a desire to make us fashionable by the water’s edge. Drawing on the private collections of celebrated fashion historian Ivan Sayers, you can now see the modest suits, revealing bikinis, and sometimes outrageous costumes that have been spotted on Vancouver beaches since the 1890s. "  http://www.vancouvermaritimemuseum.com/