Sewing School
April 10th, 2011
Last night, my hand-sewing partner (and co-founder of the New York Nineteenth Century Society) and I taught an introductory hand-sewing class at Trade School on the Lower East Side. The concept of Trade School is very close to genius — people with unusual skills are invited to propose classes. People who want to take the classes promise to bring barter items (based on a list provided by each teacher) in lieu of payment. They’ve had two semesters so far — this time around, the classroom was in a building owned by Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It was an old schoolroom, so there were wonderful chalk boards, bookshelves, and those wooden and metal chairs with desks attached.
When our hand-sewing class was announced, we planned to accept 15 attendees. Those seats “sold” out within the first weekend! In the end, 9 lovely people showed up for the class. We sat around in a circle, and talked about some of the social history of hand-sewing while learning basic stitches. Some of our class were experienced sewers who wanted to learn new techniques, but even those who had never used a needle before did a wonderful job sewing their sample seams. It was also exciting to hear how each person planned to use their new skills.
Because we only had 90 minutes, we stuck to sewing and felling, as demonstrated in this video that we produced in advance of our very first hand-sewing class last year (taught at The Old Stone House in Brooklyn).
I’m now thinking about an instruction booklet for hand-sewing stitches; about making my own hand-sewing sampler; and about organizing an ongoing class where people could learn all the various stitches and techniques required for garment construction. We are on a crusade to bring back hand-sewing!!
Distracted Again
April 6th, 2011
I’m still working on the final stages of the Civil War exhibition at the Museum where I work — boy, wait till you see this one! It’s probably the most unusual Civil War tribute that is being mounted in New York. Truly. I will explain as soon as I am able. Until then, consider yourselves tantalized.
I’ve also been hard at work on the Nineteenth Century Society website. You can take a peek at nineteenthcenturysociety.org. And please don’t judge too harshly — it’s still a work in progress. We’ve yet to add much content, and you would shriek in horror if you could see the sloppy, un-commented, presumptive PHP that I’ve used to animate the Google Calendar event feed. The important thing however is that it works. I will make it neat later on. And add all the neat little javascript tid-bits.
I’m particularly excited about the Nineteenth Century Society forum…
Aside from a few half-hearted stabs at my neglected broderie anglaise, I haven’t been sewing at all. Just working all day and hacking the Google Calendar API all night. I am eager to get back into my stays again though, and see if this latest pattern tweak will do the trick. More soon on that, including a big vote of thanks to the lovely folks on The Sewing Academy Forum for their brilliant fitting suggestions.
Stand in the Light
April 3rd, 2011
A cause worthy of your notice — and hopefully your support!
“If it were not for the intellectual snobs who pay in solid cash, the arts would perish with their starving practitioners.” – Aldous Huxley
Help prove Mr. Huxley wrong (not that the artist in this particular instance is starving…but you know what I mean). Or am I simply encouraging you to be snobbish? Take it either way.
Free Reading
April 2nd, 2011
I’d like to make you an unusual offer. Since my garret is very small, I can’t afford to keep many books around; I generally donate my books back to Housing Works when I’m through with them (excepting the 100-or-so carefully-chosen permanent occupants of our tiny library).
But today I had a new idea. The three books pictured here have all been featured on Circa 1850 (see the links below if you are curious enough to read what I wrote about each). I would so enjoy hearing what you think of these books too. So, if you will agree to read the book, then write me a letter (or perhaps a “guest-post”) telling me what you thought, I will engage to send you any of the following:
Far From the Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy
Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
To request a book, just leave a comment on this post, and I will arrange to collect your mailing address. Or, if I know you in person and you’re in the New York area, I can deliver it in person. Be quick about it though — if I don’t hear from anyone in the next week or so, I will be forced to donate the books as usual. There just isn’t room here to let them hang around too long!
P.S. While I would be tickled to send one of these to a reader overseas, I’d have to ask for a little help with postage. They’re rather weighty, and US Media Mail (which offers reduced rate for mailing books) isn’t an international option.
Oh, So Close
March 31st, 2011
While battling a spring cold, I’ve been finishing my latest stay mock-up. I decided to sew these by machine — partly because there is simply too little time in life to hand-sew mock-ups, but mostly because I’m using a ridiculously heavy brushed twill that is completely impossible to hand-sew.
The good news is that they fit MUCH better now that I’ve changed the angle of the stomach gores. I also figured out that the key to a straight busk is not so much the rigidity of the material used, but the width. Two half-inch spring steel stays running next to one another are far superior to the same two spring steels stacked one on top of the other!
They are also incredibly comfortable. I’ve been wearing them for almost an hour now, and am in no hurry to take them off. I actually enjoy the support.
Here’s the bad news. I’ve got horizontal wrinkles. Ah me. I don’t remember if they were this pronounced in the last version. So many other things were wrong there that I might not have noticed. It seems these can be caused by too much length, though I don’t really think that’s the problem here. They can also be a lack of boning, but I think the folds are too severe to be fixed by an extra bone. So that means I have the gussets or side seam in the wrong place. Perhaps too close to the center front? Alas, alack. More fitting.
It does seem to improve a little when I tug the stays higher, but they always fall back down again. The back is kind of wrinkly all the way down, but I think it’s alright. Unlike the front, the back is cut on the straight grain, so it’s got less of that forgiving stretch. It’s definitely a problem in the front.
Suggestions welcome! I am off to beg advice wherever I can find it.
P.S. I do feel quite justified in using my sewing machine as this pattern was published by Peterson’s and Godey’s in 1855 and 1857 respectively. And the sewing machine was definitely making inroads into American homes by then!
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