Threads magazine

Kate Dicey wrote: Whatever it turns out to

That's pretty much where I stand, but it was interesting to watch the various scientists put forth their pet theories - even the one who claims the image was produced by radiation as the cloth fell through the body during a miraculous resurrection, and injected himself with a radioactive isotope to 'prove' it.

not as much of that cool stuff 'round these parts. We still think a building from 1900 is "old"! (hee)

------------------------------------------------------ Wendy Z Chicago, IL (Moo) Wench Wear Costumes

#525 AIM=wendylady525"Though she be but little, she is fierce""It's the little ones you have to watch out for...""I'm not short - I'm concentrated"--------------------------------------------------------

Well, there are a lot of mailing lists around for people into these kinds of things. H-Costume is fairly active, but can stray into the frighteningly academic at times. Take the recent debate about what exactly ARE those ruffl-y looking things on a particular 16th century painting. I didn't understand word one of it. However, there is enough of interest to me that I stay on, and I really feel as if I am keeping up with the state of current research.

When I do my court dress (from the skin out!) it will be as accurate as present research and budget allow (given that some of the fabrics are no longer available, and while others are, I cannot afford fabric at £200m!). Long straight seams may well be done on the machine, but there will be a lot of hand finishing, and everything will be documented carefully. I might just put it on the web site, but if there's a sellable article in it too, I may well go for that. It would be fun to do some writing for the general public again. I have Margot Anderson's pattern as a start, but the details will come from more direct sources.

Cool, and as Wendy says, keep it "non-academic" so that people who sew can follow along, and if not actually do it, enjoy reading how it can be done. Sort of a case of "virtual sewing." I do a lot of that, also virtual cooking, virtual gardening....

I love reading people's dress diaries. I suck at keeping them myself, because I get on a roll and it's suddenly 6 hours later, I am hungry, almost done, and have taken no pictures.--

------------------------------------------------------ Wendy Z Chicago, IL (Moo) Wench Wear Costumes

#525 AIM=wendylady525"Though she be but little, she is fierce""It's the little ones you have to watch out for...""I'm not short - I'm concentrated"--------------------------------------------------------

I tend to sew with the digital camera hung round my neck these days, but i know what you mean!

I have a set that goes back to the Premiere Issue -- except for issue #34 April-May 1991, the one right after Kilts/ Adjusting Patterns/Hemming Scarves/Spring Yarns/ Verdu's Knitwear/Button Closures/Floorcloths. Somehow I have two copies of #38 instead. I have been scattering partly- read copies around dangerously -- and my spouse is in charge of cleaning. I'd better collect them up and count them.

I knew right from the beginning that Threads was too good to last: it was the first needlework magazine I'd seen that was both slick and serious. Before Threads, all the slick fiber magazines featured gorgeous pictures of childish projects.

Despite my misgivings, Threads lasted as an all-fiber magazine for over ten years -- I stopped checking spines when I got to the top of the ten-year stack holding up the later issues, which are shelved like books. Which makes them easier to consult, but makes it hard to read the spines.

Nonetheless, when they suddenly narrowed their focus not just to sewing, but to frivolous-fashion sewing, I felt utterly betrayed. If my subscription had run out before they got their act together and started shoe-horning in stuff other than "here is the very latest, bleeding-edge, blink-and-you'll-miss-it STYLE", I'd have let my subscription lapse.

They still haven't printed any post-change article half as good as the one on plain sewing -- and that one stopped just short of giving me enough information to make myself a shift. Everything was there except where do you measure yourself, and what do you do with the information.

Well, they did print Injoo Kim's step-by-step instructions for drafting your own pants sloper after narrowing the focus to fashion. The only glitch in that was my own fault for not reading everything before doing anything. (You should

*trace* your front draft, not cut it out and make it into a pattern: you are going to modify it to make your back draft.)

But as you might guess -- I've been sewing longer than most of the editors have been alive -- I get only the occasional tip from the magazine; mostly I peruse for amusement, not for instruction.

The *last* tip I used from Threads, I didn't even read the article: just glanced at the pictures and said "Doh!".

I've been making bias tape for *years*; why hadn't I ever thought of piecing bias yardage? Well, I don't need bias garments, among other things.

But a few months later, I got back from Australia convinced that the bias-cut linen bra I'd made from a knit pattern several months before seeing that issue -- wasting, I might add, more fabric than I used when I cut it out, which was one of the reasons I'd set the pattern aside. That, and it's scratchy when worn in cool weather. But it was the absolute nuts in scorching and steamy weather, and I bitterly regretted that the prototype has much too high a neck and pokes out of all my shirts. But, luckily, I had also brought a tatty blouse made of the same cheap linen-cotton, intending to wear it for a pajama top.

Anyhow, soon after getting back I picked the hems out of an ugly, wrong-shape linen-print sarong I'd made for the trip & pieced it into a bias tube. I really should have read the article first -- doing so might have slowed me down enough to remember that one cuts the fabric in two on the bias

*before* sewing the ends together. Major glitch, and I'd flat-felled the seam before realizing what I'd done, so picking it out wasn't a serious option. So I marked the cut in sections, and it was close enough. I just *made* the cut edges match, and I'll make the second bra from the other end of the tube, and make those cut edges match.

But the idea worked well. I have extra seams in the bra, but I put them where they don't hurt anything, and I don't have more fabric in unusable scraps than I have in the bra.

And the bra still works with a lowered neckline -- though I'll have to wait a month or two to give it a proper workout. It's a bit scratchy to wear in May, when I've been accustomed to cotton knit for so long. (The gathered-linen band would feel wonderfully soft if I were changing over from the polyester "plush" off-the-rack bras are lined with.)

I need to lower the neckline a bit more in the front and make another one from the other half of that sarong Real Soon Now -- the time when I can saturate three bras a day isn't far off, and once one has worn linen, it's a great imposition to sweat into cotton. (But not as great an imposition as going back to polyester.)

Joy Beeson

There's no doubt that Threads has gone through a lot of changes. Most of it had to do with personnel--they've had six or seven different publishers and editors, and many different assistant, associate and contributing editors. Each change in personnel has led to a different philosophy at the magazine.

It will be interesting to see how it further evolves, now that David Coffin has left Threads, which he did a little more than a week ago. He was such a defining force, since he'd been there almost from the very beginning. I'll sure miss him.

Karen Maslowski in Cincinnati

YIKES!!!!!! I can hear the bells tolling now! Maybe it's time to go find that place that sells subscriptions to Australian Stitches and buys them in bulk and mails them individually from inside the US.

Joy - Your bias-cut linen bra is intriguing - which pattern did you use? More details please!

-- -:¦:- ·.·´¨ ¨)) ¸.·´ .·´¨¨)) ..·´ Chris ((¸¸.·´ ..·´ -:¦:- ((¸¸ ·.·

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com Washington State, USA

ARRRRRGH!

Joy Beeson

I removed the unnecessary parts and some ease from a T-shirt pattern that had a side-seam bust dart, and added waistband elastic around the bottom -- the kind used in men's shorts.

Then I tried the version that worked with my less-stretchy interlock in linen cut on the bias. Works great, and I discovered today that the "scratchy" isn't due to the fabric at all, but because I need to pare another half inch off the armhole in the back. (I used an early version of the interlock pattern as the basis for the linen pattern, so it has smaller armholes than the finished interlock pattern.)

I may make 'em *all* in linen; it's a pain having to re-fit the pattern every time I cut a new piece of fabric. But I think my black interlock has the same stretch as the blue that I used up making my three "good" bras.

I posted a confusing lot of details in _Rough Sewing_: Garments:Women's Underwear:Bras, but it's a trifle out of date, particularly since I haven't yet gotten around to changing the links to point at the current version posted on my auxiliary web site. (we get six sites with our ISP & only have two people, so I took two, & the one for personal stuff is almost full, so I'm transferring writing stuff to the writer's-club page, and have yet to change the links and delete the old stuff.)

I line the fronts of the interlock bras, but the linen bras are a single layer. Another reason to make all from linen. (Not to mention that steaming weather is due soon.)

I hem the neck and arm holes on the interlock bras (zig-zag over the raw edge), and face the linen ones with bias tape. Both have the bottom hem turned up twice to fully enclose the elastic.

Joy Beeson

Joy - Thanks so much for the additional information. I've resisted making bras but there HAS to be a way to have some that are comfortable! It doesn't get so hot here in Washington so think I'll try the knit fabric but I never would have thought of starting with a t-shirt pattern! Thanks again.

-- -:¦:- ·.·´¨ ¨)) ¸.·´ .·´¨¨)) ..·´ Chris ((¸¸.·´ ..·´ -:¦:- ((¸¸ ·.·

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com Washington State, USA

"joy beeson" wrote

Thanks, Joy. This is very interesting and going on my pile of things to try. I can no longer wear commercial bras, even sports bras, but wear undershirts which are fine in winter, but I know I'll need something come summer or I'll have rash.