In Need of Beauty: Three Rizzoli Books You Must Possess.

We had a gorgeous Thanksgiving, during which time the world stopped, and we were able to live in a private universe of family and food and love and beauty. On Sunday, our world was whittled back down to our dynamic duo. We readied ourselves for Monday--Rob with football, and I with a floral mesh swing coat inspired by Dior. We ended the weekend together on the couch, with the final episode of Friday Night Lights (our second time through), and Rob sighed,  I want more Good stories.  There's not enough of them.  I replied,  I think we'll see more soon. Actually, I think we're about to see a lot of beauty over the next four years.

We're about to see a lot of *everything*, no doubt, but don't you feel a push, a wake up call, to make it clear that you are Good? Even in the commercials we saw during Sunday games--the COMMERCIALS--people, corporations, are making themselves clear. Walmart had an ad up with Thanksgiving tables mixed with every race, color and creed--a black female soldier declaring to her platoon that you are my family, it doesn't matter what color you are. Zales showcased a lesbian couple joyfully tying the knot, showered with love from every direction. Amazon has an ad that's gone viral, in which two old friends with different beliefs share the same aching knee problem, from the kneeling they both do for their separate religions. Beautiful.

At any rate, I won't belabor you with half baked deep thoughts on every post, but it did seem to me that beauty is more important than ever right now. So I'll end the musings there, and give you an eyeful of beautiful books I've been meaning to share with you since last Christmas, as part of my Sewing Goodies series. Because these books will make you want to Sew. Beautiful. EVERYTHING.

I don't like to say "never," but I can firmly say that I will N-E-V-E-R be a person who can read a book on a Kindle. Books, real books that you can hold in your hand, there's no comparison for me. Yet, I was completely blind to the use of fashion books for years. I mean, you can google inspiration from any number of designers! Turns out, having that paper in my hands is pure ambrosia. Beats a computer screen right to death. 

Hands down, Rizzoli books are my favorite. It's gotten to the point that if I see their mark, I'm sold. This large format book, Valentino: Themes and Variations, is glorious.

I've had this huge tome since last Christmas, and I haven't even gotten through the whole thing yet. Partly because I want it to last, partly because the inspiration is so overwhelming, I can only take so much at a time before I cry UNCLE VALENTINO and run to my sewing desk. It's just that stunning. 

When I added Lanvin to my wishlist, it was purely for the fact that it was published by Rizzoli. (See? I wasn't lying!) When my parents gifted it to me, I thought ehhh this isn't my style even as I proved myself to indeed be a liar, as I drooled over the beadwork and thought up ways to incorporate it into my hamhanded machinations....

I MEAN I WANT THAT VELVET BEADED BEAUTY.

And last but not least, Dior Impressions. The one that started my little collection. I checked this book out from our local library--it was actually the first designer book I ever leafed through in the quiet of our home, and as Rob read his "book" in bed next to me (on an Ipad, BLASPHEMY) I couldn't keep my reactions quiet. In fact, he got very little reading done that night, as I kept punching him to look at each new page.

It was the first designer book I decided I had to own. Not quite coffee table size, this cloth wrapped gem is smaller than the rest, and hands down my favorite. It ties Dior's work to inspirations of his own: art and nature.

(Speaking of coffee tables, these don't actually reside there, as that is reserved for eating in our small apartment. Nope, they live atop our electronics cabinet. Yesterday, Rob shocked me by asking if I could move them, as they're staring to pile up and block the speakers. I think you know what my reaction was.)

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into some of my favorite "trophies," as Rob rightly calls them (you'd think such a perceptive man would know better than to pose the aforementioned question, eh?). We readily plunk down cash for sewing books, but poring over these tomes is, in my opinion, a gold mine. It's like having a carefully curated exhibit in your home. If you're like me, and late to the party on the value of having one or two or TWENTY around, I hope you'll give them a try, whether it's through these links, or your local library (actually, the library is a great gateway drug for these! I have a pile of books that I check out every time we trek home for the holidays, and I pretend they're ALL MINE for a whole week.)

And for those of you who are already designer bibliophiles...got any recommendations? Our electronics cabinet needs piling up, dontcha know.

the links in this post are amazon affiliate links, so let your fingers do the googling if you're not into that! pennies earned go towards keeping up the sewing and blogging habit... and maybe another book or two...

Boundless Style in the wild!

OH HAI! Here's my crazy ass trying to pull off one of those ever-so-quaint "Blogger By The Christmas Tree" shots! A bit of a fail. I only broke one ornament in the process, when I tried to go Full Blogger and hold a vintage bauble in my hand just so. As if the plaid corduroy and merry red free standing lace embellishments weren't holiday enough.

(The shoes are another story. One day I'll get around to painting the other heel gold.)

Ah, but this post is not so much about the ensemble as it is about the book that brought it to be! I was a tester for Kristiann's new book, Boundless Style, and I don't know how I kept this choose-your-own-adventure delight under wraps. 

At the time, I only had private eyes on the super cool app: Lookbook. You know the drill by now; you choose a configuration, like a Frankenstein's monster of fabric-- only, the good doctor Kristiann has done all the work of fitting the connections together for you. Pattern hacking without the work of hacking! Using Lookbook, I chose to test the Georgia Bodice + Farrah Sleeve, done up in some truly awful cotton voile. My stash & workload didn't allow for a trial skirt, but it was a very successful (hideous fabric notwithstanding) test. Beautiful bishop sleeves, and lovely little bodice details...I believe my notes said something like YOU KNOCKED IT OUT OF THE PARK GIRL.

Here's the Georgia Bodice + Bardot Sleeves + Sophia Skirt. As a thank you for testing, Kristiann handed me a copy of this beautiful tome at her launch party at Workroom Social. Fun fact: Kristiann has a voice like dusty church bells. Tell me I'm lying.

I went with the Jackie Bodice + Sophia Skirt for my second round of Boundless Style, and my latest round at The Sewing Party. The holiday corduroy was a lovely surprise from my girl Alicia at Pandora Sews! THANK YOU BEAUTIFUL! You can read and see more about it over at The Sewing Party...

But back to the book! I read this cover to cover, and although I'm not a newbie, I still thoroughly enjoyed the comprehensive chapters on skills and techniques. Kristiann packs a lot of solid information into this book, and doesn't skip things for the sake of "dumbing it down" for newbies. She talks about all the good habits that are great to employ from day one-- like grading to reduce bulk, the importance of pressing, setting in a sleeve cap. The patterns are approached in the same way-- for example, there's a specific lining for the vented Sophia Skirt, rather than the usual "cut 2 fabric + lining." The Jackie Bodice uses twill tape to stabilize the wrap neckline. Although many of us might use those techniques based on our own knowledge, I find that a lot of new books aren't thoughtful enough to include them. And you get finished garment measurements as well, we all know how much we want that!

There's a map for the finishing touches on your beautiful monster...

And a disc of all your patterns in the back! HOW PRETTY IS THAT SKIRT. GIVE IT TO ME. (Don't fret if you don't have a disc drive, there's a digital link available for the patterns.) You print exactly what you want, which is ever so brilliant. I'm a PDF lover, but printing out all pattern pieces, when maybe you only need the top half out of a giant map, well, it saps your printer ink AND your mojo. That juice is 'spensive. Here, you print out exactly what you need as you go, which gives me great big digital hearts for eyes. I now have a TNT bodice, skirt, and lining, all printed out and ready to go.

There are a gazillion places to grab a copy...if your Santa happens to have eyes on an Amazon wishlist, you can find Boundless Style here, or you can get it through Kristiann's shop. Only the Amazon links are affiliated (ETA: if you're new around here, I use my Amazon affiliation to further my sewing and blogging habit, and I will always tell you if I use an affiliate link), and Kristiann did not ask me to review--I'm doing it because I really love the book and the outcome! She truly did a bang up job, and out-of-the-box thinking to boot. I think you'll love it too!

King Of The Library

Mystery fabrics at rock bottom prices always get me. Postage stamp sized New York joints filled to the rafters with random goodies, gimmie. But, at under $5 a yard, there's little chance a fabric tag will accompany the myriad bolts threatening to crush patrons.

Should you find yourself fondling questionable items, the clean, mostly white samples in Clive Hallet's and Amanda Johnston's Fabric For Fashion: The Swatch Book hope to aid you in understanding fabric, through text and touch.

Though I'll be honest...it's the pretty pictures that have my eye. I almost don't see fabric when it's not patterned, or technicolor. I just sort of glaze over on neutrals. I totally get the why, but it's hard for me to buckle down and read the text. That's the point of course, the pale swatches are meant to help you focus on the characteristics of the fabric.

And maybe that's where I'll prove a bad student, because YES GIMMIE THAT WHATEVER IT IS

I'M PRETTY SURE THAT'S MY HAIR

I CAN HAZ POLYESTER COTTON CANDY???

DAMMIT, WOMAN! FOCUS! Let's be real, if I'm going to continue to be seduced by bargain bolts, this is medicine I need to take. When I'm enamored of a particular fabric type (usually through Mood, where things are nicely marked), suddenly every unmarked bolt I touch is that fabric by virtue of my current obsession. Back when I was working on my silk chiffon Anna, I swore everything I picked up in the shadowy streets of the garment district was silk. IT WAS NOT. 

As Ruggy says, I can tell myself a lie in the most truthful way.

But here you go, silk and poly CDC right next to each other, waiting to prove my silk colored glasses wrong. Um, yeah. THEY DEFINITELY FEEL DIFFERENT. Of course I know this. I just need proof every now and then.

Although the whimsically bound tome (I feel like I could definitely find some cool blank insert pages to insert for my own stash reference!) has 125 fabric samples in all, it's not just swatches. Overviews on Animal, Plant and Man Made Fibers, plus chunks of info on each little swatched subdivison, and the usual beautiful layout of a Laurence King tome grace 88 pages.

Those 125 swatches do add up, over a buck a page at 95 smackaroos. Not something I would splurge on myself, but definitely something I would put on a wishlist! And the holiday season is coming, isn't it?

I most brattily thank LK for Christmas Come Early in Kalkatroona... it's a beautiful addition to my shelf. I do so love my little sewing library! Speaking of which...

There's a splendiferous FREE event happening at FIT tomorrow, hosted by Laurence King, with draping demos and raffles and lectures, oh my. I was drooling in anticipation until I realized it fell on my wedding anniversary, so you probably won't see my fabric dazed face there. Unless I can convince Ruggy that this would be a totally romantic start to the evening. 

There's a minute chance that I can actually do that. Last week, on his birthday, he asked if I might like him to build me some fabric shelves under our windows.

Which makes him King For Life.

this book was provided to me by Laurence King in exchange for an honest review. 

i've always been a jersey girl

here's the best review i can give for this book: i lost possession of it for over a month.

on the night of the disappearance, there were many factors involved: one could blame it on the booze (cocktails were immensely present), one could blame it on the beauties (so many ladies wanted a peek), one could certainly blame it on the boogie (because Vintage Michael Jackson is never wrong).  days after sarai invited me to peek at alyson clair & colette's new tome, i packed it carefully in my overflowing saturday sewing/testing/teaching/partying bag, with the intention of ORDERING my "students" (quotes, because for real, they're friends) to BUY THIS BOOK.  

of course then the class went into party mode and the book made its appearance after some truly serious cocktails were served, which started the loss of literature.

but i digress!  it's back in my hot little hands now, and as always, you know if it's here, i love it.  a love accompanied by sparklers and banners and trumpets.  this is a Good, Tasty Book.

so many are scared of knits.  at the start of my sewing plunge, no one ever told me to be scared of this fabric.  being self-taught, no one ever told me anything.  (except a lady at joann's who said i should Never Make Pants.  she was misguided.)  my fearless, reckless abandon with this fabric had everything to do with lack of information.  i tried things out and had many failures and some successes and a general good time of it, wadder or no.

this book would have given past oona far more gold star finishes... and it gave present oona a little happy feeling that many self taught machinations are not too far off the industry mark. 

it's divided into three main sections: fabric, machines, and techniques.  there's a wealth of information for the beginner, and there's gold in there for the more advanced stitcher as well.  i'd never heard of letting your jersey rest after prewashing!  i guess everyone likes a good nap.

the section on machines includes a coverstitch, the beloved brother serger is also showcased in the pages, as well as your reg'lar machineroo.

jersey is a different beast and alyson teaches you how to tame it.  it's like baking versus cooking.  a lot more play and feel and tasting involved.  there are things a beginner might think she or he shouldn't do. alyson gives you tools, and permission.

and sarai would like to give one of you a copy!  to enter, leave a comment on this post, ooooh, let's see: tell me your biggest fail, or fear, at sewing up knits. links to entertaining photographic evidence welcome!  I LIKES TO BE ENTERTAINED.   i'll announce the winner on monday june 23rd.  good luck!

update: comments are now closed, winner will be announced later today... contest now closed, congratulations, jag!

this book was provided to me by Colette in exchange for an honest review.

we are photogirls

A younger oona wanted this book.

As a teenager, I loved to decorate my room. To the point of set dressing. Sometimes it was filled with oversized umbrellas, sometimes ‪papier-mâché‬d comic strips, sometimes sometimes porcelain clowns (that one was actually a bit scary), but always it was a mess of clothing and books and art supplies and makeup and CDs and teenage paraphernalia. Whenever I had to clean it (which was often, as my creativity stalled with too much jumble) I had to draw a map of my lands with numbered areas so that the task seemed less daunting.

(We're talking about a normal sized room, mind you. The circles were quite small, but STUFFED.)

I'd come downstairs, dressed for the day, possibly in lace pants, possibly in a DIY'ed drawn and sliced mickey mouse t-shirt, possibly with stars and lightning bolts painted on my face, always to the delight of my mom, who once decreed she couldn't wait to see what I'd show up at the breakfast table in.

At school, I'd lug four or five bags of various size and heavy weight to each class, needing dance supplies, art supplies, a costume change or two for rehearsal, music books for choir, a makeup kit (I was the unofficial makeup artist for our high school dance troop). And snacks. There was usually no time for lunch. But when I could grab a minute in the cafeteria, I plopped myself down at a table for eight, right in the middle of the lunchroom, with seven friends of every hue, shape and interest. Shy, outgoing, super smart, kinda ditzy, we were a multicolored table sitting directly on the dividing line of lunchroom racial obligation. Everyone was beautiful at our table, because everyone is beautiful.

Sometimes after school on a friday, if there wasn't rehearsal or voice lessons or ballet, I'd go to the mall with my Nan. And always on the weekends. We'd stroll through the levels and she'd spend her social security check on me, clapping at the whacked out combinations I'd come up with, never allowing herself anything even when I'd find the perfect yella top for her.

My hair, which needed no help, was assisted nevertheless by all manner of hair product. My mom still winces at my senior picture, which includes a ninety degree L shaped part that could have served as a raceway in Tron. The most important picture of my life up to that point, and the one time she was disappointed in my arrival at the breakfast table.

I loved my teenage life. Really. I have nothing bad to say about it, not one thing. But the girl I just described to you would have loved to have this book. This is the missing book that would have added a camera around her neck, and one more heavy, happy bag on her shoulders.  

It was written for the girls out there who are creative, daring, timid, loud, wild eyed, soft spoken...for the girl who wants to be a photographer, an artist, a model, an art director, a stylist, who wants to see the beauty in everything, who wants to be confident in her beauty, in her size, in her shape, in her skin, in her style. Who, yes, just wants to have FUN. If you have a girl in your life, she will want this book. She will totally want to be a photogirl, and you will totally be happy with that desire.

When the king contacted me and wondered if DIY Fashion Shoot Book: We Are Photogirls, geared towards a younger set, would be up my alley....I THINK THAT ANSWER IS A YES.

Maybe you don't need to be a girl. Because this woman is putting her name in this one.

this book was provided to me by Laurence King in exchange for an honest review. diving into its pages was a truly gleeful experience. heads up, the link to the tome is amazon affiliat-o.