Claire Kennedy Design

From the INWA Department

What is the INWA - the famous INWA?

The I Never Win Anything Department!!!!

And it's not that I'm complaining...there's a lot of junk out there I wouldn't want to win.  And part of this is that I'm so picky about what I have in my library.  But it is nice to win - and this is from Sandra Betzina's Twelve Days of Christmas so all those prizes are pertinent.

But this one has to be a little coincidentally symmetrical to this taking into consideration my posts last September!!!  But I'm of the ilk that there is always something we can learn, no matter how knowledgeable we are or think we are.

 I can't wait to get my little mitts on this book....it looks like a gem and something that I would like to have for my studio library!!!

Thanks Sandra!

Adventures

For a long time (almost a year) my diving buddy and I have been planning to go to an island in Indonesia.  Ever since we saw Planet Earth (click here), we were hooked.  

We want to see lots of macro (that's photo talk for reeeeeally tiny stuff) and photograph it.  That's our favorite.  We'd also like to see a cuttlefish - from the squid family.  It has only one species that has a larger brain to body ratio on this planet - IOW, it has a really large brain, but it only lives about a year.  Sounds almost like a relative of ET.

So next week we trek Westward to go to the East - yeah, I know doesn't make sense.  But then we take off 8 a.m. Sat and arrive 1:15 pm on Monday.  I don't ask what happened to Sunday cause I'm sure I won't human during that part of the trip.

See the dark water...that's where the reef begins...that means you can walk out and do shore dives morning and evening apart from the regular day dives.  For divers that's very cool.

What makes Indonesia so cool is that its where the Pacific Ocean meets the Indian Ocean and there's lots of nutrients to feed all the reef & fish.

All this is to say that although I have a few posts "in the can", I may be a little off and on with posts, as my mind won't be thinking of fabric, threads, assemblage.  OK - well that's not quite right.  I will never stop thinking of fabric and sewing, but I'll just be thinking about it in a different way.  And while I'm thinking about it I'll be taking some wonderful pictures (hopefully) and seeing some pretty fantastical things!

I don't really mean this to sound morbid

Bunny over at La Sewista posted a wonderful tale of a great mentor and friend who was moving and wanted to make sure that some of her sewing treasures had a good home.

Not meaning to be morbid, I've sort of done the same thing, only a little more in your face.  I've announced to my family (I have no children), that if they put all my buttons in a box and sell them for $25, I will come and haunt them - their worst nightmare.  Some of these collections are old, old, old, and some of the sets are valued at more than $300.  When I said that, I got their attention.

This doesn't look like much  - most of my buttons are in nice little plastic sacks to save them from rumbling around in this drawer, and believe it or not, I know where they all came from, and if I've used them before even once or twice.

 

The other thing - besides my machines - I have of value is this fabric.  Some of it wasn't so much expensive at the time, but after years is either hard or impossible to get.  I've tried to sort this out for my family, but more importantly, have encouraged them to have someone over who knows what everything is, to prevent them from putting it all in a box and giving it to the Goodwill or Salvation Army.

For now you will be happy to know that I have passed my latest annual exam and I have no plans to die or be any Indonesian shark's dinner for the next 3 weeks!!!  So no one should get their hopes up there will be a raffle on this blog any time soon. 

But I do know that some day my niece and nephew and probably younger sister will be sweeping out the garage and cleaning out the closets, and want them to know at some point what's worth tossing and what's worth keeping.  If nothing else hopefully they will invite someone like Bunny over to not only advise them but hopefully they will allow her/him to have a few gems out of the collection.  Nothing would please me more to know that my fabrics & buttons and trims have a nice home!

Cleaners

Being in the dress biz, the inevitable question comes, "Where do I take my dress/gown/suit/pants/etc., to be cleaned?"

Nothing can send shivers up my spine faster.

I would never clean this tunic & pants as the tunic fabric was purchased on one of my island-dive trips and I'm not only not sure of the fabric content, I'm not sure of the dying process, so it will be cleaned.

As good as a cleaner may be, the whole process is like scratching nails across a chalkboard!  It is without a doubt the hardest thing you can do to your clothes.  So I have resorted to other methods and habits to keep the intended shape and style of my clothes as closely to what they were when they were first assembled.

For me this cleaning process is a last resort for removing stains, spots, or orders.  I would prefer to do this myself and know that the garment has been handled gently to retain it's original style.

I've laundered this cotton jacket (removed shoulder pads & buttons) at least twice.  It's light yellow and shows dirt easily, and a nice heavy cotton, so launders well.

 

So here's a few things I have learned along the way.

1. If it isn't dirty or smelly, don't clean it.
2. If it's wrinkled, hang it and allow the wrinkles to fall out.  I will often recommend to clients that they hang their garments on the door jam to the bathroom while the take a shower to allow the steam to help in this process.
3. If there is a spot or just a small place, spot it.  I usually use K2r (I get this at my local Walgreens, but I'm sure there are other places as well).  If it's really bad, I will use a cleaning solution, but this is very dangerous, as this is a liquid and all liquids will "ring" or cause a ring to occur, especially on silk.
4. If the whole garment is dirty or smelly, and it is a constructed jacket (pad-stitched interfacing, collar,etc., shoulder pads, lambswool on the sleeve heads, other tailored elements, and is made of wool, rayon, acetate or other man-made fibers other than polyester), then the only way to clean the garment is to send to the cleaners.  But usually this will happen about 4 or 5 times in the 20-year lifetime of the jacket - I'll explain this later.
5. If the whole garment is dirty, usually, this means that the cuffs, collar, front are dirty (usually my lighter colored garments), then I will removed the shoulder pads (taking into consideration there is no other construction elements as mentioned above), and buttons and gently launder it, and press it when it comes out of the washing machine.  I do not dry it in the dryer, and allow it to hang to dry.
6. Silk is easily laundered, and smells infinitely better than the cleaning solution.  You do have to iron it, but this is not a method for silk ball gowns, bridal gowns or other formal wear - this is a method for blouses, tops and pants that do not have heavy construction methods in the garment.  I usually will launder them and then allow them to hang.  One caveat here is that the garment will be folded and creased, and if those creases and folds will not press out, then do not use this method.
7. For silk that when folded or creased, and the creases will not press out (the fibers usually break when they are folded or creased and nothing will heal or press out those broken fibers), then I will place the garment in a mild soapy solution (Woolite is NOT mild, but liquid Ivory is fine for this), and allow them to soak for at least a couple of hours or for a day.  Then removed gently and allow to hang to drip and dry.
8. Wool requires cleaning.  It will shrink, loose it's original shape and there are other problems when it is washed in water.  If it needs spotting, use K2r or another cleaning solution, being careful not to spot it with a liquid to prevent ringing.

This is a nice light-weight cotton that would normally be excellent laundered, but it is lined with Bemberg, a rayon fabric, which does not do well in the laundry.  As well it has faux leather trim and accent (the oxblood red trim & cuffs), which would preclude it from being laundered.  It will be cleaned, but so far, I've had this for 3 years, and it hasn't required cleaning.
 

As amazing as this sounds, most of the time clothing like this just doesn't require that much cleaning.  After you wear the garment, allow it to hang free or outside your closet, then look at it again and if it's dirty clean it.  Most of the time it won't be.  Even for working types, who wear jackets/suits all the time, usually have enough of a wardrobe that you're not wearing the same jacket day after day, unless it's a uniform, which will allow you ample time to allow the garment to breathe and not need cleaning.

Silk - watch out for wrinkling, you must press or iron silk after laundering (unless you gently soak it with no agitation), so know this before you start.  Silk does not retain dye well, so the darker colors will run, soak or wash with like colors (this means green w/green, blue with blue, black with black, etc.).

Wool requires cleaning, period!

Cotton responds well to laundering as long as there are tailoring details to consider.

Man-mades:

Polyester responds well to laundering excluding the tailoring detailed garment.

Rayon, Acetate must be cleaned

Bemberg lining, must be cleaned

Viscose, excluding garments with tailoring details, can be laundered.

The two main considerations to consider are shrinkage (or other damage to fibers), tailoring details, and color (dye retention) when laundering or cleaning a garment.  If you can be certain of the outcome whether cleaning or laundering, then this allows you many choices in returning the garment back to its original shape and look.  And with such care, the garment will last 20 or more years.  Mine have worked for me beautifully, and the only reason I have for retiring them permanently from my closet is that the style is no longer working for me, and it is beyond refashioning or reconstructing.

Oops!

Whoa!  Yesterday I couldn't blog.  I couldn't even get on.

And I discovered how much I miss it.

Not that I have that many great things to say, but it reminds me of my days when I first learned to sew and was a member of a sewing club.  What made it so fun is that we had an exchange of ideas, techniques, short-cuts, reviews and of course who was where, when and why!!!!  Even though I live in a metro area (about 1 million), this is a small town and we all pretty much knew the same people so it's hard to get away with much, which sort of helps to keep you honest!....at least that's most of us!

When the group broke up, I missed all that camaraderie, and blogging and reading others blogs brings all of that back to me.

The marvelous sewing that goes on is so much fun for me to follow, and most of all to hear and see the good, bad and the ugly of patterns, fabrics, sources and resources is so good for my soul.

The sad thing is that I can not find any pictures of those years, so they are all stuck in my head.  Doesn't mean I won't try and find some, but this was before cute little electronic picture-taking thingies and you either had to lug around a big SLR or a disposable jobbie that didn't take really great pictures.

I'm spoiled today when I have access to all this electronic stuff and to all my blogging buddies!

The 50's vs today - fashion & other things

With the premier of Mad Men happening, there's a lot of talk about the fashion of the late 50's and early 60's.

 

Most of the discussion is centered on fascination of a time in which mores, behavior and certainly clothes were a lot more restrictive and ruled by dictates that were discussed and some that were just "understood".  Why would we as women be so fascinated with this era, when we have come so far in liberation of our sex.

Having lived through that period (on the tail end of inequality through the "battle of the sexes" to now), it is a little reminiscent of those more un-liberated times, to look back at our fascination with another period of history that was even more restrictive and debilitating, as the 50's and 60's may seem to a lot of younger people today.  In those days we often admired fashions from other times, primarily the Jane Austin craze.  Talk about sexual inequality - that was downright oppression of the female gender.

So you could make the same argument for empire waist dresses as they were worn in the 60's, that you can make for the same interest in 50's/60's fashion today.  Why would we (in the 60's so much freer than those of Victorian England) admire these styles from far more oppressive eras?  Cause the styles were pretty. 

I figure the same thing is going on today.

That said, personally for me, these fashions bring back memories of girdles, stockings, gloves, braziers (not bras), spike heels and other confining apparatus that went under those fashions.  Funny in that was sort of symbolic of the confining mores as well:  Dictates that governed every part of your life and other dictates confining not only women, but men as well. 

I wonder if part of the fascination of this period is that life seemed simpler and more defined.  Everyone knew what they were supposed to do and most of the time did it.  I wonder as well if it isn't a look at a time that gives us a clear definition of who women were as compared with what they are today.

I think nothing of jumping into my car at 8:30 at night to run over to Jo-Ann's to pick up a zipper or thread, but when I was 20, I would have NEVER done this.  I run three companies today, when I was starting work as a young Mary-Richards type in a big city, I never would have considered that I would even own three companies much less run them, and yet as a child, that is exactly what I dreamed.

I wonder to if today's young women have more opportunities, also they also have more of a choice.  When the women's movement started, it was not only out-of-fashion to be a homemaker, but it was considered a "sell out", and you were not encouraged and certainly not supported if that is really what you want to be.  Hopefully we have come full-circle enough that if a woman wants to stay at home and raise a family, she can - although more often than not she's usually working in some cottage industry that she has founded!  But she's not ostracized or considered a sell-out if she wants to stay at home.  And if the guy wants to stay at home - have a home business, he's not thought of as as any less of a man.

So we have come a lot further, and if there's a wistful and somewhat rose-colored view of the past, that's OK too!

And now...for something completely different

My good friend loves to smoke meats. (Celine's post brought this to mind!) And naturally smoked meats are best when made to share with friends, so we had friends over Friday night to enjoy the pleasures of summer!

In the process, we decided to clean up the back porch.  Having company is always a great excuse to get something done I've been postponing (OK procrastinating) for a while.

But the rain that we've had and the beautiful weather, has caused my porch to be almost lush!

 

We rearranged things so that his smoker is in the middle of things and he has some "staging" tables (read: place to put all his important smoking tools!)

Then fixed a few things and voila - a beautiful place to hang out!

 

There's nothing like rearranging the furniture to make you think everything is all new!

Isn't Summer grand?!