Readers, Summer sewing. For various reasons I have never given it its due. Summer’s not very long in Minnesota, so I don’t wear my summer clothes so much that I get tired of them. Soon enough they get packed away again. And until recently, in the summer when I wasn’t working I was probably traveling […]
Backstage at the Goldstein: Tutti Frutti
Readers, As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been volunteering weekly in the offices of the Goldstein Museum of Design on the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota, tidying up the donor files. The Goldstein collection includes furniture, textiles, silver and ceramics, but the largest part is clothing and accessories. The files I see each […]
Menswear, and the Women and Men Who Love It and Sew It
Readers, I am looking forward to writing a thank you letter like this someday (soon, I hope): Dear Threads editors: As a long-time subscriber I want to thank you for the single most informative, exciting and life-changing issue of your magazine I’ve ever read: the menswear issue. For a serious home sewer like me, locating […]
Lost Momentum: Reward for Safe Return
Readers, When I got back earlier this week from a 12-day trip to Ohio I thought I’d brought everything back that I left with. It turns out I was wrong. I lost my momentum. And darned if I knew where it went. To be specific, I lost my momentum drafting a pattern for a shirt […]
Beau Ideal
Readers, The only thing that’s short about my husband, Jack’s, figure analysis is this post. After standing him against a big piece of paper taped to the wall and tracing his outline as accurately as possible, I can now reliably report: Jack is tall. Surprising, I know. But, there you are. I’d had my suspicions, […]
Door Number 1 Revisited
Readers, Yesterday I flew home after a visit to my photographer (and sister) in Columbus, Ohio. While I was gone, Jack pulled up the carpet on the basement stairs, in another chapter in the sewing domain renewal. He pried or pulled out hundreds of staples. What a guy! We figured we would cover up the […]
How to NOT Use Your Serger
Readers, This plaintive letter recently poured in to Getting Things Sewn: Dear Miss GTS, I’ve bought a serger–hooray! So I should be happy, right? But now I’m worried I might break the machine out of the box and actually use it. Miss GTS, can you help me? Signed, Concerned in Columbus, Ohio Dear Concerned, Of […]