Tag: Book Review

Apparently, this last week was the anniversary of Grace Kelley’s 1965 wedding to Prince Ranier of Monaco. I thought it was high time I let you know that I *finally* read her wedding dress designer’s book, ‘Just Make Them Beautiful’. The book was published in 1976 and was limited edition at that time. There are few copies floating around and those for sale are in the $100s of dollar range. My wonderful, Japanese reading and writing Cornell University-attending intern not only orders Japanese sewing supplies for me. She also borrowed the book through Cornell’s library over winter break.

Helen Rose’s book is a true delight. I’ve wanted to read it for at least a decade.  Through her own words you get a glimpse into life as a costume designer. She started off as an art student in Chicago in the late 20s and stumbled into costume design. She began sewing for stage productions and eventually came to California and went to MGM. She herself didn’t sew. She would draw wonderful pictures and a team of seamstresses would bring it to life.

Her book is filled with such luscious descriptions of designs and fabric that you are transported back to the heydey of Hollywood and the studio machine. She has personal annectodtes of stories of the stars she worked with including 19 year old Grace Kelly, Judy Garland, Lena Horne, Elizabeth Taylor, Esther Williams, Joan Crawford and more.

The book includes photos of the designer working and water colors of her design ideas. My photos are blurry as the binding was too fragile to scan and the flash bounced off the pages. Plus, when I got the book it was December, so too cold for outside. But, at the bottoms is a youtube video with clear pictures.

Even better, you can see some of the watercolors and how they came to life with fabric and needle. I also recognized some of the costumes from movies I’ve adored over the years including High Society and A Designing Woman. There are a few dresses from a Designing Woman that I’ve obsessed over. Especially, this red one.

Some of the dresses are very familiar including costumes from High Society, Butterfield 8 and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Immediately after reading the book, I started trying to figure out how to make the Maggie the Cat dress for myself!

Roses’ designs were so well loved and oft-imitated, that she started her own retail line where she sold the Maggie the Cat dress (in a far simplified version) among other lines. I’ve never seen any of her designs in vintage stores, but would snatch one up in a heartbeat if I did.

If you can find a copy of this book and are into old Hollywood glamour, I recommend you check this one out. It’s a visual eyecandy.

Here’s a wonderful slide show on YouTube of the photos from the book.

Guys, I’m so busy these days between work (larger projects, running a Fellowship program) and extra curricular activities (election season). I don’t want to tell you I’m on a hiatus from blogging since I may have a whim (like now). But, I will be posting very little until the end of September. I can only *dream* of new projects! Heh. Not all that different than the last month really 🙂 But, I do plan to write a few book reviews over the next month — mostly my Singer Sewing Reference Library.  I was lucky enough to buy the bulk of them for less than $20 a few years ago.

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Trena and I are engaged in 15 minutes of cleaning challenge. Each day we have to spend 15 minutes cleaning a room in our respective abodes. She’s been actually scrubbing / cleaning. I’ve been putting things away / sorting. For each day we don’t, we put $2.50 into a pool. I think we’re doing this for three months. At the end of the three months to the victor goes the spoils. Hopefully, we will both have new habits in place.

Last week  I cleaned out my bedroom drawers. What I found were a lot of sorry tee shirts that I sleep in and absolutely nothing ‘nice’. Nothing at all attractive or cute to walk around the house in. When I was dogsitting Frida, I also noticed I had very little ‘walk the dog’ ‘run out the street’ clothes. I’ve focused hard on work outfits because that is where I spend most of my time. Yet, I had to buy a whole new top from H&M two weeks ago for a morning brunch date! I’ve been increasingly more interested in sewing sleepwear and lingerie. I’m not a person who hates slips and pantyhose. I rather like them! In fact, I started looking for slip material last year when I finally admitted my three high school era slips no longer fit (they are going to Trena).

Enter, Sewing Lingerie.

I was most interested in the slips portion and ways to embellish with lace.

The book also covers making dartless FBAs for chemise tops and slips

The intimate apparel section covered garments that I didn’t quite understand

But, I emailed Lindsay T and she explained the point of a teddy. Yes, I didn’t know what a teddy was for! If you think about it, when they were popular I was in Converse and undershirts.

Tap pants! They seemed so silly when I started looking through the book. Now, I think they are super cute.

Luckily, Burda also has a sleep set pattern that I can adopt perfectly for the outfit below.

The book also covers laying out pattern pieces to use the lace best and gain the most stretch

Even better, some great tips on making those itty bitty, teeny tiny, skinny minnie straps

Overall, I recommend this book if you’re interested in basic intimate apparel. The book doesn’t cover firm foundation garments like bras.

But, if you want to make slips, chemises, pajamas, sleep sets and work with lace I think this one is worth the find. Plus, at its age and availability it’s fairly inexpensive.

I’m at least two projects or more from tackling my athletic wear (I sew by the color on the serger). But, I thought you might be interested in a great resource on sewing athletic wear.

I managed to purchase most of the Singer Sewing Reference Library in one fell swoop a couple years ago. One of the books is Sewing Activewear.

I’ve used it only a handful of times as it has great directions on sewing knit bindings. But, I thought I might give it a better review here for you. Well, and for me.

The book is chockfull of information. Before my hunt for supplex, it would have told me the different qualities of cotton/polyester/spandex knits. It would have told me which is softer those or nylon/spandex. I would have read which are more durable, absorbent and which are good for cold weather. Who knew, right?

There’s even information on inserting a padded / sculpted shelf bra! I don’t even bother with these in my leotard. But, I may attempt one now that I know I can have some shape instead of bring smooshed flat!

The book is split into five categories.

Getting Started. This is a primer on material, notions, supplies, sizing, cutting. The basics.

Actionwear. Leotards and swimsuits, making tights, how to make padded biker shorts, make bike shirts and inserting zippers into knit. I was all set to joke the tacky pointy pink 80s nails then saw I was wearing green nail polish. As I am living in a glass house, I shall not throw stones.

Comfortwear. Sweatsuits, making casings, making cuffs, binding shorts, making a rugby placket and pockets

Outerwear: waistbands, zippers, zipper pockets, making garment storing pockets, drafting a rain poncho, sewing polar fleece and working with Thinsulate / insulated outerwear.

Personal Style. Umm, kind of gross. It’s the 80s so it cover making chevrons and nonsense with your piping.

If you can live with the awful unitard and bright primary colors, this is a great way to get a grasp on athletic wear, how to alter patterns to be active wear and to give you some confidence that you can achieve RTW details at home.

Oh. It’s also like 0.01 cents on Amazon. There’s even one in Spanish.