In doing your own custom dressmaking, be enthusiastic about it—it is a thoroughly fascinating sport!

Don't you just love the title of this post.  I can't take credit for it.  It comes from a 1930s publication called Paris Frocks at Home.   Earlier this week I stumbled up on a website VintageSewing.Info.  It's loaded with great sewing resources from the 1900s to the 1950s.  

I really enjoyed the 1930s lessons from Paris Frocks at Home.  

Here's another sample.

To do successful home custom dressmaking observe these cautions:

1. Never economize on fabric. Someone has said a garment is never better than its fabric. Do not risk the misfortune of having a shabby garment before the season is over.
2. Always buy the full amount of material called for by the table on the pattern envelope. Skimping always shows and makes your dressmaking so much more difficult and so much more time-consuming.
3. Always hold the paper pattern against you to be sure of lengths and widths and general positions of lines, taking note of necessary changes. There can then be no unpleasant surprises in store for you.
4. Don't copy the best selling design in the biggest department store in your city. Almost anyone can own a Ford.
5. Pick out a pattern embodying lines which you wear well. This little book contains definite suggestions for doing this if you need to be reassured on this point.

And how about this:

Be yourself as you are and as you want to be. The frocks you wear will achieve this ambition for you. You can create a charmed circle of admiration wherever you go simply by the way you dress. Cultivate your gift for clothes. The puritan virtues concerning dress, while still virtues, are no longer in fashion. Enjoy your clothes.

I'm having so much fun reading these lessons, I hope you will too.

Enjoy!
Christiana

San Francisco

We just got back from a weekend getaway to San Francisco and what an awesome trip it was.  We arrived Saturday and then flew back to Calgary on Monday.   We had loads of fun touring Alcatraz and then we rented bikes from a shop near Ghirardelli square; biked the Golden Gate bridge & explored the Presidio area.  Bicycling is sure a great way to explore a city as compact as San Francisco.  And if the hills scare you, don't worry you can rent electric bicycles.   We had so much fun with these bikes, they are now on my wish list.

I had hoped on visiting the infamous Britex Fabrics, unfortunately they weren't open when I arrived at their door and I only had a bit of time before we needed to head to the airport.  Oh well...I guess that gives me another reason for a return visit.

To sum it up, got on board a westbound seven thirty seven. Visited the Streets of San Francisco. Our weekend escape included a tour of Alcatraz and renting bikes from a company called Blazing Saddles. I think I just had 1970's flashback....

Christiana