Category Archives: 2000’s

What sewing machine?

June 3, 2021

 

Janice sewing on a JUKI industrial machine, a design is first cut in cotton toile to test it on mannequin, in the background

Here is a question to the new and experienced tailors out there. What brand of sewing machine is your favourite one?

 

I learned to sew on a child’s sewing machine. I wish I still owned it but when I was younger, I wasn’t thinking about the value my childhood toys might hold to me in the future.

It disappeared to where I do not know. After my mother died, traces of childhood from the old house were dismissed as quickly as my father sold the house.

When I lived at home I my mother taught me how to sew. The machine was set up in a nook off the kitchen. Ready-to-go made it easy to grab a bit of time here and there to work away on a project. I don’t remember what brand the machine was, I wasn’t aware of brands so any machine would do, it was possibly a Kenmore or a Singer but I really don’t remember.

My parents bought me a second hand machine to have in my residence when I went away to Fashion College. Industrial sewing machines and Sergers and industrial irons were available at the college but it was nice to have the convenience of a machine in my room for the weekends and evenings if I didn’t feel like going back to school to get work done.

My friend’s sewing machine across the hall from me was a Singer Featherweight, what one would think of as a classic granny sewing machine with gold filigree embellished on the black body of the machine. In spite of their decorative appearance, they were known as the workhorse of sewing machines and tailors still covet them for straight forward sewing projects, or to have as an extra machine for example, at the cottage, where one could leave today’s computerized sewing machine at home and still carry on with a project while away for the summer months at the lake.

Singer Featherweight

 

A Bernina 830 sewing machine belonged to another friend of mine in residence. Of all the sewing machines that my friends owned, it was one we could only dream about because it could do everything and they were expensive. Swiss made, known for even stitch balance, stitches never became a tangled bird’s nest underneath the throat plate. It came with beautiful presser feet attachments for specific sewing techniques and more sewing stitches to choose from over any of the others. The signature red carrying case held the machine along with a red box to hold feet and bobbins, a removable sewing table for free-arm sewing, a foot pedal to control the sewing speed, and the new knee-lever for raising and lowering of the presser foot, freeing the hands to hold the fabric in a specific position.

The parents of my friend across the hall bought her a Bernina 830 as a graduation present. My parents gave me luggage. They were preoccupied with my mother’s illness. She died suddenly the year after I graduated.

How many sewing machines have you owned?

At this point mine was just the second hand one, without any expectations of buying anything else. The year my mother died my husband thought we could stretch and buy a Bernina 830 Record, even though he was a Grad student and I just started my career. We found the best price in Ottawa, so we drove there from Kingston on a Saturday morning and bought one! It was the most wonderful gift I had ever received because Jim lived with my grief first hand while it took  over my body physically and mentally. There is nothing that can be done but to wait it out. But out of love, he thought the machine could bring a bright spot for the moment and it was a show of support towards our future together.   The machine that could do everything was what I started my fashion business with the following year. I did all the sewing in the first year from gathering to buttonholes, seam finishes, invisible hemming, sewing on buttons, stitches for knits, zippers, topstitching, special stitches for bathing suits, T shirt knits, and decorative trims.

Bernina 830 Record, ‘my machine that could do everything including grief therapy’ is c. 1980

 

Golden Sun and Silver Moon, design by Janice Colbert. Quilt detail image. 32″ wide x 37″ long. Cotton fabric, mother of pearl buttons, metallic tassels, machine quilted with cotton and metallic thread.

 

 

 

 

 

In the 90s, quilting was back in fashion. Quilt shops were popping up everywhere. I wanted to learn about this  for weekend projects. I found that my neighbourhood quit shop, where I took my Bernina 830 for its annual  servicing, was an excellent resource. ‘Quilters Quarters’ was having a contest. My Bernina was up to the challenge of free motion quilting with metallic thread. It was the first time I ever entered a quilt but I gave it go. I placed second for my original design!

 

 

Quilt back. Batik fabric, quit label.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once we invested in the usual industrial machines, a JUKI for the universal or straight stitch and the Serger for finishing edges for my fashion design business, I still relied on the Bernina for buttonholes, and sewing on buttons, invisible hemming and a few specialty stitches. I hired a tailor once the orders were more than I could handle. Yvonne, with experience from the garment trade in Denmark, brought a lot of expertise with her, and could stitch anything that I could imagine. The Bernina was her baby too.

 

Janice at the worktable, Raw Silk is spread in preparation to cut her jumpsuit design

 

Thumbnail sketch, Janice Colbert Raw Silk Jumpsuit, side pockets, convertible collar. The front, sleeve cuffs and belt have mother of pearl buttons. Self fabric belt adjusts with buttons.

 

Janice Colbert, Prairie Blouse, detail image. Mother of pearl shoulder buttons, ruffled collar, gathered sleeve-cap, satin ribbon. Fabric, Challis.

 

Janice Colbert, two tiered skirt, detail image, satin ribbon. Fabric, Challis.

 

 

I just wondered what machines have you owned from past to present?

Twenty years later, in the early 2000s, my Bernina 830 Record was still full of life and running well. No complaints at all. The new trend was computerized sewing machines with machine-embroidery designs. I wasn’t computer savvy. My vision was in the other direction, the less technology the better. I was designing a lot of quilts and attended many workshops with two quilt shops in particular in Toronto.

 

The new machines caught my eye when I was buying fabric and heard about an information session coming up where a Bernina Rep would demonstrate all the bells and whistles. I was attracted to the machine because the new models could replace hand embroidery with machine embroidery that was easier on the eyes and hands and could be completed in less than 30 minutes to an hour or so, instead of days and weeks. I felt the many Alphabet fonts would be useful for embroidering things for fashion and cloth accessories for the home, but other motifs were copyrighted so I didn’t think I should use them in my designs. With a lot of deliberation my husband encouraged me to invest in an Artista 170 with better lighting on the sewing area, a larger worktable and more decorative stitches that included machine stitches that look like hand quilting.

 

Machine stitches that look like heirloom quilt stitches. Numbers 310 to 338.

 

Bernina Artista 170, my machine is c. 2000

 

My machines were put aside but not completely out of reach for many years while I completed a BFA in Drawing and Painting at OCAD University in Toronto. The machine embroidery aspect was used here when I produced some installation art that combined textiles with machine embroidery for my Contemporary Issues in Art course. My intention was to promote awareness about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome through art work. I was struck by some information I had heard on CBC radio about the brain injury to unborn infants that is caused by a mother’s drinking. In a world where we seem to to right anything, it struck me really hard to learn that the brain injury to the unborn is a life long disorder and is the leading known cause of preventable development-disability in Canada. With early diagnosis, children with FASD can receive services to help maximize their potential. 

Assignments were due on a short turnaround time because the concept, process and direction of work was discussed in a Critique more than whether the work was polished.  Time for that would come later in a studio practice. 

At the time (2001) beer companies advertised a lot with their latest slogan.

I cut newborn-size nightgowns from cotton muslin. The beige colour was an intended connection to the artists canvas. The catchphrases I chose ‘this buds for you’, ‘the silver bullet’ and ‘out of the blue’ were machine embroidered on the muslin with pastel blue, pink and yellow thread. I sewed the gowns but left the side seams and hems unstitched to demonstrate the incomplete life the children were born into.

During critique the students felt it wasn’t clear that the gowns were for children because there was nothing to indicate scale, so it was hard to tell what size the gowns were representing.They also wanted to see the gowns hemmed and the side seams stitched closed. 

I moved on to other assignments and didn’t have time to return to my project. 

 

Artists 170 , embroidered textiles. for the home. If you have named your home, you can create custom textiles. In this case, linen tea towels for our our Key West cottage. Linen fabric, rayon thread.

 

Do you like the machine that you are using today? Is there a beloved machine that you regret parting with?

 

During Covid the limping home-sewing market had exploded. More folks were captive at home and wanting to go crafty. My project in 2020 was to return to sewing because it was something that I loved doing since I was small.

Twenty years later progressive technology outpaced the infant of computerized sewing machines, the Artista 170. The new machines were shockingly more sophisticated more expensive, and noticeably larger than anything before. It looked like hands-off sewing was available to anyone that didn’t know how to sew. Questions could be answered with video lessons­—that made it seem like sewing experience wasn’t needed—the machine would do it all for you. People were in a race to buy sewing machines. We all worried about supply chains. I was able to buy the last Bernina 770 QE sewing machine from what was the last shipment in Canada from Bernina until who knew when?

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B770 Quilters Edition and embroidery capable, my machine is. c. 2020

I was a little afraid at first of a sewing machine the size and weight of a small outboard motor. To name a few differences from the 170, the computer screen is larger, there are wider decorative stitches that make for more luxurious designer touches on projects, and larger embroidery hoops and the extended free arm is 13-inches long. The bobbin holds 80% more thread than standard bobbins, and the machine can read what foot attachment you have on the machine. This one was going to take even more time to figure out when all I wanted to do was sew. I was used to knowing where everything was on my old machines in a split second. I’m used to delayed gratification, I sat down and put in the time.

 

 

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Width comparison of ornamental stitches: Bernina Artista 170 above, compared to Bernina B770 QE, see below

 

 

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Ornamental stitches: Bernina B770 QE

 

While decluttering I came across the nightgowns from OCAD days. To become more familiar with all the embroidery stitches available on the B770 QE sewing  machine could sew, I decided to finish them. My school project that was begun in 2001 on a Bernina Artista 170 was finished on the Bernina 770 QE. The side seams are stitched closed and the hems with embroidery patterns for children show more clearly that the gowns are for the nursery. The colour palette, drawn from the Bone China Bunnykins Tableware mugs, are included in the photos to indicate the scale of the twenty-inch long gowns.

Infant nightgown, ‘this buds for you’ Artista 170 machine embroidery text. Hemline with children’s novelty stitches, cars and caravans, B770QE, muslin fabric

 

Infant nightgown, ‘the silver bullet’ Artista 170 machine embroidery text. Hemline with children’s novelty stitches, turtles, B770QE, muslin fabric

 

Infant nightgown, ‘out of the blue’ Artista 170 machine embroidery text. Hemline with children’s novelty stitches, frogs, B770QE, muslin fabric

 

Here is a recent project combining the painting of the tumbling blocks or hexagon pattern with textiles and embroidery. The text was inspired by the Elizabeth Bishop poem ‘Manners’ where her grandfather says, “Say hello to everyone one you meet.” I added some further suggestions.

Wood towel rack and pegs. Acrylic paint, linen, rayon thread and machine embroidery. ‘say hello’, ‘hold the door’, ‘words heal’

 

 

Detail, linen, rayon thread, machine embroidery.

 

Forty years later, my older machines sew quality work a little differently. I return to the Artista 170 for projects and design files I have saved on that machine. The Bernina Record 830 is still with me. The machine can sew as good a buttonhole with the best of them.

 

 

PLACES I REMEMBER: SWITZERLAND

THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 2021

There were many family trips after 1987 but we returned to Italy and Switzerland fifteen years later in 2002. I was in a car accident with our fourteen-year-old son and seventeen-year-old daughter the week before we were booked to fly. The car was a write off. After we had a check up with our family doctor she said it was too early to begin physiotherapy and thought we would feel even worse if we stayed home. As banged up as we were she cleared us for travel. In Florence, with a separated shoulder and severely bruised legs, I couldn’t hold a camera steady and could only walk short distances in a city that is among the top walk-able cities in the world. We had to hire cabs or horse-drawn carriages to see many of the world-renowned artistic treasures. It was a trip of healing, with daily exercises to help us mend, we slowly improved as the weeks went on. We were of no help to Jim with lifting. It was hard on him as the main baggage carrier and therapist in a family of four.

Lake Como

 

Switzerland was a three-day holiday, August 10-13, tagged on the end of touring Italy that began on July 26. On day sixteen, we drove Route 2 from Como across the Swiss border, through the Gotthard Tunnel, a 13 minute drive to Andermat and then Route 11 (Sustenstrasse) at Wassan, with a stop for lunch at Restaurant Sustenbrüggli to Interlaken.

 

 

 

A few weeks earlier we had another car accident when leaving Naples for a scenic coastal drive of the Amalfi coast. A driver gawking at a woman slammed his cube van into the back of our car while we were stopped at a red light. We spent the rest of our morning arranging another rental car. Back on route heading south, it was the best side of the road for a view down the sheer cliffs to the shoreline villages and the Tyrrhenian Sea, but a hair-raising ride for the children and me. With our eyes squeezed tight, the odd peek here and there, we leaned into the middle of the car away from the window. We felt as precariously perched as the fishing villages.

 

Restaurant Sustenbrüggli, Elevation 1876 m.— 6155 ft.

 

Here we were on the Swiss Route 11, famous for hairpin turns. We felt the same precariousness, but did appreciate the mountainous scenery. On route to Interlaken we went up the Jungfrau, Elevation: 4,158 m.—13,642 ft. (Canadian Rockies 3,954 m.—12,972 ft.) and then drove on to Interlaken for the night at Chalet Oberland.

 

 

 

From Interlaken we re-visited Gstaad for a walk about to stretch our legs, before arriving in the French speaking medieval town of Gruyères for lunch and a tour. This was our first time to experience a car-free town, where you park your car and walk across a large gravel parking lot to the town.

We were seeking out Raclette for lunch. In Switzerland the electrical raclette, a modern way of serving raclette involves an electric tabletop grill with small pans, known as coupelles, in which to melt slices of raclette cheese. The device was put in the middle of our table. The Gruyères cheese was brought to the table sliced, accompanied by platters of boiled or steamed potatoes, other vegetables and charcuterie.

Gruyères Castle, French Garden

 

After lunch, we rambled along cobblestone lanes, in this fairy tale village, where the main street is 300 meters from beginning to end. We shopped for souvenirs and discovered a lace making demonstration. It boggled my mind how the artisans kept track of so many wooden bobbins in their crisscrossing of threads to create their intricate patterns.

 

 

 

 

H. R. Giger

 

Fairy tales have happy endings in this town. Gruyères Castle dating back to the 13th century had a French garden behind the castle walls. A collection of art, Fantastic Art, by HR Giger was shown inside the castle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunset on Lake Geneva

 

We made it to Montreux after missing it in 1983. This time we were too early for the 36th festival running from July 5 – 23. But we saw the Charlie Chaplin statue and toured Chillon, the water castle. Built on an oval shaped island, Chillon means rock platform. The French painter Gustave Courbet depicted the castle in many of his paintings. After his trial concerning the Vendôme Column, Courbet was compelled to personally pay for the rebuilding which left him in financial ruin. He was forced to live away from France, exiled near by in La-Tour-de-Peliz from 1873 to his death in 1877.

 

 

Swiss Army Traveller-Set, includes sewing awl and scissors among nineteen tools in total

We drove to Lausanne and then Geneva to stay overnight at Hotel Strasbourg with plans for a day of sightseeing in Geneva before our flight home the following day. It happens often when travelling, to arrive at a location to discover the one attraction that you want to see is closed. I can’t remember what our teenagers wanted to see but as we drove into the city there were signs clearly stating that it was closed. To walk the promenade along Lake Geneva and to see the Jet d’Eau pushing water to a height of 140 meters just didn’t hold their interest. It was a day spent shopping, finding souvenirs and Swiss Army Knives and a promise to look forward to Fondue for dinner at a posh restaurant.

 

 

 

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2021

In spite of our brief experience in 1983 with Switzerland that was all about the intensive rain, we were enamoured of the country. And so we thought it a good place to return to with our young daughter August 21-September 5, 1987.

Tea Cosy, alpine flowers and cuckoo clocks

Our Swiss hiking and spa trip began with Zurich. We figured we would have something to do in the evening with a two-year-old if we stayed at Spa Hotels for their mineral water pools. The Spa guests appeared to be octogenarians. Even though Jim and I were decades younger, it was our daughter that held the cache of a visiting celebrity. They couldn’t get enough of her in the dining room and when walking the grounds. We wondered about when the pools were used because we seemed to have exclusive use, just the three of us took in the waters in the large pools. Maybe the spas were busier during the day when we were out sightseeing. We stayed in Weggis, the northern part of Lake Lucerne, four nights at Sigriswil (Thun), night seven in Lenk a spa resort in the Simmental Valley, one night in Gstaad, two nights in Geneva, Leukerbad for two nights, Vevy for two nights then back to Geneva.

 

Fisba, Swiss made, hand rolled edge, cotton

 

There was always something interesting for a two-year-old, hiking the countryside securely seated in a frame-pack hitched to her father. The meadows and delicate alpine- flowers, the call of cattle and bells, geraniums and carving on chalets, the alphorn and glacial lakes were from her vantage point, six feet above the ground, same height as dad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the mountain train to Jungfrau

 

Trips with a child, away from the distractions of early-childhood programs and nursery school, parent’s work and a city life, are about a slower paced lifestyle. It’s not about how much or how little one sees on a trip. It’s about one-on-one family time. It is well known that a child’s development and vocabulary soars on holidays with their parents.

 

 

 

Brienz, a woodcarving town on Lake Brienze remains etched in my mind for the cuckoo clocks, wood sculptures and chocolate-box chalets. I had finished shopping for a souvenir and our daughter was tired. Jim was close by but absorbed in the mastery of the carving, taking a lot of photos and wanted more time. I took a break with her and sat on a bench along the lake to observe the water, the Bernese Oberland and the endless sky.

Carved wood Springerlie cookie press, Brienze

 

A cloud shadow crossed the lake; the surface waves ruffled the water. Wrapped in a blanket, cosy in her Osh Gosh overalls, she was sleeping in my arms. I felt insignificant beneath the Frau of the Mountain. I wondered how she perceived this landscape, from her stature at 34 inches. We had such a big canvas to fill. Where would her life take her? What surprises and adventures were to come?

Elevation: 1,050 m.—3,440 ft. (CN tower antenna spire: 553.3 m.—1,815.3 ft.)

 

 

 

Hotel Bernerhoff in Gstaad was near the train station. Wood was featured for the interior and exterior, the back of the dining chairs had holes cut-out in heart shapes and the balconies had detailed leafy cut-outs and cascading geraniums. Everything one would want to see in a Swiss town. The turndown service included the white eiderdown rolled at the foot of the bed just like the one I first saw in Zug. Golden Delicious apples were in a ceramic bowl in the hallway with a note, “Gute Nacht!”

 

After breakfast we explored the underground pool and sauna area. There was a sign outside the sauna—a T-shirt image with an X layered on top—this meant no clothing in the sauna. It was the opposite of what would be expected at home. It was just a talking point for us, saunas are not for toddlers. On checkout we received a lovely gift, a ceramic dish from Hotel Bernerhoff. And then, back in the car and on to Geneva for two nights at the Beau Rivage. I’m not sure which route we drove along Lake Geneva but we were close to Montreux. This time we were too late for the 21st year of the festival that ended on July 19.

 

 

Our last night was spent in Geneva at the Beau-Rivage. Designed to impress. The grand staircase led to hallways with balustrades open to the underlying mezzanine. On arrival the valet offered to park our car in their lot. Things that amuse a child on a car trip, whole and crushed cheerios, empty packages of other snacks and disassembled parts of Mr. and Ms. Potato Head were strewn about the floor and back seat of our car. It was the age of excess; we were driving the most expensive car we have ever rented, a Mercedes. We said, “No thank you” and chose to self-park.

 

 

 

THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2021

Tea Cosy, alpine flowers and cuckoo clocks

We stayed in Zug, Switzerland on our first trip to Europe in 1983.

From my travel journal:

Saturday, June 25

We were in Wörgl, Austria on Saturday night. “Raining in Wörgl.”

 

 

 

Sunday June 26

“Meat, cheese and rolls for breakfast on the train,” 45 minutes “to Innsbruck.” Walked Innsbruck, had Austrian hotdogs, pretzel and beer for lunch” and then on the “12:30 train to Zürich. We walked the Bahnhofstrasse to Lake Zürich, walked back through Old Town. Cheese fondue dinner near the station, caught the commuter train to Zug, arrived 8:30” (30 minutes journey).

 

“Walked Lake Zug and found Hotel Rössli overlooking the lake ($35/ night shower and breakfast).”

“Walked around town in the evening, many ducks, had coke at hotel restaurant, played slot machine”

 

 

 

I remember Zug for our lodging, Hotel Rössli, with intricate carving in the wood interior. We didn’t stay in hotels every-night. Night trains with compartments could be reserved for a small upcharge because we bought Adult Eurail Passes. Rössli was a splurge. The bed-covering rolled at the foot of the bed was like a puffy merengue confection. I had read about eiderdowns but had never seen one. Zug, meaning train in German, was our sleeper car for two nights.

 

 

 

Monday June 27

“Nice breakfast” (train to Interlaken 3 hours)

Arriving in Interlaken at noon, it was raining and we had left our jackets at the hotel. Unprepared for the weather, we had to change plans to get out of the rainstorm. “ The Montreux Jazz Festival was of interest.” We were too early for the Festival that started on July 8, but we wanted to see the location on Lake Geneva. We thought we would go there, but “trains weren’t going to Montreux.” It would have been a six-hour train ride, which would not have been realistic anyway. By the time we arrived there, our time sight seeing would have been very limited before we had to catch a train back to Zug.

So we “caught the train to Bern” (Interlaken to Berne 30 minutes). It was raining in Bern, so we stayed in the train station and “caught the train to Zürich, (1 hour) and then a connecting train to Zug (30 min.) It was raining in Zug at 4:00 p.m.”

 

The day was a back packers write off. In my journal, “most of the day on trains but good scenery, water, very green at Interlaken.”

 

In Zug, we “changed for the weather” and “waked the town, took photos of deer and parrots and the town. Schnitzel and French fries for dinner in old town and tried Kirsch (Yuk!)”

“After dinner we walked to the train station for chocolate and then to the hotel.”

 

Tuesday June 28

In the morning we “paid bill for 2 nights, had breakfast, still raining, walked to train station, caught train to Zürich” (28 min. ride)

“2 minutes to catch train to Basel” (1 hour train ride)

“2 minutes to catch train to Frankfurt” (60 min. train ride) and “made all connections!”

 

Arrived Frankfurt 1:17

 

Places I Remember: London

FEBRUARY 4, 2021

Like others, I won’t be travelling this year. Locations are unreachable in a world were we used to choose a destination with the click of a button and arrival was only a few hours or a day’s journey away. Hopefully travel holidays will be possible soon for everyone that has been yearning for an adventure this year.

My fabric-scapes (tea–cosies with solid colour and print fabrics) are reminiscent of places I remember.

Tea Cosy, crown print, red, white and blue

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London 

When I was a child I moved regularly because my father was an officer in the RCAF. We didn’t have any of the enviable postings over seas, like the Black Forest in Germany that I heard about from my friends. Our one international posting was in the United States.  We moved to Key West, Florida for two years. Travel was not something we did for family vacations. Holiday time was spent at the cottage on Black Lake, Ontario or on the ski slopes near Ottawa. My first travel by air was an exchange trip to Vancouver with my high-school band in grade thirteen.

 

 

Janice & friends was the name of my boutique, to show and sell my designs under my label, Janice Colbert Toronto

 

After five years of marriage, Jim and I bought Eurail passes in 1983 for a three-week trip to twenty-one countries in Europe. I had my fashion business and a retail boutique. My mother-in-law— a retired bookkeeper—and my aunt—a retired director of nursing for an Eastern Ontario hospital—offered to mind the store so my sales assistant could have her regular days off. They thoroughly enjoyed a fashion–holiday of their own making.

 

 

 

 

 

London was my first destination in Europe. We arrived in Gatwick, took the train to Victoria Station to catch the train to Dover. I felt like I had been dropped into another world, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I took a quick look outside while waiting for our next train. I loved the hustle and bustle of the double decker buses and London taxis zipping by and the 1860s architecture. From Dover, we were on the Hoverspeed to Boulogne next morning with connections for an express train to Paris.

Our last destination in Europe was Amsterdam, followed by a train to Hook of Holland to catch the ferry to Harwich and then another train to London. We arrived on July 1, 1983 for a two-day visit before flying home to Toronto. We took the Round London sightseeing tour. (July 1, “excellent tour” was my noted in my travel journal.)

From the Parliament we walked by Westminster Abbey, the Horse Guards, through St. James’s Park (July 1, “beautiful” in my journal) to Buckingham Palace and Piccadilly Circus. We tried to buy theatre tickets but the good shows were sold out months ago. It wasn’t as easy as it is now to make reservations ahead of time. Ticket reservations were made buy phone or fax and the payment by credit card. But just the same, it hadn’t occurred to us to reserve in advance.

18 Argyle Square London

The Langley, a townhouse hotel on Argyle Square, is where we stayed. It’s still there, with an updated  exterior, a black and white theme, divided lights on the windows, balconies on the second floor and renamed, The Gyle. The Langley is now a luxurious Georgian townhouse hotel, in Camden. The Langley (or The Gyle) is just one mile away from the British Museum.

The stores and markets were on the next day, Selfridges, M & S, Fortnum and Mason, Harrods, Kings Road, Chelsea Market (July 2, “punkers have just about taken over the area”, my journal notes again). There’s a list in my journal, noting the fashion that I saw along the way—knitted sweaters with shoulder seams ripped out, black and grey post nuclear-war fashion (shop on King’s Road), Laura Ashley look, dropped waist dress with horizontal tucks on hip band, Tyrol fashions, white romantic blouses, smocked dresses for adults (Kings Road), blouse with lace yoke, bow tie, dolman sleeve (Amsterdam.) Photography was more cumbersome back then. We used film and had to wait until we returned home to have the negatives processed for prints; or slides that were projected onto a screen from a slide projector. Sometimes it was just easier and faster to sketch something that caught my eye.

 

We didn’t travel again until 1985. We spent seven nights in London on our first family holiday with out nine-month old daughter. One of the sites we visited was Paddington Station and we bought a Paddington Bear near the London Zoo. The bear was larger than her. We were there leading up to Christmas and so the splendour of Harrods ramped up with holiday lights left a vivid first impression. Of course Father Christmas was discussing Christmas lists with tiny customers in the toy department. From there we toured England and Wales. The United Kingdom was a comfortable travel test-drive for inexperienced parents. We knew it would be easy to communicate with doctors if she was unwell.

On the London Double Decker Bus

Paddington Bear

Tea time in Wales

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When newly graduated boomers entered the work force in the 80s and 90s they made good money and spent it without hesitation after years of living the student life. People would fly to London for a few days to see some shows and be back home before anyone noticed they were gone. It was less cumbersome to travel before 911; airport security did not add inordinate hours to departure and arrival plans. The majority of  travel time was spent in the airplane. Jim arranged a just-the-two-of-us fifteenth anniversary surprise-trip to London in 1994. We left our son and daughter with Jim’s parents at their cottage near Ottawa. I didn’t know where we were going but thought we might be going to New York. Jim just said to pack for September weather and to bring something dressy to wear for dinner. From the Ottawa airport we flew to Halifax, so I thought we were going to Prince Edward Island, where my childhood summer vacations were at my grandparent’s farm. But no, we had a 9:55 p.m. flight to catch to London! We left on Thursday and arrived home on Sunday. It was out of character for us because we were farsighted in our approach to money, so it was a big surprise that we were doing what I had only read about! We saw two shows on our three-day theatre vacation, the musical Cats, from the poetry collection by T.S. Eliot with the musical composition by Andrew Lloyd Webber on Friday night. The following evening we were at the ‘New’ Starlight Express with music also by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Famously, the actors performed the entire show on roller skates. It sure was fun to experience London theatre, something we missed out on ten years before.

 

Capturing memories

 

We returned in 2000 with our fifteen-year old daughter and twelve-year old son for the London sights, and a ten-day tour of England with highlights that included Blenheim Palace, Oxford, Windsor and Legoland, Stonehenge and the Salisbury Plain chalk plateau, Appledore, Clovelly, the fortified manor house Powderham Castle, St. Ives and Lands-end. Travelling with children adds an extra complexity to a trip in the effort to meet everyone’s expectations. Friends have often said to us, “Why go to the extra expense to bring them along? They won’t remember what they saw.” That was never the point. They remember that they traveled with us and we had special experiences. Our children learned to be good travellers over the years when we made their summer holidays a priority. Travel has given them the confidence to go out and create their own experiences. Something that I never had.

 

 

Five years later in 2005 we were kicking around the London galleries. We were on the tube (on our way to lunch with Jamie Oliver at Fifteen) at King’s Cross Station when the tube bombing happened on July 7. We were so deep underground that we had to walk up an infinite number of escalators and hurried to  exit the station. Once outside the chaotic scene of Bobbies, barricades, fire trucks and sirens overwhelmed us. The underground was closed for the day. Taxis were always full. The only option was to walk, about a forty-minute walk if you knew where you were going, to the restaurant. After lunch we walked from Hoxton to our hotel in to Bloomsbury, about another forty-minutes. We paused and looked at neighbourhoods along the way. Sticky and cranky and flummoxed about making a few wrong turns, the British folks were wonderful on route in giving directions, handing out maps and bottled water. We didn’t really know what happened until sitting down to dinner at a restaurant near our hotel. The Canadian journalist Patrick Brown was having dinner with his son, at the table beside us.  We chatted about the days events but it was only much later at bedtime when there was finally news coverage on what happened. The following day we left London, for a thirty-day driving trip of Scotland and Ireland, that included a check-in with our son who was on a summer school adventure in Edinburgh and Dublin.

 

 

In 2012, I was shortlisted for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. We were back in London to see the Royal Academy Exhibition and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and Flotilla on the Thames. From there we caught the Chunnel (Channel Tunnel) to Paris and Brittany.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our last trip to London was in 2019 for our fortieth wedding anniversary. Surprisingly it was our first time to visit Buckingham Palace. The palace can be closed for official duties, so bookings never seemed to align with our travel dates. The closest we have come on a previous trip was to visit the Royal Mews, a collection of equestrian stables, of the British Royal Family.

By now since we have seen many of the major attractions in London, we focus on the small museums. The Fashion and Textile Museum, founded by Dame Zandra Rhodes is the only museum in the UK dedicated to showcasing contemporary fashion and textile design. I saw the retrospective on Orla Kiely’s work.

entrance with exhibition banner for Orla Kiely: A Life in Pattern, Bermondsey

small portion of the Wall of Handbags

Orla Kiely designs for women

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Brunel Museum tells the story of the Thames Tunnel, the first tunnel known to have been constructed successfully underneath a navigable river and was built between 1825 and 1843 by Marc Brunel and his son Isambard using the tunnelling shield newly invented by the elder Brunel and Thomas Cochrane.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After seeing the Brunel Museum we came across The Rotherhithe Picture Research Library and Sands Films Studio while walking around the neighbourhood. We were reading a plague about it when we were invited in have a look.  It is a small British film production company, founded in the mid 1970s. The business is housed in a former granary and has its own soundproof stage, workshops, costume department, set construction workshop, cutting room, cinema and other services needed to make films.

 

coiled wires for making corsets

the sewing room

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The red, white and blue National Colours of England are the same colours in the flag for the United Kingdom. The colours are taken from the white and red flag of England, and the blue and white flag of Scotland.

London-scape (detail) cotton fabric, solid red, navy and white stripe and print, crown print on white frill

London, on hold for now, but we will return there, and other places to boot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHRISTMAS ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE

NOVEMBER 26, 2020

CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS

Naïve art, fabric stockings, married for three months, this was our first Christmas in graduate-student housing. Jim was the superintendent so we had free rent for a tiny one-bedroom apartment a few doors from the student pub in Kingston. I made the stockings out of red flannelette. I didn’t have enough fabric to cut the front and back in one piece so there are two seams on the back of each stocking where three pieces of fabric had been joined.

 

The English paper piecing rosette is here in a smaller version of the one used on the Retro Tea Cosy. White eyelet cotton is used for the cuff and rosette, the heel and toe on my stocking. Jim’s has navy-blue stars and red polka dots on a white background.

 

 

 

The hanging loop is red bias-binding tape that also edges the cuff, and defines the heel turn and toe. The stockings are large enough to hold a bottle of wine, a tangerine in the toe and a few luxury chocolates, but they are small (19.5 x 6.5 in.), in relative terms to our expectations where Christmas stockings and everything else has been scaled to fit our large-sized lifestyles that include big stocking that still won’t hold all the spoils and extravagant consumption at Christmas.

 

VIYELLA SHIRT

I made this Christmas shirt that for my husband over 40 years ago.The heritage 1784 Viyella is the oldest branded fabric in the world. The strong but soft twill-weave fabric is a wool and cotton blend, 80% lambs wool and 20% Egyptian cotton. The fabric was the first and most natural performance fabric centuries ago. It kept one warm in cold temperatures and cool in hot temperatures. Modern technical fabrics offer this today. Viyella is known for cosy clothing styles. Designers with a vintage flair, for example Laura Ashley, were drawn to it. The original wool/cotton blend is no longer available. It has been reversed to 20% wool and 80% cotton unless you can find a vintage design like this shirt.

Every Viyella fabric pattern has a name, there are many tartans and plaids, but I could not find the name for this one. Does anyone know what it is called? This classic-fit sports shirt has a topstitched straight collar, front button placket; a slight pleat at the base of the back yoke gives ease of movement in the shoulder. The sleeves have a cuff and a placket.

 

 

I had forgotten that at some point the sleeve had a rip in it. I don’t remember how it happened. It was the norm to reduce waste, to mend, not to throw things out. Mending was intended to be as invisible as possible. Here is the repair, to make it ‘good as new’.

The trend to reduce waste is back on the minds of some people. The style is for conspicuous mending. To evolve the garment into an environmental fashion statement.

 

 

FIVE-BUTTON RED VEST

 

What says Christmas more than this flame-red, wool-gabardine-vest with five buttons? The vest was for Jim, and  is a similar vintage as the shirt. It has one welt pocket on the front and is fully lined with a satin fabric. The back has a self-fabric belt and a buckle with three eyelet buttonholes.

 

 

 

 

 

TREE SKIRT

The first Christmas tree skirt that I had ever made was quick and easy to create because it has minimal stitching. When I was juggling design work with raising two children I didn’t have time for complicated projects. The skirt came about at the eleventh hour. At the moment when the tree was put in place and they were busy hanging decorations we realized that we didn’t have a skirt. I zipped upstairs, pulled out some blue felt and cut a forty-two inch diameter circle with a smaller circle in the centre to accommodate the tree trunk, and slashed the fabric from the centre to the hem to create an opening. Then I cut lengths of nine-inch red-satin ribbons and tacked them eight inches apart along the hemline. I finished the hemline by pinking (zigzag detail) the edge with pinking shears and did the same to the ends of the ribbons to create a theme.

I don’t think I was missed; the kids were still enjoying the tree and the decorations, when I came downstairs with the skirt.

We used that skirt for many Christmases, sometimes alternating with other tree skirts from sophisticated silk with a scalloped hem edged with pearls, burgundy velvet with soutache-cord snowflakes to rustic black-and-red plaid with moose, bear and oak leaf appliqué motifs. I think the blue felt one has always been my daughter’s favourite.

 

 

 

SLEIGH BELLS

I was compelled to make this Christmas costume for my son and daughter when they were in elementary school. A Canadian magazine might be where the concept originated. I’m not sure but it was a brilliant idea.

Two red sweatshirts were required. I shopped the stores to assemble the bric-a-brac. The craft shop had the bells, fabric paint, ribbon and glitter. I didn’t know if I could find unadorned old-fashioned sweatshirts in children’s sizes. If I came up with nothing, that would be the end of the project. Cotton Ginny had them in sizes XS and S.

I so loved Cotton Ginny sweatshirts and sweat pants from the 1980s and ’90s. They were made in Canada and early to market in what became an explosive fashion trend; to move sweat pants from the gym to loungewear and casual street- wear. I had many sets for myself in a rainbow of colours.

The Christmas tree, a green painted triangle outlined in green glitter is the focal point of the shirt. There are fifteen gold sleigh bells hand sewn in rows. The tree topper is a gold bell tied with a plaid ribbon. There is a zigzag checkerboard across the chest that alternates with red and white paint in the top row and green and white in the lower row.

Jingle Bells in green paint is hand printed on the front of the left sleeve. A sleigh bell dots the “I”.

The teachers at Whitney School in their Junior Kindergarten and Grade 2 classroom thought the sweatshirts were lots of fun and allowed the jingling and tinkling like reindeer harnessed to fly through the sky before school was out for the holidays. If at times a minor distraction, the teachers in 2020 would welcome such a respite.

 

 

 

DJANGO SANTA

I have been a doll enthusiast from a young age. The first one, a Suzy Smart doll from the 1960s, was on my wish list for my first Christmas in Key West. She sat in her school desk, dressed in a plaid jumper, waiting for me beside the Christmas tree. If you pulled a string, she could spell, add and recite. I received my first fashion doll when I was ten-years-old. She was a Christmas present from my uncle sent by mail from his home in California. I had not heard of Barbie and was delighted to receive his gift complete with a carrying case for her and all her clothes.

I admire the miniature scale of dolls. Where puppetry is prevalent, in the places we have traveled such as Britain, Budapest and Prague, by extension handmade dolls with clay faces and hands, dressed in knitted sweaters and leather shoes are for sale.

This doll has had many lives. When I made him for the first time, I made two. I gave one away to my friend whose husband died suddenly in dire circumstances. The second one was for a fun decoration to have at our ski chalet. He was welcomed to our collection of Christmas decorations. Once the holidays were over we packed him away in a box and left him in the basement.

The next year when we opened the box I was heartbroken. Mice had their way with him as swaddling for their nest. His beard full of dried mouse poop, threads eaten, batting pulled out of the body. His pants had holes and urine stains. The buttons had teeth marks. I had spent days making this doll. Santa was no longer presentable. I couldn’t throw him out.

Six years later, I didn’t know if it was possible to restore him but I had the strength and the time to try. Could I pull the beard off the face that had been attached to cotton with glue? His clothing was washed, new buttons and fancy threads were found to replace what was gone. But still, I was hesitant about the job ahead of me. Is this where I wanted to invest my time? Did I really feel like making another pair of pants for a Santa doll?

Then I had the idea to create him anew as Django, not Santa.

Django is my husband’s alter ego, a version of himself where he lets the crazy out, traveling around, enjoying himself but not focused on anything other than what he needs doing that day, no commitments, no wealth or comfort but never on the street. For most of his life he worked in various roles in kitchens, more of the food processing factories of cruise ships, the small galleys of ships or the tiny food prep areas of private yachts, barges, and other working ships and boats.

This Django has a ponytail (like my husband) tied with green ribbon. The beard is a new one.

 

 

He wears a fresh cotton chef’s jacket with a cardinal print and polka dot kitchen pants. The cardinal is a traditional symbol of beauty and warmth of the holiday season. Ribbon suspenders are attached with wood buttons to the waistline. Rag-wool socks were cut to make the doll’s socks and the toque utilizes the red stripe. Black shoes are tied with silver threads. Django wears a black bistro-style apron embroidered with his name. The blue star, sewn with the utility-stitch, refers to a nautical flag he designed that travels with him, most recently to Copenhagen and Moscow.

 

 

 

 

 

SMOOTHING OUT THE WRINKLES 

Sometimes what appears to be a basic rectangle placemat (19 inches wide x 13 inches high) is considerably more than its four miter seams  and simple 2-inch-border. The white fabric with candy canes and peppermint-candy balls and the green fabric with red holly-leaves and white drupes are seasonal and festive. The provenance behind these VIP Screen-Print fabrics by Cranston Print Works Company from Cranston, Rhode Island began in 1806.

For a placemat, even with the two coordinating fabrics, it’s kind of flat—almost anyone could sew this—and could be overlooked for its clean lines.

There is an undertone of sadness that lingers beneath the sparkle and elevated mood at Christmas for those that remember loved ones that have died. The absence is palpable in the missing place setting at dinner. Christmas has always been unusually important for me—in fact since childhood—to make it personal and to build memories.

My mother was fifty-years-old when she passed. She was never spoken about again. Not with my brother or sister who was a teenager then. My father remarried suddenly. My family didn’t gather for any of the holidays. There weren’t invitations or phone calls by any of mum’s large extended family. A  relative’s true emotional investment in family members is revealed in rough times. No one asked us how we were feeling through the early years of mourning. My sadness and my fear that I would get breast cancer festered beyond what would be considered healthy and then it became entrenched.

I missed her so much at Christmas dinner. Once we had children, I was afraid that I would die at age fifty and leave behind my children in their early teenage years. I knew what it was to lose a mother. Mental health therapists recommend, to not worry about something that hasn’t happened.  As much as I tried to put on a brave face I found myself stuck in the same place, inconsolable at the dining-room table while spritzing the red linen tablecloth.  Setting the table for dinner was the worst because she made beautiful dinners. Homemade bread and dinner rolls were always there for the start of the holiday meal.

Ten years later, another Christmas, time to smooth out the wrinkles.  I decided to make new memories because mine were too painful. The four placemats from the early 1990s were my baby steps towards the beginning of new traditions and were the first Christmas themed sewing I had ever done.

The holly leaves traditionally symbolize the crown-of-thorns. The main flower meaning symbolizes defense or protection.

Wishing you a safe and happy household this Christmas.

 

A BEAR’S LIFE

OCTOBER 8, 2020

Have you wondered what to do with children’s stuffed animals or as some may call them stuffies? Quite often an infant will receive a bear when they are born. Many children have one that is their favourite over all others. And in some ways they are a child’s first friends.

After years of daily cuddles they become scruffy and later set aside as children grow out of them. That doesn’t mean they are unwanted, even into young adulthood they are not to be donated or thrown out. Honestly, I feel the same way. They hold memories for me too.

My daughter and son both had their bear that was the one. It was the same style of bear, 16 inches tall, one had a brown one, and the other one was white.

They should be considered as textiles and won’t do well in a scruffy box stored on a shelf in the garage or attic enduring decades of exposure to heat and cold. After a run through the wash cycle they should as a minimum be wrapped in acid free tissue paper and kept in a climate controlled situation.

When I was thinking about how to store the bears, I thought about how it is the convention that women’s quality handbags include a dust cover to protect them when not in use. That is where my idea came from to design a custom dust cover for the bears.

To begin, I gave the bear one final wash. The results were not dramatic but any remaining dust was removed before storage. The bear had developed a wattle in the neck area, a characteristic of aging for anyone. The stitches around the head had come lose so I was able to fill in the neck with some stuffing before stitching back up. I found a curved upholstery needle and 12 weight Sulky Cotton Petites made the sewing less cumbersome.

I chose a neutral colour for the cotton and drafted the pattern pieces for a bespoke envelope style pillowslip.

Cut a length of fabric that allows for a 6-½  inch overlap and some extra length to accommodate the curve over the head, snout and the rounded tummy.

 

 

 

 

 

I programmed the text­—the bear’s name and the year of my child’s birth—on my embroidery machine. The embroidery could be equally successful stitched by hand with the fabric stretched in an embroidery hoop. Machine embroidery goes a long way in helping those with less flexibility in their hands. On the other hand it is known that hand embroidery is relaxing.

 

 

 

Sew a narrow double folded hem across the width at both ends. You could use the same colour thread as the embroidery. The side seams are sewn as a French seam, shown here, but a one-half inch seam that is pinked or overlocked would work as well.

 

 

 

 

Here it is! Embroidered pillowslip completed, 20 x 16 inches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is nice to make a label. Include your name, the date of completion and a short message.

 

 

 

 

 

Snowball . . .

Goodnight bear!

 

OLD TOWN TROLLEY AND STATION

OCTOBER 1, 2020

I returned to Key West for the warm winter weather seven years ago. Jim wanted a project and warm weather. He had a retirement dream to buy an old house in France and rebuild it. It wasn’t as easy for us to travel so far away from Canada with a little dog and live in France for the winter months, January through April. It also wasn’t practical to be so far away from family or if we needed to get back home quickly as we recently experienced when Canadians abroad received a travel advisory to return home immediately.

Over the years that we were in Key West I was collecting vintage post cards. This fabric collage is after a postcard with the title, Old Town Trolley and Station—a beloved tourist attraction—that is now known as the Conch Train. Just writing this brings to mind the whistle and clash-clang of the bell when the train departs. I have vivid memories of the Conch Train from when I lived in Key West as a small child.

This piece could be called a quilt because it does have horizontal machine quilting across the surface. There is a layer of batting between the front and back of this piece. But the fabric has not been pieced­—which means sewing all the small pieces to each other with a ¼ inch seam allowance—the edges of the fabric pieces butt up against each other.

The design has been arranged on top of a vintage tea towel. I have a collection of them from my years of travel.

There is that hexagon again! Chickens are free range in Key West. Here they are wandering around the tea towel just the way they appear on the streets. I cut the hexagons from a French inspired fabric that I had in my collection.

The perimeter of this work is finished in one of several ways a quilt would be completed. Binding the edge with a narrow strip of fabric is probably the most common one. I chose to finish the edge with Prairie Points, where squares of fabric are folded in four to create a triangle, and then the corner of one triangle is slightly tucked into the adjacent one. It takes a lot of measuring to get it right!

Old Town Trolley and Station, 2020, fabric collage, vintage tea towel, prairie points, 20 x 28 inches

Old Town Trolley and Station, 2020, fabric collage, vintage tea towel, prairie points, 20 x 28 inches

 

The back of the collage has hanging sleeves at the bottom and top edge, a length of matt board has been slipped through, with holes at each end to attach to hardware on the wall.

I recreated the address side of the post card by printing it on fabric. It is a good idea to include information about the quilt for historical purposes. As a minimum the maker’s name and the date should be there. I machined embroidered the title, fabric content and size.  On the address side, I have the address. But Key West is so small that the zip code, 33040 would be enough!

The postage stamp is a black bird-print fabric in the top right corner. 2020 is repeated many times to replicate the look of a cancellation mark. And just for fun, AIR MAIL has been added too. Once the creative juices get flowing it’s hard to stop!

The machine quilting is more prominent on the back.

 

Old Town Trolley and Station, 2020, fabric collage, reverse side, fabric post card, machine embroidery, 20 x 28 inches

Old Town Trolley and Station, 2020, fabric collage, reverse side, fabric post card, machine embroidery, 20 x 28 inches