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.
