Golden Hands - Introduction and Flared Skirt
So, I bought the full set of 18 Golden Hands books. They're craft and sewing magazines that have been collated into books I think, and are copyrighted 1968-1972 or thereabouts. I had got volumes 8 and 9 and decided to get more so that I could make the clothes and stuff, and if I was going to get a few more I might as well get them all. The have sewing, knitting, crochet, embroidery and lots of "lace arts" - tatting, needle lace, bobbin lace, macrame - basically anything using a long piece of fibre and twisting it up into pretty patterns.
They have pretty good instructions for things, as well as free-er, less hand-holding sections where they more just provide inspiration. I thought I'd go through all the sewing and some of the other clothes and make myself a wardrobe of outfits 60's-70's style. Of course, it is mainly the fabrics that make these things appropriate for those decades, otherwise they're pretty classic styles. Compared to modern sewing instructions though, the clothes you end up with are better made, although I think some of the techniques are unnecessarily labourious, or just plain wrong and not the best way to make things. These "wrong" things are pretty much just standard "home sewing" things that people have been told to do through the decades, including now, for no real reason, so I'll just ignore those bits and try the other techniques.
The original books apparently came with a pattern pack of basic patterns that they then tell you how to modify. Since they're pretty classic styles, like I said, I'll just make the patterns myself to be the same as their illustrations of the pattern pieces.
Of course, I shall probably have another involved project shortly so I'm not sure how far through the wardrobe of outfits I'll get. I have started two things though, one of which is the "flared skirt".
Here are "two looks" for the finished skirt, from the book:
Apparently green and yellowy colours are the way to go, but unfortunately I didn't have anything suitable. I looked at a mustardy fabric I have always hated until recently, but there wasn't enough.
So this is my fabric, and the other stuff you need for the skirt, minus the hooks and eyes that looked ugly because they're in an ugly packet. The fabric is pretty cool actually because it is all speckledy like you can see in the photo, and unlike most of my fabrics, I can't actually remember where I got it from, or why. In fact, I can't remember ever seeing it before. 90% of my fabrics I can remember buying and either have a project for or I know exactly what I thought was good about, and most of the ones I can't remember are just plain cottons and the like. So it's weird that I can't remember this cool stuff, especially since it is grey and I have very little grey fabric.
So, I have made a mock-up of this quickly, although there's something I have to check on it - I'm not sure which of two possible solutions is best to fix the wrinkling caused by the fact that, for standard pattern shapes, my back is too hollow compared to how much my bum sticks out.
After the skirt I might make one of the skirt variations they propose a little further on, and then it is the very exciting dress! Unfortunately the fabrics they recommend as best for the dress are wools that would be $40/m and up, which is annoying because I really want to see how it works in proper fabric.
They have pretty good instructions for things, as well as free-er, less hand-holding sections where they more just provide inspiration. I thought I'd go through all the sewing and some of the other clothes and make myself a wardrobe of outfits 60's-70's style. Of course, it is mainly the fabrics that make these things appropriate for those decades, otherwise they're pretty classic styles. Compared to modern sewing instructions though, the clothes you end up with are better made, although I think some of the techniques are unnecessarily labourious, or just plain wrong and not the best way to make things. These "wrong" things are pretty much just standard "home sewing" things that people have been told to do through the decades, including now, for no real reason, so I'll just ignore those bits and try the other techniques.
The original books apparently came with a pattern pack of basic patterns that they then tell you how to modify. Since they're pretty classic styles, like I said, I'll just make the patterns myself to be the same as their illustrations of the pattern pieces.
Of course, I shall probably have another involved project shortly so I'm not sure how far through the wardrobe of outfits I'll get. I have started two things though, one of which is the "flared skirt".
Here are "two looks" for the finished skirt, from the book:
Apparently green and yellowy colours are the way to go, but unfortunately I didn't have anything suitable. I looked at a mustardy fabric I have always hated until recently, but there wasn't enough.
So this is my fabric, and the other stuff you need for the skirt, minus the hooks and eyes that looked ugly because they're in an ugly packet. The fabric is pretty cool actually because it is all speckledy like you can see in the photo, and unlike most of my fabrics, I can't actually remember where I got it from, or why. In fact, I can't remember ever seeing it before. 90% of my fabrics I can remember buying and either have a project for or I know exactly what I thought was good about, and most of the ones I can't remember are just plain cottons and the like. So it's weird that I can't remember this cool stuff, especially since it is grey and I have very little grey fabric.
So, I have made a mock-up of this quickly, although there's something I have to check on it - I'm not sure which of two possible solutions is best to fix the wrinkling caused by the fact that, for standard pattern shapes, my back is too hollow compared to how much my bum sticks out.
After the skirt I might make one of the skirt variations they propose a little further on, and then it is the very exciting dress! Unfortunately the fabrics they recommend as best for the dress are wools that would be $40/m and up, which is annoying because I really want to see how it works in proper fabric.
Comments