Search

Sewing with less stress Front

Sewing with less stress Front
My newest sewing book

Sewing with less stress back cover

Sewing with less stress back cover
What my new book is about

Clothesmaking mavens

Clothesmaking mavens
Listen to me on the clothes making mavens podcasts

About me

My photo
I am a mother, a grandmother, and a teacher. But whatever happens in my life, I keep sewing. I have worked as a political communicator and now as a teacher in my formal life. I have also written extensively on sewing. I have been a frequent contributor and contributing editor of Threads magazine and the Australian magazine Dressmaking with Stitches. My book Sew.. the garment-making book of knowledge was published in May 2018 and is available for pre-order from Amazon
SIGN UP BELOW FOR BARBARA EMODI'S MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

FOLLOW

SIGN UP TO FOLLOW BARBARA EMODI'S BLOG "SEWING ON TH EDGE"

Follow me on Instagram

Instagram
Follow on Bloglovin

Monday, February 22, 2010

Travel, patterns and sewing thoughts


I really needed this break, I have been a little worn out and as I observed in my photo, when my thyroid goes nuts unattractive things happen like a bunch of my hair falls out. Time to get my style back.

In transit here I did what I always do in airports and sat and watched what people were wearing, particularly those my age. I gave a mental first prize to a lady, older than I am by about 5 years or so in DC who was traveling in black tights, boots, a grey knit skirt, a darker grey cashmere pullover and a black silk blouse, and of course pearls. She just looked comfortable and chic. Makes me think that you can overthink dress and bypass the value of just simple dress.

I also realized how regional style is, by of course when I arrived in Nashville the same woman looked harsh and the Southern lady across the aisle in her grey wool trousers, soft grey boots and turquoise cashmere sweater (that seemed to match her eyes) looked a lot more normal.

Interesting. 

Which brings me to the question of maintaining your femininity as you get older. Let's face it a lot of older women start to look fairly masculine and in the South you see the campaign against this in action. Of course the styles this spring for all these frou-frou tops and I am not sure about that, I am a tall and sort of tailored person, but might consider a rose bag as a compromise, figure that is something a tall person can carry off.

It is all tricky but worth thinking about. I think grooming is key. Of course I would love to cover the grey in my hair but the hair is under siege enough without the damage and my hairdresser is very good and this is his view. 

One thing I am going to do is keep sewing dresses for spring and summer, my legs are a better feature than my hair, and dresses are the most comfortable thing in the warmer weather. I am delighted to see some New Look dress patterns available here that I can't get in Canada so picked those up. I have some great linens I picked up last trip to the States and am looking forward to cutting into those when I get home.

Now off for more biscuits ...

1 comment:

Carolyn (Diary of a Sewing Fanatic) said...

Barbara - I made the New Look dress in the middle and I love it. I really wanted to make the first one but it only goes up to a size 18 and I really wrestled with the middle dress and it went up to a size 22. Okay these are admittedly smaller than normal plus size patterns but it makes me think that a 18 is actually a 16 and therefore to much work to enlarge for my plus size body.

I'm thinking these will look great in linen on you.