Sunday, May 26, 2013

Weekend Update and PenWAG Fashion Show


Thanks to each of you for your feedback on my Open Letter to Vogue. This has generated some discussion, which is a good thing. There is another blog post you might want to check out: Robin, of A Little Sewing, wrote her own Letter to the Big Four.

Last Sunday, I attended the Peninsula Wearable Art Guild's Fashion Show. This fashion show is held every two years but it was the first time I had attended. It gave me an opportunity to wear my new Shingle dress.

The best part of the fashion show is to see people I hadn't seen in awhile. In the photo above, you might recognize some very accomplished sewists who post reviews on Pattern Review. Starting from the left, Barbara V is wearing Sandra Betzina's latest dress pattern. Ann Smith is wearing an Issey Miyake jacket, that she made awhile back. (You need an account on Pattern Review to see older reviews, but a free account works.) Dorothy K is wearing her "piano dress", which I don't believe she has ever posted anywhere - I want to rectify that right now, because this deserves to be seen.

Several years ago the De Young Museum, in San Francisco, had an Yves Saint Laurent exhibit. Dorothy was so inspired that she made a series of dresses inspired by YSL. They are all fabulous and this is one of them. Each one of those black keys on the keyboard is an applique.

Dorothy is wearing the perfect earrings to accompany the dress. These earrings, by a company called Lunch at the Ritz, are black and white and feature a dancing couple, a top-hat, white gloves, and the word STORK, a reference to the Stork Club. Perfect!

The charming dolls at my table.

Also, for the fashion show, members of PenWAG make handmade dolls. The dolls are used as table centerpieces during the fashion show, and are then auctioned off via silent auction at the end. My friend Sarah Bunje took home the intricate, jointed, colorful doll featured on the right of the above photo. These dolls have so much character!

I am glad of the 3-day weekend, but not getting quite as much sewing done as I'd hoped. Last week I was working on a dress, but I had to table it. It required a lot of tricky fitting and then I realized I didn't have enough fabric. Then I made a pair of pants, in a size 4, but wasn't happy with the loose trouser-like fit through the rear. Then I decided to make another pair of pants, using another pattern. I finished those yesterday and am making a 2nd pair. Lots of sewing happening, but not a lot to show.

Happy Memorial Day, for those of you who celebrate. Happy Monday, if not.

15 comments:

  1. Great post featuring some great sewing ladies including yourself. You all look wonderful in your dresses worthy of the title wearable art. Just love DK's earrings.

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  2. Well darn it. If I had known that 4 of my favorite & most fashionable sewists were attending, I might have made more of an effort to go to the PENWAG show! You all look FABulous!!!!

    A size 4 being baggy in the butt. Does not compute.

    Pretty Grievances did a little mini-rant about the Big 4 as well. I sense a trend here in blogworld. Maybe if enough of us make some noise, someone out there will listen?

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  3. What a great piano dress! The fashion show sounds like it was a lot of fun.

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  4. The four dresses look as though they and their makers could easily comprise a fashion spread, right down to the coherence in colors! What a wonderful event--thanks for sharing it with us.

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  5. Thanks so much for this post. I followed Anne, Barbara and Dorothy in the past. I had not seen a post from Anne in a long time and feared something was wrong. All four of you look radiant. What an inspiring event this must have been!

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    1. Martha, when I took the photo of these longtime friends, I asked if I could post it on my blog. All three graciously agreed and Ann added, "And then people will know I'm ok." Ann has some (positive) news and, I expect, in a couple of months will be posting again.

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  6. What fabulous women...all four of you! It's so nice to see you together (at the same event). I wish I'd been there!

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  7. Hi Shams, I'm honored to be included on your "Communing With Fabric" blog! It was great to see you, catch up with sewing friends and meet new sewists. Fun day!

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  8. Indeed I do hope to get back to sewing and blogging but when will it be??? I think the next few months will be chaos but exciting and invigorating, unlike the last year. It was so much fun seeing you and the others at the luncheon. You look just fantastic! And I think you feel good too.

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  9. Sounds like such an inspiring and interesting event.
    That piano dress is absolutely fabulous!

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  10. That piano dress is so fabulous! Thanks for showing us. And you looked terrific in your cool dress too. The lovely ladies of sewing!

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  11. Wow, I agree, what an event, and with many of the women I most look up to in the sewing world! (Martha and Jillybe, it would have been complete if the two of you had been there also. oh, and also Marec. and there might be one or two others). Ann, nice to see a picture of you, have missed your posts. Kate (kkkkaty on PR)

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  12. I'm sorry I didn't know you were coming. I would so much have enjoyed to meet you. It was a lovely show, wasn't it?

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  13. Great looking dresses, all three and yours, I love best of all!!

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  14. Great photos of women who inspire me. Thanks for the post as I too was wondering about Ann.

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