Busy time of year for Santa’s Helpers

by Beth Posted on December 20, 2012

For the last month, the Periodicals Department has been full of students working hard on final projects.  We’ve had students working on fashion illustration, packaging design, interiors, papers, and who knows what else.  But now that the dust has settled, most have gone home, and it’s time for the last minute gift panic.  For those of you (us) who celebrate either Christmas, or Kwanza or Channukah, this is the time of year for running around with lists and parcels, and wrapping paper and shopping.

For those of us with more taste than money, the holidays mean several consecutive months of busily making presents for our loved ones.

This year, I was inspired by the Therese de Dillmont’s “Encyclopedia of Needlework” to make a handkerchief for my Dad.  (TT 750 .D572 copies both on 5 Main and in Art Ref) He’s the only person I know who still uses cloth ones, but it makes that a nice gift possibility.

I’m going to pull 2 or 3 threads about a half inch in from the edge.  Then as I hem it, I’ll use one of the drawn-thread hems from this page:

Two pages a facsimile edition of de Dillmont’s “Encyclopedia of Needlework”, originally published in English in 1886

I’ll probably use blue DMC floss, a couple strands, for the hemming threads.  Blue is his favorite color, and DMC is readily available and easy to use.  Plus, since it’s boil-fast, it can hold up to anything my Dad can dish out.  DMC has been around since the 1880s, because Mme. de Dillmont refers to it as well.

And, because I’m easily side-tracked, I found this awesome book that has just some of the needlework projects from Godey’s Lady’s Book:  “A Treasury of Needlework Projects from Godey’s Lady’s Book“ edited and compiled by Arlene Zeger Wiczyk.  (Art Ref TT 753 .W53).  Not a lot of projects there are useful for my purposes, but some have contemporary carry-over.  Some.

Christmas gift project from Godey’s Lady’s Book
The “how-to” for the above picture

I love “flipping” through Godey’s Lady’s Book.  We have it in the Periodicals & Electronic Resources Services on microfilm.  The microfilm format is a bit odd, but it’s so much fun to see nineteenth-century ads and house plans and to read the kinds of projects that were “normal” to the editors at that time.  Which is probably pretty similar to what’s “normal” to Martha Stewart, but one hundred years or so earlier.  (Speaking of which, the FIT PERS also has Martha Stewart Living.  As well as Marie Claire 100 Idees, the French craftacular magazine.)

 

 

 

 

The last few years have seen an increase in interest in making things with one’s own hands.  Since FIT is essentially all about making things, we’ve added a lot of relevant new magazine titles and books to our holdings.  Besides 100 Idees (it’s French), we also now subscribe to a more, er, unisex?  title called Make.

 

 

This title is a bit more Home-Depot oriented and rather less Michael’s or Joanne Fabrics.  Which is good and we want to encourage well-roundedness.  But the Power Ranger-sort of beast on the front maybe makes this point a bit more strongly than necessary?  Fortunately, I know a lot of women who like Power Rangers and Transformers and can frequently be found in Home Depots.   We can’t accuse anyone of sexism because the point is that we should all have choices, right?  So here, learn how to setup traps and recycle your gray water right here…

 

Myself, I’m better with needle crafts than power tools, however.  And am making rather more traditional Christmas presents than one might find in Make.   For my Mom,  (working the Victorian theme here), I began a pair of socks sometime last year.  They’re from this book, “Socks from the Toe Up” by Wendy Johnson.  We just got this book here in the library.  It’s on the 5th floor: Main Stacks TT825 .J647 2009.  I’ve begun accumulating hand dyed sock yarn because it’s so beautifully colored.

Here is my stash:

If all Beth’s yarn were laid out on the sofa, it would still all be green, blue or purple!

And here’s the sock I’m making for Mom.  I’m agonizing over the instructions for turning the heel because I’ve never done it, but I WILL FIGURE IT OUT! Thank you to Wendy Johnson for her awesome patterns and her wonderful, helpful blog:

http://wendyknits.net/

“Riding on the Metro” socks from Wendy Johnson’s “Socks from the Toe Up”

Both socks will get done for Christmas, because I’m on vacation as of Friday (tomorrow, actually).  I had no idea that socks were so, er sort-of easy.

 

 

 

Here is the sock I’m working on for my Mom.  The yarn is a beautiful variegated blues-to-greens yarn.  And I don’t want to completely finish it off before I actually *see* my Mom, because I need her foot to double-check the sizing.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

My work this time. The pattern isn’t coming out nearly as well as the sample. It was ever thus.

 

 

 

 

One of the reasons knitting has always scared me is that a sweater seems like an AWFULLY Large project.  But socks, well, one could play with a new lace or cable pattern and get it done before one was thoroughly bored with the whole project.  Or so I am hoping.

 

 

 

Then why, I hear you ask, are you trying to make a SWEATER for your housemate?  I’m glad you asked :)  Well, you see, I have a big drafty old house, and my housemate seems disinclined to buy herself a warm sweater.  And she just made herself a whole new work wardrobe in grays and blacks and pinks.  That completely sounds like someone who needs a funky new sweater in burgundy shades, doesn’t it?

So here is the sweater I’m attempting:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/pole

Note that Ravelry is one of the best-designed websites I’ve come across and seems to do exactly every list sort of thing I ever thought of.  You can find it here:

www.ravelry.com

The yarn I’ve chosen is 80% merino, 20% silk from Spirit Trail Fiberworks:

http://www.spirit-trail.net/store.php?crn=314&rn=1797&action=show_detail

I’m still plugging away at it, even though I started in October, right after the Sheep & Wool Festival.  But I might have to get her another present to go with this one, and a very nice promissory note.  Hmm.  I foresee a lot of knitting in my next week…

 

The most recent issue of Interweave Knits

There are a lot of cool places to get patterns out there.  I’ve been surprised to find knitting patterns in some of our regular staple magazines, like Vogue Knitting and even Elle France.  But we have just subscribed to another gem, Interweave Knits. My friends have recommended this one for years, so it’s an exciting acquisition here in the Periodicals & Electronic Resources Services area!  In fact, the last few issues will be my Christmas holiday reading, so I can plan summer presents.  Because I better get started soon.

So to all of you from all of us at PERS, here at the Library at FIT, we wish you the happiest of holidays, whatever you do, and whichever you celebrate!  Have a great break!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Saville Row and Sartorial Splendor

by Beth Posted on October 25, 2012

This autumn I apparently have tailoring on my mind.  It all started when my housemate got a new job.  Then she started sewing, so we had to, of course, go fabric shopping.  While I know there are many fine places to do so in the garment center (and I’ve shown you some of *my* favorites), we are New Jersey based.  The fabric funhouse we visit most often is the Fabric Warehouse in Rahway, NJ.  Their specialty is upholstery goods, but they have a modest selection of end pieces of all sorts.  On especially good hunting days, I’ve found top quality suitings in amongst the poly/rayon or the wool/poly crap.

http://www.fabricwarehousedirect.com/

The last time I hunted there, I found this cashmere wool blend… It’s really not fair that you can’t feel this through the screen while you read, but it’s that wonderful mix of soft to the touch but “hard” or firm finish which makes such beautiful tailored coats or suits.

I took tailoring as an undergrad, and I’ve been fascinated with the properties of wool ever since.  This description by Richard Anderson describes it well:

“Undercollar canvas is wool with light pores throughout, strong yet flexible enough to respond to an iron.  On top of the canvas undercollar, you would then baste in another undercollar, of melton: a soft fabric in a colour matching the jacket it would eventually adorn…regimented rows of tiny angled stitches would give the collar canvas a slight curl,so that once connected to the coat it would lay naturally around the neck.”(from Richard Anderson’s 2009 autobiography, Bespoke, p. 33)

FIT has this book, of course:  Bespoke: Savile Row Ripped and Smoothed,  5th floor Main TT 580 .A53 2010

Richard Anderson’s website: http://www.rippedandsmoothed.com/index.php/the_business.html.

And a few related books here in the library:

Bespoke: The Men’s Style of Savile Row by James Sherwood.  5th floor Main: Oversized TT 580 .S487 2010b

The London Cut: Savile Row Bespoke Tailoring by James Sherwood.  Ask at the 4th floor Reference Desk for section A, TT 580 .S54 2007

Savile Row: The Master Tailors of British Bespoke by James Sherwood.  4th floor Art Reference TT 580 .S487 2010

Ozwald Boateng Fashion Show (menswear): 5th floor Circulation Desk: video TT 502 .B63 2000

Ok, so I don’t live in London, and I no longer work in the needle trades.  But suddenly I want to apprentice to a tailor and spend my days in this rarified life of fitting esteemed clientele for very expensive but exquisitely-crafted clothing.  Well-lit rooms where technicians chat over the cutting of well made pants, coats, stitched interlinings.  Intricate stitching on collars and lapels, just like this half-finished jacket actor Michael Caine shows off for his favorite tailor, Douglas Hayward of Hayward:

Image from Sherwood’s Savile Row,
details above, p. 159

This is not a new craving.  Hence the tailoring class of my youth.  Something about this magic shaping of cloth (there’s an “Ode to Wool” in my repetoire) to be a three-dimensional form that goes around a human body is so very beautiful to me.  It’s been nudging me gently all month.  A few weeks ago I stopped near the HBO office because I had to take a picture of this suit:

Costume from HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire”

 

 

It’s from Boardwalk Empire, which is apparently set in the depression in Atlantic City.  It’s tweedy beauty and extra pockets (for a watch and handkerchief, I imagine.  Relics of a civilized era with more formal details and politeness I romanticize, I suppose.

 

I mean look how cool these men look:

 http://tinyurl.com/8oqvxza

 

 

Then yesterday, my best friend sent me this story:

http://petegamlen.tumblr.com/post/32944995628/newmans-own

I’m entranced by the personal feeling that this label in a suit found in a basement gave me, all of a sudden:

(Thank you, Pete Gamlen for the picture and the story)

 

Then I discovered that one of new, young, celebrity heroes of the books I’d been looking at was coming here, to FIT to speak!  Squee!  And he has a movie, squee! So, everyone, come hear Ozwald Boateng speak next Monday, October 29th at 6pm.  Neat, huh?

A MAN’S STORY DOCUMENTARY SCREENING AND Q&A WITH OZWALD BOATENG
Monday, October 29, 6 pm
Haft AuditoriumFashion designer Ozwald Boateng will present the new documentary about his life, A Man’s Story, and answer questions after the screening. Doors open at 5:30 pm; the film starts at 6 pm. The event is free, but you need a ticket. Please stop by the School of Art and Design Dean’s Office, Room D350, for your free ticket. Attendees without tickets will be seated based on available space.

http://www3.fitnyc.edu/museum/boatengFlier.pdf

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Autumn in New York

by Beth Posted on October 18, 2012

New York is a beautiful state.  Since we live and work in New York City, it’s easy to forget that New York is a large and prosperous state with a lot of *trees* and acres that aren’t overpopulated,  crowded, or full of cement and bodegas.  This weekend I’m headed to Rhinebeck, which is about two hours north.  The Metro North train, which leaves from Grand Central, goes to Poughkeepsie.  This time of year, it looks like this:

I love that you can see a house from the 1830s right next door to a house from the 1970s in this picture

The Rhinebeck area was one of the early parts of greater-metropolitan New York to be suburbanized.  Nearby Newburgh, NY was the hometown of one of the famous nineteenth-century tastemakers, Andrew Jackson Downing.

http://www.hudsonvalley.org/beauty/advice1.html

This man was a writer, domestic theorist, horticulturist, and architect from the 1830s until his death in 1852.  He was an early proponent of the park that became Central Park, he helped design the original landscaping for the White House, and he wrote extensively about what homes should be and do for their residents.  At the same time, he maintained a thriving architectural practice in his hometown of Newburgh.

http://www.cityofnewburgh-ny.gov/hist/downing.htm

The charming town of Rhinebeck sports many examples of his favored “cottage” architecture.  This one is on route 9, near the center of town:

A charming family cottage

The FIT library has a two of the famous books Downing published, which talk extensively about his ideals.

The architecture of country houses; including designs for cottages, and farmhouses, and villas, with remarks on interiors, furniture, and the best modes of warming and ventilating

5th Floor, Main Stacks:  NA7561 .D75 1969

 

 

 

Victorian cottage residences

5th Floor, Main Stacks:  NA7561 .D8 1981

 

 

 

 

There are a lot of excellent reasons to head up the Hudson River Valley on an October weekend, but the one I’m working with is this:

http://www.sheepandwool.com/

I admit: the idea of spending a day out of doors, when the weather will be a bit chilly on my face, but my sweater will be cosy and the leaves will be brightly colored makes me all excited.  And the best part is that farm after farm after hand-dying mill after small family-owned business will be represented with beautiful fibers and in wonderful colors and textures.  And alpacas and bunnies are CUUUTTTEE!!

Sheep aren’t bad, either.  If it interests folks, I’ll post pictures of them, too, on Monday.  (OK, I confess I couldn’t wait until Monday!) But I confess I’m going to feed my creative brain with colors and textures.  And spend some time out of doors with my friends.

Just in case you decide to go (many yarn shops in the city are organizing bus trips straight to the fair from the Poughkeepsie train station), the library’s knitting books are all on 5 Main, in the TT 820 section.

That’s a productive way to put off your work, right?  And you need color inspiration anyway…

 

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The Mighty Pen: Celebrating the work of fashion illustrator, Antonio Lopez

by Monica Posted on October 1, 2012
by the hand of Antonio Lopez, fashion illustrator

Long before the hyper, kinetic images of a David LaChappelle or the moody, sexy images of a Steven Meisel and long before photography became the dominant medium to communication fashion to the masses there was…the pad and the pen.

Twenty-five years after his passing the work of Antonio Lopez is being shared. Heralded as a master fashion illustrator, Antonio Lopez’s work is brimming with his interests and influences: fashion, photography, urban life, New York nightife and his Puerto Rican roots. 

His handiwork was featured numerous times in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Andy Warhol’s Interivew magazine as well as the New York Times.  Illustration wasn’t his only medium. Lopez is also known for his Polariod photograph series, “Antonio’s Girls” featuring various models and personalities like:  Grace Jones, Pat Cleveland, Tina Chow, Jerry Hall and Jessica Lange to name a few.

FIT can count Antonio Lopez as another illustrious alum. Better still, the Gladys Marcus Library has a healthy collection of his drawings in our Fashion File holdings.

Currently his drawings are on exhibit at the Susan Geiss Company gallery til October 20th. http://suzannegeiss.com/#!/exhibitions/?exhibitid=114

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I dream in color…

by Beth Posted on September 14, 2012

Welcome back everybody! It’s a new school year at FIT. The library is bustling and full of students again. And that means that people are looking for inspiration for their projects.

For me, that means colors. When I’m working hard, I need to take breaks and go touch colors and textures.  There are a couple of ways I do this.  Art supply stores always make my heart sing.  Something about all the colored pencils or watercolors, or inks and paper, waiting to be drawn upon…

Fabric shopping takes this one better:  In addition to the aspect of color that can be laid flat on a page, there’s the dimension of texture, the attraction of taking a flat piece of fabric (that still floats and pools on the floor or table of the fabric store, reflecting light and tempting me towards darts and seams and shirring and contrasting linings) and gradually turning it into a three-dimensional object with a future history of its own: as a dress, or a jacket or a hat.  Silk is the most seductive textile for this, and the fabric store that always gives me inspiration is this one:

http://www.butterflyfabrics.us/Categorycollections.aspx

This appears to be their corporate headquarters, but the store looks like this:

http://www.sewny.com/blog/butterfly-fabrics-inc-also-known-bazar-fabrics-inc

(Although please understand that the FIT library doesn’t know Laura, whose website that is, and can make no claims about her sewing.  She does take a good picture of a fabric store, though!)

But something about this time of year turns my mind towards wools.  I suppose it’s the cooler, crisper evenings, but all I can think about are my knitting projects.  I took out my knitting stash this weekend so I could think about what projects I wanted to attack next.  I’ve been collecting all kinds of wonderful fibers, it seems, for years.  Much faster than I can knit it!  But it serves as an inspiration for colder days to come.

So here are some yarns that make me drool:

http://www.threeirishgirls.com/product.php?productid=55&cat=2&page=1

and

http://www.threeirishgirls.com/product.php?productid=55&cat=2&page=1

and this:

http://www.dragonflyfibers.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&path=59_62_66&product_id=89

I mean, seriously, don’t you need something in a color named “villainess”?  (and here I shout out Erin at BGC’s excellent library for bringing this to my attention…)  The color names on this company’s yarns are especially wonderful.  Just to keep you going, here’s another:

http://www.dragonflyfibers.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&path=105&product_id=952

And just to bring this back to periodicals,

The most beautiful, inspiring, wonderfully-photographed magazine we have in FIT’s library has to be Bloom.   Which you can use for free, just by coming by the Periodicals Desk on the 6th floor, and filling out a call slip.  See you soon!

The cover of the current issue of Bloom magazine

 

 

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