I'm a Featured Blogger on Bernina's We All Sew Blog!!!

Yes, as you can tell, I'm pretty excited! I got a comment this week that I would be featured next week, and I was very surprised to see that the note and link are already up.

Erika, Miss Sews-it-all, notified me, and I immediately went to look at both the We All Sew blog, which is sponsored by Bernina, as well as her personal blog, Miss Sews-it-all. I quickly realized that here is one very talented lady.

Welcome to everyone who comes here by way of We All Sew!

Thanks so much Erika!

Perfect Isn't Perfect, Part 2

You may remember a post from July, 2008 called Perfect Isn't Perfect Anymore. It was about the new designer at Valentino and her first couture collection for the house. There were a lot of great comments about it, and we were all agreed that it was a big change from previous Valentino collections.

Well, you may have noticed that the designer who did the collection, Alessandra Facchinetti, is no longer at Valentino. She was touted as the one who would update the house and its image, but apparently there was unhappiness with her work or the way things were going in general.

I probably wouldn't have done a post just about that, but Kathleen Fasanella, of Fashion-Incubator fame left a comment recently on the original post which I'm going to quote here. You can use the link to the original post above to see the photos to which she refers. As always, she is very good at diagnosing problems and not only how they got there, but how to fix them. Here's her comment, and be sure to click on her link to see the photos with comments and arrows, etc. on her photo site.

kathleen said... 1:30 PM, October 17, 2008

Good eye Liana (as usual).
Don't know that I agree about the collar points, could be a matter of garment sway from walking but I do see another problem with it, bubbling on one side near the dart (see these photos I've made notes on.)



The taupe style ...that has GOT to be a proto, a last minute addition to the line. I found three problems with it, rather glaring imo. The buttons don't line up,



the aforementioned neckline bubble (same block as the white one?)



and that placket thingy in addition to buckling, is crooked.



Again, see my photos.

RE: zipper. The end point pucker is the least of it really, you can see it's puckering well before that end point. Pretty lousy imo. Also, look at that seam on the sleeve; it's caving inwards.




With all that embellishment weight, that really needed some kind of infrastructure to reinforce the seam.

I was very interested in her comments, and I admit I hadn't consciously noted the neckline bubbles, at least as a separate problem. The beige suit being a very quickie prototype rings true with me, as the placket itself looks like the kind of thing I would just fold from a scrap to see how I liked the look. It looks like they did that too, and then just tacked it on without interfacing it or figuring out how to attach it beautifully, and called it good for now.

Kathleen has graciously offered to elaborate if we have any questions, so please, ask away!


Edited to add the photos with Kathleen's notes, which I should have done in the first place.

E for Excellent!

How exciting! I've been tagged as an E for Excellent blog by not one, but TWO Excellent Bloggers. Vintage Threads (Charity in Alaska) and Diary of a Sewing Fanatic (Carolyn) both named me in their lists. I am so honored and flattered. They are both on my list of bloggers that I read regularly, and it's so nice to know that my posts aren't completely frivolous.

Carolyn is a long-time friend from the old Sewing World, and now Stitcher's Guild. She is fearless and committed to excellence in her sewing and design. She has shown me that it's not only unnecessary but silly to "reinvent the wheel" with each new garment when we have patterns we've slaved over until they fit perfectly that we could tweak a bit and make again with a totally different look. I'd done some of this before, but Carolyn takes it to a new level, and her embellishments are subtle, wearable, and beautifully unique.

Charity is an indefatigable stitcher and designer who is always doing something interesting, and who can take a technique we all know and add a small improvement/variation and come up with something that will make you say "Ooh, that's wonderful!" Right now she's in the middle of a Hundred Skirt Project in which she and some other bloggers who've volunteered are making a hundred skirts with coordinating Tees to send to a Guatemalan orphanage with which she has a connection. The skirts are spread across the size range beginning I think, at T3 through adult. These aren't just plain old skirts either. Each one is embellished to show off the fabric pattern and the Tees are coordinated as noted above, and each ensemble has a name. She's aiming to finish by August. There is one that I hope to shamelessly copy the pocket from. It's this one called Pocket Pals.

I love the knotted strip at the top of the pocket, and I think the fabric combination is darling.

Now, I have to think up 10 (only 10!) deserving blogs as well. I will try to choose blogs that haven't already been chosen, so I'll be leaving out quite a few favorites.

Sew Distracted is Mardel's sewing and knitting blog. She has a wonderful eye for fashion, and uses the most fabulous fabrics and yarns to create her personal style. She is also a source of books-to-read ideas for me, and she reviews them when she's done too. Her taste is exquisite.

Barbara at Cat Fur Studio is a real bundle of energy as she seems to sew most of her wardrobe while effortlessly performing her very high-powered 'real' job. Her shoe choices with her outfits are always instructive as well.

You Can Have It Made which is always an interesting read, and often quite witty. One of my favorite recent posts is
Dirty Tricks Patterns Play, or: Things to Know #10.

Stitchworks is a very seriously art and especially fiber-art blog, with some sewing, but lately more fabric design and manipulation. This is pure inspiration.

May Studio's M&M is a knitting maven. If it can be knit, she will knit it and it will be gorgeous, perfectly done, perfectly fitted, and done very quickly. She is also extremely generous with her time to those of us who beg for translations of the Japanese sewing and knitting patternbooks. She and Hellenne did all the translations for the Mrs Stylebook instructions available at Stitcher's Guild, and helped walk a group of us through a skirt draft from the magazine, which turned out perfectly due to her excellent skills.

Patty Hudson at Fiberly One is another fabulous knitter who is concentrating on lace knitting recently, but knitted things drop from her needles in perfection with great rapidity. She has done sample knitting for KnitPicks at times, especially when they need something on a tight deadline. She also sews beautifully, and as she sews many shirts for her husband, I feel we're kindred spirits in this endeavor.

Gaile Online has a great blog that's been a favorite for a long time. She's a Canadian knitter/photographer who is an engaging writer as well on just about any topic. Her bird photos are some of my favorites.


Pam Erny has 2 blogs that are well-worth following.
The first is Off The Cuff Style which details her custom shirtmaking. She most often does hand drafted patterns with subtle details to perfectly tailor a shirt and its details to her client and his activities.
The second is Sewing for the Divas which has detailed her efforts at clothing her fashionista nieces in the style in which they are thrilled to be becoming accustomed. It appears to have been folded into her first blog above, but the photos and tips still on it are worth looking at if you're interested in very cute and innovative customization of children's wear and of Ottobre patterns in particular.

NancyW at encue creations is always inspiring. I like her photographic record of fitting challenges and her solutions. She does some beautiful work, and has just finished her 2008 SWAP. Congratulations, Nancy!