Inspiration

I will be working on my dressform this weekend (my weekends are Sunday and Monday). I have a few simple projects to start out with to get me back in the groove of sewing. My sewing nook is in the corner of my now clean and organized art studio. This means that I can take a 10 or 20 minute break from painting and step a few steps over to the sewing machine. Although I don't own Nancy Zieman's book 10-20-30 Minutes to Sew, I am thinking that concept will be necessary for me to make progress.
In the meantime, I pulled a few of my books out to share. These are a few of the inspirational books I own. I know a lot of inspiration can be found online but there is nothing like sitting with a hot cup of tea on a stormy day and looking through books and magazines. Here are some of my favorites in no particular order:

These two books draw from ethnic traditions. The embellishments are gorgeous. I hope to make one or two special outfits that I can embellish. Embellishment can really set a garment far above the ready to wear stuff one sees in the stores, even on the designer level.

Ah now these, these are treasures. A wonderful, thoughtful, creative friend of ours brought these French fashion magazines back from Paris and gifted them to me. The top left one is from 1925. The top right and bottom one is from 1917! There was a bonus of a genuine pattern in the pages of the one from 1917. Later on I want to copy it and make it up for fun. I might even just make a free PDF of it as well sometime down the line.

Couture can be exquisite and I love putting in professional hand sewing techniques into my garments. Again, this sets them far above what can be found in the stores and is one of the reasons, in my view, to sew ones own clothing. I will definitely share any techniques I use on this blog. Sharing is part of the fun!
Between the weather and tides I haven't had a chance to get outside and paint. Thankfully I do get out everyday with the dog or else I would be climbing the walls! It has been a good time to clean, organize, think, dream, and plan.
Looking forward to fixing up my dressform. The next set of books I share will be on patternmaking and design. I have a good number of those and some of those are out of print.
Off to post on my Coastal Vegan blog and then dinner.
-Renee