Hello friends!
It’s been a while since I last checked in, hasn’t it? I hope you had a wonderful summer. We’ve been doing a little traveling within Europe, and I’ve been very busy finishing up the fall patterns, which I hope to send to the printer in a few more weeks.
Meantime, S and I were shopping recently and noticed a trend here in Spain that you may be seeing as well. Are you seeing all the foliage prints and, in particular, the monstera plant leaves? They’re everywhere! I bought a pair of earrings for S because she fell in love with them, and now she’s thinking about getting a plant for her room. When I was in the fabric store last week, they had quite a collection of foliage prints in the home dec section (which is a great resource for apparel fabrics, by the way). Look at all these prints on linen!
Pinterest Picks
Here are a few monstera plant-inspired items, since we’re on the topic. I adore the shoes!
It’s nice to see a few images similar to our Lisette for Butterick B6661 style popping up! I love the idea of using a pretty floral print for this style, as well as combining the bodice with a narrow skirt. Really, you could also make a cute jumpsuit if you combined it with our Hollywood Trousers.
We are still deep in salad season, and I’m loving it! These days I’m eating anything with figs, and if you haven’t tried tomato with peaches or nectarines you’re missing out!
I don’t wear my glasses much during the summer; it’s so annoying to switch back and forth between them and sunglasses, which are a necessity in Madrid because the light is so bright. Plus, they slide down my nose when I’m hot and sweaty (which is all summer, of course). But after seeing Anna Karina’s style I’m so ready to get back to mine! I’m a big fan of the single, strong, defining accessory.
How about a pair of printed Hollywood Trousers? So cute!
Weekend Reading
- How crazy that someday soon we might be able to grow colored cotton!
- Not sure if it’s OK to use ankara prints in your sewing projects?
- On fashion mannequins and the need to redesign them.
- In addition to all your friends who started sewing masks during quarantine, lots of men started sewing, too!
- Like me, you probably aren’t familiar with the name Kasai Yamamoto. But he was responsible for some of David Bowie’s most iconic costumes.
- My new personal hero. She’s so cool, and I’m always looking for another perspective on my own wardrobe.
I hope you’ll come back next week because we have a couple of exciting things planned for you! In the meantime, happy sewing and have a great weekend.
Two thoughts about the GMO coloured cotton story:
1) Historic cotton varieties grew in a range of different colours anyway, not “psychedelic” colours but a surprisingly wide range of greens and browns, and I think I once heard about a lilac or mauve (these colours obviously can be spun/woven together in combination to make many more shades). The colours actually get stronger with washing! This company has been working on bringing these ancient varieties into the textile industry for years now: https://www.vreseis.com/
2) The article seems to downplay legitimate concerns about GMOs. My understanding of Monsanto’s Bt cotton is that it still needs a lot of chemicals applied to it, and they have a monopoly on those as well as the seed (which has to be bought every year, unlike ordinary cotton). The consequences are much worse than just “cutting into the margins of poor farmers”. The debt cycle created is linked to horrifying numbers of farmer suicides in India (some of those farmers even die by drinking the chemicals); this might have been an “unintended consequence” originally but it’s been known about for many years now and yet it continues. I believe other Monsanto plants are designed not to resist pests but to survive intense pesticide application – there are stories of the company ‘checking’ whether a farmer is growing their variety or not by aerially spraying the field with a herbicide that kills everything except their modified plant.
Absolutely inspirational article on “new personal hero”. Just what I need at this time. A lesson to us all irrespective of age. Thankyou.
Love the shoes and especially the colour. Green and fuchsia my favourite for the coming (Australian) summer.
You are correct “over blown”. floral prints seem to be the go here for summer as well.
My favorite fall trend: gender-neutral runway style is finally making its way (via Instagram) to sewing patterns–yippee!
Also extraordinary: Martin Margiela: In His Own Words https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGWHhEx_qa0 Thank you, MM.
Naturally colored cotton has been around forever–literally. Green, brown and red varieties have been cultivated throughout the world for thousands of years.
I love Yamamoto’s costumes for Bowie and have always thought if I lived in a country that went wild for Halloween costumes I’d definitely do a whole Bowie/Yamamoto family tribute.
I did print some Lycra to look like knitwear and made my husband and I faux knitted Bowie skinsuits for a fun ride last year. Why on earth not? 🙂
Have you seen the Tropical Leaf blanket collection from Twig + Tale? I bought the child and doll blanket combo pattern to make a few blankets for some kids, and there is a monstera leaf blanket that I think I want to make for me! Maybe S would like one. I also think it could be fun to use the doll leaf blankets for things around the house like place mats or hot pads. I totally recognize the trend you are talking about, and I confess to having been bitten by the bug myself a bit. My sewing space now has a monstera leaf plant, and I love it.