Alexandria Seamsters Monthly Neighborhood Group Meeting for July 2024

The Seamsters' next meeting will be Mon, July 15 at 7 pm at our usual location, Franconia Government Center, 6121 Franconia Rd.  Alexandria, VA.  Our program, “Techniques for Sewing with Sheer Fabric”, will be led by Lisa and Diana.  We will have some sheer fabric items for you to cut and stitch during the evening.   This should be a lot of fun!

If you can, please bring:

• a pair of fabric cutting scissors
• pins to use when pinning and cutting a small pattern piece
• hand sewing needle(s) - preferably a thin needle

And, of course, bring your show-and-tells!

An Intro to American Designer Anne Fogarty

I picked up an interesting vintage sewing pattern, Advance 7914, by Anne Fogarty. A native of Philadelphia, she designed clothing that was fashionable, affordable, and practical. She is known for her signature look: full-skirted dresses with petticoats worn beneath. 

Advance 7914

As Lizzie Adams Bramlett states in her blog, "For the first time since the Edwardian era, adult women were putting on a petticoat--a necessity to achieve the desired tiny waisted, full-skirted silhouette." Fogarty altered her skirt silhouette for a narrower, longer look after 1956. 

The Met has several photos of her completed designs, mainly 1960's. I encourage you to take a look at their site as pictures cannot be downloaded, enlarged, or viewed at full screen. There is a beautiful red wool and silk coat embellished with couture cording! The coat has a matching sleeveless dress that can be worn with a black fitted turtleneck sweater. For more on surface cording, you can watch this YouTube video  

This site features many movie stars and models wearing her designs. The dress is from the February 1952 issue of Vogue Magazine. You can find the pattern for this in several online stores, just search for Advance 6160. As you can see from the photos, velveteen was a favorite fabric!

In 1957, Fogarty wrote a book, "Wife Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife." 

In 1962, Fogarty opened her own design house, Anne Fogarty, Inc. She retired in 1974 and continued to do freelance work with Shariella Fashion until her death in 1980.  

This pattern from 1959, Simplicity 3152 is suitable for everyday wear and comes highly recommended from Sew Retro: Sheath!

It appears that Anne Fogarty's design aesthetic is paid homage in the Anne Fogarty Boutique. 

Addendum to #MeMadeMay and Other Inspirations

 Although most of the Neighborhood Groups in the Northern Virginia Chapter are devoted to garment sewing, there are techniques that can be used from other specialty sewing groups, such as quilters (hello, little French jacket). One exhibit in the DMV can employ simple clothing designs as a foundation for creativity, such as crazy quilt techniques. 

The Maryland Center for History and Culture (MCHC) is featuring an exhibit "Material & Memories: Elizabeth Talford Scott and the Crazy Quilt Tradition" featuring the works of Elizabeth Talford Scott through December 2024. Talford Scott's work uses scraps of family members' clothing and decorative household fabrics embellished with topstitching, ribbons, buttons, and stones to create meditative works of art. 

Even better, the exhibit Claire / McCardell is on display through November 2024! Viewing her designs with modern eyes, they don't seem that radical, but "spaghetti straps, the ballet flat, and pockets and zippers on dresses were all McCardell innovations" (The 50-Year-Old Fashion Book That Still Feels Radical Today (harpersbazaar.com)). 

Another innovative designer featured in an exhibit this summer until October 11, 2024, is Mary McFadden. Drexel University's exhibit, "Modern Ritual: The Art of Mary McFadden - Robert and Penny Fox Historic Costume Collection (drexel.edu) highlights her signature techniques, "including Marii pleating, one-of-a-kind hand-painted textiles, and opulent beading and embellishment." In a New York Times article, McFadden said, "The effect I'm searching for is to have the fabric fall like liquid gold against the body." Approximately 40 mannequins will be on view, donning some of McFadden’s most intricately crafted gowns, coats and separates, alongside a rich array of ephemera, including design drawings and personal papers.

Looking for a link between song and style? Check out "Instrumental Fashions: Attire and Song," on view through November 14, 2024 at the Shippensburg Fashion Archives and Museum, Pennsylvania. Dr. Karin J. Bohleke, FA&M director, says, “Music and fashion have more in common than one might think. Like fashion, musical genres have their moment of prominence, only to have another style emerge to replace them as newcomers on the scene attempt to differentiate themselves from the current trends. In addition, musicians incorporate keen observations on contemporary society. Naturally, fashions—from the elegant to the absurd—find themselves immortalized in catchy lyrics.” 

Visitors will enjoy seeing historical boots and whether they really were “Made for Walking,” as well as the “Lady in Red,” the “Devil with a Blue Dress On,” a selection of “Sharp Dressed Men", and many other examples of fashions explored in pop songs. But sadly, unless someone has one to donate, the permanent collection has no yellow polka dot bikinis from the 1950s.

Schedule a road trip soon to Columbia, SC, because this exhibit closes on July 7. Sergio Hudson is famous for dressing style icons, and his design philosophy is that fashion should be for everyone and include everyone. He designs to empower the wearer and often includes a nod to the ’90s of his youth. See eight signature garments from key moments in his revolutionary career alongside more than 20 sketches and drawings exploring his career from the early days winning Bravo’s Styled to Rock in 2013 up through the present day.

Continue your trek through the south with an exhibit at the Frist Museum of Art in Nashville, TN. Lee Alexander McQueen & Ann Ray: Rendez-Vous offers a rare glimpse into the life and mind of McQueen and introduces French photographer Ann Ray to audiences in the United States. With a partnership built on friendship and trust, Ray was provided unfettered access to McQueen’s world and captured everything from contemplative moments in the design studio to models posing backstage. In total, she shot forty-three collections over the course of thirteen years, creating a massive body of work and an indelible record of McQueen’s creative process at his namesake label and during his tenure as creative director at Givenchy. This exhibit ends on August 25, 2024.

You can end your summer US tour with a stop in Oklahoma City where the Oklahoma City Museum of Art is featuring will feature 70 costumes that capture the height of designer Edith Head’s career and were worn by stars such as Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Ginger Rogers, Shirley MacLaine, Veronica Lake, Barbara Stanwyck, and Kim Novak. 

“Head was famous for wearing sunglasses, but most people don’t realize there’s a reason behind the shades,” said Catherine Shotick, guest curator for Edith Head. “Her trademark glasses had custom, blue-tinted lenses, which allowed her to see how the costumes photographed in black and white: a trick used by costume designers during the Golden Age of Hollywood.”

Are you planning any road trips this summer? If you're near any of these exhibits, let us know what you saw and how you were inspired!

Me-Made May, Museums, and Homemade Inspiration

 Well, we're halfway through #MeMadeMay! How are you doing? We'd love to see your photos and read your comments!

It's also time to make summer plans. When the weather is awful or uncertain, museums are a great antidote for heat, humidity, and rain. If you're in the DC area, we have a lot of exhibits related to sewing, so take advantage of these opportunities! Even if you don't live near Washington, DC, many of the exhibits offer virtual tours and even lectures. 

The DMV:

• Irresistible: The Global Patterns of Ikat. Through June 8 at the George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum. 
• Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction. Through July 28 at the National Gallery of Art. 
• Pattern and Paradox: The Quilts of Amish Women. Through August 24 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. You still have time to register for the lecture on May 23!
• Sewn in America: Making, Meaning, Memory. Through December 31 at the DAR Museum. They're also offering Unfinished Objects (UFO) Craft Circles. Check the site for dates and to sign up. 
• UFO Craft Circles (in-person at 3pm) and Tuesday Talks (available via Zoom or in-person at noon EST). Check out the schedule here. 

Beyond DC:

• Weaving Abstraction in Ancient and Modern Art. Through June 16 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 
• Joyce J. Scott: Walk a Mile in My Dreams. Through July 14 at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
• Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion. Through September 2 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
• Dress Up. Through September 2 at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Hallyu! The Korean Wave is also on exhibit here through July 28. 
• Fashioning San Francisco: A Century of Style. Through July 8 at the de Young/Legion of Honor Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA. 
• Korean Couture: Generations of Revolution. Through October 13 at the Cleveland Museum of Art. 
• The Museum at FIT always has exhibits. Check this link for current and upcoming offerings. 

Passport Needed (or just membership):

• From the Heart to the Hands: Dolce & Gabbana. Through July 31 at the Palazzo Reale.  
• The Biba Story, 1965-1975. Through September 8 at the Fashion & Textiles Museum, London, UK. If you sew with vintage patterns, you might have one of hers in your stash. 
• NAOMI: In Fashion. Opens June 22 through April 6, 2025, at the Victoria & Albert Museum, South Kensington, UK. Free virtual talks are scheduled for members. Incidentally, there is a 3-day workshop on creating a couture cocktail dress in quarter-scale. This would be SO MUCH FUN!
• Barbie: The Exhibition. Opens July 5 through February 23, 2025, at The Design Museum, London, UK. 

Neighborhood Group Inspiration:

Check out Shenandoah Valley Girls in Berryville on Wednesday, May 22, as they offer a 1/2 day workshop on the All Dunn Designs Strip & Serge Top! This workshop was taught at

 the last two ASG Conferences and ASG members get a 15% discount on the pattern. 

The Springfield Sharing Threads and Kingstowne Clothiers have focused their sewing plans on fitting. If you're interested in learning more about fit and desire a supportive and encouraging community of sewists at all levels, join us at our monthly meetings! 

Our newest group, the Woodbridge Sewcial Club, alternates its offerings at the maker space in their local public library. Every other month, they will hold a sit-and-sew (or sew-in) where sewists can bring their machines and projects and get expert assistance. The alternate meetings will feature a presentation on some sewing related topic. 

Bothered by distractions? Need to get away to sew? Check out our upcoming "Taste of Retreat" scheduled for August 24-25 at the Hyatt House, Dulles, Sterling, VA. This mini retreat is modeled after our popular Winter Retreat every January in Winchester, VA. The cost is only $100 for this two-day retreat and you can stay overnight with hotel rooms that begin at $99. Overnight parking is $10, but there are no parking fees for daily attendance. Attendees are responsible for their own meals and drinks.  

Contact information for Neighborhood Groups.

Current meeting locations and agendas for Neighborhood Group Meetings may be found here (email contact information above if no group is listed). ASG members have access to GroupWorks where additional details may be found.

Interesting People Wear Hats

January 15 marks National Hat Day so pull out your books, patterns, and supplies! 

Or, just pop on a baseball cap, the overwhelming choice of hat wearers in the US. Baseball caps have evolved to become a staple in fashion and pop culture. They are often considered an off-duty essential and can be paired with anything from a knitted sweater to a blazer or even a bomber jacket. Baseball caps are also popular because of their customizability and convenience. Baseball caps are widely available and come in a variety of styles, colors, and teams. For ideas on how to incorporate baseball caps with your look, just search the internet----there are tons of photos of people wearing baseball caps with anything you can imagine! 

 You can make hats out of anything, but fabric is one of the easiest to sew. Making hats of felt or straw requires specialty supplies, training, and more expertise. 

 I have a hat that was purchased from Hecht, a department store chain that operated along the East Coast. The hatbox features the Washington DC skyline, and the hat is stamped inside with "Glenover Henry Pollak." I learned, however, that Henry Pollak is not a hat designer!

The word "millinery" comes from Milan, Italy, where importers and sellers known as "mileners" or "milaners" sold trimmings and other accessories, including bonnets, hats, and caps. In 1897, the original Henry Pollak left Italy with his brother to seek their fortune and opportunity in Japan—which had been closed to outsiders for centuries. They became successful exporting straw braid to the headwear community in Europe and in America. In 1917, Henry and his wife, Eva, moved to New York and started importing hat bodies and braids from around the world. Henry Pollak's company was incorporated in New York in 1917. 

Domestic manufacturers of hat bodies required country of origin stamps inside of the crown of the hat bodies in the middle of the 20th century and hat bodies came from all over the world. That is why so many wool and fur felt hats are marked with the “Henry Pollak” stamp. Henry Pollak Inc sold the raw hat bodies to the milliners—but the company was never a designer or producer of the finished hats. Many hat designers (Halston, Adolfo, Frank Olive, Lily Dache, etc.) used these hat bodies. It is ironic that the name that survived in the hats is the name “Henry Pollak,” who did not design hats at all!

Sewists may be most familiar with Patricia Underwood, who partnered with Vogue Patterns for a series of hat patterns. Patricia Underwood got her start as a hat designer when she took a night course in hat making at the Fashion Institute of Technology. 

In an interview on why she became a hat designer, she said, “I was thinking, ‘What is the most important thing about a woman? It’s her brain. And what is the most important piece of apparel closest to the brain but a hat?’” For Underwood, hats are much more than adornments; they uplift and dignify women in all their complexity. 

Wearing a hat requires confidence. "Because people will look at you when you are wearing a hat--not necessarily in an overt way, but they will notice--and you have to have the confidence for that."

So, on National Hat Day, be bold!

If you want advice on how to wear a hat, watch this YouTube video where the National Arts Club interviews Patricia Underwood. 

If you'd like more information on sewing hats or would like to share your experiences on hats, leave a comment below!

Contest Ideas for Neighborhood Groups

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Generated with AI ∙ November 9, 2023 at 12:18 PM

One of the ways to engage sewing groups is to create a challenge! Sewing challenges spur risk-taking because it's a low-risk exercise with the potential for a fantastic payoff! After all, these are learning opportunities. 

Here are a few ideas to get you started.

• Use the same pattern selected by the challenger to create a project. Marvel at the different variations sewists can create! An alternative to this is to use the same fabric. 
• Everyone writes down a project (aka UFO) that is lingering in their time-out bin or stash. A deadline is agreed upon and everyone reports the status at the end of the challenge period. This written commitment provides accountability that can move a project forward.
• Issue a "zero-waste" challenge and review the final projects
• Upcycle or alter a garment you never wear but don't want to discard. Make it better, however you define "better."
• Quilters must use a garment technique and garment sewists must use a quilting technique in a challenge.
• Propose a technique challenge. Sewing books that demonstrate couture techniques, sashiko, quilting, and embroidery lend themselves well to this challenge. Sewists may also find inspiration from YouTube videos, Instagram, and blog posts. 
• Identify the oldest pattern, notion, or fabric in your stash and make something with it.
• White Elephant Challenge: Everyone brings a predetermined amount of fabric in a bag and bags are exchanged. (No peeking!) This could extend to trims, buttons, notions---the possibilities are endless!
• Identify a "Christmas in August" recipient (could be an individual or a facility). Everyone is challenged to create a sewing donation for the recipient. This could be hats, adult bibs, walker/wheelchair totes, scarves, etc.

What ideas have you used for sewing challenges? What was your favorite challenge?

Just a Reminder! Annual Meeting this Saturday!

Our annual chapter meeting is this Saturday, October 14, from 10:00 am - 2:00 pm at the Sully Government Center, 4900 Stonecroft Blvd., Chantilly, VA 20151.

This year will be a potluck luncheon so everyone can share their favorite fall food! Yum!

We will be electing our three Chapter Advisory Board (CAB) positions of President, Treasurer, and Secretary at the meeting. Voting is now open so you can vote electronically. The final count will be announced at the annual meeting after all electronic and paper ballots are counted.

Activities and Events:

• View the lovely rope bowl creations! 
• Listen to the president discuss the recent ASG Conference in New York City and ASG State of the Union
• Learn who the Neighborhood Group Leaders are, Neighborhood Group accomplishments, and plans for the upcoming year!
• Get a head start on your sewing calendar with plans for Fifth Saturdays, Workshops, and other Fun Events for 2024! 

See you there!