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Colors to Dye For
Human beings are drawn to brightly colored clothing: but at what price?
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Embroidery: A World Heritage Art
1 – Welcome to #ThreadTalk. This week’s subject: #embroidery. This fabric art—both fine and folk — is a world heritage art, meaning its inception goes back before recorded times. So tonight, I’m taking you on a tour around the world. 2 – The word "embroider" comes to English by way Frankish and Proto-German & may mean “braid” or “embellishment.” From simple decorative stitches to complex beaded patterns, embroidery is often a matter of national pride and identity, too, like this Croatian blouse. 3 – The width and breadth of the embroidery on Earth is striking in variety & beauty. It transcends class, status, and rank & has been used both…
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Fashion and Fiction: Don’t Forget The Missing Thread
If you're a writer and you have no real interest in fabric or fashion, you might gloss over that footnote. After all, arms and armor are a bit flashier, not to mention the allure of foodstuffs.
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Voluminous Velvet
I'll admit it: before I began looking into velvet, I had no idea it was so complex or so expensive.
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Writing With ADHD Part One: Writing, Emotions, and Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria
It’s been a few months now since my official ADHD diagnosis. The fact that I’m almost 40 years old has not escaped me. There were a lot of weeks where things Were Not Well in My Head. Not scary bad, but the kind of bad where you’re looking back at your ENTIRE LIFE and things both make a HUGE AMOUNT OF SENSE but are also terribly depressing to think about. Some of these insights will make it into a larger piece some day, but I do not have the emotional resilience or spoons to talk about that right now. What I can talk about is ADHD and writing, because for…
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Lace Yourselves: We’re Bobbin
1 – Lace yourself, darlings. It’s about to get drafty in here. Welcome to my #ThreadTalk. What began on the collars of Catholic clergy & adorned the pages of Frederick’s of Hollywood centuries later? That’s right. Lace. And #ThreadTalks go, lace is relatively modern. 2 – The word itself comes from a Vulgar Latin derivation, from the word “laceum" (a noose or a snare). And lace has ensnared many since it came upon the scene in the late 15th C. Flemish lace, in particular, was prized for its purity, softness, & quality of the linen grown. 3 – Lace is not a fabric, per se, but what’s called a “decorate…
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Damask-erade!
Damask, that most mysterious weave. But what is it beyond a hallmark of Victorian design? A look back.
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Visiting the Hmm Collective – Podcast
I had the absolute pleasure of visiting the Hmm Collective podcast to talk all things QUEEN OF NONE.
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A Love letter to a House of Worth Victorian Tea-Gown – 1897
Sometimes I fall in a love with a dress. And sometimes I fall in love with the person who wore it. Sometimes it's both.
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Jacquard, Brocade, and Computers
You may have heard the terms "jacquard" or "brocade" -- but what do they have to do with computers?
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The Lure of Timeless Taffeta
A look at the shimmering, sumptuous silk that has its own sound and has donned everything from the most ornate gowns to hot air balloons.
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All About Chintz
1 – So! Chintz. You’ve probably heard the term “chintzy” and you’re thinking 1980s upholstery or prom dresses with puffy sleeves. And you’re right. Sort of. We have George Eliot to thank for the term, it turns out. But this fabric is far from European: it’s from India. 2 – The name comes from the Hindi word “chint” — which means “spotted” & is a kind of calico. It was produced on cotton & printed with wood blocks or sometimes painted by hand. Some early chintz even had a glaze on it to stiffen the material (ideal for upholstery). 3 – Some say that chinz rose to popularity in India…
