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Threads, May 2020

Threads is now out and it offers all kinds of technical articles as the cover shows you, including how to design and made your own sports bra by Kimberly Larcom. Since my own are boring, black, and bought, I was amazed at the strap configurations you see here. 

Judith Neukam takes a vintage coat in cream with pink banded edges from 1965 by French designer Jacques Esterel and shows you how to add them to your own garments with step-by-step directions. Once again, I was reminded how the details on vintage garments were one of the reasons that women did not expect to own that many: they took time and skill and their cost was higher as a result. Even this mid-1960s, “mod” look is a well-crafted effort even as the Youth Quake was hitting.  Speaking of vintage, Brian Centrone has an article on vintage patterns that were inspired by Hollywood films, including the 1930s frock you see here attributed to Bette Davis, with the gathered jabot, the large sleeves, and the lower-calf hemline that was typical of the mid-1930s.

There are also articles on thimbles on the winners of the challenge for the members of the Association of Sewing and Design Professionals or ASDP, on using liquid stabilizer, and on applique technique. Plus advice columns, new products, new patterns, etc. Always plenty for both the newer dressmaker and the more advanced.

You can find it online here, if you can’t make it out to your local bookstore of newsstand: https://www.threadsmagazine.com/

The summer issue of Threads magazine for June/July is out and it offers a nice range of articles as you can see from the cover and these photos. The editors were thinking parties and summer dresses, as well as including articles about using your sewing machine in new ways, and some big topics like draping. Plus, this issue offers the usual columns on new patterns, on new products, and answering questions.

Up top, I feature an article on using sequinned fabric by Patricia Robison, including mermaid sequins which flip from one color to the other, as you see with the photo of the gold and white sheath. This allows you to play with the sequins all night if you are in the mood. The large peach flower embellishment is inspired by a vintage dress from the 1920s and explained by Judith Neukam. She used hand-dyed silks and decorative trim and beads to create it. You can easily imagine all kinds of variations of this kind of flower on party dresses, large of small, in single-colored harmonies, or dramatic, contrasting color harmonies. Then, Kenneth D. King offers another technical article on embellishment, this one on reverse applique as you see in the picture of the red dress.

The cheery print dress on the cover is the Night and Day Dress pattern by CharmPatterns.ByGertie.com which has an unusually large selection of versions: long and short sleeves, low and high necklines, and full or fit-and-flared gored skirt. You pick the combo you want for a day dress or a party dress. The dark blue and black evening gown is by Jennifer Philips, one of the winners of the annual the contest among professional custom clothiers, the Association of Sewing and Design Professionals. Photos of the other winners are also included and they are all inspiring.