#callotsisters

Threads, Fall 2023

Threads is a magazine that specializes in teaching fine sewing techniques, everything from fabrics choices to fitting garments. It also has made an effort lately to offer one basics article per issue for newer dressmakers and tailors, which I find usually has something to teach me despite my years of sewing. This issue has the color forecasts for the coming cooler seasons along with suggestions for some patterns to match. 

The cover offers an example one of the hand details articles which are featured. the jacket is made of wool double-cloth when two separate fabrics are woven and then attached to one another. It allows for a warmer, thicker more luxurious feeling fabric and a variety of edge finishes. Debby Spence explains the care needed to work with such fabric, and I would second the need to experiment with edge seams before you even think about cutting. The one time I worked with such a cloth, I intended to separate the layers at the front edges and fold them in and hand finished. But then the edges the stretched out alarmingly after separated; I changed course and covered the edges instead with a contrasting, knitted wool binding. 

Technical articles explain the methods for more hand-made details. You  see here also from Youngmin Lee’s article on bojagi a textile for wrapping gifts from Korea that can be quilted or embroidered. Then, simple hand embroidery on a black knit shirt is part of an article on the basics of developing, transferring and embroidering designs on knits by Alex Woodbury. 

Fitting in nicely with this attention to detail is Maggie Raywood’s interesting account of copying gowns created by the Callot Sisters of Paris which are held in the Acton collection which belongs to NYU Florence. You see here the portrait of Hortense Mitchell Acton, a devoted buyer of the sisters’ work, and the gown she wears in it, both of which are on display at Villa La Pietra, Florence.  

There are more articles, on types of interfacings (the basics article), how people who are left handed can find ways to make sewing easier for them, and on making a vintage pocket feature.