Yes, soup. With springtime hitting for most of us in the Northern Hemisphere, soup seems like a rather odd topic to be taking up considering it is usually a hot dish. But I have to admit that although I was lukewarm on soup growing up, for the past several years I have become quite enamored with it. Not only is it a one-pot deal (throw together a salad or some hearty bread alongside and you’re set!), but there are endless variations (I’m sure I could cook soup once a week ’til I’m 80 and still not try everything!). Which considering I have finally decided that I am one of those sorts who is intensely curious about cooking and culinary things (I made tortillas from scratch last week just because I wanted to try my hand at it!), is not surprising that I have latched on to this versatile dish.

I discovered the book Love Soup by Anna Thomas via Amy’s blog. I kept checking it out of the library and renewing the maximum number of times I could get away with, until I remembered we had an Amazon giftcard from Christmas unused, and happily bought a copy for my (small–but growing!) cookbook shelf. I have already made two recipes over the past several weeks, both of which were hits.

The aspect that I really adore about this book is that it’s not only about cooking and full of soup recipes (along with a good dose of salad and a variety of breads). It’s also about cooking according to the seasons. I’ve become more attuned to seasonal cooking since the local farmer’s market became a regular visit for us. While the seasons don’t necessarily mirror the ones I experience in Florida, I’ve been delving into the summer sections with great gusto and enjoying the tastes of fresh and light warm-weather veggies and herbs. One of the dishes I made, Butter Bean and Summer Vegetable Soup, was amazingly delicious and satisfying with a chunk of bread alongside. A bonus was that the amounts these recipes make would be great for larger families or dinner parties, but I find this has been a lifesaver for me. I’ve been putting up leftover soup in the freezer like it’s going out of style, and it makes things easy on nights I don’t feel like (or have time to) cook a meal from start to finish. Beats calling out for Chinese!

While I wouldn’t call many of these recipes “easy” (the ones I’ve made do tend to be a bit time intensive just from a prep-work standpoint), the results are worth the effort. I dare say with the abundance of seasonal soup recipes in Love Soup, this one will become a cookbook I refer to regularly.

Do you have a favorite warm-weather soup? I know this summer I”d love to try a cold soup and am on the hunt for a delicious recipe (especially since SH is somewhat skeptical on the idea of cold soup).

I have been in a bit of a funk this week, dear readers. The kind where I just feel blah about pretty much everything, want to curl up in a tight ball on the sofa and watch bad 50s sci-fi movies, drink lots of tea, and generally emerge back into the real world when it’s all over. But not enough that I haven’t been up to something. Oh no! I’ve been re-reading through the pages of a book I’m eager to review for you and announce a little giveaway. So enough crabbing–onto the good stuff!

A little while ago I was contacted about reviewing Amy Barickman’s Vintage Notions. This book got me really excited and when I looked into it (I always tend to investigate these sorts of things first and make sure they’re a good fit for the ol’ blog); they even offered me an extra copy to giveaway to one lucky reader! So how could I refuse?

Vintage Notions is a reprint of excerpts from women’s periodicals of the 1920s. Amy Barickman was so inspired by all the vintage snippets she read in old copies of Inspiration and Fashion Service (two publications from that era connected with Mary Brooks Picken and The Woman’s Institute of Domestic Arts), that she compiled snippets from a number of these amazing publications into one volume. Which is great for us since many of these are becoming harder to find and deteriorating from age.

Rather than dividing the book up into chapters, it’s organized by season and then month. Bits and pieces from recipes, to period advice (some of it amusingly dated), fashion forecasts for the season and a good-amount of period how-to’s for those handy with a needle and thread. It’s a beautiful and lovingly put-together tribute to domestic arts in the early 20th century. I am particularly smitten with the myriad of sewing projects: from handy aprons (one being made from a discarded man’s oxford shirt–our great grandmothers sure knew how to be inventive!), to fetching kimonos, and a capelet to keep the chill at bay in the winter. I am in fact working on one of the projects right now: a fluffy, fabric flower from scraps of the silk I made my Swing Dress up in. If you’d like to take a glance at just a few bits and pieces from Vintage Notions, be sure to take a gander at this page for excerpts!

Not only does the book offer a lot of charming vintage projects and anecdotes, but it is a beautifully put-together tome visually. Which I always appreciate: there is something so calming about opening up a book that uses bits and pieces of vintage ephemera to decorate the page layouts. (My favorites are all the embroidered pieces that were reproduced on the pages!) There are even handy little pockets at the end of each season’s section for stashing bits and pieces you collect up (or pattern pieces; as I have been doing). Ms. Barickman did a gorgeous job putting this book together and I think it would make a lovely gift for yourself, a vintage-inclined friend or even Mother’s Day (which will be just around the corner before we know it!). I know each time I’ve opened the book I’ve been inspired and excited by the ideas and projects. Be sure to stop by the website, take a look at the book’s page and Amy’s inspiring blog as well.

GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED As I mentioned, they were gracious enough to provide me with an extra copy to give away! (Hooray!) If you’d like to enter to win this copy, please read below:

Good luck and I hope you are having a splendid Friday!

Rachel’s recent posts on taking a fashion sketching mini-course reminded me of a book I have tucked away in my shelves. It’s a sketching book from the late 30s, that I won on Ebay years and years ago. I remember it was one of my first purchases and seemed so expensive at the time! But I really wanted a vintage manual on fashion drawing, since modern sketching styles didn’t really appeal to me. So I thought in light of my reminiscing I’d share some snapshots of the pages with you!

The book is succinctly titled Fashion Drawing: How To Do It and was published in 1939. While I have never used it to formally teach myself any “vintage drawing techniques”, it’s been a fun reference for occasional sketches and inspiration. I love the sections on creating the appearance of texture (such as fur) in illustrations. Plus being a fashion geek all the little clippings of ads and various illustrations provide a lot of fodder for the imagination.

Looking at Rachel’s posts and then this book reminded me how bad I’ve been the past year or so with sketching on a regular basis. I do a lot of technical-sketches; figuring out how patterns go together, designing elements for sewing projects, quick doodles for future projects. But I really have not sketched like I used to–nearly every day! Still, I manage to fill up about 2-3 large sketchbooks every year and have them stacked next to the desk in my sewing nook for handy reference. I’m definitely not the most artistic person when it comes to drawing (technical illustration style is the look I’m most comfortable with. Even in art classes I could never get the hang of the “sketchy” look that seemed to be predominant!) Are you drawing-inclined? Or maybe you just like to keep a reference of ideas through doodles and notes?

I’ve lately been toying with the idea of occasional sewing and fashion-related book reviews. I find these sorts of posts especially helpful when contemplating purchasing a more expensive book (as many that fall within this category tend to be!), and hope that you will too!

I did a brief overview of Winifred Aldrich’s Metric Pattern Cutting for Women’s Wear back in 2007, when a friend loaned me her copy. It was an older edition, but the newest printing is essentially the same (only with some updated sections on CAD and similar technological advances in the pattern cutting industry), which I received as a birthday gift from my parents this past year. So far I have drafted a sloper using some of the standard measurements in the book, mostly because I wanted to make sure I was following the directions correctly before striking out with my own measurements. I used the resulting fitted dress sloper to make this dress, and was very pleased with the overall fit for using a “standard” size. (Though I will say here that I usually have to make adjustments for a smaller bust/waist and large hips, all of which applied to this sloper, so it wasn’t a “miracle sloper”!)

The book encompasses just about every type of sloper you could want or need: from the basic fitted dress sloper and basic sleeve, to tailored coats and unfitted jackets, pants, and active wear/knitwear slopers. The only downside for US readers is that the measurements throughout the book are metric (obviously, from the title!), which means you’ll either need to have a conversion chart (or Google) handy to translate the centimeter measurements to inches, or buy the appropriate ruler (which is what I did). It shouldn’t be too difficult, I would imagine, to convert and plug in inches though–just be sure to double check all your measurements (but that goes without saying when drafting, right?)!

What might be another downside for some potential pattern drafters is the lack of a wide variety of variations in the book for styles you can make with the slopers. Ultimately, you can slice-n-dice them in a myriad of ways, and once you’re comfortable with drafting, analyzing a design and figuring out how to do this becomes easier. (I also recommend trying out your ideas in 1/4 scale slopers.) I happen to have quite a few drafting textbooks in my bookshelves, so the lack of styles that I find attractive/useful isn’t too big of a deal. Of course, if you’re interested in 1940s styles, there are always the two books available for reference at Vintage Sewing. Rather than go out and buy another expensive book on drafting (which, most of the time do not always have directions on drafting a sloper from scratch), I’d recommend looking for them at your public library or seeing if your county system offers inter-library-loans. If you happen to be a student at a university, check your school library for pattern drafting books too!

That being said, this book does have a lot of good, basic information on drafting styles. I find the instructions on coats, for instance, intensely helpful as I’ve done far too little coat/tailored sewing and know even less about drafting these patterns. I’m thinking of eventually trying to make one, as there is a 40s swing jacket designed by Valentina that I’ve been aching to make for years. There is also a chapter devoted to fitting and drafting the slopers with your own measurements, which will prove helpful for the home sewist. While the fitting isn’t nearly as extensive as a book like Fit for Real People, it’s enough to get through some of the basic fitting challenges that one tends to encounter. Several chapters also cover things like drafting with CAD programs (which, admittedly I skipped over because it doesn’t apply to me) and grading a pattern up or down (super, super helpful!).

I’ve already earmarked several slopers for inclusion on my fall/winter projects list: a personalized dress sloper (and sleeve), possibly the loose-fitting jacket (for that 40s style I mentioned earlier), and the pants sloper for eventual development into a pair of jeans. The book is one that I keep on the shelf in my sewing nook for handy reference. Not only is it just a good book overall on drafting basics, but also has the added bonus of not being intimidating. I find so often why many people are put-off by the idea of drafting their own patterns is because the books tend to be overly technical, which doesn’t always appeal. Metric Pattern Cutting, however, strikes a good balance between covering textbook topics on drafting, while maintaining an easy-to-use tone and format.

If you’re ready to take your sewing to the next level and learn how to create a fully customized wardrobe, then I highly recommend Metric Pattern Cutting!

Forties Fashion has long been on my wishlist, but after being able to borrow a copy recently and read it, it’s definitely gone on my “must add to personal library” list! The book by Johnathan Walford and subtitled “From Siren Suits to the New Look” is one of those rare books that I feel satisfies both visually and manages to also pack quite a punch in the text. Though the book encompasses the entirety of the 40s, it focuses mainly on the wartime fashions, and the impact the conflict had on design and ingenuity within fashion. I think what I found most fascinating was that the book dealt with both “Allied” and “Axis” fashion; most books on the 40s tend to fall into the category of one or the other, or focus more on the Hollywood fantasy fashion created during the era (which is fun, but doesn’t accurately reflect what most people–especially those outside of the US–were able to afford and find during the war years).

Rationing, of course, is a big theme throughout the book. I’ve been somewhat acquainted with it over the years–more peripherally than anything else (and having heard stories from those in my grandparent’s generation about not being able to buy/source certain garment pieces, and having to make do). Susannah over at Cargo Cult Craft has written some great posts on rationing and austerity in Britain during the 40s, but Forties Fashion better acquainted me not only with the British and American restrictions, but other countries as well. Realizing just how little many people had to make do and get by on (and even less and less towards the end of the war), was not only sobering but a bit of a smack in the face of our consumeristic tendencies as a collective society. These severe restrictions on materials and manufacturing within the fashion industry at the time, of course led to the famous “make do and mend” campaigns in many countries (in their various permutations).

I know I’ve said this before (and I daresay you’ll hear me say it again), but the ingenuity that limited resources encourages is always stunning to me. Making something out of very little is a gift that I think more recent generations (and I can safely say mine, having collectively been a relatively well off generation) have lost and perhaps have no appreciation for outside of the history book facts. The way people were able to scrounge and remake things, particularly garments, in order to keep things fresh and exciting, furnishes a lot of fodder for my imagination. I have to honestly say that reading about the French fashion “make do’s” was particularly intriguing; not only did they have severe restrictions that most of Europe dealt with, but many of the fashions coming out of France had that theatrical flair that is particularly unique to them.

Forties Fashion of course does deal with the immense impact that the postwar changes in silhouette had on women’s clothing. Thankfully too, the author does not just tag Dior with being the only innovator of the “New Look” silhouette and let it go at that (in the very late 30s a similar silhouette had begun to develop, but was interrupted by the war, but was taken up by designers post war again). He digs a bit deeper into the subject and gives a more satisfying overview of the change. There are even pictures of garments that were altered from the wartime silhouette to fit within the New Look’s lines.

If you haven’t had a chance to get your hands on a copy of this book, I highly recommend it not only from a fashion history perspective, but also a visual history as well. Fashion books, for me at least, are best when they’re a blend of the two, and Forties Fashion does an excellent job of this!

So tell me: what have you been reading lately?