The Damsel in Dis Dress
Posted in clothing, environment on Thursday, July 1st, 2010 08:34 am GMT -6
By request, the Damsel takes on one of those perplexing problems of modern life. Static Cling. **shudder Grandma didn’t really have a problem with static cling since she hung her clothes out to dry in the fresh sunshine. The Damsel recommends you try this if you have any possible way of doing so. There are [...]
Posted in clothing, sewing on Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 12:47 pm GMT -6
In the olden days, folks used all sorts of things to dye fabric . . . plants . . . minerals . . . and even crushed insects, although for bug crushing instructions you’ll have to look elsewhere. The Old School will not be covering that. For eggshell and tan colors, using tea is simple [...]
Posted in clothing on Monday, August 3rd, 2009 08:39 pm GMT -6
How to iron a shirt: buy permanent press, and take it out of the dryer while it’s still hot. There. But if you have an old school 100% cotton shirt, here’s the way to iron it. The Damsel uses the “Good Enough” method. It’s traditional to use this order: First heat the iron nice and [...]
Posted in clothing, thrifty on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 06:21 pm GMT -6
Here are two ways for patching jeans when the objective is “cute” rather than “wow, you can hardly tell.” The first is a type of applique, which is a fancy French word for “sewing a piece of material on top of another.” You can put a patch on just for decoration, or to actually cover [...]
Posted in clothing on Thursday, July 9th, 2009 04:19 pm GMT -6
It’s sad but true that mending has become a lost art. A little hole that was no big deal for Grandma, can now spell death for a favorite garment. The Damsel understands. She used to keep a basket of things that needed mending, which she took periodically to Grandma. But now the Damsel must do [...]
Posted in clothing on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 04:07 pm GMT -6
Why is it so cotton-pickin’ hard to thread a needle? Some things never change. It was hard to thread a needle in the olden days, and it still is. They even use it in the Bible as a metaphor for “hard.” It’s hard for a couple of reasons. It’s hard to hold a thin little [...]
Posted in Uncategorized, clothing, thrifty on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 11:05 am GMT -6
The Damsel is bemused by the word “unravel.” So what’s “ravel” then? They seem to mean the same thing–to untwist, pull or rip out some yarn work. (by the way, the current term for pulling out knitting is “frogging” because you rip-it, rip-it, rip-it. Don’t be a hater. The Damsel did not make this up.) [...]
Posted in clothing, field trip on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 09:48 pm GMT -6
Today we’re going on an Old School field trip. Occasionally the class will do this to learn about some fascinating thingy that makes old skills easier. So, today’s class is on the invention of the sewing machine. From the time people were running around in loincloths, there’s been such a thing as sewing. But for [...]
Posted in clothing, thrifty on Monday, May 25th, 2009 06:12 pm GMT -6
Today’s class is on patching jeans. The Damsel has patched jeans a couple of ways, and has a certain method she likes for knee patches. Today’s class is for holes in places other than knees. This method is . . . how shall we say . . . a utilitarian method. Not a beautiful thing, [...]
What do you do when your jeans have worn through the knees, and summer is right around the corner? Make cut-offs. It’s so easy! The first step is to lay the jeans out so the legs are very flat, next to each other so you can eyeball where to cut. If you’re Daisy Mae or [...]
