ooh, I love to sew

I'm awaiting a 4-6 week convalescence because of knee surgery so I am hoping to get some sewing done while I'm at home (and not doing my leg exercises). My first project is a winter coat which I have studiously been avoiding--it is hard to sew on purple wool when it is sunny and warm outdoors. However, I do need to have a coat so it must be completed...did that sound very convincing?

In preparation, I have, of course, been buying new books. I have more clothes than any one person needs to have since making your own is so reasonable in price. I need to branch out and make other things: pillows (for the beloved daybed where I spend much time reading), bags and purses (one can never have enough of either of them, or shoes), and pretty little things.

Sew Retro by Judi Ketteler is both a beautifully illustrated history of sewing and a book of fun little projects like an Opera Bag, Pinch-a-Penny Change Purse, Birds of a Feather Table Runner and Groovy Patchwork Throw. It includes a history of the sewing pattern industry (in my 4 plus decades of sewing, patterns have gone from $1.25 to $21.95 (Vogue, of course)) and how women have dressed over the last years. The styles do reflect the world around us--think of the freedom of the 1920 inspiring flappers, the depression brought dresses made from flour sacking (flour came in pretty calico print bags back then), the 1960s brought a freedom of dress that would never have happened in any other decade.