July 25 ‘Been looking in a haystack?’

July 25th is National Thread the Needle Day. I thought I would display a book an interesting book on needlework from England.

I have “Modern Needlework in 600 Pictures” a Daily Express Publication, London, 1937. This interesting book, as the title implies, has plenty of pictures, and then descriptions. For example when they discuss stitches, they show whipping, felling, overcasting, stab-stitch, stem-stitch, split stitch, simple couching-stitch, fly running, and even the lazy daisy stitch.

This book has much more. Learn: french seams; link buttons: covered buttons; ruches and ruffles; faggoting and bar-faggoting; scallop edging; smocking; bias-binding, tucks and pin tucks, and of course, how to mend boys knickers. It is a fun book to flip through, on how to make and repair clothing.

I spent my career in retail, mainly managing big-box retailers: Woolworth, J.C. Penney, Target and Kohls. A lot of time, it was in operations and opening stores. Other times, it was merchandising departments-a lot of clothing. I found an interesting book on merchandising, “How to Sell Fashion” by Annalee Gold, published 1868. The sub title was “What Retailers Should Know About Women’s Wear”. This was an interesting book about the changes in the retail landscape, and how teenagers no longer would shop at their mom’s store. There was great value in this book, ideas that I transfered to my merchandising challenges.

I have one more fashion book, “Fashion Drawing” by Frances Neady, 1958. This was an interesting book on how to draw models and clothing for the industry. There are action angles, and certain poses to best display the clothing one is trying to promote. If one likes to draw figures, then this was very instructive, on the how to’s, along with poses and types of clothing, and the way certain fabrics drape.

They say that clothing makes the man, but what if a boy dresses as a girl? I have the Mark Twain collection of works printed by the Library of America. In his “Mississippi Writings, in the book “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” Huck dresses as a girl, and sets a spell with an old woman to find out some information about the town. But he gets caught: “Bless you child. When you set out to thread a needle, don’t hold the thread still and fetch the needle up to it; hold the needle still and poke the thread at it-that’s the way a woman most always does.”

Now I could merchandise clothing, but I was not a maker of clothing. And I was not known for often (?) wearing womens clothing (There was this college party once…) However, I have sewn a little. Case in point, is my traveling backpack. These photos show several sides. The rest of the pack, including the bottom are also covered with patches from places I’ve been.

I just retired this traveling bag, after perhaps 108 patches. Been around the world with it, sewing every patch myself. I may have spent $500 on the patches. The pack was an even $60, a long, long time ago. This bag can tell a story of travel. They may not be pretty sewing lines, but I sure threaded the needle for adventure.

Thanks for reading.