I love books as much as I love sewing, and my favorite thing is when I can combine those two loves. I have a very large library of sewing reference books, both new and vintage, and those are luckily very easy to come by.What's more rare is to find a great novel that incorporates sewing into its themes. In fact, I'm having trouble thinking of many now. The Color Purple by Alice Walker is a great one. And then there's . . . well, that's all I've got. Help me here!
I also love finding little tidbits about sewing in novels. Right now I'm reading The View from Saturday, a fantastic children's book by E.L. Konigsburg. (When I'm not a home seamstress, I'm a children's book editor.) In the first chapter, there's a lovely little gem of a home sewing reference. The narrator is Noah, a sixth grader who helps a group of senior citizens pull off last-minute wedding in Century Village, a retirement community:
Since I had promised to be best man, not having a tux was a problem. I couldn't fit in Allen's, not that I would have wanted to if I could. That's when Grandpa Nate called Bella Dubinsky.Isn't that wonderful? I just love the character of Bella Dubinsky, who once illustrated pattern envelopes--maybe ones just like those in Vogue's New Book for Better Sewing! And then there's the notion of Noah being amazed by the fact that all these retired ladies can actually sew their own clothes.
In her former life, Bella had been an artist. She painted the pictures that went into the pattern books for people who sew their own clothes. In the real world I had never met anyone who sewed her own clothes, but in Century Village, I had met three. Bella had a supply of fabric paints, and within two hours, we had painted a T-shirt that looked like a tuxedo with a red bow tie.
Now, readers, do you have any favorite novels that have themes of sewing? Or characters who sew? I know there must be more out there!
"Thanks to Letty" by Dorothy Burke, a young adult fiction novel from the early 50's I picked up a while back, has the main character designing and sewing blouses that she sells to earn extra money to save the farm. It's a delightful story!
ReplyDelete"After examining the remnants, Letty decided that with Joan's sandy hair, the blue organdy would be the most attractive...Using an old blouse for size, Letty cut the blue organdy into pieces which would make a full blouse with short, puffed sleeves. For binding the neck and sleeves, she cut narrow strips of the same material. When she had the material ready, Letty started for the machine, then changed her mind. How much nicer the blouse would be if it were hand sewn!...After dinner, Letty pressed the seams, folding under the rough edges, and again she stitched by hand, making neat, flat, underarm seams. Next, she set in the sleeves, then gathered them into puffs and sewed on the bands with tiny stitches...When it was completed, Letty viewed the result with pleasure. The remnants Mums had bought in town no longer seemed like an extravagance!"
Love your blog!
I love your nostalgic viewpoint of sewing!
ReplyDeletehumblelabor that's great! I don't know any sewing-related fictions but I did used to love the descriptions of clothes in the Nancy Drew series when I was younger. Now my favorite fictional knitter is, of course, Miss Marple of Agatha Christie's mysteries.
ReplyDeleteIn I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, the characters are very poor and alter and dye their clothes quite a bit. There's a scene in which the sisters go to London in old suits that no longer fit them, which I think were altered for them by their step-mother, and feel very awkward and out of place.
ReplyDeleteIt strikes me that there's not much sewing in novels of the early 20th century and prior because so many of them are about upper class characters.
Thanks to Letty sounds rad! I'm going to have to track that down.
ReplyDeleteSarai, I remember reading I Capture the Castle and loving it, but I don't remember a single detail from it! I think this warrants a re-reading.
Knitosaurus, you're right, Nancy had the most awesome clothes. I think I'll have to look into that.
One I really remember is Claudia from the Babysitters Club. She wore the most 80s-fabulous outfits, and always accessorized them with flamingo earrings or something like that.
I was visiting my parents in Indiana this weekend and just looking at the covers of my Mom's Nancy Drew books from her childhood. The books have a great descriptions of clothes... and pocketbooks and gloves!
ReplyDeleteIn Louisa May Alcott's, "Little Women" there are several passages where the sisters discuss ways to refresh their out-of-date gowns, launder the last decent pair of white gloves, retrim a bonnet. In case you aren't acquainted with the March sisters, they are four daughters of a good-hearted but realistic mother and a volunteer chaplain in the Union Army. This was the first book I remember that focused so much time on clothing and adornments. Nehmah
ReplyDeleteI just read Elizabeth Gaskell's "Cranford," and I loved how they were always picking up some sort of stitching or knitting to pass the time. There's also a great passage where one of the Cranford ladies agonizes about a fabric choice for her new spring dress. I'm sure we can all relate to that one!
ReplyDeleteIn the Little House books, sewing routinely comes up. I can remember the volume, where Laura is engaged, they are making her items for the new home and the wedding on the brand new sewing machine.
ReplyDeleteYes, lots of home sewing and pretty dresses in the Little House books - the description of fitting Mary's wool college dress on a burning hot summer's day is brilliant (in Little town on the prairie). In the Anne of Green Gables series there's lots of luscious descriptions of clothes too - I always remember the party dress Anne has in Anne of the Island which was a plain cream dress until her friend borrows it and embroiders little roses all over it.
ReplyDeleteMore recently, The clothes on their backs by LInda Grant isn't about sewing, but the power of clothing is very important in it. There's also Beryl Bainbridge's The Dressmaker which is much more sinister and dark.
Okay, you're all reminding me of all the books I want to re-read. Thank you! Little House and Anne are at the top of the list.
ReplyDeleteThere's a series of novels subtitled "The Quilt Trilogy" or some wording of that ilk. MUch as I was drawn to the title, the book was obviously written by a non-quilter at the least and perhaps even a non sewer. The comments about quilting are so far off that I don't know if the author even took the time to research anything about the sewing/quilting process. Disappointing from the sewing point of view and lame as a novel. I'll keep my eyes open for the other two just the same, because I am OCD about reading all the books in a series no matter how bad.
ReplyDeleteI love books. I love sewing. I squealed when I saw your blog post title. One of my favourite books of all time is 'A Prayer for Owen Meany' by John Irving. It contains a chapter that has always stayed with me, and even inspires me now with my own attempts at home sewing. It's too long to reproduce here but check out chapter 3: 'The Angel'. The dressmakers dummy and the red dress. It's a beautiful piece of writing.
ReplyDeleteYour blog is absolutely fabulous. I love your style!
The first one that came to mind was the "Little House" books too-- I remember this one scene in particular where Mary and Laura were trying to freshen up their calico dresses by picking them apart and sewing them back together with the reverse side of the fabric facing out. I remember this one because I tried to do the same thing with some horrendous floral polyester dress from the 70s that my mom had left lying around when I was something like 10. It didn't work quite as well, lol!
ReplyDeleteMarilyn Sachs wrote a YA called Baby Sister in which the main character discovers her love of sewing and ends up making it her career. A rare contemporary look at sewing. It's really about her relationship with her older sister, who's intellectually inclined and is quite disdainful of her younger sister. A great book. And the character briefly works at Britex, a real fabric store in San Francisco.
ReplyDeleteOh, and another good one is Elizabeth George Speare's Calico Captive. Miriam gets kidnapped by iroquois in the french-indian war and ends up a captive in Montreal, where she eventually makes her way by sewing--lots of detail about yellow satin ball gowns and sprigged muslin.
ReplyDeleteTamora Pierce wrote a novel called "Sandry's Book." The main character, Sandry, desperately wants to learn how to spin and weave cloth, but her noble birth forbids her from doing any sewing besides embroidery. It turns out that she has a magical ability to work with threads, and she has to use her power to save herself and her friends ...
ReplyDeleteI loved the book when I first read it, and I love it more now if possible. I hope you like it, too!
Ellen Tebbits, by Beverly Cleary (1951, her 2nd childrens' book) has a chapter or so with sewing in it. Two girls, who are best friends decide they should have their mothers sew them identical dresses for the first day of school, but one of the mothers has less time and skill than the other, leading to serious trouble between the two girls. It's not particularly detailed about the sewing, but a good window into why someone might have wanted VoNBSS.
ReplyDeleteOf course, Scarlett O'Hara does a bit of handiwork making the green velvet dress from the living room drapes.
ReplyDeleteWe were all over the Little House books - read the whole series two or three times, and my mom (a fabulous seamstress) even read some of the books aloud to us kids, including my little brother, each night for a whole summer. One of my favorite sewing stories from the series might have been from "Little Town on the Prairie" when Ma had some new dress fabric for the first time in a long time. They were all hesitant about what she should make at first, but finally "Ma picked up the good shears and fearlessly cut the lawn." I remember that line each time I dive into a really nice fabric. Might as well go for it, eh?
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