Vintage Pattern Lending Library's 1912 project

I didn't quite miss the boat for joining the 1912 project (considering that this project is in commemoration of the 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, that phrase seems slightly ominous)! The project itself is attempting to revive a year's worth of patterns from the French fashion/pattern newspaper, La Mode Illustree, with the help of over 400 sewists of all skill levels and of many nationalities. More information is found here, although the project is now closed to new members: 
http://vpll1912project.org/about/

The first pattern that I've requested is this one:

#0291 Ladies' Wrap

Hopefully, I will actually follow through on it! Provided motivation doesn't fail me on this, will be posting my progress as it is made.

Deutsche Moden-Zeitung, 1928/1929

translation: "German Fashions-Newspaper"

      I recently came by this copy of a German sewing pattern newspaper, and just couldn't pass it up. Have been sporadically translating it ever since then, with the help of Google translate, running searches on words that the translation program doesn't know to find images and context, and a some contextual guesswork (since apparently a fair bit of 1920's German sewing terminology never made it into the internet age- go figure).
It can be incredibly slow going, since:
a) I speak no German, and
b) the printers of this newspaper decided to use one of those gloriously old-timey fonts where many of the (very, very common) letters look like entirely different letters, and take different forms in different locations (sometimes even combining with others in a way that resembles neither of them)

       In other words, this is being translated purely by trial, error, and tenacity. But the end result will be 43 vintage patterns...once I can sort the pattern sheet supplement out!

                                                                                                            !!!!!!                                                                                                  (Left half of the two-sided pattern sheet. The lines are all unique to each pattern piece; the guide is printed on the side, along with the limited instructions for construction.)

      The sheet includes patterns for the coat and the two-piece suit the women are wearing on the cover. Also included are patterns for:

two 1920's bathing suits, a pair of 'modesty shorts,' a beach bag, two cover-ups, and a swimming cape(!)

Some close-ups. There are patterns for everything pictured except the shoes, socks, bathing caps, parasol, beach ball (and people!).

Aside from this very nonchalant woman in her beach socks(!), you can also get a good look at that troublesome font.

Traveling clothes. The top roughly translates to "For Travel Time;" I so wanted it to be 'for time-travel.'

Embroidered summer frocks

More frocks!

Still more frocks!

Children's beach clothes (with another cape!).

Children's summer clothes.

This newspaper also includes some sewing tips and techniques, like the following, and the inevitable advertisements:

As-yet untranslated how-tos, and an ad for 'Creme Mouson' skin cream

...the more things change...

   So overall, this is quite an undertaking (and haven't even touched upon all of my French pattern newspapers from this era- the font is much more legible, but there are many, many more patterns- may share some of those in a later post). Once I've managed to turn the descriptions and instructions into coherent English, I will begin untangling that pattern sheet into legible tracings, then start practicing my hand at resizing. Eventually, eventually, I hope to turn some of these patterns back into wearable things!

If anyone has any experience with this that they would like to share, it is more than welcome. Also, if you have any interest in trying your hand at some of these patterns yourself, feel free to contact me, and we'll see what we can arrange. I would love to see these back in use!

Hippocampus bargibanti

Spent a few hours today painting this pygmy seahorse- it may prove to be a work very much in progress, but I'm happy with it for the moment.

These seahorses live exclusively on gorgonian coral, which they mimic so well that they are virtually invisible* even to eyes actively searching for them (of course, it doesn't help that they grow to 2.5 cm at the most).** They were discovered by accident in 1969, when one hitched a ride with a coral specimen taken for study. If you want to take a break from the usual baby sloths, owls, and/or cats doing cute things, would highly recommend looking up videos of bargibantis bopping each other.

*Other things that are virtually invisible: the fins on the sides of the head and along the spine. I've made them all much more visible than they were in any of the photos that I used for reference, but didn't want to make them too conspicuous.

** Life size.
 

Actual pictures of bargibantis: http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/bargibanti/Interesting

Pygmy seahorse bopping one another: http://www.arkive.org/pygmy-seahorse/hippocampus-bargibanti/video-00.html

Some early insectile doodles

The following trio of images were created in Adobe Illustrator about three years ago, while I was attempting to learn how to use the program better through experimenting. None of these are intended to represent any actual living species, but they all draw from things that do exist in nature.

This first image was my first non-job-related creation; it's just an improbably stylized wasp:

 Not particularly aerodynamic, but if bumblebees can manage, why not this monstrosity?

After that, I started to think more about function (while illustrating a dragonfly for a project for work), and came up with the following:

In the case of this 'anglerfly,' I was envisioning a nocturnal odonate (damselfly/dragonfly order) with an anglerfish-like bioluminescent lure at the end of its abdomen. Added in some long, grasping front legs, which seem almost unfair considering that odonates also have extendable lower jaws (not very well pictured here).

Finally, here is a subterranean beetle-y thing loosely inspired by an ant lion larva mixed with a mole (and possibly influenced by 'Tremors,' as so much of my life is):

I pictured this beastie burrowing into loose sand and lying wait for prey passing above, which it then jabs with its prominent jabby-legs (the technical term- can be tucked against either side of the body when actively burrowing). The fuzz at the joints and body segments is fairly typical for digging insects.

 After all of these ridiculous, vicious-looking spiky things, I do believe I owe you a pygmy seahorse sometime soon.

Long-winded mission statement

Hello all! Have created this space in order to post my growing portfolio of semi-scientific-to-outright-preposterous illustrations, as well as to document the occasional sewing project (and maybe a few other arbitrary projects, like the gourd banjo that I'm currently working on and plan to eventually learn to play). My illustrations tend towards the naturalist bent; my sewing tastes are currently loitering around the 1920's for the most part (and my writing is frequently parenthetical). I'm also adventuring into the (terrifying!) field of pattern-drafting, so ideally I may eventually be posting some free, functional patterns for less-than-functional fripperies (just now am assembling a pleated silk reticule made from flea market men's ties). I will try to be at least somewhat diligent about updating, so this won't just become another tumbleweeded ghost town of a blog, but I won't promise you anything on that score.

Things I will mostly or entirely avoid:
-Talking about my cat. She's a skulking, devious little thing that I love tremendously, but putting any more cats on the internet risks leveling them up, and I dare not even guess what that entails.

-Talking about cooking. There are a huge number of foodie blogs written by people much more knowledgeable than I am; will try to stay more focused and leave this in their highly capable hands.

-My opinions on pop culture, current events, societal ills and injustices, politics, and religion. I have them. Strong ones, in some cases. I just don't want to use this blog to foist them on all of you, so please do not take my silence on the current Huge Thing as an indication of my stance on it; I am likely ranting about it. Elsewhere.

-Life advice, love advice, people advice, inspirational quotes, etc.

-Personal information. My life stories, where I go, what I do, the people in my life. Would just rather not have that recorded for the ages and anyone and everyone with internet access. I enjoy my cloak of secrecy too much.

- Links to stores/merchandise, links to other blogs, memes, funny internet pictures or videos, etc. I'd like to keep this space fairly limited to my original work instead of something cool someone posted on facebook or reddit (or at least limited to things I actually see in person). I also don't even begin to want to deal with the headache of figuring out what is and what isn't copyrighted on the internet.

Of course, all of these rules may be seriously bent if pertinent to something I'm already posting about. So so much for that.

Things to brace for:
Ok, I lied a little. Since a number of my friends are artists and musicians, I do plan to use this blog occasionally as a shout out for their work. There should be quite a lot of variety; you might find something you like, you might not (and will try to give forewarning of any questionable content, for you impressionable types).

I make no claims of being a great photographer, and if you are one yourself, the photo quality of my postings may offend your sensibilities. 

I make up words. Frequently. If English is not your first language, and you are using some kind of translating program, I apologize in advance for the confusion.

There will also likely be herds of wild semicolons.



One final thing: Constructive criticism is always welcome, purposeless negativity or personal attacks are not and will be deleted. Thank you for not posting them in the first place!