Yes I Can...

I CAN blog... Everyone is doing it. Even the birds and bees are doing it! I don't need to quit my day job just to blog. I don't have to say something cute, quippy, profound, politically correct or check the urban dictionary every five seconds for fear of confusing the under 40 (used to be 30) crowd (they confuse me all the time). I can just ramble on about the life of a 60-something who heads home with her poodle (sleeping at my feet all day!) after a hair-raising workday and deconstructs vintage kimonos with the vision of transforming this timeless, classic wonder into something that would amaze its' original constructor. That's what I do. When I get bored, I pick up a crochet hook and play with yarn for a while. See I CAN blog! Now… back to the day job.

And sew on and sew on...

Arlington Upholstery and Drapery, Los Angeles, CA 1922

Grace 1922

We're not in Kansas anymore....

My mother was born in Kansas in1904... at age 16 she came alone to California to live with cousins who owned Arlington Upholstery and Drapery in Los Angeles... she enrolled in Los Angeles High School and graduated in 1922. At AU&D she became a master seamstress... and until she passed in 1989 was called upon by drapery professionals in southern California to consult with young seamstresses when they got stuck with the math calcs to execute perfect french pleats, beauti-pleats, swags and valances.

Mother was a *liberated woman* long before women understood the importance of being self-sufficient... she had my daddy build her a little sewing shop on the side of our garage and she took in extra work after hours and weekends.

When I was six, it was her mid-1940's industrial-strength Singer sewing machine that taught me about the relationship between that big push-plate on the floor, the positioning of your fingers while guiding the fabric and that SHARP needle that goes up and down.... my right index finger was ever so slightly mis-positioned... I was small and needed to stand on the pedal-plate.... and you can probably guess the rest... (that finger nail has never grown right since!)...

And sew began my sewing lessons...