New for Fall

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Trip to NYC

What an adventure I had in August. I took a one day trip to NYC on Amtrak with my sister Diane to see the American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity Exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Diane got to see the Picasso Exhibit too.

Check out photos of the exhibit on the museum’s Flickr page.

If you want to see a great series about the designers of clothing from this period (Victorian – 1920′s) watch The House of Elliott - I rented it from Netflix. The clothes are the stars of this show.

My next trip is too the American Textile History Museum in Lowell, MA to see High Style: Betsy Bloomingdale and the Haute Couture. Check back for photos!

New at the Hourglass

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Summer Totes

Silk Kimono Scarves

Recently, I’ve really been enjoying making scarves with pieces of silk kimonos. This came about during my search for interesting scraps of silk that I could combine with hand-dyed pieces to make one-of-a-kind scarves.

As I used the kimono pieces more and more, I became very interested in the history and process. Do they all come from Japan? How are they constructed?

Here are a few neat facts I found in my studies:

- The Japanese save and pass down their kimonos through generations of women, often making the pieces very old.

- Traditionally Japanese women did not wear jewelry, so kimonos were often collected and gifted in that manner.

- All kimonos are the same size.

- Kimonos are constructed of 14″ wide panels. They are sewn together with a small running stitch, which makes it easy to deconstruct them. In fact, the kimonos are taken apart to be cleaned.

Japanese fabric

Large tote in Japanese lightweight cotton canvas

Green sunglasses tote

Medium size Hobo bag in a lightweight canvas print from Japan. Lined in eggplant solid cotton.

New shape – the BIG hobo

Vintage flour sacks

Last winter on a trip to Texas, I made a stop at a huge indoor flea market in Fredericksburg. I picked up some vintage flour sacks that look great turned into hobo bags.

New in May