A good week for the bookshelves

Unfortunately, there hasn't been much sewing I can I show to you. I've been at work and working on assignments when I wasn't.

The good news is that the assignments are going well. J came around to try on her almost-finished jacket (all it needs is to have the lining put in), which fit her well and she loved it. Another friend J stopped by to have her measurements taken for that demin jumpsuit. I have good hopes for that one and I think I will be able to make her the necessary trouser- and strapless bodice slopers over the weekend (Queen's day, 30 April, is to the Dutch what the British would call a Bank Holiday, so I won't have to work this Saturday).

Oh, and I still want to make E that spring jacket, although the weather already dictates summerwear. I don't think I will let that deter me. Despite the 'warm summers follow harsh winters' common wisdom, there's absolutely no garantee that we won't have a wet and chilly month of May. And if we get nothing but summer, he can always wear it in the autumn.

But, it has been a good week for the bookshelves indeed.

On Monday I met my aunt, who gave me her latest 'harvest' from the charity shop: Dutch craft magazines from the mid 1950's.

These are not about sewing. they're about knitting, crochet and embroidery. Sadly, all of these are missing their worksheets which would have contained the sull-scale embroidery patterns and the occasional 'sew and decorate' sewing pattern. However, the pictures are pretty nice and I think (with my very limited knowledge of the subject) that most knitting patterns could be made from the texts and small diagrams included.

And then, today, the mailman brought me my latest order from Amazon (I use the 'co.uk' site. They even have free shipment to the Netherlands now). I had been promising myself a book-buying-spree ever since I started my teaching job. But I was waiting for a history book which should have been published in the second half of 2010 but still isn't avaible.

I got tired of waiting and now, I can welcome these to my home.

From left to right, I've got: Patterns of fashion part 1 (I'm not really into recreating historical garments, but I love patterns and I thought it would be great to see those of historical garments. who knows when I will want to use some element from those), the V&A publication Underwear in detail (I love all their 'in detail' books. Excellent detail pictures, clear line drawings and the appropriate information), Pattern magic 1 (no need to explain this one, it's been all over the blogosphere and I decided to give it a go. I didn't even check when I ordered it, but this is the new English version) and season 4 of the Tudors (did I tell you that history is my other weakness?).

I don't think I'm very good at reviews, but if you're interested in my opinion of any of these books, let me know. And I will show you some of the contents of those 50's magazines at a later date