Do Clothes Really Make The Woman?

I confess, I can't stop buying children's books, even though I no longer have any small children. But then, I'm not buying them for the kids...they're for me. These two are 50 years apart in age, but the theme of each is the same....the story of clothes.

The Story Book of Clothes 1933: The illustrations in this volume are beautiful, colorful and illustrate countries and customs as well as the clothes of the regions.

And this charmer from 1971 goes into detail about all aspects of costume from head to toe, underwear to outerwear.

It is the prospect of finding prizes like these that keep me shuffling through the shelves in thrift and antique stores.

In a similiar vein, I will happily be watching another episode of Project Runway tonight at 8 pm central time. I am completely taken with this show. The thing that really fascinates me about it is the thought of being given a challenge, limited time to plan and shop for materials and still being able to produce fabulous garments. How do they do it? I've taken a 3-dimensional art class. Believe me when I say....it is not easy to be creative on demand, to make something gorgeous out of electrical wire or rubber gloves or garbage or solo cups!

I mean if you were taken to a grocery store, given some money and 20 minutes to buy everything you would need to make a garment, could you do it?

Check this dress out...it is made entirely of solo cups!

This is the winning garment from this particular challenge. It is made using vacuum cleaner bags which are dyed with RIT dye and Clorax. The bodice is coffee filters. The waistband is decorated with thumb tacks.

In last week's challenge the contestants had to make cocktail dresses from whatever their models brought back from a trip to the fabric store. No time to plan ahead or give tips to the models before they were wisked off to shop.

This is the winning dress.

I think people are becoming interested in sewing again partly due to shows like these. Like all reality shows, it is full of drama, but the creative challenges are what keep me coming back.