The loss to us of Lesage and Christmas embroidery—monogrammed pillowcases

The great Lesage has passed away. The greatest embroidery master of Paris.

A break from sewing garments, Christmas embroidery or knitting always has more of a holiday spirit to me. Here's one of the two pillowcases going back to London with our freshman biology student. I know she'll like them, since she requested them, right down to the black and silver threads, and font, (Lillith Initials.) A little Twilight-y for my taste, but hey, it's her gift, not mine. The pure cotton pillowcases are generic IKEA's I keep on hand for just such gifties (housegifts, birth gifts) and the variations are endless, thanks to computer free fonts and a sheet of carbon paper. Considering the low, low cost of these pillowcases and the zilch cost of embroidery thread, you get a lot of glow for the time/cost invested. You just fold the case into quarters, mark the center, trace the letters, temporarily rip open half the bottom seam for access, watch a few good TV shows, restitch the case, wash, iron and wrap.

And don't forget to pick up your gift, a free download of a book until Xmas Day as described below, offered via Smashwords.com, using coupon  FA47T. 

Art Deco party dresses

I'm a great fan of the "Hercules Poirot" television mysteries based on Dame Agatha Christie's novels, and can rewatch episodes many times over for their wonderful styling of art deco furnishings (his office), houses (certain hotels and homes for the wealthy) and of course, costumes. Designers have picked up on the Deco look for 2012, in part, because of the Woody Allen comedy, "Midnight in Paris," and the homage to silent movies, "The Artist" coming to an Oscar ceremony near you soon. Here's how it looked on the catwalk, (above.)

The Burda design in December's issue above captures certain elements in these dresses, e.g. the waist-less boyish silhouette, the pleated frill of the last dress, the geometric plastron effect of the second, the linear contrasts in all of them. What might you do with this design using Deco colorways and gleaming fabrics of silver, black, champagne and gold?