Tune In On Tuesday
Next Tuesday’s podcast episode (January 13) will be a special one. You may remember that in October 2024, I took a trouser drafting class from Kenneth D. King at the Sewing and Design School in Tacoma, WA. The class was terrific. Kenneth is an amazing teacher and I would love to take another class from him.
[My Seattle peeps—because there seem to be so many of you listening to the podcast—Kenneth said he would come out and teach his raglan coat class at the Sewing and Design School if I could get enough people to commit to taking it. If you’re interested, let me know at Janet at JanetSzabo dot com.]
At the trouser class, Kenneth signed my copy of his book Doll Couture:
Doll Couture is the store of Lola, the showgirl in the Barry Manilow song “Copacabana.” The book picks up at the end of the song, when Lola is broken and grieving and in hiding from Rico, the man suspected of killing Lola’s boyfriend, Tony.
[Two items of note here:
I was a huge Barry Manilow fan as an adolescent. I had all the records and knew most of the songs by heart.
My sister and I had an extensive Barbie doll collection. One year for Christmas, my mother made clothes for them, including a turquoise blue pantsuit of polyester double-knit with gold baby rickrack trim. Our dolls were quite the thing. ]
Doll Couture is not a story book or novel; rather, it weaves in Lola’s story with the creation of 1/6 scale clothing for fashion dolls and introduces a number of additional characters to the story, including Crazy Bella, the Orlof-Volenski Triplets, and others.
Doll Couture: Red Carpet Edition, picks up where Doll Couture left off, with the introduction of even more characters to the story and the creation of some truly spectacular garments.
Kenneth was kind enough to spend some time with me last week talking about the books. I hope you will listen to the episode, and if you are so inclined, buy the books. (We want him to continue the series!) The stories are entertaining and you will marvel at the couture techniques used to make clothing on such a small scale.
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I finished quilting the baby quilt yesterday. It needs to be trimmed and bound. I also fixed Anna’s skirt properly. I told her that next time, she should just bring her stuff to me.
Today, I am teaching a serger class called Shoelaces, Scrunchies, and Socks. This is going to be a fun class. Next Friday, I am teaching my thread class. That’s always a good one. February will be full of classes, including my Sew Expo classes in Puyallup, WA. Ticket sales go live on Tuesday, January 13.
