Saturday, November 20, 2010

Hail the wale

Plan now to celebrate National Corduroy Day next Nov. 11, 2011.
That date - 11/11/11 - is especially chosen as those numbers are most like the wales (the raised ribs) of corduroy.
I learned all this thanks to a piece on the Corduroy Appreciation Club by Bill Geist on CBS Sunday Morning. You can see more about his report here.
To celebrate: I propose that we incorporate SOME corduroy into our scrappy work. Adding different texture makes a textile project more exciting.
A total corduroy piece is probably NOT ideal. I do have one, this improvised quilt I featured back in January. It's fascinating to behold but HEAVY!

Doesn't this bring back memories of all the corduroy clothing you've had over the years? I've always loved corduroy. In the story, they showed bolts of it that brought back sewing project memories. Paisley corduroy! Striped corduroy. I remember having to buy extra fabric to make sure all your wales ran in the same direction. My sewing teachers usually banned it (to my dismay). They were timid (and probably rightfully so, wanting to avoid advising us on the intricacies of working with fabrics with nap). I had many corduroy jumpers - I found a picture of one from the 1960s.

Anyway, start collecting your corduroy scraps now. Be ready for 11/11/11.

8 comments:

  1. Oh my! Just yesterday, I picked up a great piece of corduroy at the thrift store. Now I know why!

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  2. This is so funny! I taught a class yesterday and one of my students brought corduroy and velvet for her curved piecing experience!
    I love the quilt!

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  3. I love corduroy. Back in my younger days, I made a skirt/jacket suit in wide wale. The jacket was double breasted & the skirt had an inverted box pleat in the front. Wore that thing to death.

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  4. In 8th grade sewing class, I made a coral corduroy dress with a scoop neck and collar. My teacher was braver than yours. I remember doing the sleeves over 3x. Also wore it for years. I made a mostly corduroy quilt in Gwen Marston's class on solids. I was intimidated by solids and decided corduroy was the only way to get some texture. Will post it on the Rebels blog. quiltshare209@blogspot.com

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  5. Oh, I love my cords! I'll be marking this on my calendar; it's pretty funny.

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  6. Because of your inspiration, my 7yo dd has a quilt made from a flannel pieced center from the Salvation Army, my corduroy skirt and shirt and scraps from everywhere, including some cute napkins. It is the warmest quilt and perfect winter weight. It was her Christmas gift last year. She is 7yo.

    Lucy~

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  7. wow! I'd love to see a picture of Lucy's quilt, good for you! what a lucky girl........

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  8. Let read of a very interesting post. I am making a Christmas quilt right now and Santa's mittens are waleless corduroy. So rich. But the thing that caught my eye was the picture of the red dress. I saw a painting of a woman with the same pose http://janethillstudio.com/blog/2010/03/she-liked-to-rustle-her-red-crinoline.html and it reminded me of that.
    Mary

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