The Turned-Intos by Elizabeth Gordon

The Turned-Intos: Jane Elizabeth discovers the Garden Folk by Elizabeth Gordon was first published in 1920 by P. F. Volland in Great Britain. I have an American copy printed by Wise Book Company in 1935. The book is illustrated by Janet Laura Scott.

The book is dedicated to "children who love to work in gardens and who enjoy the big out-of-doors and the little friends who live there."

The Garden Folk mentioned are butterflies and insects, frogs and spiders, bees and hornets.

 Most of the full-page illustrations feature Jane Elizabeth in gardens.

  A few show Jane Elizabeth with her family or at home.

The cricket on the hearth harkens back to the Christmas story by Charles Dickens!

 Jane Elizabeth discovers a ladybug, below, while her cat looks on.

Jane Elizabeth stitching in the garden with her dollies looking on.

 Jane Elizabeth is not afraid of the spider.

 Jane Elizabeth and the honeybees.

 Jane Elizabeth in the cottage garden.

 And skipping through the fields after the butterflies.

This was meant to be a teaching book. Teaching aids include a vocabulary analysis and activities for each chapter.

Next week I will share the illustrations of the Garden Folk!

Vintage Sewing Patterns From My Past

In junior high, I had a required class in home sewing. We made an apron the Bishop Method and then an A-line skirt with darts and a back zipper. I chose to make a deep purple skirt. By the next year, I had outgrown it.

I really liked sewing and imagined making all my own clothing, just as I had dreamed of making Barbie doll clothes a few years before. Mom bought a used machine but she had trouble with it and nothing was made.

My mother-in-law was an addicted sewer. She was making all her own clothes, even pjamas and underwear! I taught myself to sew after my husband bought me a sewing machine for our first Christmas in 1972. While he studied in the evening, I kept busy with my Singer. 

One of my early projects was a snap front robe made with prequilted material.
Christmas 1973, me with our litter box trained pet rabbit.

Before he graduated I was making dresses, t-shirts, blouses, jeans, and skirts. I made leisure-suit coats and even a cassock for Gary! I learned by doing. My first sewing class was a gift when I graduated from university in 1978; I received a Stretch-and-Sew class voucher. I made a swimsuit.

I recently found a great resource for vintage patterns. It was fun identifying patterns I remember making.

This jumper pattern was one of my earlest projects. I made the short version in a yellow and purple acrylic big plaid. I loved the big pockets. I'm shocked there are no photos of me wearing it. I wore it every week to work with a full sleeve white blouse with a deep pointed collar.

Simplicity 5862; ©1973; Misses' Jumper in Two Lengths (Approximate Length of Short Jumper is 36"): The short jumper V. 1 and ankle length jumper V. 2 with bodice and skirt stitched to midriff has back zipper, shoulder straps and bias patch pockets.

I made several long sleeved smock tops with the pattern below. Actually, I wish I still had it. Those pockets are great!

McCall's 3522; ©1973; Misses Dress or Smock. Pullover dress or smock has puffed sleeves. Long sleeves gather into snapped cuffs. A, B, with drawstring in waistline casing has rick rack and eyelet or lace ruffling. B with Button trimmed front band or C with trimming has patch pockets.

These were the days of the 'leisure suit' and I made some coats for Gary, as well as ties, a bathrobe, and a cassock.

My husband in a leisure suit coat I made. 1973.

In 1978 I made a jacket similar to the green one in the middle on the above pattern. I bought a black and white tweed fabric at a designer fabric warehouse in Northeast Philadelphia. Gary wore the jacket when we picked up a vacuum cleaner we won at a local appliance store. I am wearing a woven plaid jacket I made. It had a belt, but it looks unbelted in this photo.

I remember owning this pattern.

I made this dress for my husband's graduation.

McCall's 3871; ©1973; Misses' and Junior Dress. High waisted, back zippered dress has puffed sleeves with elastic in casings, tie belt included in side seams. A, C has lower sleeves. A with lace trim, or B with lace ruffling has standing collar.

Not a good photo, but I made lots of T-shirts like I have on in the photo below,  taken on a trip to the Finger Lakes.

This top could be worn over a turtleneck. Once again...big pockets! I don't recall if I made this pattern or not, but I know I owned it.

Simplicity 6529; ©1974; Misses' Unlined Jiffy Jacket and Pants: The pants, without side seams, have elastic waistline casing and a back zipper. The top-stitched, unlined jacket, with front yoke and sleeves, has a front button closing, flapped patch pockets and elbow length kimono type sleeves wtih turn back cuffs.

Featured in Simplicity Fashion News, September, 1974

I made a short sleeved jacket with a matching skirt, here worn over a sleeveless shell. The print fabric had a bright green background!

The top on the far right on the pattern below is like one I made and embellished with the built-in stitches on my Bernina 830. I often wore it with bell bottom jeams when I was first attending Temple University.

I made this jumper and blouse around 1979. The blouse had a short stand-up collar and narrow cuffs. The dress was a wrap-around with a front and back panel that tied at the waist.

I wore this dress to class during my last semester at university. It had narrow pleats in the yoke.

Around 1980 I got this awful perm, so that dates this dress that I made. The photos were taken at Longwood Gardens in Chester Co, PA.

It had a buttoned bodice. I needed a class in how to adjust patterns to fit better since I was no longer a straight size.

I adored the Folkwear patterns and collected a few but the only one I made was this prairie dress. I wore it for Thanksgiving dinner.

I made this prairie skirt in a small blue and white check.

I loved, loved, loved this coat! The hood and deep pockets were so useful. I made it a herringbone woven fabric in brown and burgundy. 

When I found a patternless dress in a magazine I made it quite a few times. It made a good pregnancy dress. It used the width of the fabric for the skirt and top, cutting out a hole for the head. 

1987 at my baby shower

I made this maternity dress with a large color and huge bow. 

I wore this knit dress for our son's christening. It had dolman sleeves and a gathered waist.

Below, on the right, I am in a patternless outfit holding Chris in a shirt and overall I made that had bunnies on the bib. I enjoyed making lots of clothes for my baby and toddler.

I made this jacket for our son several times. It closed with velcro.

I made this paisley dress in the early 1990s, one of the last items I sewed for myself.

 A short set I made our son. He would chose fabrics.

By this time I was making quilts instead of clothing.

Feared by Lisa Scottolline

It was Lisa Scottoline's Rosato and DiNunzio series that brought me to reading her and Mary DiNunzio remains a favorite character. Who can resist a South Philly girl with a close Italian community that includes so many Tonys--Pigeon Tony, Tony 'Two-Feet', Tony-From-Down-the-Block, not to forget Mary's husband Anthony! Just reading about her mother's gravy makes me hungry for pasta.

In Feared, Scottoline once again puts Mary in harm's way. But this time it's not just Mary's life that is on the line, for she is seven months pregnant.

Nick Machiavelli has targeted Bennie Rosato and her partners Mary and Judy in a lawsuit accusing them of sex discrimination in hiring. And their associate John's own words are being used against them. They are being sued as individuals and they could lose everything.

Then John turns up dead and Judy is the last one to have seen him alive.

Mary struggles with the demands of her career and impending motherhood. Judy mourns the loss of her happy ending. The clients are small fry business owners who are about to be swallowed by the big fish in the market. And John's brother with Cerebral Palsy may be force feed for convenience.

With her signature blend of humor, memorable characters, mystery, and thrills, the novel kept me turning pages. Through twists and turns and red herrings, you will be on a wild ride to an unexpected resolution.

I received an ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Feared: A Rosato & DiNunzio Novel
by Lisa Scottoline
St. Martin's Press
Pub Date 14 Aug 2018
ISBN 9781250099594
PRICE $27.99 (USD)

Our Homesick Songs by Emma Hooper

I adored Emma Hooper's first novel Etta and Otto and Russell and James, which I read in 24 hours, and which had me in tears. I finished my review with the words "Read it."

So I was super excited to read Hooper's new novel Our Homesick Songs. I had high expectations and was not disappointed. I was enchanted by the writing.

The story is set in a small Newfoundland fishing village suffering from the impact of over-fishing by commercial ships that are "big as bergs; monster-big" and able to hold "a whole sea" of fish. Their livelihood over, the villagers leave, going West for jobs on mainland Canada.

The Connor family is hanging on. The parents Aiden and Martha share alternating monthly shifts working inland where they are surrounded by concrete, steel, and trucks, the light and noise never-ending. Martha asks a co-worker what it was like "here, before" and he tells her, "There were only trees."

Daughter Cora longs to leave the island for a 'normal' life packed with other children. She turns the empty houses into travel destinations.

Son Finn loves his home and feels at one with the land. He carries his accordion with him, even on the boat, playing traditional Newfoundland jigs and reels and airs to the open seas and clouded skies around him. He endeavors to bring back the fish, wondering if any are left in the oceans anywhere, and hoping the community will return.

The Connor parents work inland with other displaced workers. They are lonely and isolated, forever separated, seeing each other only in passing as they change places at the ferry every month. During their month home, the parents sing less. They return tired and depressed. The stress and distance wear on their marriage.

Like Hooper's first novel, there is a touch of magical realism and the characters go on journeys both physical and internal. The parent's charming backstory is sweet and magical, their courting taking place on boats at sea in the night, and includes a treacherous sea journey.

The history behind the novel caught my interest: the loss of the cod which was the basis of an entire way of life. A quick Internet search and I learned how overfishing decimated the cod, forcing the Canadian government to enact the 1992 moratorium on cod fishing that left 35,000 Newfoundlanders out of work.  The impact on community and family life is portrayed in Our Homesick Songs.

Newfoundland is central to the novel, its rocky shores and waters and snow and ice and bergs vividly described. And so is the Celtic music of Newfoundland, brought by the Irish. Social gatherings conclude with music.

Finn travels across the water to his music lessons. His elderly teacher Mrs. Callaghan captures his imagination with strange stories about snakes becoming fish and shipwrecks harboring the fish. She tells him that the songs were how the sailors and explorers remembered their homes. They are all homesick songs, even the happy ones, she says. When Finn cannot sleep at night, he calls his teacher and she tells him stories.

One song that reoccurs is The Water is Wide, an ancient song from Great Britain, which Aidan sings early in the novel. Others include the love song She's Like the Swallow and fiddle tunes Finn plays such as The Newfoundland Black Bear and The Cotton Grass Air, The Fish of the Sea.

"No, the dead can't sing, Aidan, that's why the living have to."

Aiden has a coffee cup that reads "Squidjiggingground" which is also the name of a song by Arthur Scammell about squid fishermen. The lyrics give a sense of the life that has been lost, the camaraderie and community.

Oh this is the place where the fishermen gather
Oil-skins and boots and the Cape hands batten down;
All sizes of figures with squid lines and jiggers,
They congregate here on the Squid-Jiggin' Ground.

Some are workin' their jiggers, while others are yarnin',
There's some standin' up and there's more lyin' down;
While all kinds of fun, jokes, and drinks are begun,
As they wait for the squid on the Squid-Jiggin' Ground.

The story feels like a tale told by Finn's accordion teacher, a fairy tale with magic feathers and mermaids singing. And like most folk tales, the underlying reality is terrifyingly real.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Our Homesick Songs
by Emma Hooper
Simon & Schuster
Pub Date 14 Aug 2018
ISBN 9781501124488
PRICE $26.00

from the publisher: 

From Emma Hooper, critically acclaimed author of Etta and Otto and Russell and James, a People magazine “Pick of the Week,” comes a lyrical, charming, and mystical story of a family on the edge of extinction, and the different way each of them fights to keep hope, memory, and love alive. 

The Connor family is one of the few that is still left in their idyllic fishing village, Big Running; after the fish mysteriously disappeared, most families had no choice but to relocate and find work elsewhere. Aidan and Martha Connor now spend alternate months of the year working at an energy site up north to support their children, Cora and Finn. But soon the family fears they’ll have to leave Big Running for good. And as the months go on, plagued by romantic temptations new and old, the emotional distance between the once blissful Aidan and Martha only widens. 

Between his accordion lessons and reading up on Big Running’s local flora and fauna, eleven-year-old Finn Connor develops an obsession with solving the mystery of the missing fish. Aided by his reclusive music instructor Mrs. Callaghan, Finn thinks he may have discovered a way to find the fish, and in turn, save the only home he’s ever known. While Finn schemes, his sister Cora spends her days decorating the abandoned houses in Big Running with global flair—the baker’s home becomes Italy; the mailman’s, Britain. But it’s clear she’s desperate for a bigger life beyond the shores of her small town. As the streets of Big Running continue to empty Cora takes matters—and her family’s shared destinies—into her own hands. 

In Our Homesick Songs, Emma Hooper paints a gorgeous portrait of the Connor family, brilliantly weaving together four different stories and two generations of Connors, full of wonder and hope. Told in Hooper’s signature ethereal style, each page of this incandescent novel glows with mythical, musical wonder.

See the author discuss her first book at
 https://youtu.be/5Z3hH4n0tmQ