new posts in all blogs
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: corduroy, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 7 of 7
How to use this Page
You are viewing the most recent posts tagged with the words: corduroy in the JacketFlap blog reader. What is a tag? Think of a tag as a keyword or category label. Tags can both help you find posts on JacketFlap.com as well as provide an easy way for you to "remember" and classify posts for later recall. Try adding a tag yourself by clicking "Add a tag" below a post's header. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a 'More Posts from this Blog' link in any individual post.
By: Emily Smith Pearce,
on 5/18/2011
Blog:
Emily Smith Pearce
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Sewing,
DIY,
Crafts,
pattern,
corduroy,
clothing,
skirt,
Cal Patch,
pattern drafting,
Add a tag
This project looks simple, but it has taken me many months to complete. Okay, I have to admit, over a year, but I wasn’t working on it that whole time. I haven’t sewn much for myself in the last few years, mostly for my kids and our home. Part of that has been not wanting to spend so much time on something that might not fit me in the end. So when I heard about Cal Patch‘s book, Design-It-Yourself Clothes, I fantasized about making something to fit me perfectly.
I really like this book. The instructions are clear and written with a sense of humor. The projects are just the right speed for me——beyond beginner but simple enough not to be intimidating. But my favorite thing is that the book leaves lots of room for experimentation. So I like to flip through often and just dream about what I might create. For me, dreaming is more than half the fun.
That said, my first project doesn’t involve a lot of experimentation, besides the pattern drafting itself. It’s the first project in the book, with very little deviation besides the added waistband.
I crossed off a lot of firsts with this skirt. Besides my first self-drafted pattern, I also made my first muslin (trial run of the pattern in a cheap fabric), sewed my first invisible zipper, and used my first French seam. I now realize flat-felled seams would be better here, but oh well.
I’m not completely crazy about the skirt. There are a lot of flaws you can’t necessarily see here, and although the fabric is lovely and soft, I’m not sure what to wear it with. Just having made it feels like a big accomplishment, though.
Since I had plenty of fabric left over, I offered to make a skirt for my daughter, too (just a simple gathered rectangle). If you know me well, you know I’m really not a matchy-matchy type. Our bridesmaids didn’t even match. But my Little Miss loves matching, so she was totally hip to it, especially when I offered to add a floral strip at the bottom.
I love her styling choices here. She’s a bold little fashionista. I feel a mother-daughter matching day coming on. Oh, the things we do for our kids!
3 Comments on The Great Pattern-Drafting Experiment, last added: 5/19/2011
Today’s guest book review and Dads Reading Featured Post is from a good friend of ours here at Book Dads. John Cave Osborne is the author of the recently released book, Tales from the Trips (read our review here and author spotlight post), which chronicles his life as he morphed from carefree bachelor into the father of four in just thirteen months thanks to marrying a single mom then quickly conceiving triplets.
If you like what you read here from John today, check out more of his writing at his blog (www.johncaveosborne.com) over at the parenting blog Babble (www.babble.com/contributors/john-osborne/).
—
Some children’s books are entertaining. Some are educational. Some provide top-notch illustrations. Some deliver wonderful morals. And some are iconic classics.
I love children’s books that offer any one of those things. But my very favorite children’s book — Corduroy, written and illustrated by Don Freeman — offers all of them.
The story begins when a little girl named Lisa falls in love with a bear named Corduroy. Lisa begs her mom to buy Corduroy for her. “Not today, dear,” her mom replies, citing that she’s already spent too much money not to mention the fact that the bear, whose overalls are missing a button, doesn’t even look new.
That night, after everyone had left the department store, Corduroy scampers off on an adventure to find a button that might make him more look more appealing. His journey takes him to a different floor — one which he mistakes for a palace given the number of tables, chairs, beds and lamps he finds.
But his search is cut short by a security guard who brings the bear back to his place on the toy-department shelf. The next morning Corduroy wakes up just as the first customer enters the store. That first customer is none other than Lisa, the girl from the day before. She tells Corduroy that her mom has agreed to let Lisa take him home, only Lisa has to buy him with her own money. Luckily, she had just enough in her piggy bank.
The last scene finds Corduroy and Lisa together in her modest apartment. The little girl’s small room is nothing like the palace he had seen the night before. But to Corduroy, it’s even be
My sister and I received identical teddy bears when we were young. I figure it was my Mom’s way of preventing sibling rivalry – no bear was bigger, better or stronger than the other. My bear was named after a boy I had a crush on, Christopher – sigh. My sister named hers after RuPaul. [...]
Today we are celebrating a double birthday here at alphabet soup!
You may already know that Corduroy, the bear in search of a button and a friend, is 40 years old this year. But did you know that Corduroy's creator, Don Freeman, was born exactly one hundred years ago today? That's right: August 11, 1908.
Corduroy is certainly one of the most beloved bears in children's literature, along with Paddington and Pooh. Even though there are only two picture books about him, he has managed to stand out among the plethora of other bear books published through the years.
His enduring charm for young readers exemplifies what Don Freeman defined as the essence of a good children's story: simplicity without simple mindedness. This is a story about belonging, being loved for who you are, and friendship. What could be more important than that? And it's told without a hint of didacticism, condescension, or sentimentality.
"Corduroy is a bear who once lived in the toy department of a big store. Day after day he waited with all the other animals and dolls for somebody to come along and take him home."
This past spring, Viking released a special 40th Anniversary Edition of this classic with extra-large trim size, embossed cover, and 8 pages of never-before-seen bonus material. It's a beauty of a book, and a must-have for any diehard Corduroy fan.
Since
Corduroy was first published when I was in high school (1968), I didn't meet him until I began writing children's stories and collecting bears in the 80's. And I didn't know much about Don Freeman until this year. What a fascinating life!
Originally from San Diego, Freeman moved to NYC in 1928 to study art at the Students Art League with John Sloan. He was fascinated by the theatre, and filled many sketchbooks with what he observed backstage on Broadway and all over the city. He supported himself by playing cornet in jazz and dance bands.
One night, while riding on the subway, he became so preoccupied with his sketching that he forgot his cornet on the train. After that, he decided to focus solely on his art. He was supposedly a gregarious sort, with lots of friends, including Louis Armstrong and William Saroyan.
He came to children's books quite casually, co-authoring stories with his wife, Lydia. One of these early books was called
Corduroy the Inferior Decorator (as yet, still unpublished), featuring a boy who drove his parents crazy by painting on the walls of their apartment. The name, "Corduroy," was Don's pet name for his son, Roy, who always wore corduroy overalls.
Years after
Corduroy was published, Don wrote Linda Zuckerman, his editor when the book was released, explaining how he got the idea:
Of course I can't remember exactly how it started, but I do recall wanting to do a story about a department store in which a character wanders around at night after the doors close. Then I also wanted to show the vast difference between the luxury of a department store and the simple life most people live. The idea of simple basic values was another theme that was running around in the back of my head . . .
Viking first rejected
Corduroy, so Freeman submitted it to other publishers. They rejected it as well, but he believed in the story so strongly that he decided to resubmit it to Viking, who finally decided to take a chance on it.
"Hello," he said. "How did you get upstairs?"
The 40th Anniversary Edition contains correspondence between Freeman and his acquiring editor, Annis Duff, an early draft of the manuscript with Duff's editorial notes, newspaper clippings on Freeman's death, and several sketches alongside final illos. Great stuff for those who love process, history, and anecdotes.
I could not find any evidence of whether Freeman modeled Corduroy after a real teddy bear. But I do know that Freeman's rendering manages to touch that hopeful, accepting, innocent child's heart in all of us. Such a small bear in a huge department store! Nobody wanted him because he wasn't perfect. How good we feel when Lisa finally takes him home.
Sadly, Freeman died of a heart attack just before the sequel,
A Pocket for Corduroy, was published in 1978. I wonder if he had any idea how many millions of children would continue to take his loveable bear home after that.
"You must be a friend," said Corduroy. "I've always wanted a friend."
"Me too!" said Lisa, and gave him a big hug."
Happy Birthday, Don and Corduroy!!
Don Freeman's Official Website is
here.
For a reading of the story,
click here.
**All interior spreads posted by permission, copyright © 2008, The Viking Press, All rights reserved.
Photo of Don Freeman used in accordance with Creative Commons 3.0 Unported License.
Susan's (Chicken Spaghetti) post about Corduroy had me thinking off and on all day about my favorite childhood bear. Corduroy really was my number one--the book I loved most of all. I remember finding it in my third grade classroom, long after I had given up picture books and feeling like I found an old friend.
Susan links to an article written by Karen MacPherson about Corduroy's 40th birthday. In the article, MacPherson talks about the magic of Corduroy and why children still fall for his world:
- "'Corduroy' taps into a persistent childhood fantasy," says Anita Silvey, children's-book expert and author of '100 Best Books for Children.' "Children know that when they leave the room, their toys have all kinds of adventures; this fantasy underlies 'Toy Story,' 'The Lonely Doll' and 'Corduroy.'"
While I agree with
MacPherson and Silvey here that toys coming to life is a persistent childhood fantasy, I am wondering if I'm alone when I contend that this was
not the fantasy that drew me to
Corduroy. As a child, I didn't wish dolls and toys had a life of their own when we left the room, I believed it with all my heart. My sister and I used to lay traps for our toys--traps that were always tripped, by the way. What drew me to
Corduroy was another fantasy altogether: being in a magical world ordinarily forbidden to you. In this case, the department store after hours. I followed Corduroy up the escalator, to the furniture section where he topples a lamp, wondered about where else he could go in this secret world.
So, forty years on--what draws you to
Corduroy?
--------------------------------
Asides:
I also loved Lisa as Freeman renders her. She's warm,
resourceful, and, I thought, she looked more like me than most picture book heroines of the era.
The Lonely Doll is also a book I was
intrigued by as a child. And it's a subject for another post.
The Lonely Doll taps into fantasy in entirely different, hopefully latent, way.
Even though I am starting to have the same sentiment, I haven’t read I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron. But if you would like to read one of the essays, this one about her love of reading, you can see the essay “On Rapture” online here..
Subscribe with
JacketFlap's
Children's
Publishing
Blog Reader
.jpg?picon=910)
Sehr gut!
GD Bob
Beautiful job, I will have to look at the book you referenced. It looks like one I would love, too. I want to sew for myself but I haven’t been very successful so far. Thanks for the great ideas!
Hey Jeny. I love this book. I don’t feel that successful either though I’m beginning to think that like with anything, I just need to keep at it to get better. Easier said than done.