Thursday, December 30, 2010

Wow!

It seems that most of my previous posts open with me apologizing for the lack of them, and now I am doing it again! I spent the last month preparing for vacation, going on vacation, and then recovering from said vacation; ditto for Christmas. How nice to come back to three new followers (hello Ginger, superheidi, and Bruce! I love your respective blogs)! And thanks so much to Bruce Partington-Plans of Eclectic Ephemera for giving me my very first blog award! It certainly is nice to know that someone (aside from my mother) is reading this! And now I see that I need to pass the award on to 15 other bloggers, which I will do posthaste! In the meantime, I have completed quite a few projects, but I am having a difficult time getting photographs of them. I have no tripod for my camera, no sunlight-filled rooms in my house, and no one here to help me during the daylight hours except a baby. I'm working on it, though! Until then, the only thing I have to show is a horrible picture of my coat. It was taken inside, at night, with a camera phone...less than ideal conditions, but here it is:



It was originally a huge, double-breasted monstrosity that I got at the Salvation Army for $10.00. But it was 100% cashmere, a lovely cream color, and the right length, so I just knew that I couldn't pass up a deal like that! Of course, I forgot to take a picture of it before I started cutting it up. Since it was so big and I could lap it over so far, I decided to model it after a picture of a '30s coat that I saw somewhere with an asymmetrical closing. I added the buttonholes and vintage buttons, shortened the sleeves, and made the belt out of the extra material. I also changed the collar. I really want to add some fur cuffs and a fur collar, but I haven't been able to find any fake fur in the right color of brown. I'm very pleased with it; what do you think? Or maybe you should reserve your judgment until I get a better photo of it...it really looks much nicer in person!

p.s. Spellcheck corrected my spelling of "judgement" to "judgment", and upon further research I have discovered that many sources say that "judgment" is the American version and that "judgement" is used in the UK. Here is a quote from Common Errors in English Usage:

"
In Great Britain and many of its former colonies, “judgement” is still the correct spelling; but ever since Noah Webster decreed the first E superfluous, Americans have omitted it. Many of Webster’s crotchets have faded away (each year fewer people use the spelling “theater,” for instance); but even the producers of Terminator 2: Judgment Day chose the traditional American spelling. If you write “judgement” you should also write “colour.”

I grew up in the US and have always spelled judgement with two "e"s and never spelled color with a "u". Where are you from, and how do you spell it?

4 comments:

  1. What a fabulous creation! So innovative and beautiful!

    Canadians are a messed up lot when it comes to such spelling variations. Given our former British ties, many of us were raised with British spellings. I personally tend to use the UK spellings for things (in part due to picky British professors all through my English studies in uni), but many people here in Canada that I know use US spelling (and our spell checking software always selects the US versions!). Happy New Year!

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  2. Well thank you for your welcome. :-)
    And I think your coat looks fabulous, such a clever job! Keep them projects coming, it's quite inspirational.

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  3. Wow, your coat looks fantastic- I thought it was an original! I’m trying to build up my thirties wardrobe, but I’m finding it a little hard to get the patterns! Looking forward to seeing more of your creations…Happy New Year. Tups x
    Blah to spelling- never was my forte!

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  4. Only too happy to pass on the award; I'm looking forward to following your blog in 2011 (Happy New Year, by the way).

    The asymmetric fastening is a great period look; I've seen a few 1930s mens' coats and leather jackets with a similar layout in the past and longed for them for myself - well done for applying it so effectively!

    Judgement/judgment - like so many Americanisms I've see the latter spelling become more and more prevalent on this side of the Pond, to the point where I think either are deemed acceptable now. As you say, spellcheck doesn't help! I was always taught to spell it with two e's, though, and to me it still looks wrong without them so judgement it will always be for me. I'm glad to see that British English is not totally dead in the former colonies! ;-)

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