ewein2412: (harriet smile)
my christmas present from ACB just arrived. This time it is Harriet Vane.






more of her gear. Note the picnic! (The sandwich is wrapped in wax paper.)








of course she comes with an academic gown and also the HAT. (But what I really love is the button for the hood on her back.)



nightie & kimono.



...um... (the lace! I wanted to show off the detailing.) (right)





ready for a car journey, I think...



the fur collar is monogrammed on the inside!
ewein2412: (Default)
"I reckon if there's anything you ought a know about cooking, it's this."
"That's just lard, ain't it?"
"No, it ain't just lard," I say. "It's the most important invention in the kitchen since jarred mayonnaise."
"What's so special about" - she wrinkles her nose at it - "pig fat?"
"Ain't
pig, it's vegetable." Who in this world doesn't know what Crisco is? "You don't have a clue of all the things you can do with this here can."
She shrugs. "Fry?"
"Ain't just for frying. You ever get a sticky something stuck in your hair, like gum?" I jackhammer my finger on the Crisco can. "That's right, Crisco. Spread this on a baby's bottom, you won't even know what diaper rash is." I plop three scoops in the black skillet. "Shoot, I seen ladies rub it under they eyes and on they husband's scaly feet."
"Look how pretty it is," she says. "Like white cake frosting."
"Clean the goo from a price tag, take the squeak out a door hinge. Lights get cut off, stick a wick in it and burn it like a candle."
I turn on the flame and we watch it melt down in the pan. "And after all that, it'll still fry your chicken."


--Kathryn Stockett, The Help

...The secret ingredient to whoopie pie filling and all commercial cake frosting in the USA! I have to mail order mine. This passage must be an utter mystery to Waterstones and Tesco bookbuying readers. "Who in the world doesn't know what Crisco is?"

(I knew she was going to talk about Crisco from the first sentence. Although, to be honest, I did not use it in my own cooking till I began making whoopie pies.)
ewein2412: (Harriet LOL)
This is my birthday present from Amanda.



Basically, in the war of The Diddy Things, she wins. Although Sara’s comment was, “You are both as bad as each other.”



It made not be as blindingly obvious to everybody as it is to me that these are the heroines of Code Name Verity. It all arrived in the mail yesterday and it was like the scene in A Little Princess where they open The Last Doll. The room was in CHAOS as we unpacked everything. “Oh!” cried Ermengarde, darting forward, “she has got an opera glass in her hand - a blue and gold one!” … only in this case it was a gas mask, or a pair of aviator goggles, or a row of hairpins on someone’s tiny pajama pocket, or seamed stockings…



I can’t possibly do any of it justice in a couple of photographs but I do need to point out that the coats and flying jacket are FULLY LINED, and the gas mask bags are exact replicas of the 1940 ones I bought for us off eBay, and there are pockets in the coats, and their duffle bags are printed with their surnames. Beneath their clothes they are wearing tiny undergarments which I won’t show you. (Bear in mind that Amanda is the woman who once made me a John Constantine doll complete with earring, packet of Silk Cut cigarettes, and a tattoo of a tree on his bum).





Amanda says she found the patterns on eBay and etsy… then she had to go and do all the same research that I did about the ATA and the WAAF and the Special Operations Executive. As a result of this project her 5 year old daughter now has Barbies, because as Amanda’s partner pointed out to her, “You can't play with them and not let her…” And she adds that there are some scary people out there if the websites for 1/6 scale war time items are any indiciation. "There are all these WAR men dolls and websites for grownups... that is where I found the goggles and the map bag.”

ewein2412: (verity no text)
this is kind of on the useless side of useless since you can't actually comment there, but my latest time-wasting project is a sort of time-wasting project blog in which I post on my website various of my 1940s retro knitting projects, sewing projects, e-bay purchases, etc. Madness.

https://sites.google.com/site/elizabethewein/young-adult-novels/code-name-verity/vintage-verity

oh and BTW this first entry appeared in my LJ blog last year.
ewein2412: (Default)
A bit belatedly, here are the girleens who go with the diddy accessories.

(technically they are the same character. ahem.)



The pattern (which was a birthday present) is here: http://www.theretroknittingcompany.co.uk/images/5dec10/bestway947a.jpg

Obviously, Girleen No. 2 is not in WAAF uniform. I altered the pattern a bit.






I just love her lacy knickers.
ewein2412: (verity text)
WHEN Code Name Verity is made into a movie, I really want The Manuscript to play Itself. OH such an ongoing tale of battles won and lost! But the Official Secrets Act (if not actual professional integrity) prevents me from publicly giving out any details. The war's not over yet.

meanwhile I continue to vent my frustration in creating equipment for Very Small Spies.

Escape maps were made of silk because it was more durable than paper, you could fold it in your pocket, and it didn't make a noise when you unfolded it. These are printed on cotton, though. The one on the left is southern France c. 1940, and the one on the right is France/Belgium/Holland upright and the Pyrenees upside down, c. 1943.

ewein2412: (verity text)
the last lot were english. these are french.

I failed to include anything to give a sense of scale here, but the box of cigarettes is 2x3 cm.



I feel sure I'm in the wrong line of work, but I don't know if my true calling is with Mattel's accessory dept. or as a counterfeiter.
ewein2412: (verity no text)
I feel fairly confident that I would get A LOT MORE WORK DONE if I were shut in a room for nine hours with paper and ink and my ankles tied to my chair.

But since I am a free woman, I have spent the past hour making extremely diddy WAAF accessories. AMANDA I BLAME YOU.




(the cigarettes were fun, but the lipstick was INSPIRED)

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