Kristi Smart Romantic Fantasy Coats and Clothing

Im really happy with the way this coat came out. This one is dedicated to my grandmother. Grossie. She was a milliner for Mr Blackwell. I don’t know which years she worked for him. I think in the fifties and sixties. She ended up with a lot of very fun trim from Blackwell. Then I ended up with a lot of very fun trim from Grossie.
I am finally starting to incorporate her trims into my coats. On this coat, the beautiful bright green fabric is hers along with some of the black braiding.
My grandmother use to make a lot of our clothing when we were kids. She dressed me in the more pastel colors and my sister in the richer darker colors. So funny. I always remember her long fingernails pinching my skin as she was fitting our clothing. It hurt like the dickens. Her response was always a “Well, if you stood still, I wouldn’t stick you with pins.” Funny, she never stuck us with pins, but those long nails….. man… they were something to be feared.
She taught me to knit and to do hand sewing. I think it was my mother that taught me to sew with a machine. We had an antique Adler that my father had bought her years ago. My Mom made the best Braidy Bunch outfits for us. Does any one remember poorboys? The early girlie version of wife beaters? And why these awful names for them? My Mom found us colorful striped poorboy tank tops and sewed coordinating a-line skirts. They had wide stripes in fushia, mustard, blue and orange. All the good colors of the day. Wish I had photos of my sister and I decked out. We must have looked fab.