A dynamic resurgence in sewing and knitting is under way, with many people enjoying making and mending their own garments at home. However, stories abound of homemade clothes languishing at the back of the wardrobe. Amy Twigger Holroyd draws on ideas of fashion, culture and craft to explore makers' lived experiences of creating and wearing homemade clothes in a society dominated by shop-bought garments. Using the innovative metaphor of fashion as common land, Folk Fashion investigates the complex relationship between making, well-being and sustainability. Twigger Holroyd combines her own experience as a designer and knitter with first-hand accounts from folk fashion makers to explore this fascinating, yet under-examined, area of contemporary fashion culture.Looking to the future, she also considers how sewers and knitters might maximise the radical potential of their activities.

War is a hard, stern teacher, and its lessons are bitter in the learning; yet some of its teaching we badly needed—and not the least important of its many lessons is the one it inculcated on the criminality of waste. To so many of us "waste" was a word with a comparative meaning. What was waste in one woman was not necessarily waste in another, we argued. It was wrong for the factory girl to let her skirts drop off her for lack of mending; but not wrong for better-off women to discard their clothes directly they showed the least sign of wear, because they could afford to buy more, we said; and, besides, it made it good for trade—that was a favorite argument used by the extravagant to excuse their wanton waste. But we have all learnt the value of economy of recent years: and we have seen how the saving and thrift of individuals may mean the salvation of the State. It will be a long time before we can ever return to that condition of easy-going plenty that we knew before the war. In any case the cost of all commodities will remain higher in price. The woman who can utilize oddments and make things with her own hands is the woman who will be making money, as she will be supplying one of the most expensive items of modern times—personal labor. The hints in this book are intended as suggestions, which can be developed in many new directions.

Women’s Economic Writing in the Nineteenth Century is the first comprehensive collection of women’s economic writing in the long nineteenth century. The four-volume anthology includes writing from women around the world, showcases the wide variety and range of economic writing by women in the period, and establishes a tradition of women’s economic writing; selections include didactic tales, fictional illustrations, poetry, economic theory, social theory, reports, letters, novels, speeches, dialogues, and self-help books. The anthology is divided into eight themed sections: political economy, feminist economics, domestic economics, labor, philanthropy and poverty, consumerism, emigration and empire, and self-help. Each section begins with an introduction that tells a story about women writers’ relationship to the section theme and then provides an overview of the selections contained therein. Women’s Economic Writing in the Nineteenth Century demonstrates just how common it was for women to write about economics in the nineteenth century and establishes important throughlines and trajectories within their body of work.

Whether you want to combine yarns of different colours and textures in one piece or simply use up some of your stash, patchwork knitting provides a great way to play with assorted elements. This accessible book guides you through the essential techniques of creating individual units of knitting and joining-as-you-go so that there is minimal sewing up to do once the work is completed. This latest addition to the Knitting Techniques series covers the individual unit shapes of squares (including half, single, double, triple and quadruple squares), shells and strips and goes on to explore myriad ways of working within these units, including combining different stitch patterns such as lace, slip stitch, bias and short row knitting. It explores how the use of colour within an individual unit can change the way it is seen within a larger piece. There are four full knitting patterns and forty-five individual unit stitch patterns, with accompanying images, give plenty of opportunity for practice and inspiration.

The need for the creation of an enabling political, legal and economic environment for women within Turkey is rising. A growing concern is shown at the ethnic divisions and local discrimination against women, which have spilled over into the labor market. This book lends a supporting voice to the economic and social empowerment of women globally, focusing on the real causes and the unpredictable nature of the ongoing conflicts surrounding the issue. The authors bring to the forefront problems of development within various regions and the implementation of projects, which address the state of women, inequality and risks, that are inimical to their participation in the economy. Emphasis is laid on why women should be permitted access to the many opportunities in information technology and exchange, partnership growth and networking in this digital era. The oppressive policies of Turkey are scrutinized to unravel the dangers they pose to the corporate existence of women in the modern world. Furthermore, this book centers on the deliberation on regional politics and issues on gender and women’s empowerment in modern Turkey whilst comparing with other countries. The work sheds light on salient issues and possible remedies within target countries and the concerted efforts made to create a reliable structure to discuss gender conflicts. Ample contributions from countries such as the US, Germany, Serbia, South Africa and United Kingdom are pivotal to comparing and examining the main debates. Addressing several global gender-related examples as well as Turkey’s national principles, this book encourages full involvement of women and girls in deciding the fate of their country. This book serves as the rallying point of an array of informative and mind-expanding works of literature in regional studies, gender studies, migration economy, and area studies in countries like Turkey, USA, Serbia, UK, and India. Experts, students, and readers in the academic sphere may find this work educative and intellectually fulfilling.

Since the end of the Second World War the map of the Americas has changed dramatically. Not only were many former European colonies turned into sovereign states, there was also an ongoing process of region-making recognizable throughout the hemisphere and obvious through the establishment of several regional agreements. The emergence of political and economic regional integration blocs is a very timely topic analyzed by scholars in many disciplines worldwide. This book looks at remapping the recent trends in region-making throughout the Americas in a way that hasn’t been at the center of academic analyses so far. While examining these regionalisation tendencies with a historical background in mind, the authors also answer fundamental questions such as: What influences does globalization have on region-making, both on normative regionalism plans as well as on actual economic, political, cultural, military and social regionalization processes driven by state and non-state actors? What ideas or interests lead states in the Americas to cooperate or compete with one another and how is this power distributed? How do these regional agreements affect trade relations and have there been trade barriers set up to protect national economies? What agreements exist or have existed and how did they change with regard to contents and for what reason? The book informs academic as well as non-academic audiences about regional developments in the Americas, in particular those dating back to the last twenty years. Beyond the primary purpose of summarizing the hemisphere’s recent trends, the book also brings clarification in a detailed but easy to understand way about timely issues regarding the institutionalisation, or lack thereof, of the plethora of regional and sub-regional bodies that have emerged in this hemisphere over the past couple of decades.