La Modiste

Thimble

"If you were at my table, I would have had to correct you far too often," quipped Annie.
"I am that bad?" I winked.
"Worse!" she added without a blink.

Sewing

The provocation: My thread's knot was larger than a mustard seed. Or as Annie claimed, "The size of a grapefruit." She wasn't exaggerating as she snipped it off.

My thimble fits her finger perfectly. Though I never use it… It comes in handy when Annie sews our rips, tears, and buttons.

At fourteen Annie was a hat maker, 'La Modiste', by seventeen she was the head of a group of seamstress, sitting at the head of the table.

Annie told me that when she was seventeen her boss would take her out to lunch, afterwards they would walk around spying the new hat collections. "I would memorize the details of the new collections to recreate them back at the studio." She beamed with a renewed pride.

"I guess I would not be sitting at your table." I offered regretfully.

"No, but I am glad you are her now with your unused thimble." she winked.



Comments

35 responses to “La Modiste”

  1. What a friend, she even mends your clothes……..nice!

  2. I share your lack of talent with a needle and thread Corey….but I also share your passion for the brocante!…Your Annie reminds me of my 88 year old mother in law who is an accomplished quilter (among other talents). Imagine being able to merely look at a hat and then to be able to recreate it from memory! Hats off to Annie!
    🙂

  3. I adore Annie. I’m so happy that you two are friends so that I can eavesdrop on your conversations from time to time.
    I have a line on an 83 year old “Annie” of my own up here in my new stomping grounds. Hopefully, I can cultivate as good a relationship with her as you have with La Modiste!
    Amitiés,

  4. splendid

    i love her stories and your photos more everyday!
    thanks so much for sharing with us!

  5. Annie is Coco Chanel! I knew it. I can barely sew on a button. Love the thimble. I was given a thimble with one of my wedding gifts. The note read “may all your troubles, never be more than will fit in this old thimble”. They never have been. It is not anywhere nearly as special looking as yours, but I treasure it. I always love the Annie stories!

  6. Thanks for starting my day off with a smile!!! You girls are so lucky to have “found” each other!!! Annie simply amazes me!!

  7. Love this one, Corey! What a talented woman your Annie is! Friends of the family have the last name “Modiste” – so now I know where their name must have originated! 😉

  8. g coughlin

    boy do i love hearing annie’s story of life and miss it when we do not hear of her for a while—a welcomed start to a new day and a new week. sending her good wishes as always and you too dear sweet corey 2 kindred spirits HOW VERY LOVELY g

  9. Marie-Noëlle

    Annie’s UNIQUE !!!
    I love her !!! She sounds so much like my grandmother !!!

  10. Ahhhh…there is so much more said than the actual printed words…lovely post.

  11. Loved hearing about Annie. I love her history, she is so unique. xxx

  12. Corey as a young man I still remember my mother emphasizing the need for a man to know how to sew a button on his own shirt. (presuming a woman may not always be around or have the time) I too remember producing knots the size of a potato and having them cut off and being instructed to begin again. Some blessings we fail to truly appreciate until several years later in life when we need to replace a button on a shirt. (a woman’s shirt, lol)

  13. Your Annie is a treasure, and a good seamstress! I bought an antique treadle machine 25 years ago and have yet to learn to use it..sewing has never been a big interest but I thought someday I would learn. I wish I had someone like Annie here, perhaps she could show me how to use this old machine!

  14. I love your Annie Stories
    I love you
    Hugs to Annie tell her I adore her…….
    Kisses

  15. Oh please do your Annie book first, Corey!

  16. Wonderful Annie stories, she is amazing and such talent. 🙂

  17. Oh, those hands! Just unspeakably beautiful. My grandmother always sewed with a thimble and tried so often to teach me how…but a seamstress I am not. What a treasure you have in Annie.

  18. Visits with Annie are always a joy to read. I recognized her hand immediately and knew that we were in for another Annie treat.

  19. Julie Ann Evins

    Love Annie, love the story, love the French expression for hatmaker & love your thimble. Happy days Corey, jx

  20. I cant even sew a button…I am hoping to take lessons. It would be great to learn from someone like Annie. I bet she made the most beautiful hats.

  21. I am pretty sure you and I would have been in trouble together Corey. I love Annie and I bet she made the most beautiful hats.
    love and blessings

  22. I am riveted by Annie’s stories. They capture a time of such grace and simplicity. Beautiful.
    Laurie
    SF

  23. I enjoy your stories about Annie, Corey. What a good friendship you both have with one another. I can just imagine Annie and her boss spying on the other hat collections and I can also “see” her at the table with her seamstresses. I didn’t know that she was artistic. And you paint a pretty picture with your photos and your words, Corey.

  24. Annie is a treasure that I know you thoroughly enjoy. I love hearing her stories, this one is special.

  25. yeah wow, Annie mends your clothes!! Don’t we all just need an Annie in our lives…Are there any photos of Annie when she was a young woman in her La Modiste days…would be great to see those. Hope all is well Corey…Cynthia Ann(ie)

  26. Annie is such a treasure.

  27. Julie W.

    The prettiest thimble I have ever seen…on the sweetest fingers. Annie has so many fans! Did she ever expect to become famous?
    Love the interplay between you two girls.
    My grandmother was a hat maker. She died when I was a baby. My sisters and I had such fun with the hatbox filled with feathers, ribbons, flowers and various hat-making scraps. Does Annie have such a box? Wouldn’t it be fun to wear lovely, fancy hats?
    Hat tips and hugs to you both,
    Julie W.

  28. Lieselotte

    What a beautiful thimble you´ve got there, and what a clever invention ! It must be great to have someone like Madame Annie around to mend your soxs, etc. I think that being a ” modiste ” must have been a wonderful job, and it´s a pity that the job has come out of fashion – I think there´s only one shop left in Vienna where hats are still made to measure, or there might be more of them over in the UK where wearing pretty hats is fashionable in summertime. Please give my kind regards to Annie.
    Hugs,
    Lieselotte

  29. How precious is Annie? She is very quick, huh? You are so lucky to be her friend. Oh the stories she has to tell.

  30. Mending gosh, I should do it.
    Sounds like Annie is a real help.
    Nice post.
    yvonne

  31. Marie-Noëlle

    I do not know whether Lieselotte will pop back to this page…
    Anyway, in France there are about a dozen state schools of “modistes” plus a few private ones – most of them in Paris.
    And there are a lot of modistes in Paris and a few elsewhere in France.

  32. jend’isère

    With her green thumb of sewing,Annie will always have her eye for the garden of knots. What joy to see her dust off that thimbe and put it to work!

  33. Your Annie is a piece of pure gold! Does she have any photos of her ‘La Modiste’ days? Please give her our (blogging) appreciation, ((((hugs))) and ♥love♥.

  34. What a wonderful friend you have there! She reminds me of my English Grandmother…very straight forward LOL. Imagine the life she lived all those years ago…it must have been very exciting making those beautiful hats…works of art! Have a wonderful day Corey. Best Wishes…Maura

  35. Seems Annie is helping in a great manner and and its great to have such friend. http://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/Bathroom-Suites.aspx

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