"A Stitch in Time" documents Cassie Balder's year-long journey into the past, through patterns. Cassie never knew her grandmother, who lived across the ocean in Paris. When grammy passed away, Cassie didn't feel the loss. In fact, between a doctoral thesis on the history of women’s suffrage and her recent engagement to a nature photographer, Cassie can't manage to care much about anything having to do with family. But an accidental trip to her mother’s West Virginia attic changes that. Beyond the dust and questionable pick-a-ninny Christmas decorations, Cassie finds her grandmother's 1920s sewing table, reams of vintage fabric, and a filing cabinet full of patterns from several decades in French fashion.
She
hauls it all back to Brooklyn, determined to tackle the patterns one by one,
and wear everything she sews. She even hatches a plan to sew her own wedding gown for her pending
nuptials.
All thumbs, and all grunts from her Boston
Terrier, Beckham, who keeps jumping on the sewing pedal, Cassie can't seem to
stitch a straight line. But with each spool of thread she forges a bond with
her ancestors, and sees the history of "women's work" in a whole new
light. From donning a crooked circle skirt to an engagement party, to defending
an academic paper in a wonky Suzie Wong number, Cassie learns not only who she is,
but how to wear it. And as she stays up until dawn finishing her wedding dress,
she realizes that when it comes to life, there is no pattern.
