Lieutenant Gov. Sheila Simon pretty proud of sewing skills

You won’t find the designers of Illinois Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon’s wardrobe on the pages of fashion magazines.Simon makes her own clothes, even a full-length silk gown and 1940s-era wool suit for her January inauguration.“I’m pretty proud of it,” she recently told the Herald and Review in Decatur. Simon started sewing as a youth in 4-H, making an elastic waistband skirt, and earned a useful skill when she grew to 5-foot-11 and was too tall for many pants.
Simon, who splits her time between Springfield and her home in Carbondale, has sewn prom and homecoming dresses and Beautiful Dresses for Wedding. Her favorite was a kangaroo costume with a detachable tail and pouch to collect candy. “I’m 50 years old now, and when I was little, I think everyone had someone somewhere in the family who knew how to sew, and I think that’s less common now,” Simon said.
Deepika Prakash, the founder of international online sewing community PatternReview.com, told the Herald and Review that Simon’s habit of wearing her own creations even for her most publicized events lets people see that homemade clothes don’t have to be “happy hands at home outfits” or have a “Becky Home-ecky” look, Prakash said.“The more we get people talking about this, I think it definitely changes the image,” Prakash said.Sewing, says Simon, lets her make sure she’s “not too absorbed in government and politics that I forget real life.”
This 1993 dark comedy focuses on five bridesmaids at a society wedding in Tennessee. Just after the ceremony, the women are hiding out in an upstairs bedroom. The dialogue in the play is as frothy as the hideous dresses the bridesmaids are forced to wear. There's Mindy, the groom's outspoken, out-lesbian older sister; the bride's bitter sibling Meredith; Georgeanne, the tightly wound, hard-drinking pal; world-weary Trisha; and 21-year-old Frances, who answers every tempting offer of a drink or smoke with "I can't—I'm a Christian." All five women have some personal history with a friend of the groom, a charming but nasty predator named Tommy Valentine.
“No other designer could come remotely close to carrying on the spirit of Alexander McQueen in the way Sarah Burton has,” says Mary McGowne, founder of the Scottish Style Awards. “She has done a hugely impressive job considering the way she was thrust into the spotlight and the weight of expectation on her shoulders, but it is not a surprise. Sarah worked with Lee for over 14 years and had a deep understanding of his thought processes. There was already a large part of her in every collection Lee delivered.”