Evidence of sewing

In addition to  thinking about sewing/life (I find the two so similar I often mix them up) I actually have been doing some actual sewing. First of all the curtains for the first big bedroom window are done (when you break down a wall and make two small bedrooms into a master bedroom large enough for two of us and one Rascal you acquire a lot of windows) - tab curtains, lined and heavy enough to be stage curtains. The best thing about them is that they are done, but of course not put up yet. One step at a time. The other windows are smaller so I am counting on having these out of the way as something to inspire me to keep going.

I am also posting one of my elastic waist skirts, just to let you know it is not all couture sewing out there.

And two more versions of my now much loved Simplicity dress, shown a while ago in black and white linen - one in denim and one in dots. I think you can tell which is which.

And today six knit tops cut out for the trip because I realize that the husband's itinerary doesn't have any laundromat time in it.

A progress report, because yes there is progress, even in the middle of a hectic month.

So many things to say

I feel badly about dropping below the radar on this blog, because it is important to me. I think I will catch up with posts on various topics if you don't mind. I am going to be away later this month and want to get reconnected in my blogging before I go.

In two and a half weeks we are off on a little trip to DC and points south and I am pretty excited about that, and have been scrambling to get my assignments and marking to the point for all of my 97 students that I can press Submit on the online grading system at school the night before we take off, and then the next morning just do that. My daughter is a pediatric oncology nurse and working a night shift that night and coming with us for the first 4-5 days so she can see her brother in Washington and we are going to pick her up at 7:00 a.m. off her shift, load her in the car and head out. She should sleep until we hit the outlet stores in Maine.

My first story from this month:

A few years ago I took a machine embroidery course. There was a very nice woman there but she had a lot of trouble with her project. I remember at one point she threw up her hands and said, "Can't do this, I'm always just all thumbs." Well guess who the surgeon who operated on my DH last week turned out to be. I am assuming orthopedics is easier than sewing. Must be. All went very well, although there is a random staple that we can't quite explain, no where near the incision. He feels terrific though and that is all that matters.

Second story:

My dear daughter, mentioned above, is into her second trimester of pregnancy. On my learning curve is that this is not my pregnancy and she has actually been very sick, something I never was, which I realize has nothing to do with anything. She has been sick to the point of being quite miserable so one thing we decided to do was to go to matinees together when our schedules allowed to take her mind off it. 

The world of matinees is new to me and I have to tell you it is terrific. Instead of hordes of junior high kids we usually have the afternoon theatres to ourselves, except maybe for another mother and daughter duo. The rules are we go only to girly movies that require no thought and where the clothes are as interesting as anything else.

I had forgotten how important clothes are in movies. With all my angst over personal styles I realize that this is exactly what a costumer designer does for a film. Each character has a style that both reflects her personae and makes the most of her appearance.

Now isn't that exactly what we are all trying to do as we SWAP and in our discussions at places like Stitcher's guild?

Most instructive.

OK this is what I have noticed:

1. Colour is important. Obviously the actresses have to look good but they have to wear the clothes not the other way around. Colour draws your eye to the main characters, the extras are usually wearing neutrals.

2. Styles are actually very simple, very simple. Again probably that makes sure that the clothes don't dominate, there might be some decorative detail but the shapes are very simple. In one scene in Duplicity Julia Roberts wore a plain pant suit with a mandarin collar jacket and no closures, as plain as it could be, but in a wonderful silk in an unusual blue.

3. OK if the clothes are simple and the colours strong, accessories are interesting and key to the character. Remember Meg Ryan's cardigans in You've got mail?

There is a theme here and of course you only see the themes that are moving in the same direction you yourself are.

I have been wondering in my busy life just what I wear that I feel most comfortable in. 

I hate to admit that lately it has been the three elastic waist straight skirts I made this month and knit tops and sweaters. So how many fancy sewing projects do I need or want right now? 

Sometimes when I look at other people's blogs I am so impressed with the quality of the workman ship or the ambition of the garment that I think that's what I need to be doing too. I love these pictures and descriptions and undoubtedly spend hours and hours every week enjoying the sewing I see being done in other lives and in other homes. 

The truth is that I have done far more complex sewing in the past and imagine that when my life adjusts to give me sewing days and weeks on a regular basis rather than sewing minutes and hours I will be able to do more of that again. But right now, today, this week, this year, this life, I have to be more strategic in how I apply my time and energy and contrive how to feel the best I can in my clothes (as in comfortable and confident that I look as sharp as I can) with what I have to work with.

For me right now that makes fit a priority, more flattering colour and good fabrics.

Fabrics.

Now that's what's missing. I have been diligently sewing up a lot of the back log but what I am left with is basic - how excited can I get over yet more black linen blend. Who wakes up early to go look at basic black yardage?

I most definitely need to get myself into a place where the fabric is delicious for once and capable of making me feel that way when I wear it. Serviceable I can buy, beautiful I need.

Quick late night thoughts

I have been off air this last week and I am sorry about that. If only the posts written in your head could count. A medical issue in the family is now looking much better, 71 term papers are marked, and I am getting back to normal.

When things were stressful I realized the role sewing plays in my life as an escape - thinking about sewing takes me to a place that gives me some mental space when I need it. When I think about it too the times in my life when I was the most sewing productive they are often times in my life where other things were lacking, when my kids were very small and I needed to feel I had goals and achievements, on long nights on my own when my first husband was away at work, in fact any time in my life when I needed to have a personal sense of achievement, particularly when other kinds of achievement were hard to come by. Sometimes I can remember even think then  I was spinning straw into gold, turning borrowed bits of time and sometimes scare resources into something productive and even on good days, beautiful.

So when I was going through a bit of waiting and worrying this past while, but didn't really have the time or energy to sew, I became almost obsessive about thinking about sewing. 

After everyone was in bed at night, or early in the morning before the day started, I was constructing imaginary wardrobe plans, cruising the pattern sites, putting almost fabric purchases into my virtual shopping basket and then closing the window when I got to the checkout, making notes and plans for myself.

Clothing quite apart, my sewing world is my safe and sane place, a place where I can create all sorts of different realities, a positive, familiar place. My vocation, really, and like all vocations comforting in the security of skills you could execute in the dark, comforting in the way you can only feel when you are doing the stuff you really know how to do, that you are good at.

When I think of all the jobs I have picked up and put down in my life, using my education and experience to learn new things, fit into new positions, acquire new personae, it means a lot to me, underneath it all, underneath all my masks, the mask of professional for example, which some days in some situations takes a lot out of me to not let that mask slip, not in public, I possess a skill. 

A permanent skill, a craft that I can take with me, touch bottom with, count on. A skill and a craft with its own vocabulary, techniques, culture and associations. At these moments I understand why guild membership lasted for centuries in the middle ages, why it made sense to start a project that would last for centuries (see my stash), and why wherever a guild member travelled they knew they could find fellow travelers and could sit down with them, and out of common knowledge, start familiar, and useful conversations.

Like those we are having now.

Thank you.

Thanks for the sisterhood award!

Thanks to my friend Karen at a Corgi House for this nomination. I like the name because there really is a sense of the sisterhood about our virtual meetings on the web. Friends are people who share common interests and respect, maybe not just the folks in your own neighbourhood anymore.

Tomorrow when I have more time I am going to list my ten blogging sisters, it's late and it has been a very busy day, but I do want to share a sisterhood of sewing story. A long time ago now, remember the first war in Iraq, I was in a fabric store and they had the radio on. They were announcing the first  bombing of Bagdad. Over at the next cutting table a mild looking senior lady picked up her bolts and threw them hard down on the table and quite forcefully said "Another bunch of stupid men starting a stupid war that is only going to make things hard for women and the children they are trying to take care of." At that one moment I felt that the sisterhood of women was transcending all other realities and politics, hard to explain, just that ordinary women and mothers had so much more in common than all the other constructs of government and country.

I have never forgotten that moment.

More tomorrow. Thanks Karen.

On those arms

On and off on the sewing blogs there has been debate about whether or not Michele Obama should cover up those arms. From style experts on her strong arms have caught people's eyes and attention. All this in a society that is training teenage girls that cleavage falling out of wonder bras is OK in class.

This morning Maureen Dowd in the NYTImes said it best. I hope hers is the last word. Here is what Dowd wrote:


During the campaign, there was talk in the Obama ranks that Michelle should stop wearing sleeveless dresses, because her muscles, combined with her potent personality, made her daunting.

She ignored that talk, thank heavens. I love the designer-to-J. Crew glamour. Combined with her workaday visits to soup kitchens, inner-city schools and meetings with military families, Michelle’s flare is our depression’s answer to Ginger Rogers gliding around in feathers and lamé.

Her arms, and her complete confidence in her skin, are a reminder that Americans can do anything if they put their minds to it. Unlike Hillary, who chafed at the loathed job of first lady, and Laura, who for long stretches disappeared into the helpmeet role, Michelle has soared every day, expanding the job to show us what can be accomplished by a generous spirit, a confident nature and a well-disciplined body.

I also have no doubt she can talk cap-and-trade with ease and panache.

On not insignificant small pleasures

My mother had a cousin she liked but who sometimes embarrassed her. Disabled as an infant by a birth injury he learned to walk only just before he started school and struggled to keep walking his whole life. This she admired.

What made her uncomfortable was that sometimes he was pretty colourful. Let's just say his nickname was Eight Ball and leave it at that. He worked as a store detective and even as a small child I figured out that it was pretty weird that he was supposed to be undercover when anyone could see him coming and never forget him.

The man had a way with words though. One of his favourites I will never forget was "You never know from where you sit when the man in the balcony is going to spit."

This needs no explanation.

Thing is things happen, and the older you get and the more extensive your family, stuff just happens and increasingly I can see that, as a woman of this age, my role is transforming into one of someone who needs to support but often just can't fix it. That's the role I am growing into this weekend. Hope for the best and do what you can do, and keep yourself going so you can do that.

A while ago I was moved by a post on A Corgihouse about a series of events, a death, and some hard times. Seems to me that sometimes things happen that just are not fair, and sometimes lots happens at a time. So what do you do?

I personally believe that big problems are often handled best by holding on to small pleasures. Restoring order when you clean -a shiny bathroom in a messy day, the way an old dog still lifts her nose to catch a new scent in the wind, someone walking carefully across a room so they don't spill the tea they made for you. Making tea for someone else.

I think it is so important we do not underestimate the power of these things, and I find so many of these small and restorative pleasures when I sew.

Here are some I enjoy:

Finishing the seam before the bobbin thread runs out.

Sewing and particularly pressing cotton after a long time of working with other, more difficult fabrics.

Putting in a zipper and doing it up and finding that it is perfectly even at the top.

Thinking, being sure, you have thrown out that facing piece and finding it right on your sewing table.

Looking for the first time in the mirror at something you were not sure you would like and realizing it is the nicest thing you have made in a long time.

These small things are not so small. They are little links to normal life when life isn't normal, reminders that life is lived in the details, and as long as well hold on to that, we hold onto ourselves.

What are your own small joys while sewing?

Therapy sewing

I have had an intense week.

Some health issues in the family turned up and my after work hours have involved a lot of thinking through the information, listening lots and trying to say and do the right thing. I'm beat. I think that things are going to work out fine but this is no weekend for me to attempt anything that requires major brain power. That's used up for the moment.

So guess what? I'm doing the dreaded bedroom curtains. Usually the long straight seams of home dec bore me to death but mindless sewing is particularly appropriate at the moment. A plus will be that once this is done it will be behind me.

Off to indulge myself by setting up the iron in the living room close to the TV and kitchen and to just sew.

Back later.