And here at Santa's workshop

Tonight my husband asked me "why are you doing Christmas stuff, lots of time left."

This just expresses the Great Gender Divide in a nutshell.

On one side are those who cook an excellent turkey and figure Christmas has been accomplished. You know the same crew who give people the microwaveable socks they picked up at Canadian Tire at 5:30 December 24th.

On the other side are those who consider the holiday season as sort of a personal version of the invasion of Normandy, with pins in the maps, troop movements to be planned for, ambushes to be anticipated.

You know which side I am on.

With family spread around and with my idea that everyone needs at least one home made item I have been at this for months, mentally at least. 

So for the last few weeks my sewing has been confined to hopeful cutting and bagging of things I am going to do once we hit the beach head.

My sewing looks like this:

Most of the rest of my none job time has gone to doing things I don't do all that well, namely knitting and crafting.

My knitting is better than my crafting, but nowhere as good as my sewing unfortunately. Of the many projects on the go in more or less every room of the house I have a chunky wool shawl lying semi blocked on a towel in the kid's room. Hopefully it will be dry by Christmas. This is for my daughter who mentioned last winter that she wouldn't mind something to keep her warm in the evenings in the family room.

Even more of my time has been spent on the Barbie doll house project for the little girls. I have a good idea that I am not going to get the intended plastic canvas needlework living room set done in time so I have been putting together some things morphed from Value Village knick knack stuff.

I am a really horrible crafter actually. I might as well be using that glue gun with my feet and my hats off to any really crafty folks out there with both taste and manual dexterity. I am doing my best though and this is being done for the little girls who are enormously accommodating and positive.

These are of course the same characters who say things like "Babs you look like a princess" when they see me in the morning with my hair vertical and my bathrobe on before I have had my coffee. I mean kids are the best.

So after that intro here are some shots of my furniture experiments, with designer notes:

This is supposed to be a bathroom vanity. I made it out of a mini jewel box that I took the lid off of, and painted, a cardboard counter covered clumsily with marbled adhesive shelf liner and a china ramekin I got at the grocery store in the dishes section. The faucets are beads and the tap is the semi destroyed lobster claw fastener I got a Michael's in the jewelry department , all inexpertly glue gunned in (that explains all lumpy bits). I am accessorizing with a mini brush and soap dispenser and a tiny bottle of cotton balls - all part of a grab bag of Barbie junk I got on eBay for $5.00.

The bathtub is the china top of a butter dish with the stick on felt feet I would be putting under things I put on the end tables in the living room if I was a good housekeeper. Same deal with the tap and faucets. 

Here is the bed. The lid of a card board box with feet from small craft wooden spools and the headboard is a decorative picture frame also from Michaels. I made the mattress and pillows and no I didn't knit the bedspread for the bed - this was something I found at the bottom of my failed knitting project box - I thought I was going to knit a summer purse but stopped doing it when I realized that was a dumb idea. Fortunately I kept the piece and added some borders to turn it into this bedspread.

The colour scheme of the bedroom is based another jewellery box I found at Value Village that I think looks like a pretty good wardrobe. I think I got this for $3.99.

I had big ideas to fill this up with handmade Barbie doll clothes but that's not going to happen. 

BTW I have a bunch of vintage Barbie patterns I got at yard sale and looking at them I am wondering if Barbie has put on weight since then. Seems the new Barbie and Ken I have are looking a little more muscular than the ones I played with. Will I have to flat pattern measure? That sounds horrifying.

Finally here is the living room furniture - built on a set of wicker I found also at Value Village. I realized that I needed to have something in purple or the girls wouldn't think it was fancy so I painted the wicker purple and glue gunned little pillows in place.

So tomorrow we are going to work on the actual house part and I am going to attempt to Modge Podge some scapbooking paper to the walls for wall paper. I am fairly stressed about that prospect. Hope I can sleep tonight.

Stay tuned.

Now how are your own holiday preparations going?

Answer and question

This is a big catch-up post.

I have been on overdrive getting my marking done and my end-of-term marks in and I have been heavily involved in getting my Christmas stuff made/sent away.

My youngest and his girlfriend stayed with me until they left for four months in New Zealand Wednesday (gee my boys have nice girlfriends) but of course they left before I could get a shot of the shirt I made him (he flew out in it, a good sign) or the hat and scarf I knit her. And yesterday I mailed out three packages for my son and his girlfriend in Brooklyn. He will be spending the holidays with her family in Maryland, much closer, as he is negotiating what is hopefully going to be a new job, and it really wasn't a good time to leave the country for a week.

I made them a few things and of course I can't show them to you on the off chance they read my blog. Got to maintain the element of surprise. And since those two in New York have far more good taste than I do I am quite certain they will be truly surprised when they see what I have made for their apartment.

So having cleared that part of the decks what I have ahead of me now is work on the Barbie dollhouse for the little girls and, once I finish something for a guy my husband works with (this man does leatherwork and is making a purse for his mom and needs someone to sew a lining with a zipper - he doesn't do fabric), I am, get this, going to be able to start sewing for myself.

I am more or less desperate to get back to garment sewing. I have two most beautiful pieces of double knit from Mood that I want to make two more Kristen dresses from and it is burning me up. 

Just having the fabric in my house has made me happy. Recently I bought the bullet and actually threw out some fabric I got from another vendor because the one piece I had made from that lot pilled after two washes. I decided there was no point in investing time on the rest of it, a rayon single knit, in different colours.

The more I sew the more good fabric means to me.

I am also going to be making my fourth pair of Barb pants, which brings me to Patti's question about that pattern.

Listen Patti I love it. The leg is slimmer (see a picture a few posts back) than the Lindas but not too skinny. Enough to look modern but not uncomfortable. The key to these pants is a fabric with decent stretch crosswise as the hip is fairly close. After the second pair I added a little to that area and found them more comfortable -it will depend on how much your fabric gives - so you might want to sew pair one with a wider seam allowance to adjust to fit.

All that said this is now my favourite pants pattern. Stylish and a snap to sew, IMO another Style Arc winner.

So that's the answer.

Now a question.

Last night I was at a retirement party for a wonderful colleague and ran into one of my favourite students. This girl is smart, industrious, beautiful, and so talented. And of course being a thinking person at the start of her career she struggles with self-confidence, wondering what direction is the right one for her, trying to figure out when to be brave and when to play it safe.

I looked at her, from the other end of a career, and thought to myself of all the mediocre folks I have seen, with about a quarter going for them what this kid has, who have done very well in their careers because they just believed in themselves so much (OK mostly they have been men, no surprise). 

I wanted to tell her to relax, enjoy herself, just do good work, and something I tried to explain about protecting your core. 

You know what I mean? 

Work is just work and you have to learn to keep yourself separate so professional judgments and set-backs don't get taken to heart. To be able to work really hard and do your best but not take it personally. To have anchors in your life (for me this has been family and my sewing - no matter what happened at the office I could always come home and put in one hell of a zipper).

So my question to you all this morning is what would you say to twenty something young woman to give her the perspective on work and life that a person has in a well-developed career that really would be more useful at the beginning?

What do you wish someone had said to you? What would, as they say, you say to yourself at that age?

These are interesting questions. Look forward to your thoughts. 

Quick thought

I am in the middle of making the first of this season's Christmas dinners but had one thought to share, something I read today that seems sewing relevant:

Only do what only you can do.

Translate that to sewing.

I will be posting a few shots of recent projects once the recipients have opened the presents tonight that is if it all fits.

Later.

Reset

We are heading into The Busy Month and I have many thoughts and projects rattling around in my brain.

Christmas is going to occur in several stages and probably one off location this year and getting ready for that is, next to my end of term marking, top of the list.

My youngest son and girlfriend are off to New Zealand for six months December 11, so there is a Christmas replication dinner going on next weekend here, and I have to get my sewing/knitting done in advance of that for them. And it is likely my son in NYC won't have the time to take the usual week off to come home this year (all good because I know he is welcome at his girlfriend's parents' if that happens - got to make sure all family is covered by family somewhere) and I have to get their gifts sent off soon too.

Mixed in with all of this is sort of a reset thing going on with me prompted by the large recent birthday (60) and the realization that somehow a few things in my life have simultaneously passed their expiry date.

One of these things is rethinking my professional life and for lack of a better way to say it, what my professional life has done to me.

I can express this best through sewing.

All of you who work or have worked in corporate or, in my case government/politics too, will know what I mean by The Look. The dark clothes, subdued look that just goes with the territory. It is the same territory occupied by meetings, standing committees, strategic plans, follow-up emails, and being careful to establish your own competencies within the first 30 seconds of meeting someone. You know those 30 seconds you could have spent finding out how nice the other person was instead.

Well somehow my lifetime allocation for all of that has been used up. My lines, so carefully drawn for so many years between who I am and who I am at work, have started to blur and that is just fine with me. All of a sudden.

This does not mean I don't love my work, I really love teaching, but increasingly the core business of students is all I really care about, and I care about it a lot. It matters to me how these kids turn out, that I can give them skills and ideas to help them in wherever they are going, but mission statement design - not so much.

Sorry about that.

So the energy of the classroom is inspiring my work clothes rethink and that right now means the completely black and grey wardrobe is on its way out.

I figure if I don't get it under control the mass market will turn me into one of those middle-aged women who ends up dressed like this at fun events:

I have no idea what Guy LaRoche was thinking, but really what kind of a life does this express?

Now the problem in not doing the look after all these years, is it is a bit unnerving and I have to figure out how to do it.

For instance I can't imagine what I was thinking when this piece climbed onto the cutting table at Mood last week. Not sure where I think I am going to wear something like this, although it would probably be suitable for a funeral in Florida. I mean I have to watch myself lest I end up, at top speed, like a semi-retired colleague who turned up at a meeting in purple shoes, socks, pants, top, jacket and purse.

This sort of thing could easily happen if there aren't still some kind of braking systems in play. 

Be prepared to spit out your coffee:

And I need a second opinion on the orange double knit I mentioned before. Do you think I can get away with this in a plain dress? Maybe with a grey sweater over it? It really is more a coral I decided, and definitely something that appealed when I must have been seriously vitamin C deprived.

Probably time to get The Light (the one I got one February at the huge pile at the local drugstore) out:

Or at least I need to get myself some more sewing time.

Yesterday I was able to get some time to do that. I am imposing my growing randomness on the family. For instance I went to New York with napkins I had made with retro vinyl record print on them, because my son had told me they had bought a "mid-century modern" turntable. Not sure what they thought of the napkins but I can guarantee you they didn't already have any and my son, well-trained to notice these things, gave my full marks for my miters.

On that theme yesterday I started sewing a flannel shirt for my youngest son who has been spending at lot of time working on his cabin. I figured this print was perfect:

And on that theme again,  he is Mr. Sustainable Living, I am also knitting him socks out of my left over heavy Swedish sock wool, randomly. Here is the first one:

Of course the second sock isn't going to look at all like this one and hopefully he will see that as a good thing.

I figure I may keep going like this until the family tells me to stop, or I catch sight of myself in head-to-toe purple.

Whatever comes first.

On the fly

Just checking in to let you know I am still here. 

Flew in tonight after a really great weekend in NYC with my son and his girlfriend. I stayed with them for the first time this visit and really enjoyed that. I am not a formal person so walking around talking in my pyjamas is my speed. The son really lucked out with this girl and so did I. I met her folks too for the first time and they were really nice people, makes sense with a daughter like that.

In between eating great food and walking around Brooklyn which is new to me, I did take the subway and hit the garment district. A shorter trip this time because I had a concert to go to at night and didn't see hauling in my usual giant bags of fabric would be appropriate. However I did some light shopping and observing and this is a little of that for those of you, like me, who don't get out much:

• Do you know you can buy zippers with the tape in unbleached cotton so you can dye to match? How cool is that? 
• Do you know Mood is selling invisible zippers for $1 each and the tapes are narrow 3/8" for RTW seam allowances? 
• Do you know I bought bright orange rayon double knit for a dress? I can't believe it myself actually. Three weeks in the wet grey Nova Scotia fall did something to my head. It was the only colour I wanted that day, sort of like I had colour scurvy and needed it.
• You know those purse patterns that call for D rings? Botani's has 8,000 versions in different shapes and colours, all different.
• Do you know you can hold up a metal teeth jacket zipper to your body and the folks at most places just cut it to that size?
• Do you know that they make rectangular sew in snaps are smooth and shiny like mirrors?
• Do you know that if you drop your ice cream cone on the sidewalk and go back in for another one, if you are an older woman and it is raining and you remind them of your grandmother or someone escaped from a mental hospital, they will replace it for free?
• Do you know the subway is easy?
• Do you know Macy's sells Polish makeup?
• Do you know that not one person in NYC or Nova Scotia is wearing a bright orange dresses this winter?
• Do you know that might change?

Now tomorrow. Back to work.

Flypaper thoughts again

• Got a flu shot two weeks ago
• Went in for a chocolate bar and got a vaccine because they were free
• Got the real flu right now
• You get what you pay for
• Beats me why every single person in Nova Scotia doesn't emigrate every November
• Grey sky, cold weather, grey rain
• The clothes in the stores are grey too
• Fought back
• Went out in the sleet and bought a palm tree and brought it home
• I can see it down the hall from my bed
• It is green
• I love my students
• What ever happens between being 20 and funny and wearing sequinned Ugg boots and being a middle-aged person who gets crabby at meetings and wears grey has to stop 
• Stop right now
• Never wonder where that girl went
• Do you know you can make jam in a bread maker if it has jam cycle?
• No word of a lie
• Stole it back from my daughter's garage where it was on its way out
• Bit runny but no work at all
• Perfect for making jam from a death bed
• Latest version of the Barb pants fit perfectly
• How good is it that a pattern with your name on it fits
• After you add 2" to the waistband
• Wonder if the university would let me teach sewing classes after hours
• We could set up the bread maker too
• On the jam cycle
• If I don't pass this on who will?
• If a woman has enough hobbies she never wonders where that girl went
• That's the point

Things I have noticed and things I have done

First of all there is not a lot of great sewing progress to report.

Beautiful new baby last weekend and for the last five days my husband and I have been taking care of the little girls while their folks were visiting the NYC son on location, although that location is now Brooklyn.

I would be more jealous if it were not for the fact that I myself will be there in two weeks time - garment district lookout. Me lookout too actually. Since I am going to be staying with my son and his very nice girlfriend, who must by now be wondering what she got into when she signed up to be the Nova Scotia Consulate, I have also decided this is my visit to Conquer the Subway.

No big deal of course for normal people but I have two profound handicaps. 

One is claustrophobia (undoubtedly a product of my upbringing on the Canadian Prairies were everything was above ground and you could see across at least two provinces (hills and mountains are known as something that ruins the view). The other is my incredible lack of anything resembling a sense of direction. I still get lost in my own house and it is a bungalow and I have lived here for 26 years.

My problem with getting lost is partially due to the fact I get easily distracted. If there is someone on that train with a cool fabric on her coat I will miss my stop and at least ten others. 

I am hoping that the magnetic field that is the garment district will keep me straight.

Our time with the little girls was fantastic, once we figured out that Miss Scarlett was happiest if she slept in my big cozy bed with me and Rascal - which put my husband on the couch - although it did make it clear to us that it was probably a good idea that my daughter have a break and we glad we could help her do it. Taking care of a 4 and 2 year old requires planning for a 5:00 a.m. start time and the three hours every night when you sit on the couch and say "I shouldn't have sat down." I figure it is that they just are so much smarter than we are. 

Which is a good thing.

And which brings me to a thought I had this morning reading the NY Times. Some kid has just published a scientifically significant study of the bacterial contamination of kosher and organic chickens opposed to the other stuff.

The line that I noticed was that to do this he, helped by his mother, bought 213 chicken thighs. Ha. I can see it now, a woman standing at the meat counter with her car keys "Listen I know this sounds silly but my kid has this project..." I wonder what favours she had to pull to store them? 

No one knows what mothers do.

So right now this mother is off duty except for hemming another edition of the Barb pants. I wore my last version to work where they got the "sitting down all day test" which revealed a need for a 1 1/2" addition to the waist. 

That's all the sewing I have been able to do, except for several garments that now have sleeves and not much else, done in prep for my Burdastyle class this Thursday. I am ready to go on that one and actually think sleeves are one of my best things, sort of balancing out that sense of direction thing.

Later.