On hibernation and life

It is deep winter here in Nova Scotia.

Icy and cold outside. Daisy walks with boots on and a down coat.

This season, which is one of great therapeutic value in many ways (Canadians tell themselves things like this a lot), has made me think of how wise nature is. 

The smart ones fly away like the Monarch butterflies who go 20,000 miles to Mexico and back, or like the V shaped flocks we see going away every fall and coming back every spring.

But lately I have been thinking of the hibernators, the bears, skunks, bees, and bats who eat up, hole up, and snuggle up till it is reasonable to come out.

For this human hibernation has been a whole lot of sewing.

This year we put off our annual trip south to be able to spend more time with my daughter. But next week we are going to be leaving to go down to Texas to visit one son in Austin, and from there a flight to Berkeley to visit the other son, my daughter-in-law, and new granddaughter. I admit to you I am feeling anxious about leaving my daughter who has a a few new challenges lately, but she has promised to be truthful about how she is feeling when I am away. And planes have been invented right? And I really need to spend some time with my other kids.

On the way home we will be stopping in Tulsa where I will be teaching at the Vintage Sewing Adventure. I have corresponded with the organizers a lot and really like them so decided this was something I wanted to do. Plus the conference will have an association with the Sewing Machine Museum and I really want to see that a lot.

Now those of you who know me know I am not exactly a vintage styled dresser. The style thing which I love, but not compatible with my current life.

BTW anyone else watching Mrs. Maisel on Prime? 

The clothes alone are worth it. Although I have to say that it is not entirely believable. Why would Joel at any time not want to work in his dad's garment district factory? This part makes no sense. I love the shots of the bolts of fabric and the machines. He has a chance to work in the garment district in its heyday. I wish when I talk to the screen that he could hear me.

Back on topic.

So even though I am not a vintage dresser I have become recently very interested in something I am calling Heritage Sewing. To me this is the technical side of garment construction that utilizes methods and thinking that previous sewing women used.

I have been doing a lot of research on this and this is my big discovery.

There are a lot of really cool techniques that have been lost! 

It has been my big discovery that in the mass production/simplification/commercialization of all aspects of the sewing industry that some intriguing ideas have been sort of been forgotten.

I have decided to do a little work on sharing as much of that as I can.

I think this is important for these reasons:

1. So many of these methods are so effective and easy. Some of these ideas would make modern sewing better and easier. Somethings are meant to be passed down generation to generation. What happens when a few generations stop doing that?

2. Cultural responsibility. This is women's history. I am talking about housewife and home dressing maker sewing here. History is made by who kept the records. That's why so much of boring history is all about politics and men. Those were just the folks who were writing it down.

I want to acknowledge the work and creativity of those who were unrecorded - specifically women who worked alone in their homes and made wonderful things with their hands for themselves and those they loved.

I want their afternoons remembered and honoured. I want their work and thinking to be passed on in some way in this relay of life.

Does that make sense?

So I decided to go to Tulsa and teach a session on vintage sewing machine attachments as a starting place in this.

Here's why.

So many of these crazy, bizarre looking attachments do an amazing job of completely aceing some of sewing's more tricky jobs. 

A few of these attachments of their modern pseudo versions I have used, some like modern binders and narrow hemmers, but I have to tell you the vintage attachments just work so, so much better. As in hands off, relax and watch it work better. 

No struggle.

Now one of my sons and I were talking about this. He works in the tech industry in San Francisco and understands the theme of our time - that all things technical are just advancing and advancing. That this year's model is better than last years.

I get this. 

I am not a nostalgia type, good old days person of the sake of needing to just slow it all down. I am not a collector or a period dresser, that is something I respect but just not me.

But I know a good brain when I see its fruits in action. 

And I have been seeing some really smart engineering and thinking in evidence as I have watched some of these old 50-60 year old attachments (which BTW with and adapter foot will fit on and work on modern machines) manipulate fabric and place it exquisitely, effectively under the needle.

This has been a light bulb moment.

What about the concept of lost technology?

What if a better way to do some things had been developed and then forgotten?

What about that?

So this is what I am going to do.

Right now I have been making my samples up for Tulsa and putting together class notes. 

I have decided to turn these notes into a little how-to booklet that I will share after I have done the workshop.

Do you think anyone would be interested in something like that?

Tomorrow I am going to do a long post on blogging and what I am wondering about that.

In the meantime here are some shots of my vintage attachment using samples:

More later.

Flypaper thought what have I been up to editon

• Well I am glad I cleared up where fashion is headed 
• You heard it from me
• The new fashions are going to be new
• I have been pondering this wide leg pants thing and looking at the picture of myself
• It has occurred to me that wide leg pants more or less make all legs look shorter and heavier
• After I had this thought I tried to think of women I knew who wanted to have legs that looked shorter and heavier
• Still trying to think of anyone
• Someone 
• In addition to being on the leading edge of the fashion prediction business
• I have been in 1932
• Also 1948
• And 1956
• And 1961
• These are the dates of some of the sewing machine manuals and accessory feet I have become very involved with
• Doing a class in Tulsa and thinking of putting together a little booklet
• Well do I have news for you
• Progress has not be linear in our world
• There are so many things some of these bizarre attachments do that new machines can't do anymore
• Not even the ones that are the size of a large beer cooler
• A vintage narrow hem foot is a piece of cake
• Get a raw edge near it and it sucks it up
• You can close your eyes and put your foot down
• Next thing you know there's a perfect 1/8" rolled hem with the stitches a hair away from the edge
• Absolutely no operator skill required
• And you should see the adjustable hemmer
• Or the tucker that actually creases the fabric for the next tuck for you while it stitches
• You can't program that
• So right now instead of my assignments being marked or my floors being washed
• This place is draped with garlands of ruffles
• Lots of time well wasted going on around here
• Winter was invented for detours like this
• In my spare time I am also taking a Mediterranean diet course
• An about this kind of food as opposed to diet
• I am opposed to diets so this works
• The teacher cooks us eggplant and we discuss chia seeds
• Which aren't at all Mediterranean
• But neither is the teacher
• She's from Dietetics
• Love the class
• The young man with the beard who wants to know where to use hemp powder
• And the woman who keeps asking where are the sausage recipes?
• And the runner who is worried about balancing his enzymes
• While the teacher points out that the 35% of your recommended daily salt intake on the label
• In the fine print says per 1/8 teaspoon
• Probably as close as the Mediterranean is going to get to Nova Scotia this year
• And pretty entertaining
• Learning new things is good
• Even when the new things are old
• What am I going to do with all these ruffles?
• And eggplant?
• Will decide in the spring

Pants pictures

For a start I have to say I married my husband for his cooking and his kindness, not his photographic skills.

Now we have that out of the way let's talk pants.

I had some rayon/ poly/lycra so I experimented this week with some pants.

The first was my favourite Margaret stretch wovens from Stylearc. I like this pattern a lot but lately I have been fed up a bit with the elastic waist thing sliding down when I move.

Remembering that I liked the yoga waist I put on some leggings, I dragged out some heavy supple knit and cut out a band and stitched that on instead. Much improvement in fit and feel although I wish I hadn't grabbed this fabric late at night, it is navy actually I had hoped for black

Here are the pants on me front and back:

It's a pretty nice leg on these pants, but after pondering on the likelihood that pants are getting wider I dragged out my trusty old Jalie pull-on pants pattern. I then made some wide leg pants out of the same fabric, even though that pattern calls for a woven not a knit.

I faced the waist casing with a scrap of poplin, which is the part of the pants I liked best:

As you can see these are fairly gathered in the casing and there is as a consequence a bit of that showing at the top:

These pants are of course very comfortable but I am going to have to get used to the wider legs. Looking is sort of a despairing way at the pictures I am not showing you I am sort of coming to the conclusion that on my body I really need a fitted with a zipper waist and not an elastic casing in wider pants. It seems to me that on me if the legs are wider the top needs to be smoother.

Or maybe something like Stylearc Fifis would be another place to start. I kind of have got used to the comfort and sewing speed of pull-on pants.

Of course a traditional pants waist  means considerable more time spent on fitting and fiddling and I will have to thing of a pattern to start working on. Quite a few other things on the table right now, so you might have to hold on with that one for a while.

And of course wider pants are going to mean new proportions in tops. Of course that means more patterns and fabrics to consider, so I am not seeing that as a real challenge.

Weather's changing

I have been so busy this last week. Tomorrow I am going to be posting some pictures promise. 

A lot of new ideas and projects on my mind right now and a sewing table piled high with cut out garments.

More on all of this as the week unrolls.

Right now though I am thinking that one of those shifts in fashion is about to occur.

You know how it goes.

Just when you get your head adjusted to a certain look, to the point it seems normal, like say long tops with skinny jeans and leggings, just when you have everything oriented more or less to those proportions, and this would be including your head, they do a 180 in fashion.

Now of course it is perfectly reasonable to say you will avoid all of this and stick to classics.

This is fine if you never spill anything, like say coffee when you laugh. Or spaghetti sauce because you are standing at the counter in with your coat half off and someone says taste it and you are starving. If you never are that person then you can dress entirely in white shirts.

Or if you the size of a minute. And can walk by bush without getting snagged, and have never caught your watch in anything, then you can wear a lot of tweed Chanel jackets every day.

If you are that person then definitely you should stick to classics. 

Except of course button-up shirt dresses.

I defy anyone to wear these at all without getting the buttons caught in the handles of drawers, or if you are tall and your stomach sticks out (just saying) doorknobs, and rip them open every time.

Yes you can avoid the whole fashion thing with classics.

Or you can go creative which is a comfortable option except for the part where your daughter says "you're not wearing that!" or your husband asks "What is that supposed to be?" which isn't really a great start to your own career as an independent dresser, although better than shirt dresses.

And really even if you are creative, a position I endorse, you really want to show some sense that you know what year it is too.

This matters if you have decided you don't necessarily want to be like my brother-in-law, lovely man, great sense of humour, who has worn the same aviator glasses frames since they were invented sometime when we were all still in school, which would be quite some time before he became a grandfather.

Which leads me to what I see from my haute couture position in a Nova Scotia bungalow as fashion's early warning indicator.

I am talking about pants.

A blouse is a blouse.

A straight skirt is a straight skirt.

No carbon dating possible there, but pant styles are a dead give away.

It is my own personal theory that pants fashions are the first sign that things are really about to change, that the old weathervane of what we wear sort of starts spinning.

The news, folks, as I figure it, is there is a corner appearing on our little sewing street.

When we turn it:

Pants are going back up to and past the waist.

Tops are going to get more fitted and shorter. Ladies are we going to start tucking in again?

Pant and tops are related in this change thing because of the universal truth and great rule of life which is that if one half of your body is narrow the other half needs to be wider. 

And vice versa, or as they say around here, the other way around.

My prediction is everything we now wear is going to start to look dated, if we fight it or not.

I present my case.

J. Crew catalogue (not exactly the runway but a good place to find new styes interpreted conservatively):

And then there's these patterns.

The cult like Lander pants which everyone is making if they can figure out how to make them fit or not:

Tessuti's Chiara:

And Stylearc's Fifi, which has a flat front and an elastic back:

There really is a change happening here.

This week my daughter out of the blue said to me she would love some trendy new jeans - you know the ones that came to your waist, loose at the hips and narrowing at the ankle.

I nearly choked on my coffee, good thing I wasn't wearing a white shirt, but was gracious enough to point out these were the same mom jeans she told me when she was a teenager was never going to wear in her own life.

But it wonder now if I will ever be wearing, or making something like these Guise pants from Papercut:

So many important things to think about.

More tomorrow.

Right now I think I had better call my next younger sister to tell her the '80s are on the way back. We sort of ruled the 80s as I remember. We owned the curling iron bang flip.

Must check if her button earring collection is still intact.

Hope so.

Who would ever throw something like that out?

Batch cutting

I woke up this week on Monday and decided it was time I took some time to sew for myself.

Things have gotten a bit thin in the practical clothing department - a combination of a lot of quality time spent sewing for family and a combination of the influence of that stupid Kondo book (my apologies to anyone who thinks it is not stupid - just reflecting on my own situation) which has meant that every time I remember some odd garment that would be perfect for an odd occasion, I realize I have decluttered it out of life.

A person who saves things just in case is really swimming upstream these days. With both my daughter and one of my sisters all into minimalism and decluttering I have been talked into saying real dumb things to myself like "have a worn this in the last year?" before throwing them out.

Any realistic person, particularly one who sews, will tell you that not having worn something for a year is a completely meaningless criterion.

Reasons that a person might not have worn something for 12 months might include:

• no one has died recently and that is a perfect funeral outfit
• no one has gotten married recently and that is a perfect vaguely related to somebody on some side wedding guest outfit
• forgetting you owned this item of clothing
• because your closet is so full of other more recent sewing projects it was jammed in a closet corner
• because your mind is elsewhere like on what you want to sew next so deeply that has pushed the what you have sewn already stuff out of your brain and through your ears into space or something like that
• because you just forgot - which in itself means nothing and is a sign of nothing OK?
• that this garment was so a) tedious b) slow c) tricky to sew that by the time it was finished you were so sick of the sight of it that you ignored it for a good long while
• it needs some sort of alteration. No need to explain further, we all know how we all feel about alterations
• you decided to change your look or style or whatever and went through a period where you decided you were anti-blouse and a knit person until the random moment when you remembered that knits cling and you really suit blouses

Well none of the above are good reasons to kiss any garment goodbye and send it on it's way thanking it for its service.

Although right now if I could get some things back from Value Village like that blue blouse that had a FBA and really fit or that Persian Lamb coat I might kiss them then.

All of this is to explain why I woke up this Monday morning and said "my turn."

So for most of this week when I wasn't working or being semi responsible or dog walking I cut out a bunch of projects, all things I need for the immediate future which next month is going to include state parking it to Texas and back.

Little explanation on the state parks and my husband.

Although the rv is pretty comfortable my spouse is an out in the woods versus a rv park with golf carts kind of guy. 

I like this myself, apart from the coyote sauntering past me sewing at the picnic table part, but it has very specific wardrobe requirements. Like warm clothes for when the propane runs out, or sort of publicly decent housecoats for going to the bath house for a shower because the hot water has run out because, well see above.

So I kind of let everything slide this week except cutting out. This is what I have on the table now:

4 pairs of knit jogger/sweatpants

2 pairs of linen wide legged pull-on pants

1 housecoat (that's what you call them in Canada. A lounger? bathrobe?) with a zipper to go in it

9 tee shirts

1 sort of sweater coat thing in really cool speckled jogging fleece

3 pullover Lovenotions Constellation tops

8 pairs of underwear because I had a lot of scraps and well that propane thing

I pair of knit pyjamas in a style that a six year old would wear in a snowflake print I was hoping to use up at Christmas

Of course I have a list too of things to make for other people, including an apron for a florist one of my other sisters works with, but my plan is to try to get as much of this done as I can over the next few weeks, and pack the rest up for finishing on the road, we leave on February 15th.

When all of this utility sewing is done I will turn my attention to a hopefully more interesting spring wardrobe. Right now though I am sort of looking forward to just getting some new things to wear for real life.

And I will post pictures.

In the meantime I will post a picture of what is in front of me now, my daughter's dog Reggie. I am sort of the designated dog sitter around here, Reggie and even my newly single long ago first husband's dog, because I like the dog.

Reggie is the biggest character though.

If you make eye contact he comes and sits on you, all 80 pounds and more or less you need a crane or another person to get him off, because he sure likes laps.

He also eats whatever isn't nailed down. This starts conversations around here like 

"Belt. Do you think I can leave my clothes for work laid out, even the belt. No you are right maybe not the belt. Better put it up somewhere high." 

Last time we had him he ate three pounds of butter and one pie, although he is a very neat eater. 

So far his personal best is an entire pineapple including the green leaves at the top. 

Not any dog can do that.

Well here is Reggie.

Probably resting up or at least digesting something.

He has to pace himself. I guess we all do.

Messages we send children

Before I get to what's on my mind tonight I should apologize for being a rotten sewing blogger. 

In the last four days I have made two garments for my daughter-in-law and another jacket for my husband. But before those could be photographed, which is what a good blogger would do, the jacket went off to work on my spouse and the things for my DIL got packed to be delivered by my daughter who is flying out tomorrow to meet the new baby.

Oh well.

For the next little while I am going to be making some crazy things for myself and you know I do stand still enough for pictures.

Now back to the subject at hand.

For various reasons this week I have been thinking of the things we say to children and how those things, if we intend to or not, get carried away with them as part of who they are, for life.

That's a pretty significant responsibility and it is something all of us need to be mindful of.

Right now I am considering all the times we affect young children not by what we tell them they can do or who they are, but of all the times we limit them by carving off some experiences as not for them.

I am thinking for example of toys, among other things.

I have three grandchildren here, the two girls and a boy. 

Over the holidays a woman my daughter works with sent over bags and bags of American Girl doll clothes her own kids didn't need any more.

It was quite a haul, a huge number of outfits and even an American Girl bicycle. Imagine how cool that is.

Well the girls have been happily playing with all this stuff for a while now and little Billy, their brother, has just been relegated to watch and plead for a chance to put on some tiny jacket, some pair of tiny shoes.

Last time I was over this week doing after school duty he told me that more than anything in the world he wanted and "American Girl Boy doll."

Of course he did.

So on the way home I swung by Walmart because it was on the way and checked out the toy department. Myself and another grandmother, who was there looking for a baby doll for her African Nova Scotian granddaughter, went through the shelves. I was pretty pleased to find that there was quite a variety, Asian dolls (now that's about time), dolls in wheelchairs and dolls with arm braces. Dolls that looked like the people who would play with them.

And me, I found an 18 inch boy doll for Billy.

Well this is what he thought of that:

Of course if I had been thinking ahead I would have realized what would come next - a request for clothes. Pyjamas, a bathing suit, and of course, because this is Canada - a hockey uniform.

This last one made me smile.

Billy's dad, my wonderful son-in-law, tells a story of when he was a kid and quit hockey. He just decided he would rather stay at home on Saturdays and watch the cartoons than go to practice, like his brothers.

Well the first Saturday morning he did this his dad threw a Sears catalogue down the stairs to the basement. "Here, if you are going to stay home, pick out a dress," his dad said.

The irony of course is that one of his brothers, down at the rink, would end up coming out as gay. 

They all love that story now.

The thing is of course not that boys can't play with dolls (or bake in Easy Bake ovens as this viral campaign proved) but that by not giving young males little people to play with we are, even unintentionally, cutting them off from opportunities to think about and practice taking care of other little humans. 

What a terrible thing it is to dam up something like that flowing in any child.

I was thinking of this after Billy, with great gentleness. held a newborn last evening, or of my son in California who takes care of his infant daughter as completely and as carefully as his wife.

Billy's sister already plays hockey. I am thinking that next time he is over he and I are going to cut out some doll clothes. I am sort of disappointed in myself that I didn't think of this before.

He would like that.

Happy New Year!

It seems to me we all like making resolutions because most of us have some degree of hauntedness about things we should be doing but aren't.

Social media and technology has made this ridiculous. It used to be that all you had to deal with was the relatives saying stand up straight.

Now Bloglovin' and Pinterest are crammed with charts on a better you that say #1 Get up earlier! #2 Work smarter! #3 Work faster!

And of course in the off time you are supposed to practice mindfulness and Self Care.

There are apps to make sure you drink enough water and get enough sleep.

Well listen.

Here's what I think. 

If you are overwhelmed.

Two things to do:

First.

Recognize the beauty of boundaries. Women need to do this.

The way I see it what we owe other people most is this:

• Listen
• Recognize that if someone is cranky there are probably other things going on you don't know about. Give them that benefit of the doubt
• Take care of as much of your own shit as you can 
• If you need something ask clearly and be OK with the response (women in particular waste lives hoping people notice and will provide, mostly they just need clear asks)
• Listen

Second

Note not on this list is fixing everything, or worrying yourself sick for their sake. I remember always the advice a woman in a playground gave me about children years ago.

Don't do for them what they can do for themselves.

The flip side of this of course is that when someone can't do for themselves you can then be fully available.

If you want to eat better:

Do more of your own cooking.

The main reason people don't eat well is time. 

Figure out what you can make fast yourself and you will eat better. Avocado or tomatoes on toast is just fine if that's what you want. Make yourself a soup with vegetables in it and make salads with leftover cooked vegetables. Have this in the fridge.

By the time you figure out how to negotiate that new diet plan there will be something else on the agenda. (Note everything on Facebook is "backed by science". Also note there is more than one scientist).

If you want to exercise more:

If exercise is a should not a want for you, here's what I think.

Again two things.

One.

Go outside more. Most people when they are outside don't just stand there. We are not counting lying at the beach.

If you are outside you will walk, pull weeds, shovel snow, talk to the neighbours.

Two:

Do more around the house.

This is my observation.

All those fit old ladies are really busy. You see them mowing their own lawns. Spring cleaning. They hustle and they bustle. From the minute they get up until the minute they go to bed.

A distant relative by marriage just died.

She was one of those tiny busy old Greek ladies, she cooked, cleaned, gardened full time nearly to the end of her life. 

She died a few weeks ago at 105.

Without paying any attention to her breathe or her core.

Finally, since I appear to be kicking off 2019 in a know it all mood.

See the funny side in everything. Particularly yourself.

Believe me it's there.

Happy New Year