Obi belts are awesome.

Truly and indeed, awesome. Made following the video tutorial over at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKP1BFWEa-U.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Strawberry Yoga Skirt

I remember falling desperately in love with this strawberry fabric when I saw it in the store. I bought the last of the bolt, and I’ve been carrying it around for years, thinking there wasn’t enough to make anything out of it. Well, I came across the tutorial for a yoga skirt and knew this was the perfect way to finally make something uber-cute out of this uber-cute fabric. I used every square inch that I had.

And boy, did my machine fight me. For as long as I’ve owned this kenmore, no matter what I’ve done, I could NEVER get the tension right. Well, DH managed to get it pretty close, so I stitched up the final seam. I broke a needle, and at one point I even found the bobbin thread wrapped around the bobbin casing. It is SO time for a new machine. One that actually, you know, works.

PowerPoint is not fashion

Remember that fashion class I was all excited about taking? And all excited about blogging about? Well, it’s totally not my fault that there’s been nothing blog-worthy about it. I talked to the teacher after class one day, and she admitted that the class was stupid.

More school!

Unfortunately, the apparel construction class was filled by the time I was allowed to register. (As a new transfer student, I wasn’t allowed to register until the day before classes started. Boo!) But I did manage to get into Socio-Psychological Aspects of Dress, so I’ll be talking a little about that! My next class is on Tuesday.

School!

Classes start Wednesday the 19th. I cannot wait to blog about classes

So close, and yet, so far!

Gah! Gertie’s doing another sew-a-long, and I STILL can’t join! This time it’s the Crepe dress, again from Colette Patterns. This dress is so perfect for me, and so do-able with my current set of skills. WAH!!

Lady Grey

Gertie has been hosting a sew-a-long of the Lady Grey coat from Collete Patterns. I can’t even begin to describe just how sorry I am that I couldn’t participate. That coat is absolutely perfect in every single way.  Oh well. When I do make it, I’ll go back and follow along in the archives.

I got a couple of new things to wear. I got a fabulous white lambskin coat, and a long-ish black skirt. I’ll have to replace the lining in the coat before it gets cold again next year, but hopefully by then I’ll have the skills to do so. And I’ll use an actual coat lining as opposed to the cheap crap they used; that’ll make it so much warmer. The skirt is a-line to just below my calves, and made of moleskin, with a beaded belt. I’ve been wearing it with flats, but I want to get some heels for it; with flats it makes me look like the orthodox Jews that live in the area.

The “never buy what you don’t love” rule has not been broken, but I still need a bit more to get me through my very first winter, ha!

Cheap Sewing Table

I would just like to take a moment out of my day to gush about how awesome this is: Build a Cheap Sewing Table

As soon as I have the space, I’m so gonna do this.

Musings on life and clothing categories

So I should explain why the blog is almost never updated. There simply isn’t the time, space, or money to sew! Now, I know there are ways around this, especially detailed in THIS POST (http://thehomemakingarts.blogspot.com/2009/03/finding-time-space-and-money-to-sew.html), but it simply is not applicable to my situation right now.

My DH and I are currently living with my in-laws. They are wonderful, welcoming people, but they are POOR. They live on my FIL’s disability check and food stamps. They (and we, now) live in sec. 8 housing. This place is TINY. As in, my DH and I have to share a twin-size bed tiny (we sleep head-to-toe). There isn’t a place to set up my computer, let alone my sewing machine. I have attempted to sew by hand, but it is really hard!

Also, DH and I poor. As in, living with parents and on food stamps poor. I managed to get a job at wal-mart, but hubby’s still looking. Oh, and our car is off the road because the suspension is shot and the parts are on national back-order from the manufacturer, so we have to borrow in-law’s. We just bought a really old jeep, but it needs a lot of work before it can get on the road, too.

So… What to do about the sewing? I have some muslin I can turn into doll clothes, as told in the last post. Finding some place to cut it out won’t be easy… I’m afraid if I try to cut it on the bed, I’ll cut into our sheets. We don’t have another sheet set. The actual sewing is really hard because there really is no place suitable. The bed? The couch? There really is no dining table, or any table, for all intents and purposes.

I’m not trying to turn this into a sob-fest, I just feel the need to document this time in my life. I want to sew, desperately, but overcoming the challenges is difficult, to say the least. I will attempt to keep this blog updated whenever I have something new, but the posts will be pretty sparse, for the reasons outlined above.

NOW, on a lighter note!

On one of the blogs I read, I came across THIS POST (http://www.colettepatterns.com/blog/inspiration/what-to-wear-and-when-to-wear-it), which made me think about my personal life uniform. Now, I recently realized that what I’d like to wear (romantic style) and what I actually wear (sporty style) are worlds apart, and I’m pretty sure that it has something to do with my mother’s personal style. I’m not blaming her, I’m just saying that I grew up influenced by her (she and I are a lot alike) and as such it took me this long to realize I want to dress differently than she ever did. But I digress.

I’m pretty sure I can divide the categories of my life into the following sections:

-Everyday clothing (divide into seasons)
-Work clothing
-Dressier occasions (weddings, baby showers, etc.)
-Loungewear (HUGE gap here!)
-Workout clothes (I don’t exercise nearly enough, for reasons outlined in the beginning of this post)
-Getting dirty clothes (car-working, painting, hiking, etc.)

I’ll have to think a bit about what kinds of clothes I want to use to fill these categories. I should start with loungewear, I think, because the shapes are the simplest to sew, and if I make a mistake, who cares? I should also add one more outfit: something to wear to a funeral. It sounds kind of morbid, but you usually have a lot less notice to attend a funeral than any other kind of social function, and I’d like to not have to run out and buy something to wear at the last minute

I have my answer to life’s most persistant question!

The question being, with garments being so freakin’ COMPLICATED back in the day, how on earth did they ever LEARN to sew? You need to learn with SIMPLE patterns, right?

I found the most incredible vintage sewing book on google books, called “When mother lets us sew” by Mrs. Virginia Ralston. It was written in 1910 for little girls, for teaching them to sew clothes for their baby dolls. The book follows one doll in particular, named Arabella, and the picture on the cover of the book is Arabella “in all her finery.”

This book is really a gold mine for anyone who wants to learn to sew by hand. Sewing machines weren’t even mentioned, even though at the time, they had been around for 50 years. I figure either sewing machines weren’t that common in middle-class households just yet, or Mother didn’t let a girl use a machine until she was a Big Girl. But I digress…

There were several things that struck me about this book. The first thing I noticed is the lack of step-by-step diagrams for any of the stitches OR PATTERNS. There are a few diagrams of course, but most of the pictures in the book are silhouettes of Arabella and the girl she belongs to. and most of the diagrams are of finished (or near-finished) product. The girl is expected to READ THE PARAGRAPHS and FIGURE IT OUT. I’m sure she asked mother for help throughout the processes, but I’m pretty sure this type of writing is typical for a girls’ instruction book. Either people in general were smarter back then, or we, a hundred years later, have been so bombarded with visual imagery that our imaginations have dried up and withered away (I want mine back!).

The second thing that struck me was the lack of any patterns in the book. These days, we’re given patterns for “18-inch dolls” with included seam allowances, and very specific directions for putting the pattern together. In this book, the child is told to measure her doll, and have mother help her with creating a pattern based on a simple diagram. of course dolls weren’t standardized the way they are now!

On a side note, the underwear that the doll is intended to wear are called “panties.” I tried to find out when the word was first used, but I couldn’t find anything.

The thing that shocked me the most was the last thing the book teaches you how to make, which might be the simplest doll-garment in there: a mantle. Or cape, as I would call it. I’m pretty sure this is the last item made because of the fabric recommended, which is… wait for it… cashmere! Yup, this Mrs. Virginia Ralston wants little girls to cut up a piece of red cashmere and sew it into a cape for her doll. I’d like to go back in time and find out if this was normal.

Oops, it wasn’t the last thing. The last thing is a flannel “Sacque.” I think it’s the equivalent of a bathrobe today.

After all this, buttonholes, darning and patching are discussed. And then the book just stops. No concluding statements, no extra discussion, just “make the edges as flat as possible” and that’s it. Huh.

There are a few more of the “when mother lets us” series on google books, but they haven’t really held my interest the way this one did. And this one makes me really want to call home and ask my mother to measure Addy so I can make her a petticoat and frock, ha! I can definitely see the benefit of doll clothes being the first clothes a person makes: less fabric equals less expense, and smaller clothes means the clothes are finished in less time (hand-sewing, after all!) which is a real benefit to those with a short attention span… like little girls. Or modern-day big girls.

And, having done a little bit of hand-sewing myself recently, (that’ll be another post!) I can tell you that it’s harder than it looks. It’s very difficult to get the stitches in a straight line. Best to practice on Dolly Arabella than to try to make clothes for yourself that end up ugly because of crooked stitching.

If I end up getting a little bit of extra money together I think I’ll have this book printed and bound. Hand-sewing will be slightly easier away from the computer!