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| You'd think, what with the time of year, that this blog is about Mother's Day. It's not. This blog came to be because of my websurfing. You see, I read up about my various hobbies. And I read blogs written largely by women my own age. I can say, like most of my peers, that my mom worked long hours as I grew up. I can't quite say that I was a latch-key kid, but I was a stay-at-home-alone kid. You know what's different? My mom didn't ditch the "feminine skills" as so many others chose to. My mom might have worked long hours - but we had homecooked meals. Cakes came from flour and sugar and butter, not a box. Every summer saw tomato plants in our back yard, and even our rental homes ended up with more plants in the yard when we left than when we got there. I grew up assuming that curtains came from the sewing machine, and so would the occasional sundress. All of these do-it-yourself things were part of my normal. And that matters. Because I know too many women my age who consider it difficult to whip a boxcake up, and seriously advanced duty to make frosting from butter and powdered sugar. Women who can't make a pillowcase or sew on a button. Women who don't know the first thing about starting seeds or how to plant a tree. As I type this, I realise that even though my mom passed on a ton of knowledge to me, some of the things that I'm finding out as I learn to sew - I excitedly come and tell my mom about the new technique and she looks at me like I'm insane. "Of course you do that... wasn't it in the pattern instructions?" She takes this knowledge for granted. I take the knowledge that I have for granted. I love school. School rocks. Education is the bomb. But hand-knowledge is important too. And I have to give my mom props for making sure that I got both. Thank you, Mom. I love you! | | |
| Ali: Sending hugs. I'm sad about your baby goat. :( Keeping all those goatlings well must be quite the challenge. We are still in school the first Tuesday of June, the kids get out on the 8th. I am happy to meet you for coffee and sandy feet though, let me know. Of course you are welcome to come by the house too! ............ Fiber: I love glass! Chiluly is a little weird for my taste though. I have one of his works in my pins, but it's for the color... and because I love glass. :) I got quite the giggle from your post. Have been watching your adventures with Mike and crew. Doesn't sound like fun. Are all contractors like that? SIGH. I've only had one out, and that was a friend of a friend... he built the old deck. ''''''''''''''''''''''' This feels like the last big push... this weekend is 7yo's bday party so I'm madly rushing about and cleaning/moving things to prepare for the festivities. I cleaned today, tomorrow is my usual errand day, Wednesday... well, suffice to say that it's a busy week. All the time with my head in my sewing machine and totally ready for the school year to be OVER - I'm so very, very done. I pawned off my costume sewing on my mom, she was asking for something to do for 7yo's party and the play is Monday. Pthththpt! I should probably iron tonight... I even want to iron tonight... I wonder if the usual suspects will show up to chat with me and give me something to listen to while I work my way through my basket of wrinkled laundry. (Downside to an addiction to natural fabrics: Ironing). Maybe I'll type out a (new) list of all the sewing projects I have in my pile... because THAT always makes me feel less frustrated, right? ROFLMBO. See you in the funny papers! | | |
| All of us have the moments in time when we feel like we've stepped into an alternate reality. Mine was yesterday, on the bus to the garment district. A self-selected group of folks, all of whom have paid $45 to travel to the garment district in a nice cushy bus (totally worth it - that's gas money) specifically *to.buy.fabric*. They don't sew clothes. You probably want me to repeat that, so I will. With the exception of the odd costume, none of the people on the bus - the bus travelling to the fabric district - sewed clothing. Why? Because it's hard. Yes. It's hard. I mean, it's not rocket science, but it's not a cakewalk, not to make the really great stuff. And it's the really gob-smacking stuff where you find your true savings. You have to spend some time learning how to sew properly, you have to spend more time learning how to fit properly, and you have to learn how to use color and fabric to your best advantage. Yep. That requires you put some skull sweat and time and energy in. And yes, along the way the things you make won't be that great. You'll have wadders, or "give aways" or "hmm, I guess I do really need something to clean the toilet in". I'm not claiming that I'm at the level of sewing accomplishment that I'd like to be - far from it. I bought fabric yesterday that I don't deserve to get my grubby little mitts on. But you HAVE to work through - you'll never get good if you don't get to work. Did you see that geranium colored wool? I don't deserve that. BUT. I won't ever deserve that if I don't start somewhere. Book-learnin' only takes you so far in craft-land, you have to get your scissors dirty. There's due diligence, of course. Before I touch that wool with scissors, I'll have a perfectly fit muslin and I'll have given the skirt a trial run in a different fabric, to make sure I like the drape. That's work, people. A lot of work. So? What am I using my time for? What am I using my brain for? Do I stop improving when I walk out of the door from college? Stop learning? A fate worse than death, I call it. I understand about not having time. I have time to do one extra "thing" in my life, and I have more time than most people. While I will never really understand the folks who bake out of boxes and use canned frosting (really people, it only takes five minutes to make frosting), I get it. What I don't get is the people who go halfway and then stop. Anyway. That's what I want to encourage you to do - do something hard. Anything. Bake, sew, garden, paint, smith, carve... do SOMETHING. You're missing out on so much of life if you don't. | | |
| A dream of every garment seamstress in this lovely world of ours is to visit her local (ish) garment district to go fabric shopping. Today, that's what I did. I am bummed to report that at least this newbie visitor did not find sources of glorious fabric that is normally advertised for $20/yd for a mere $5/yd. I found glorious fabric... and it was $20/yd. What I did find were colors and options that are simply never seen in my neck of the woods and are darn difficult to track down online. Totally worth it. Here's my loot: 
Here's the wool for my suit a la Gertie: 
Here's the silk to line it (the pink) and some silk for a new nightie (the aqua). Yes, this is silk. It is not poly-satin. : 
Did you know they made woven silk? I did know that, I didn't know they made it in my very favorite color of navy. Or half the other colors that they had. I could have happily brought the entire table home with me. 
Then we (BFF and I) tromped around a bit and after lunch, we ended up at the $2.50/lb fabric leftovers place. Yes. Just big boxes of fabric, and they weigh it on your way out. 
Some (okay a lot) of it is random, some of it is for a friend of mine who needs a knit wrap skirt... and I did buy a very cheery stripe for 7yo. There's a lot of it, I can make a dress. Or two. 
Our tour bus then headed to a big discount fabric store in the OC - disappointing. It was mostly quilting fabric. I picked up a few calicos for summer dresses, one for me and two for 7yo. At $2.50/yd, I will surrender my distaste of quilting cotton. 
It's PRETTY... So, that's what I did with my Saturday. What did you do with yours???????? | | |
| Had a cold for days... sort of bored... here's my goal weight (circa 1992) and my current weight (2012).  
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