Not Buying It: Styles for Body Shapes

If you’re like me, you’ve read “style for body shape” articles in style books and ladies’ publications to help you figure out how to dress in a pleasing fashion. They’re…nice, but I don’t buy it and haven’t for as long as I’ve been sewing clothes for myself. Limiting style choices by body shapes is irrelevant for anyone who can sew.

My skepticism is based on three things: observation, the nature of RTW/Sewing, and the fact that “flattering/pretty/pleasing” is in the eye of the beholder.

I’m drawing on my experience with the “hourglass” shape and the common wisdom associated with it because it’s simplest for me. I’ve read plenty of contradictory, confusing, or silly advice for other body shapes, too.

Observation

I have the dimensions of a so-called “hourglass” figure type. I first started to doubt the common wisdom for dressing my own shape after reading things like “You have the best/easiest figure to dress!” “An hourglass figure looks great in everything!” and “Wear a Wide Belt”.

I should be able to mother my daughter in public without risking exposure. Red Stripe Tiramisu.

Let me tell you, it is not easy to dress an hourglass figure well. It’s a delicate balancing act between “sexy” and “frumpy.” In my book, “dressing well” means I dress in a way that prevents me from accidental indecent exposure but is also feminine and comfortable. I have my own sense of style I express through colors and textures and cuts, which is a personal preference.

When almost every article I read patted me on my curvy backside and assured me I’d look great in anything despite my own experience struggling to dress myself, I smelled a rat. (Also, the last half of the second paragraph above directly contradicts the “no ruffles or bows or bulk on your bust” rule found elsewhere. )

The Nature of Shopping vs. Sewing

This is pretty typical style advice for an hourglass shape, and I remember struggling to find button down shirts and blouses to fit me properly when I only wore RTW (Ready to Wear) clothing. Everything gaped open over the bust from the time I was 13 or so. Sometimes a well-placed safety pin came to the rescue, but over time I learned to simply avoid these styles.

click for great article on history of bras…

And a minimizer bra? Of course! Why didn’t I just bind down my breasts so I could slip into a button-down shirt? It makes so much sense to alter my body shape so it’s more suited to the garment. I’m shocked it never occurred to me.

What is this, 1923?

I get it though, I do. In the interests of mass-producing thousands of shirts at one time, the multitude of shirts are cut from standardized patterns. The patterns are usually based on skewed sizing data compiled in the late 1940′s. Most RTW brands still tend to draft for a B cup size, too, regardless of the overall size of the garment.

this is from two years ago, my first self-drafted button down top

When I understood that, it made sense to me that I didn’t fit in those off the rack shirts. Then one day when I was sharpening my sewing skills, I discovered the Full Bust Alteration for bodices and shirts. I could wear button down shirts again!

This is just one simple example, based on my own experience but I suspect other sewists out there have had similar “Ah-ha” moments while sewing. What’s yours?

“Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked “female”.”

Don’t get me wrong, I like to dress prettily. I regularly slosh on my makeup and twirl around to take photos for your amusement. But “pretty” can be a cage, a small place to lock yourself inside every day. “Pretty” is also harmful when it’s the sole measuring stick used to judge another human being. Erin, the wise and witty writer of Dress A Day has a huge impact on the way I think about the way I dress, including this piece titled You Don’t Have to Be Pretty:

But what does you-don’t-have-to-be-pretty mean in practical, everyday terms? It means that you don’t have to apologize for wearing things that are held to be “unflattering” or “unfashionable” — especially if, in fact, they make you happy on some level deeper than just being pretty does. So what if your favorite color isn’t a “good” color on you? So what if you are “too fat” (by some arbitrary measure) for a sleeveless top? If you are clean, are covered enough to avoid a citation for public indecency, and have bandaged any open wounds, you can wear any color or style you please, if it makes you happy.

Agreed. I think a great deal of the often arbitrary and contradictory style advice we’re given comes down to the subjective perception of what’s “flattering” or pretty, and what isn’t.

To return to my hourglass example: I’m not supposed to wear “boxy” tops. This one says jackets, but it’s a common thread. I’ve broken every rule on this list, anyway.

OH no! I don’t have a waist! Gasp! No darts! And my triceps are less than toned! It’s ok.

But boxy tops are comfortable, practical, they’re simple to make, a great way to show off pretty fabric and I like them. Sure, maybe some people who see me think I’m fat, but who are they? Why do I care if someone thinks I’m heavier than I am? Why does that matter? People will think what they think and they’re entitled to their opinion. But why would it matter to me? Fat or thin or indifferent, I am a woman with my own personality, thoughts, achievements and flaws. My waistline is hardly my defining characteristic, and I’m secure in that knowledge. (Let me tell you, it took me years to find that security.)

And by the way, I know I look rad in turtlenecks.

I Don’t Buy The “Styles” for Body Shapes Wisdom

I believe in good fit, nice fabric, pretty colors and solid stitching.

Exhibit 1: The Tiramisu Dress

I’m not supposed to wear this dress, I always knew to avoid surplice fronts and underbust seams when shopping because the surplice would gape and the underbust seam would barely cover half my boob. The Tiramisu Dress suits a variety of figure types, just check out my Pinboard of Tiramisu Dresses from blogs and the internets to see for yourself.

Exhibit 2: The Pavlova Wrap Top

Finished Pavlova Wrap Tops are cropping up on the Pavlova Community Gallery page and in the Flickr stream as Sewalong-ers finish up their entries for our friendly House Prize Race. They’re cute! On curvy bodies, on willowy frames, and on body shapes in between. The common thread here is good sewing and good fit. (By the way, entries close by midnight on the 26th, so do hurry to upload before the deadline!)

It Doesn’t Really Apply to Us

I’m not saying that the “rules” for body types and styles is completely irrelevant. I just think we sewing people should take them with a hefty pinch of salt, because this advice doesn’t really apply to us. These style guides are produced by ladies’ magazines and various publications in relation to “off the rack” clothing. Those clothes are mostly created with little or no allowances made for the simple fact that two women can have the same exact measurements but entirely different body topography.

If we can sew, then we can sew the clothes we like to suit our bodies.

What do you think?

Have you found yourself less than impressed with this type of style advice? What advice would you give a fellow stitcher in pursuit of personal style? What are your standards of being well-dressed?

(no post tomorrow, I need to tally up the Sewalong house winners and get ready for the Hummingbird Presale!)

2012 in review- 3 Hours Past the Edge of the World

It’s that time of year – the end of one year and the beginning of another. All over media from social to international news channels, people are pausing and weighing up the year while looking forward to the next.

I always liked that about New Years.

Problem Solving | Cake Patterns

I’ve been taking stock like anyone else. 2012 was a year of learning for me- of hard work and late nights and teeth-gnashing frustration while I figured out what to do with the skills I have- I started out 2012 as a drafter, a sewist, a blogger and a teacher. I lacked skills as a model, photographer, digitizer, and project manager but I’m much more confident in these areas as 2013 begins.

It took me a while to decide to make a paper pattern company- that was in May, if you can believe it. Now we all have Cake. I know how the process works now (more or less), which means I’m not learning new things every single day, which means we can play together more in 2013 than we ever did in 2012!

I’d say I had quite a few mis-steps along the way, mistakes, and complete failures. The trick to failure is to find a way to learn or to grow from it, to pick up and move on. I feel like I learned that over and over in 2012!

WordPress summed my year in blogging for me better than I could myself. They sent me a cool infograph of blogging statistics, so I thought I’d share with you a bit. 3 Hours Past has had nearly half a million views since I moved here from blogspot last year (in Oct 2011). My poor brain can’t process numbers that big- I really can’t grasp it but it’s certainly exciting! Thank you so much for sticking with me while I wandered around the blogging wilderness, trying to figure out what to do with myself.

These were the most popular posts at 3 Hours Past the Edge of the World in 2012. I don’t particularly understand why my old post on gaucho pants should still be so well-read, but the internet is a mysterious place sometimes. In case you missed them, the other top 5 posts were:

Pictutorial- Knit Binding
Research on Rayon: Pulp, Hemp, and Bamboo
De-Grading Sizes: My Thoughts (This is pre-Cake musings on sizing, I drew heavily from these ideas while drafting Tiramisu.)
Introducing Cake Patterns! (I was so. beyond. terrified. before I hit the “publish” button on this post. Really really. And of course I had no idea what the next 5 months would hold…!)

These sites were my top 5 referrers for 2012. Many thanks to AnneW at Craft Gossip, the lovely ladies at Sew Weekly, to Casey and to Mushy! And most of all, thank you everyone who cares enough about what I’m doing to put me in your reader, and to all of you who read these words I write and encourage the sewing. I could never, ever, ever have done what I have without you.

Since I mentioned Sew Weekly, I wanted to say that while I dropped out of the Weekly challenges mid-year (Cake is a demanding mistress) I learned *so* much from completing the challenges and working on Sew Weekly as a group blog that I wouldn’t have learned otherwise. That’s not to mention all the lovely sewing people I met. Part of me feels terrible for quitting, but a bigger part of me knows I didn’t have much of a choice if I wanted to make Cake happen. Congratulations to everyone who completed the 52 week challenge, and to everyone who posted even once. It’s hard work, you’ve got to hustle, well done!

Personal Fave of 2012

I think of all the Finished Object and Hack posts I made this year, my favorite top and photos came from the Lacewing Top. We took these shots at the Brisbane Botanical Gardens on a lovely family afternoon out, and that’s what I think of when I see these photos.

These are two favorite garments I can’t wear ever again, as they were lost in the great Whites to Pink Disaster last May. Why do I keep returning to that little incident?

The Backstory on the Pinks, and Why I’m ok with it now

May 2012 was an extremely hard month for me. I had been working on a wardrobing book proposal with a big craft and sewing publishing company. I had patterns, samples, and much of the copy already written before I started querying publishers.

The first publisher I approached loved my concepts and kept drawing out more of my ideas and saying lovely encouraging things about our future together- though they weren’t quite on board with my pattern ideas. They were going through a transition phase as I was working with them- we got all the way to the final round of negotiations and they dropped my proposal. I was devastated, but didn’t want to talk about it here. Now I’m over it.

Then I spilled some liquid on my lovely laptop and nearly lost several years’ worth of notes and images. Luckily, my Father-in-Law was looking for someone to take his old laptop off his hands so he could upgrade in good conscience- and Stephen helped me recover all of my files.

I also had some rather upsetting family drama news from America in May.

Then, right around the same time, I lost that load of whites. I believe that’s why I was so beside myself about it- on top of everything else, I’d lost a sizeable chunk of my wardrobe.

I also couldn’t find a regular teaching space in Brisbane, I couldn’t make pdf patterns work the way I wanted them to- I felt blocked every time I turned around, except when I posted here to chat with you all about sewing.

And then there was Cake

Cake is for you- all of my applied knowledge and observations from twenty years of sewing and taking copious notes, wrapped up in a pretty pretty envelope and just waiting for you to pick her up and play.

Tiramisu Step 12

I drafted Tiramisu in June, right after that series of unfortunate events- I needed to. The design wouldn’t leave my head and even when computers and families and washing machines conspired against me, I knew I could withdraw into my little world of lines and dots on paper and everything would work out. I draft and “grade” entirely by hand, I enjoy the physicality of it and don’t see myself learning to digitally draft any time soon.

Once I finished the drafts I knew I had something worth producing well- as a real paper pattern. Through those months of working out production issues and building Cake Patterns, every time I wanted to quit I came back to two things:

You guys are the best

The drafting/concept work is good

Through every rejection from the industry, every digitizer who acted like I was crazy, through printing woes and logistics issues, I kept going back to those two things.

I’m so so pleased you all like the way I’ve made Cake- from the sizing based on measurements to the way we set up the instructions, it felt like a gamble. My instincts told me you’d like it, but you never know for sure until the work is “out there.”

I’m also incredibly pleased with all the great reviews of Tiramisu that are out so far, and the variety of your Tiramisus to reflect your individual style and climate needs- wow. It’s such fun to watch this gallery grow. If you’d like me to add your Tiramisu review or photo or blog post, let me know and I’m on it. You’ve been so kind in your praise of the pattern, and I’m really proud of the work we’ve done together.

Perfectly Quick Knit Waistband Feature

In 2013 I look forward to doing my very best work for you through Cake and sewingcake.com. Now that I mostly understand printing and logistics, I feel like we can finally get some sewing done!

Tomorrow: Outline of 2013- Petit Four, Cake Rolls, Cake Riffs, Lamington (pants, oh yes, pants!) and Hummingbird project teasers. Also a class preview (because I have a teaching home!) and some other tidbits…. It’s basically an introduction to the projects I’ve had simmering here quietly and a Table of Contents… Mom was asking me on Skype the other day what exactly I’m doing over the next few months, I thought I’d respond to her in blog post form…

And then: A few cool posts leading up to Tiramisu including the “4th Dimension of Tiramisu” and the Full Bust Alteration and how to apply it! Then we’ll dive into the 30 Minutes a Day Sewalong and make up an army of Tiramisus.

Happy New Year, everyone. Thank you again, over and over, for your support in 2012 as I got my feet under me. From my viewpoint, 2013 looks like an exciting year. I hope you have a happy and productive 2013! Upward and onward!

The Visual Diet Study and Pinterest and Me

Before I dive into the Visual Diet study, I just want to say thanks again (and again and again and again!) for your support and patience while I handle Cake’s last big hurdle- shipping logistics. I can scarcely believe the difficulties that cropped up in the past week, but I’m working through them as efficiently as possible.

I haven’t been blogging because I have been digging deep personally to handle these logistics problems- constant email streams, compiling files, creating new shipping labels for Snow White the Distributor, staying up late and getting up early so I can talk to the United States on the phone- all while attempting to maintain a healthy work-life balance. The laundry still needs folding. That is not a metaphor, it is all over the kitchen bench.

The lesson here is that no amount of research can protect a project from “issues.” For those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, your pre-order patterns will arrive at your house next week! Woohoo! For the rest of us, well, the patterns should arrive next week, too! Each pre-sale order will receive a shipping notice once your pattern leaves our (mine or Snow White’s) possession. Once all pre-orders ship, I will make the digital download and paper version of Tiramisu available for purchase. Whew! Nearly there!

Don’t you love it when a study comes out that quantifies and verifies an idea you already believed? I certainly do. On November 7th, Plos One (an open-access journal) published the findings of a team of British and Dutch evolutionary psychologists and neuroscientists titled “Visual Diet versus Associative Learning as Mechanisms of Change in Body Size Preferences.“ Basically, they discovered that exposure to various images of bodies influences the brain’s perception of a body’s attractiveness. It’s not a long paper, very interesting, please take a look if you’re interested in media and body image.

The researchers used images divided into two groups: Aspirational and Non-Aspirational. Aspirational images included women from a range of body sizes from underweight to plus sized, but all well-dressed and well-presented. Non-aspirational images were women in gray leotards without heads, of a similar range of body sizes and shapes. They exposed groups of women to various collections of images and recorded the results.

Then they discovered something interesting:

click for article

I am not surprised. The images we ingest through our eyes affect our mind as much as food ingested affects the body. I was raised in a very Christian household. A strong emphasis was placed on guarding our eyes (and also our ears) against things that weren’t positive or useful in some way:

I’m not trying to be preachy, and I apologize if it comes across this way. These verses and several others were etched on my soul early in life, there’s no removing them. They surface in my mind every time I look at a screen or a magazine (though it’s been a while since I looked at one of those). Besides, I don’t want them removed, even if I haven’t always followed the excellent advice they express.

I don’t know about you, but I count anything that makes women (or men) feel like sh*t in order to sell them a product they probably could live without to be an evil thing- vile, worthless, dare I say wicked? Is that word too old-fashioned? I have less than zero sense of humor about it- it’s a predatory practice. It makes me mad. I wrote about this in kinder terms some time ago- advertising as mental pollution.

So what do we do about it? Well, friends, we make our own media. We take our own photos, with tripods and remotes or loved ones pressed into service. We define our own boundaries by exhibiting the rare beauty of strong and smart and nimble-fingered women and men who slowly stitch fashions in quiet, private moments. We celebrate their achievements. We share our experiences with others, and support those who share a piece of themselves with us. The online sewing community has been doing this gently for years, and I have very much enjoyed contributing.

And then came Pinterest. Y’all know I find Pinterest infinitely useful, but it’s also very interesting to peruse as an observer. When I find a new Pinterest friend, I take a quick look at their boards. At some point, I realized that checking out someone’s pinterest collection was somewhat akin to looking around the inside of their brain. The images represent a thought or idea the curator wanted to save. Pinterest feeds are much the same- it’s a visual snapshot of what a group of people decided was worth saving and remembering at a given point in time. I find the “popular” button particularly interesting.

I have a few “visual diet” pinboards. One is labelled “Females.“ It’s too easy to get wrapped up in my own little world and begin to believe that I’m ordinary and most women are more or less like me. That’s not true, not even a little bit. Statistically speaking, brown-haired white women (me) are not the majority of women who tread this planet. There are as many ways to be female as there are women on the face of the earth, who am I to walk around believing I’m “typical”? As a mindfulness exercise, I keep an eye out for images to add to my Females board that wordlessly express to me qualities that are essentially female. It’s a work in progress.

Another work in progress is my “beauty” board. Too often, I think the word “beauty” conjures images in our minds that are very much influenced by the entrenched status quo. That is, I noticed at some point that my Pinterest feed and my boards were dominated by pretty pictures of young, slim white ladies with impeccable hair and makeup. There is nothing wrong with being any of those things, but it’s a very narrow representation of beauty. Is this 1955? No? I thought not. Are well-groomed, slim white women the only beautiful people in the world?

No, ma’am. I don’t have to accept that standard, and neither does anyone else. We have the power to change our perspectives.

These are just the thoughts in my head- my opinion. What’s yours?

Remember, Remember the 5th of November!

Remember, remember, the 5th of November

Hummingbirds, beaches and shoes-

Birthday time teaches that hummingbirds, beaches

And T-Straps delight and amuse…

Y’all, I just had the best birthday. Birthdays are hard for me, usually I feel embarrassed to mention it or try to ignore them. But this year, this year I feel like my feet are underneath me and connected to the earth. Or the sea. Connected to something.

I was so busy with Cake Patterns, life and election-watching, I was happily oblivious to the fact that the 5th was rapidly approaching until last week when Stephen asked me if I’d like to go to Byron Bay for my birthday. Yes! Then he went away camping for the weekend, and I decided to get my bake on.

My buddy Enid came over with her little boy for a sleepover on Saturday. When I hit up the grocery store for Hummingbird Cake ingredients, I saw these tiny quiche pans on sale.

“Mini-cakes!!! Enid! Mini-Cakes! Let’s make mini-cakes!” Full-size layer cakes kind of intimidate me. They’re so big! They don’t fit in the fridge! And once you cut into a cake, it loses some of its charm… I’ve been looking around for smallish cake pans for ages and these dropped into my kitchen at just the right time.

click for source

A little while ago, I discovered a metric recipe for Hummingbird Cake. Have you ever had Hummingbird Cake? The cake is like a light, sweet banana bread with walnuts (some prefer pecans) and pineapple that bakes into the cake. Slathered with cream cheese frosting, and I like the raspberries on this version. Once upon a time, in the southern United States, a young 4-Her named Stephanie won blue ribbons for her Hummingbird Cakes.

When I moved to Australia, I found I could not longer bake them- to my profound disappointment. I’ve very recently discovered that American flour is different from flour here. Something about the gluten content- which explains my early failures. It’s safer to stick to metric recipes, they always work for our flour.

I followed the recipe to the letter, filled my mini-quiche pans nearly to the top and baked them for about 15 minutes, keeping a careful eye out lest they burn.

Did I mention some of the clearance-quiche-pans were heart shaped? They totally were. I let the little cakes rest in the pan for about a minute before turning them out on a wire rack. All told, we ended up with about 12 mini-layers.

Lila helped us by frosting two heart-shaped layers and decorating the cake herself.

Enid and I lazed around Saturday night watching Downton Abbey, trimming cake layers and smothering them in frosting, fruit, nuts and cinnamon. Yum! These were the cakes that survived Saturday night and also Sunday morning brunch.

I can not adequately describe how satisfying it is to dig into a miniature Hummingbird Cake for brunch. “It has fruit! Vitamins! Fiber!,” Enid and I smugly told each other.

Then on Monday I packed up our remaining little cakes along with our beach gear and Stephen, Lila and I headed down to the northern New South Wales coast. Warning for Carol- gratuitous Byron Bay pictures!

The brilliant summer sunshine Down Under overpowers my senses. It’s like drinking a pint of whiskey when you’re used to beer. My first two summers here, I thought I was finally and completely losing my mind. Eventually, I talked to enough immigrants from the Northern Hemisphere with similar symptoms (supercharged anxiety, insomnia, skin pustules, physical fatigue, mania, dizziness, nausea), I realized it had to be something in the environment.

I’m not a doctor, but I can tell you that limiting my sun exposure and keeping the house semi-dark in the summer has helped me keep my head together during the past three bright seasons (not to mention the skin pustules- all gone!). This year, we’re adding family trips to the beach to my toolbox of coping mechanisms. In the late afternoon or the early morning, I love nothing more than to run around on the sand with my little girl or to throw myself headfirst into the rushing, relentless waves. I leave refreshed, renewed.

So we headed down the coast for a long late afternoon playing at Byron Bay. Dolphins leap from the waters of the Bay, the humpback whale migration passes twice a year, and there’s some wonderful snorkeling off the rocks at the mouth of the bay. That’s not to mention the quietly cosmopolitan atmosphere of the small town full of hippies, yippies, backpackers and occasional international celebrities hiding out from the world. I love Byron. I could live there. It’s a magical place.

Case in point- a beautifully detailed pyramid sand sculpture on the beach, unattended by the unknown artist (also in the banner). This is pretty common in Byron, and people tend to pause and admire these sculptures rather than destroy them.

Stephen and Lila were inspired to bring this enormous sand dragon to life while I went for a long swim. Raaaar!

At dusk, we headed to my in-law’s little piece of paradise- an organic citrus farm in the coastal hinterland. My MIL made a delicious vegetarian meal (Thanks, Jan!) and we turned out all the lights in the house so I could blow out the candles on one more of my tiny cakes. She even took care of Lila’s night-time routine so Stephen and I could sneak off for a starlit stroll on the nearby local’s beach where we were married. With no light pollution, we laid on our backs and stared up into the vast twinkling universe.

Then early this morning we got up for one more frolic in the Pacific.

When the sunshine got too strong for me, we headed to our favorite falafel stand. We visit every time we’re in Byron, damn they make good falafel. (11 Bay Lane, about a block from the beach)

Could it be a more pleasant few days? Yes, yes it could- the stars aligned and Lauren started the pre-sale for her 23Skidoo T-strap shoes just in time for me to spend the birthday money sent from home. Bliss! Lauren is running a giveaway for the 23Skidoo Shoes, so if you’re dying for a pair but it’s not your birthday, why not give it a try?

Sharing lemonade over lunch

Over the past few days, through successful cake-baking and spending quality time with people I care about (and, uhm, SHOES!), I realized how grateful I am for the life I have. For the small things, and the loving people and beautiful places. It hasn’t always been this way for me, but these days my cup runneth over.

Do you like Hummingbird Cake? I think it’s a southern America regional thing, but Brits like it too? Pecans or walnuts? What are the small things in your life you’re grateful for? And ooooooooh how great are those shoes? (I think mine will be red and white. Probably. We’ll see!)

Upcoming sewing-related posts: assembling the Lonestar Burst quilt top, my notes on abusing fusible webbing strips, and the felted-sweater-turned-tote-bag experiment.

Frosting Fortnight, Clearing My Wardrobe, and the Pitfalls of Comparison

Click for source!

It’s the 15th of October, time to get myself ready for Frosting Fortnight! Mari from Disparate Disciplines and I (and a crack team of guest bloggers!) are working together to tease out the meaning of “fun/crazy” and also “useful/basic” clothes through a series of wardrobing posts from the 18th of October until Halloween! To encouage the wearing and sharing of our less-than-strictly-practical wardrobes, we’re posting daily outfit posts to the Frosting Fortnight flickr group!

Several others have joined, and all are welcome! Head over the the flickr group page to make a pledge to join up! I think Halloween will be the most fun- do think about chiming in for the ultimate Frosting Holiday if you don’t wish to join the Fortnight. Fingers crossed that Snow White makes an appearance.

My own pledge is rather personal:

I, StephC of 3 Hours Past, pledge to pull every single bit of crazy and frippery and frosting from every nook and hidden guilt-cranny in my house and expose them to the light of day as I wear them during FF! I’ll find homes for my sewn orphans- either on my back, in my re-fashion stash, or in the rag-bag!

I’m “using” Frosting Fortnight as a time to challenge myself to tighten up my closet’s contents and share what I learn about wardrobing. It’s personal, but I think it might be useful to others who might struggle with some of the same issues I do. At any rate it’s impossible to talk about the contents of one’s wardrobe without getting personal so brace yourself. No undies in this post, but maybe a little dirty laundry…

True to my pledge, I dug around my house and found 4 years of style, engineering and design experiments in various stages of being “finished.” I pulled them from every hidden guilt-cranny and dark space I know I’ve stuffed clothes. I knew this mountain existed before I pulled it all out, to be honest dealing with this mass of textiles has been rather low on my priority list.

Some weeks ago, a work associate challenged me about the authenticity of my devotion to sustainability and the environment. At first, I couldn’t believe the words coming out of her mouth- so I kept my own mouth shut and let her speak. Eventually she got to the point of her concern and said something like- “How can you justify making so many clothes all the time? Doesn’t it conflict with your sustainability ethics?”

Like I said, she’s a work associate and a generally likeable person. I assume she didn’t mean to sound so judgmental. I suppose I should have reacted indignantly to defend my “green” credentials or something, but I just nodded and smiled and said we all have to do what work best for us in our own sewing rooms before changing the subject. I like her and had no interest in quarreling or playing one-up-manship with our sewing processes.

The fact of the matter is, comparing our sewing and greenie cred would be an utter waste of time. Her comment showed a complete lack of understanding about the process involved when creating a sewing pattern that others will love to sew and wear.* That’s fine! I do my thing, she does hers. She sews herself a few basics and cute dresses from already-made patterns and does a beautiful job with her work. She’s sewn for years and has mastered the art of sewing for her body and her needs, and I’m sure she wastes very little fabric or time in her sewing.

Shirts, long lost shirts.

Besides, as far as it goes, she’s right. I make a lot of stuff. Some of it’s rather odd. I used to post more of it than I do nowadays. Sometimes I get a crazy idea in my head and I can’t relax until I’ve made it happen. (Seashell pockets, anyone?)

Then I wear it, I tweak the design, I wear it more, I make another improved version, I wear it some more, I wash it frequently, I crumple it up and stuff it in a drawer, I pull it out and shake it, I wear it some more, I make another two or three in different fabrics and wear those, too. I consider that an important and necessary part of developing a new pattern (call me crazy..), whether it’s a Tried-N-True pattern or a new design for Cake. I may not “finish” one of these garments completely, and I often discard ideas that work beautifully in my mind but less so in the cold hard light of Reality.

Is that really waste?

After giving it some thought, I decided it’s not. I must muslin repeatedly and can not avoid sewing a decent volume of fabric in order to do what I do.

Even if I weren’t working to create a pattern company, I think a certain amount of “wasted” fabric and effort goes into learning what works for an individual’s body and styling. That’s ok! No more guilt for learning curves! It’s a part of the process! I say pull the buttons off those wadders and throw the baggage out! Or make rags…

Instead of worrying or feeling guilty, I turned my attention to all the space in my small home that is wasted curating my muslins and design experiments. That’s the waste- wasted space.

This is Megan’s Revenge, from the Mad Men Challenge. I think this dress is full of bad ju-ju, I don’t like wearing her but I don’t know why.

So for Frosting Fortnight, I’m pulling out all the muslins and all the design experiments and garments I don’t wear and giving them a second chance at life. During Frosting Fortnight, every day I’ll wear at least one thing that’s “out there” or experimental or simply hasn’t been worn in a few months. I’m turning my wardrobe inside out to help me understand what I like to wear.

When all else fails, at least I can reclaim some of my button/zipper/lace stash…

I’ll also look at why certain garments don’t get worn- does it need mending/finishing? Is it the wrong color? Is it the cut? What can I do with the clothes I really don’t need in my house and my life without simply throwing them out? Why do I have so many quilting cotton blouses I never wear, and a few I do?

These are the questions I’ll explore over the next two weeks for Frosting Fortnight. I hope it’s useful, and I hope to pick up ideas from other Frosting Fortnighters along the way! (I also have a few unrelated finished object posts, a bra update, some fun with color and an amazing amazing vegan-ethical lipstick review…)

I started out simply today. (note: right up until I almost hit publish, I thought today was the 18th. All day. So I already added my outfit to the FF flickr group.) I’m wearing a current jeans design experiment and a woven “Not-a-Tee.” It’s made from a delicious, expensive red Indonesian batik with a fun neckline. I haven’t worn this much because the fabric is “too nice” for daily wear, and it’s too boxy to be worn untucked. Shame! I think this top deserves a comeback. She’s back in rotation!

I dyed my hair black, friends. I can’t talk about it yet, maybe later when we talk about lipstick…

What do you think? What’s “waste”? Is it wasted fabric from a failed sewing project, wasted space taken up hoarding clothes not worn, or wasted energy feeling guilty about it? Does high-volume muslin and garment sewing hurt my greenie cred?

What about effort spent making a garment you think you “should” make but don’t love, when you’d really rather be sewing and wearing the fun stuff? Is that a waste, or is it discipline?

And tell me, I’m curious- how often do you clean out your closet?

*Great sewing patterns don’t just appear on the drafting table. It takes work, revision, work, work, muslining and test-wearing, especially when wearability and good sewing practices are a priority.

Tearing Down or Building Up? The Body Image Debate

This morning, I found myself thinking about the “Body Image and Media” debate (or I dunno, call it a ~~war~~ crusade) that rages through women’s blogs and social media. I get the occasional petition announcement from change.org. They sent me this one about Cleo magazine today:

Public pressure is building across the world for magazines to stop altering images of girls. In the US a teenager convinced Seventeen Magazine to publish one unaltered spread a month after thousands joined her petition. I think Cleo should do the same for their readers.

I want Cleo to stop selling images that hurt girls and break our self-esteem. Let us see real faces and real shapes in at least one photo spread a month — and always put a warning symbol on any image that has been altered.

Ok. I confess ambivalence. On one hand, I think that’s great- girls and women joining together to tear down harmful standards and practices to reform the mass media. In fact, I signed the petition. Why not? It’s against something I think is stupid and harmful, and in favor of something I think could be positive and useful.

On the other hand, I have a deep conviction that buying and reading these types of magazines only serves to reinforce the legitimacy of such publications. That is to say- if people buy it, then there’s a market for it and fashion mags that present unrealistic ideas of beauty will continue to exist.

I had to google Cleo magazine to find out what it was. Turns out, it’s a fairly run-of-the-mill magazine that targets Australian women. I don’t see anything about it that would set it apart from any others. (Hey now, maybe their marketing department should pay attention, it’d help them stand out from the crowd if they did as the petition asks…)

You know what I do read? Blogs, mostly sewing blogs. I also read style blogs, “entitlement” style blogs written by wealthy teenagers (maybe she’s 20 now), parenting blogs, domesticity blogs, cooking blogs, history blogs and classic movie blogs. My google Reader is my own personal magazine, I choose the authors and the topics.

After I checked out the Cleo petition I thought about the futility of trying to turn around the massive nuclear tank that is the women’s magazine industry and started clicking around to catch up on some of my favorite sewing blogs. Liza Jane recently made some rad brightly printed shorts for her upcoming vacation and shared heaps of delicious construction details. In my “de-Cleo” frame of mind, my eye skipped over this:

Click for a great post on Burda shorts-making

Ok, so they are not super short or anything but this is a big step for me. I have not worn short shorts for several years now. I feel silly for saying this, but I haven’t worn shorts because as I got older and more, um, well-rounded, I always thought my legs looked funny. I’ve always had big legs, this I know. But really? I can wear short shorts. My legs are totally normal. One positive of snapping so many pictures of myself over the last couple of years is that I have a much healthier image of myself. Hope that doesn’t sound too self-centered, but if you take photos of yourself you know what I mean. This is what my legs look like. And they are just fine. They take me where I need to go. Ok, enough of that.

I love this for several reasons. First because I know what she’s talking about- blogging has definitely helped me become less judgmental about my body.

Second because the sentiment she’s expressing is not a thunderclap out of nowhere but a personal epiphany that’s expressed a thousand different ways on sewing blogs all over the internet. Somehow or the other, body acceptance has become a part of the fabric of blogging about sewing. I think that’s wonderful.

Third- read the comments section. It’s supportive and positive. Many of the commentators express healthy attitudes towards their own bodies. It’s pretty typical of comments on sewing blogs. Posts like that do help change women’s ideas of what’s beautiful, what’s normal, what’s healthy, and what’s acceptable. I see it as “building up” each other.

Finally- LizaJane’s post is not about her legs. It’s a nitty-gritty “this is what I sewed, here are the insides, and this is the pattern” type post. The focus is not on the way she looks, but on what she has done and the way she chooses to share with us. Again, this is common in the sewing world- sharing knowledge and celebrating a job well done. (disaster sewing posts are good, too.)

Besides, print media is dying- or at least, print media is no longer the primary way to disperse information to a wide audience. Changing one monthly spread in one magazine can definitely be counted as a step in the right direction, but it’s a drop in a bucket. A leaky bucket. It’s possible to change something like that one step at a time, but it’s very hard work. Why not focus instead on building each other up, and improving our attitudes towards our own bodies to create a thriving alternative? I think that’s already happening, and blogs are definitely competing with traditional print publications on several fronts.

But I don’t just mean blogging. We can take the positive attitudes we find in the blogs and “build up” in the real world, in daily life. Ever stopped a stranger on the street to tell her the color of her blouse sets off her eyes? (Try it sometime, but make sure the compliment is sincere. Compliment-bombing is super fun.) What about praising a little girl not for being pretty, but for sharing well with the other kids? Or taking the time to show a younger person how to sew their first seam? Or making space in your day to go for a short jog to keep your heart healthy and get those endorphins going (rather than exercising primarily for weight control)?

What do you think? Is it worthwhile to attempt to “tear down” the toxic universe of women’s magazines, or is it better to simply work on changing our personal attitudes to create an alternative? Or both? Or neither? How do you “build up” in your daily life?

Movie Review: Mrs. Henderson Presents

I’m on the mend after my second bout of flu this winter. The flu is tiresome. Sleeping all day and slurping soup isn’t so bad, except it feels like a waste of time. I’m past that now, in the middle of the delightful stage where my skin hurts and I don’t have any energy or ability to focus, but I’m also bored and restless. (This post took a long time to write…) It’s the perfect time to revisit my favorite movies, especially the cheerfully smutty flick Mrs. Henderson Presents.

I really can’t believe I never reviewed this movie! It’s completely delightful, based on true events at the Windmill Theatre in the 30′s and 40′s. Mrs. Henderson is an eccentric aristocratic lady (played by Judi Dench) who finds herself lacking direction in life after her husband’s death. One of her friends suggests that an upside of widowhood is no one can stop you buying things. Mrs. Henderson takes this to heart and buys a theatre, engaging the managerial services of Mr. Van Dan. He’s not terribly impressed by her “eccentric lady” act and the interplay between their strong, occasionally clashing characters never fails to amuse me.

At first, the Windmill achieves great success by performing vaudeville-revue style shows back-to-back all day long, which had not been tried in England before. They called it “Revuedeville.” All the other theatres in West End quickly copied their formula, and the Windmill fell in popularity. In a bid to one-up the other theatres, Mrs. Henderson proposes they “lose the clothes.” The clothes are (of course) a big part of the draw for me in this movie. I love all the vintage activewear on display in rehearsals and offstage.

But it’s the lack of clothes that eventually sets the shows at the Windmill apart from the other revues on West End. Of course, nude shows were common on the Continent at the time but it simply wasn’t “done” in England. Luckily, Mrs. Henderson knows the Lord Chancellor, the man who has authority to allow such shenanigans. I chuckle every time I see the scene where she persuades the very stuffy old Lord Chancellor to allow her to feature live nudes at the Windmill. She butters him up with a gourmet picnic lunch in the park, but he’s still squeamish about “the foliage,” “the somewhat sordid topic of the pudendum,” or “the midlands.” It’s most satisfying to watch His Lordship squirm.

Mrs. Henderson assures him they’ll use subtle lighting and furthermore, a barber. He agrees, provided the girls stay still, like nudes in art.

It’s not only naked girls, the song and dance scenes set my toes tapping, and I love the very 1930′s set designs based on photos of the actual sets at the Windmill. Then suddenly, the Blitz comes to London and the girls spend their days working for the war effort and performing at night to keep up morale as their audience morphs from students and civilians to soldiers. Many of the performers and workers at The Windmill moved into the theatre during the Blitz; because it was below street level and somewhat safe during the bombing.

In fact, The Windmill was very proud of the fact they never closed during the Blitz when all the other theatres closed down.

The cast is eminently watchable, the writing is good, the sets are lavish- and Judi Dench is indisputably the star of Mrs. Henderson Presents. I love her portrayal of this interesting woman, it’s a fantastic story of an older woman who refuses to surrender her joie de vivre. This movie may not be everyone’s cup of tea- there’s lots of nudity, but it’s always treated with dignity or humor, never exploitative or salacious. I’m a fan, very few movies tend to make me laugh outright (especially upon repeat viewings). I would not call this a serious film, but it’s a very entertaining movie.
Have you seen Mrs. Henderson Presents?

Now if I could just get myself off the couch…

How I Learned To Sew- Sharey Time!

The other day, someone left a comment that ended with: “I see the mistake often in blogs by self-taught sewists, which is why I was surprised to see it here.”

Ahem.

Pardon me? What’s wrong with being a self-taught sewist? Besides, I am a self-taught sewist. Sure, I picked some things up here and there, but no one taught me to do what I do. Then I realized I never blogged about how I learned to sew.

Well- settle in, and I’ll spin you a story…

I was unschooled from 4th grade until 11th. That means I was home schooled without using a structured curriculum. My parents placed a strong emphasis on independence, critical thinking skills, and creativity. I am grateful. One method of learning involved “immersion” in a subject. That meant when I studied English Medieval history, we cooked food from the time, played medieval games, I read Chaucer and biographies on Eleanor of Aquitaine, William the Conqueror and anything else I could get my hands on about the period. I made gowns and headdresses, and we went to the Medieval Faire. I ate, slept, drank and dreamt Medieval England.

In some ways, it was awesome. The jousting was my favorite, I’ll never forget those enormous hooves thundering across the pitch. I digress…

That’s when I remember starting to sew- to supplement my imagination and to make history “more real.” I was a kid, so the materials were cheap and nasty polyester/acetate blends, but that didn’t matter to me then.

When I was 10, my mother (who does not sew) bought me a second-hand Kenmore from the 70′s. I immediately made myself a yellow rayon shifty dress thing to wear to church, and when I think about the construction values I shudder. But I was thrilled- I made it myself! I wore it proudly and after the service a very kind lady whispered in my ear “You have to lower the presser foot when you sew.” What a revelation- I had sewn the entire dress with the presser foot up!

I sewed doll clothes, quilt blocks, historical garments, Easter dresses, learned to embroider by hand, whatever came into my mind. I had plenty of time and no television. Eventually, I started competing with my garments in 4-H fashion shows but never won more than the second or third tier rounds of competition. My taste was probably too weird. I would make and model a black and gold boned Elizabethan gown with a cone-shaped farthingale and the other girls would model prom wear.

Later, I moved to Texas and went to a very large and well-funded public highschool. There were 969 other students in my graduating class. The theatre department attracted me and I worked under more senior costume designers. Sure, it was highschool, but we were big and serious. I learned to rip old gowns apart and bewitch them into completely new gowns, perfectly suited for the role and the wearer. I saw the more senior costume designers work from sketches, and conjure a dream out of thin air- it’s possible! I learned that an uncomfortable costume is worse than no costume at all, and how to critically analyze a performance to discover what the actor needed from the garment.

I also taught “stitch camps” for the younger girls who came in knowing nothing about sewing, so we could hand off boring piecework to them without stopping to explain how to sew on a snap.

At the University of Texas, I spent two semesters as a stitch hand under the Master Tailor in the theatre department. (I studied politics and language, sewing was my job.) I was her bitch, which worked for me. Once I had to make three perfectly identical red and white striped tailcoats. I was so proud of them, all pretty and identical. Then the Master Tailor told me to distress two of them. It physically hurt to rip the new coats to shreds and smear them with mud. At UT, I learned a little draping from the graduate student designers in our workroom and how to run a variety of industrial sewing machines. Never lessons, just “go and do this” and I would. If they didn’t like what I did, I was sent back to do it again until they liked my work.

After the state cut funding to the theatre department, I found a job making “Urban Reconstruction” garments at a local vintage clothing store. It didn’t pay much and I’m pretty sure my boss was on some kind of drugs but I had fun cutting apart ugly old clothes and refashioning them into stuff people actually bought and wore. I even saw my work walking around in Austin. Twice. It was thrilling.

Then I didn’t sew for a few years. I wanted to do something besides sewing, I kind of hated how I kept getting “sucked into” sewing. I sewed my wedding dress after I arrived in Australia, but it was solely out of desperation. Search as I may, no stores anywhere carried the simple white full skirted knee length dress I had in my head. So I made it myself.

Later on, after Lila was born and I was in the middle of a body-image/identity crisis something clicked in my brain as I watched Miss Marple with my husband. “Stephen, I’m going to sew dresses like those and wear them. All the time.” Big, crazy gorgeous, 1950′s dresses.

“If that’s what you want to do, I think you should.”

“I’ll do it.”

“I have no doubt you will. Do it if it makes you happy, I’m not going to stop you.”

At the time I had no sewing machine, no threads, nothing. Very soon thereafter, I got a job at a sewing shop around the corner from my house. I hadn’t sewn for years, and with my years of theatrical/historical sewing I felt myself very superior to those “professionals” and their fancy machines and gadgets and feet. *I* didn’t need anything but a needle. Oh yes, very prideful. I belligerently bought a very low-level sewing machine despite wise advice otherwise (then 6 months later upgraded to my beloved Janome 4900- I do indeed use all the bells and whistles.).

But you know what- I was wrong. I learned to use all those fancy gizmos and whats-its. Sometimes I was actually taught, but more often I was told to go play with a cording foot until I liked it, or to make samples of knit binding. I realized that while some gadgetry is bunk, the vast majority of these tools and aids actually cleaned up my sewing. I could wear a garment without covering up the bad bits. I didn’t care if something went through the wash. Best of all- my sewing time sped up incredibly.

That’s also where I started teaching in earnest. My classes varied from one or two a week to as many as five, depending on the season. I loved teaching people to sew because I realized it’s more than just sticking together bits of fabric, it’s more than just making clothes. I could pass on the same thrill of creation that I get every time I sew: the incredible feeling of imagining a garment and then calling it into being. I finally started to value the sewing, after years of trying to run away from it.

My students became more sophisticated, and as a result I had to start pushing myself to figure out the best way to bind a knit neckline, the simplest way to insert an invisible zipper, and eventually they pushed me into learning how to fit all kinds of shapes and sizes and to make patterns.

Now, you all do the pushing, and I love it. Contributing to the online sewing community has become an important and rewarding part of my life. A big reason I started blogging earnestly is because I wanted to help other self-taught sewists improve their work. Someone has a problem, I know how to solve it, I write a blog post. Who am I to hoard my skills?

I think spreading knowledge and information about our craft is incredibly important, and I have a LOT of respect for all the self-taught sewists out there. Especially those of you who are isolated. It’s hard. It’s even harder when other people arbitrarily decide which way to sew is “right” and which way is bad or wrong and put you down about what you do. You don’t have to take that. You worked hard for your skills.

The most important thing I’ve learned are that if a garment fits, if the wearer likes it and if it holds together then it is “right.” The rest is academic, there are many ways to sew. Curiosity, an open mind and a willingness to try new things will always serve a sewist well. Snobbery is a waste of time.

How did you learn to sew?

Disaster: The Sorrowful Tale of the Whites Gone Pink

This is the jersey sent by Satan. I picked it up a few weeks ago from Spotlight to make a “final” version of the 40′s Charm Hack (which is clean and tidy and revised- will be up tomorrow! I just wanted to complete). It’s a lightweight nylon/wool blend, and only came in heathered gray, though I wanted something red. “No problem,” I thought, “I’ll throw it in the washing machine with some crimson iDye and all will be well.” I regularly dye fabrics that way.

All was not well, the fabric itself was hellish to work with- it stretched and warped and shrank from the needle as I stitched. I’ve worked with lightweight jerseys, lightweight wools, all kinds of nylon and wool, but this was like some kind of demonic visitation rather than a sewing experience. Disgusting fabric. I made an ugly muslin with it, made fun of it, and that was that.

I don’t know if you noticed, but I’ve been on a whites kick lately. I love how they blaze and glow under the skin-sizzling UV rays here, and how white seems to go with everything else in my closet. This past Friday, I threw a load of whites into a warm wash with mild detergent, a touch of vinegar and some baking soda:

Linen-cotton jersey with cotton bobbin lace. This is an excellent basic, the lace saves it from complete boredom.

SpinaLace Tee- Also linen-cotton slub knit, it washed to a level of softness for which there are no words.

Hemp Hurricane: I have worn this skirt almost constantly all summer. It has doubled as a blanket for sitting on the beach, as a sort of tent for sun protection, and it literally creates its own breeze when I walk.

Lacewing Top- Nylon/Cotton blend, works with everything in my wardrobe.

Summer Snowflake in Merino and Guipure- recognize the faux-lero?

I also added some delicious ivory Japanese double layered cotton knit for Enid’s version of the 40′s Charm Hack (which is to be a birthday present) and a few other bits and pieces, including a couple of cotton tea towels.

I didn’t think about the fact I had recently dyed something red in my washing machine. Why should I? I ran an empty vinegar rinse after dyeing and another load of darks had been through with no problems. Dyeing in my washing machine has never caused me any issues whatsoever. In fact, dyeing usually “cleans” my washing machine.

Mysteriously, my whites came out pink. Every blessed one, except the merino- though the cotton guipure trim was not spared. Curiously, the tea towels were also unaffected.

Not a pretty pink, but a just-barely-not-white pink. I ran another washing machine rinse then shoved them back into the washing machine with a healthy dose of bleach. (I took out the merino.)

They actually bleached pinker. I kid you not. They became Homer-Simpson-work-shirt pink. WHY? I left them wet on the bench in my kitchen lest drying set the pink dye permanently. In the meantime, I washed Lila’s butterfly sheets with the white background. They’re cotton and came out completely clean. “Excellent,” I thought. “No more pink in the machine, I didn’t ruin it, now my whites will behave.”

The next morning, I went out to purchase dye remover. “This will get it out, nothing to worry about,” I thought to myself. I even read the back of the box and followed the directions to the letter.

The white is for comparison. It’s actually brighter than this pink, I couldn’t get the color right…

MORE PINK! It is actually pinker than before! This almost qualifies as a color, but I’m stumped. Why did this happen? How? Why not her sheets? Why not the tea towels?

What do I do? I don’t dare trying to bleach them again. Or do I? Fiber gurus- do you have any ideas? I’m trying to stay philosophical about this, but after writing this post and thinking about the time (easily 30 hours) and thought and resources put into these clothes I’m actually pretty upset. (And for WHAT were they dyed pink? For the top that turned out to be the worst fabric fail of the year!)

I guess I could dye them all another color, but the white is what works with everything else. It’s a “neutral” for me. Besides, I shudder to think how silly a blue or purple lace-insertion tee would look. Black? I worked with black dye once, it was very difficult.

De-Grading Sizes- My Thoughts

First Disclaimer: I am making this up as I go along. This started as a vague concept, based on observations as I helped fit students in my classes. Over time, it became more concrete- to the point where I can actually present my thoughts in a clear manner. This is not definitive, this is an idea in progress.

Second Disclaimer: I do not care in the slightest what size or shape someone is. The shape of a body is a function of lifestyle and genetics, neither of which is any of my business. My business is making clothes to fit bodies and the personalities inside them. I don’t like fruity labels like “apple” or “banana” or “pear” and I don’t use them. I like clear, logical and descriptive words. I am trying to help in an objective way.

Upwards and Onwards-

The more I taught sewing and fitting, the more I noticed several trends the way commercial patterns fit normal bodies. I had petite students, average students, and plus students. In three and a bit years of fitting hundreds of women- twice I had a student who was a straight size and needed no alteration. Twice. Both were 10s.

I mean- seriously- am I the only person who finds this demeaning? I know it’s useful shorthand, but I’m a *woman.* Not an item. Don’t objectify me.

Obviously, there’s something wrong with the sizing system. Much is said on the subject, but it seems like mostly no one knows what to do about it. Sigrid wrote a VERY interesting and well-researched post on the subject, complete with the original data. Yep, I pored over the survey. It’s laughable, but the fact is that most RTW and pattern sizing up to today is based in some way on this survey.

The thing that really kills me is that fitting issues put people off sewing- it’s tough enough to learn at first, but then to find out you have to learn to fit the clothes… It’s hard! And besides, too many people get a complex when the pattern doesn’t fit them and start calling themselves hideous names. (It doesn’t help that most pattern alteration books use some truly gruesome terms to describe various alterations.) It’s the pattern, it’s not you.

3 Hours Past the Edge of the World

Design Inspiration, Sustainability, Sewing, Style & Cake

Category Archives: Philosophizing

Not Buying It: Styles for Body Shapes

Observation

The Nature of Shopping vs. Sewing

“Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked “female”.”

I Don’t Buy The “Styles” for Body Shapes Wisdom

It Doesn’t Really Apply to Us

What do you think?

2012 in review- 3 Hours Past the Edge of the World

Personal Fave of 2012

The Backstory on the Pinks, and Why I’m ok with it now

And then there was Cake

The Visual Diet Study and Pinterest and Me

Remember, Remember the 5th of November!

Frosting Fortnight, Clearing My Wardrobe, and the Pitfalls of Comparison

*Great sewing patterns don’t just appear on the drafting table. It takes work, revision, work, work, muslining and test-wearing, especially when wearability and good sewing practices are a priority.

Tearing Down or Building Up? The Body Image Debate

Movie Review: Mrs. Henderson Presents

How I Learned To Sew- Sharey Time!

Disaster: The Sorrowful Tale of the Whites Gone Pink

De-Grading Sizes- My Thoughts

Top three problems with standard sizing:

Follow “3 Hours Past the Edge of the World”

Observation

The Nature of Shopping vs. Sewing

“Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked “female”.”

I Don’t Buy The “Styles” for Body Shapes Wisdom

It Doesn’t Really Apply to Us

What do you think?

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Personal Fave of 2012

The Backstory on the Pinks, and Why I’m ok with it now

And then there was Cake

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*Great sewing patterns don’t just appear on the drafting table. It takes work, revision, work, work, muslining and test-wearing, especially when wearability and good sewing practices are a priority.

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Top three problems with standard sizing:

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