Doing things

Yes, I’ve been doing things lately. Apparently being inspired to post is not one of them. But it’s come to my attention that sometimes people read this thing, so here’s what’s been going on in my world.

I still like my new job. I’ve been there a little over a month now, and I still think of it as my “new” job. People there are under the impression that I’m interesting. I’m trying to figure out how to live up to that - it’s definitely a step up from just being considered kooky, but it’s new territory to navigate. In other work news, I screwed up on a big project (I wish I could say that was new too). Fortunately my mistake was caught early, I owned up and brought it to others’ attention, and there’s time for me to go back and fix it, which I know how to do. I’m not in trouble for it. I’m busy all the time most days, and that’s good, but it’s quite an adjustment after my previous workplace.

I designed and made a skirt. I don’t have photos yet (I promise I will, and they’ll go up on Wardrobe Refashion too). I drew a pattern, sewed a muslin - actually sewed it out of an old bedsheet ’cause I didn’t have enough actual muslin - and then cut up the sheet-skirt in a long spiral and used that as a pattern. I made the actual skirt out of brown denim, which I had huge amounts of even before learning of the Brown Dress thing. It turned out great; fits me perfectly. I’m going to have to do a little remedial flat-felling on parts of the seam, and I do hope it gets softer with repeated washings, but I’m really pleased with it.

Today, since I received my first real paycheck (it has four digits! Oh yeah, it has to last me all month), I treated myself to some thrift shopping. Totally inspired by these tops, I picked up some sweaters for felting and cutting up. They’re in the dryer right now. One in particular that I thought would stay nicely big has already come out of the washer tiny. I’m thinking the lot of them will end up being fewer finished products than I’d originally planned. At least the colors will work together.

Also at the thrift store I scored a Vogue fitting shell pattern, printed in 1985, still in factory folds (I hear that’s a prestigious thing in vintage-pattern circles), and incidentally my size. I really hope it doesn’t actually include measuring for the gigantic shoulder pads the illustration on the package appears to be wearing.

I then hit the fabric store for a few miscellaneous supplies, though I didn’t find the other pattern I was hoping for. I noticed something there today: Nearly all the other shoppers in there were plus-sized as well. Are we fat girls (and guys - there was at least one there) all just dropping out and tuning into making our own clothes lately? Is there an opportunity here to take over the world and subvert the dominant paradigm? Or will we all just be too busy sewing as fashion marches on without us?

I almost forgot - I’m going to be participating in a fiber art show. It opens next Friday, August 4. More details to follow - but if you’re in Denver and into doing the First Friday thing, save the date.

Oh, and my Union Label fabric finally arrived today. I must think of something fabulous to make with it.

Look for the union label.

First of all, lesson learned from my previous post (once in a while, these things finally sink in): Talking about your insecurities is BORING. And so is talking about your own posts, so that’s that.

Project Runway is back! Words can’t describe how excited I am. For all your online dirt-dishing needs we have Blogging Project Runway, FourFour and of course Television Without Pity, whose forum users came up with the term “auf’d” long ago - proof that the TV people are paying attention.

Real quickly, my impressions of the first episode and no predictions: Love Angela’s clothes (Michael Kors says the DIY patchwork thing is really big right now! Yay!), not crazy about Angela personally so far. Ditto for Laura - so elegant, so skillful, so condescending. Vincent Must Go. Stacey was rightfully auf’d if she didn’t even know how to change a needle (for the non-sewers out there: Pull the old one out, pop the new one in - same for every machine). Glad the producers have wised up and given Tim Gunn “star” billing along with Heidi - they’ve figured out that everybody loves him. I can’t believe no one used that gorgeous Marimekko-looking wall art in their designs. That’s the first thing I would have grabbed. Gimme those. I’ll make something out of them.

Apparently one of the models was in a serious accident on the way to taping the finale. The article doesn’t go into much detail on her current condition, but she’s at least alive and conscious. I won’t be able to help staring at her with morbid fascination in every episode from now on. I hope she’ll be all right.

Remember the Little Brown Dress I mentioned a while back? Well, it’s been a year, Alex had a party and took it off, and it was promptly stolen. It’s living a nomadic life of its own now. Taking its disappearance in stride, she’s a better person than I - after interacting so closely with a possession for so long, I would attach inordinate sentimental value to it and be really pissed if someone took it. But then the whole point of the project was about not defining oneself by one’s possessions. And I gotta admit the gnomelike adventure thing is a hoot.

I may not have many project pictures to show here for a while. I really want to concentrate on de-cluttering my house and getting rid of a lot of the junk I have (that I can’t use to make other things), and I think the only way I’ll get that done is to make a “project” of that itself. I am very very bad at organizing, sorting, prioritizing and all the skills it takes to live in a neat tidy place without a bunch of stuff I don’t need (see above, re: attachment to possessions). It’s a component of my particular mental-ness, but at least I recognize it as such. This will be difficult. But I hope I can sell some of my unneeded stuff for money. And I know what a good feeling it is after the stuff is gone. I have one really cool sewing idea in my head that I must get out, and after that maybe I’ll just start posting pictures of things I want to give away.

On a totally contradictory note, look what I just won on eBay.

Phat

Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa; it’s been a while since my last entry. My excuse is that I have a new job now which actually keeps me busy, greatly cutting down on my daytime websurfing hours. I’m trying to kick the addiction entirely, because I like my new job and want to keep it.

Anyway, here’s what I made last weekend.

Actually I finished it on the 4th, even getting a little work done on it (mostly pinning the hand-sewn parts together) while we were visiting a friend up in the mountains. I’m grateful for the amnesia that sets in once one leaves the mountains, because if I didn’t partially forget once I came home about sights like this

and this

I would run away there and never leave. Of course there’s something to be said for being able to walk, or at least drive, to places like work and the grocery store any time of year without the chance of being snowed in or careening off a cliff. And not having to worry about your cats being eaten by coyotes. (For those of you not from around here: I’m not kidding. That was a serious threat even within the city of Boulder. Although damn, I still miss Boulder.)

We did encounter some interesting, less predatory fauna:

About the red top: The fabric is allegedly vintage, from eBay. It’s got an interesting little texture to it, as you can kinda see in the bug picture above. I think it’s cotton, but it both wrinkles very easily and irons really easily, so it might be a linen or rayon blend or something. I just love the little midcentury-like triangle print.

The pattern is one I bought in about 1991 and only used once, back then. My dimensions have expanded a bit in the intervening years, and I knew I’d have to add some width to the pieces before cutting, even though the style is already pretty loose. Through the whole project I had earworms running through my head like Weird Al (Because I’m fat! I’m fat! You know it!) and the Violent Femmes (I hope you got fat! I hope you got really fat!). Since I’ve started putting so much time and thought into making things to fit my own measurements, I’ve noticed some of my existing clothes getting uncomfortably snug. I have to remember that sewing ability is NOT a free license to chow down on candy bars all day, and that I still need to be able to wear my entire wardrobe. (But the new office has free snacks!)

Anyway, amid all the self-flagellation and fear of turning into a hideous butter-troll, I also reminded myself how much happier I am now than when I made the first version of this top (though I did use some kickass fabric for it). My life was really in the crapper 15 years ago, and it got worse before it got better. Not to mention that at 40 pounds lighter, I still saw myself as even more of a butter-troll then. I wouldn’t go back for the world. Besides, I now have the skills to alter patterns when needed, and I no longer chastise myself for not fitting into clothes that were meant for someone else. But I think I will start taking the stairs more often.

The shape of the top is kind of balloony and not terribly flattering. It really drove home the realization that for most of my life I believed the main function of my clothes was to hide my grotesque body from view lest the sight of me offend the public. I always thought I completely lacked a waistline until I hit about 30 (and my butt grew), but maybe that was a delusion after all. Whatever; I’m kinda digging the retro-’90s (!!!) style, and I got lots of compliments on it when I wore it to work.