Several bukkets, actually. Filled with water from the neighbors’ garden hose (with their permission). Because we have no running water. Because our landlord neglected to pay the water bill and the city shut it off. Browsing my archives, I notice it’s almost exactly a year since this post. Since then we’ve been without heat for three weeks at the beginning of winter (including 7 nights below freezing) and actually had the dumpster repossessed for a while. And let’s not forget that the only two times our lawn has been mowed this year (already two times more than last year’s total) were after the city issued him citations about it.

So this evening after work, instead of taking our special-needs cat to the vet for a scheduled followup appointment (she’s improving), we were heading to the hardware store to stock up on buckets so we can at least, y’know, flush the toilet and brush our teeth tonight. Landlord swears it was all a mixup with the payment getting credited to the wrong building. I don’t really care what the reason is; we had better have running water by tomorrow. It’s illegal for him to make us go without it. (Can’t it be illegal for this negligent dipwad to own rental property at all? Please?) I love this beautiful old building, and it’s a damn shame how he’s letting it fall into such disrepair.

Thanks to everyone who commented about Wardrobe Refashion. Yes, I’d found the new link and just hadn’t gotten around to posting about it yet. I’ve notified at least one other refashionista whose site gets much more traffic than mine, so I hope the updated link gets spread around quickly.

I am still trying to keep up with the clothing recycling this year, but I don’t think I’m going to take the pledge for now. I stuck with it through 2006 (my only non-sanctioned purchases were a t-shirt and jeans from a thrift store for Halloween), but all the pressure to photograph and document everything I made got to be too much. Some people are cut out to be faithful photo-bloggers, and I’m just not one of them.

Most of my energy this year is—or at least should be—going into getting ready to move. My husband’s been accepted into grad school in England, so we’ll be selling most of our stuff and heading overseas this fall. He’s busy fretting over his student loan applications, while I’m fretting over how we’ll ever get all this work done in time. We’ll make it somehow, of course—this is such a great opportunity, not doing it is out of the question.

Can someone tell me what has happened to Wardrobe Refashion? It used to be a group blog by people who’d taken a pledge to remake old clothes instead of buying new ones. I participated in it for a year - that’s my butt right there.

Now the whole site seems to be dedicated to Google ads and impersonal little magazine columns about trendy “must-have” items to buy - the polar opposite of the spirit in which the project was started - and every post is credited to someone named Luna.

I understand if the blog’s original organizers didn’t have the time or inclination to keep the refashioning project going after its initial year was up. But it would have been nice at least to notify the participants before turning it over to whatever commercial enterprise has co-opted the thing.  A couple dozen people’s work is showcased on that site who are no longer getting any credit. And who knows how many other sites still link to it - how confusing it must be to someone encountering it for the first time.

It’s all very weird. What happened?

Well, someone linked to me the other day. I wasn’t expecting that. And at least one person has apparently been reading this. Guess maybe I should dust this thing off and start posting again once in a while. Maybe.

I’d been wanting to say something the last few days but didn’t think I had the right, because after all, I didn’t really know her. But after seeing so many total strangers pay as much respect as close friends, I guess it’s okay for me too.

I never met her. Never crashed on her couch, never went out on the town with her, never worked with her on a project or exchanged gifts or talked on the phone. Never, I think, even sent her an email. We both belonged to the same online discussion group, many years ago. She was one of the original A-list crowd; I was one of the newcomers that everyone claimed were ruining the place. She was popular. I wasn’t. To be honest I don’t remember a single specific conversation we both participated in - but at least that also means we didn’t hate each other.

Over the years, reading her many magnificently written and designed sites, I came to think of her as like that cool kid who’s a year or two ahead of you in school. You pass her in the hall most days, you know her name but doubt she knows yours, and later when she grows up to be a bestselling author or Olympic athlete or something, you have the privilege of saying you knew her way back when, although you really didn’t in any way that counts.

These past few days, searching through links for details and memories, I’m gratified to see that a lot of people from those days have stayed in touch with one another, even if I’m not one of them. My “catching up” with their lives now feels a little voyeuristic, but it’s also reminding me of other old friends I’ve lost contact with and that there’s no time like now to remedy that. Because Life’s Too Short and You Just Never Know.

I wonder what else would have been in the Advent calendar. I wonder if someone will be charged with finding it and posting it for us all to see…not now. Maybe next year. I wonder, had this happened at any other time of year, how much more slowly the news would have spread. How many of us would never have known at all.

Thank you and goodbye, Leslie. The world and the web are better places for having had you in them.

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.

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.

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.

Today I was browsing through the online catalog of a store I wouldn’t shop at even if I hadn’t taken the pledge. I won’t mention its name; I’ll just say that I always want to mispronounce it as “Arthropodigie”, like something to do with insects. It really is a shame that this store (and that other store, you know the one) are owned by someone with such a reprehensible political agenda and unscrupulous business practices, because daaaaamn they have some cute clothes.

I used to love to browse in those stores, never spending any money there but getting ideas for things to make (or possibly to buy elsewhere). But every time I hear they’ve ripped off yet another independent designer’s work, copying it verbatim without permission and sweatshop-producing it without credit, I get more reluctant even to look at their products. Of course their stuff looks really cool, I tell myself. It’s because they plagiarize from every creative source they can find.

And therein lies my ethical dilemma. If I copy something I’ve seen in this store, not knowing the store stole the idea in the first place, does that make me a participant in the theft? My disdain for the store makes me want to say yes. But then I have to admit: If I saw the real designer’s original product and liked it but didn’t want to buy it, I’d probably have no qualm about making a similar item for myself. And following the same logic, isn’t that worse than if I believed I was just imitating something mass-produced?

So here is my rationalization. I’m only making the thing for my own use, not to sell. And I wouldn’t be copying it exactly, just getting the general idea and then using different materials and making modifications. And of course if anybody asked, I’d be sure to tell them where I got the inspiration for it: “So&So makes the neatest things that are kind of like this, and I thought it would be fun to try doing something similar.” I think all that is ethical and honest and fair, isn’t it? I’d be interested in getting some actual designers’ opinions.

Anyway, the Arthropod store does have some really really cute clothes, and my not shopping there is even more a moot point because they don’t carry my size anyway. I wrote down the names of a bunch of styles I liked, and I plan to have fun seeing if I can approximate those looks on my own. I need a new wardrobe for my new job, after all.

I don’t want to make a habit of writing too much personal stuff here, and blogging about work is a just plain bad idea, but I have to share this.

At my current job, which ends in two days, I share an office with someone who listens to the radio. It’s actually a station I would like quite a lot, if it came in clearly. Unfortunately it doesn’t, so most of what I hear is khhhhhhh, and I’ve taken to wearing earplugs to block out the static. It’s inconvenient when people come up from behind and start talking at me.

Anyway, someone just came in to talk to me, and so I took out one of the earplugs for the short conversation. I caught a bit of what was playing on the radio…it took my brain a few seconds to parse what it was hearing, but then there was no mistake. A bluegrass cover of “I Want A New Drug”. I could not make this up.

Need to save my sanity won out over morbid curiosity, and I popped the earplug back in as fast as I could.

Finally getting around to posting about this past weekend's refashioning project…I made another skirt from button-down shirts, this time shirts that had actually been mine but never looked quite right on me (let that be a lesson not to wear off-white near my face).

The pattern was based on the one I drew for my first button-down shirt skirt, but for this one I put a border around the bottom instead of a yoke at the top. I had a moment of panic when I realized there wasn't enough of the striped fabric for the full body of the skirt - but there turned out to be just enough of the floral to make up for it, and the two contrasting panels in front and back make a nice accent.

I did have to do some piecing together on a couple panels, and by far the hardest part of this project was getting those stripes to match up. (Well, almost.) One of those things that's such a simple concept, but the execution of it is surprisingly tricky.

I think I had to make four seams like the two pictured above, and it took me at least a couple hours for that part alone.

I'm pleased with the workmanship - I forced myself to rip out and redo every seam that wasn't quite right. I used all French and flat-felled seams, so there's not an exposed raw edge on it. (Have I mentioned that it's been just within the last year or so that I learned it's okay to do that?) I wore it to work on Monday and got a ton of compliments. Quite a few people know I'm doing this refashioning thing, so they still asked me right away if I made it - but I think I am getting closer to the "Where did you get that?" skill level. (Come to think of it, I wore the Sassypants today, and no one said a word.)

In other news, I got a new job. I start next week, and I'm nervous about it. I've been doing temp work for a long time; my current job is a long-term temp gig, and I've really enjoyed it for the most part. But the company is switching temp agencies, meaning my assignment was going to end this week anyway. I would have had to sign up with the new agency - which is one of those graphics specialty places requiring a lot of testing and no guarantee of approval. I applied there once before and failed their tests, so I've just been paranoid about the prospect of them rejecting me again.

Anyway, this other company contacted me after seeing my résumé online - I keep forgetting I even have it there. I interviewed last week, got called back for a second interview, and today they told me the job was mine. It's a real job, full-time and permanent, with benefits and everything. It's daunting. But I guess now I just have to live up to their expectations.