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  • Marfy

    MarfycoverThe new Marfy catalog arrived. 

    I was so eager to look through it I postponed my plans to go to work in my sewing room and instead curled up on the sofa with DH and a cappuccino for a lovely slow look. 

    I was disappointed.  The format has been changed and there is now only one catalog for the year:  this book includes both the spring summer styles and the styles for fall/winter 2008/2009.

    Normally I like the fall styles far more than the spring, but not so this time.  This could be because there seem to be more spring styles, it could be because so many of the fall styles are very classic basics which I already have, or which I can easily adapt from something already in my collection.  There were few patterns I liked, even though I kept flipping through the book in some kind of desperate act of wishful thinking, as if by turning the pages I could resurrect my dreams and desires.

    Here is what I definitely like:

    Marfy1637

    Marfy1661
    Marfy1664

    There is another jacket that is interesting, Marfy 1639.  I am mostly attracted to the angled darts at the waist and I don’t like the neckline, but that could be easily changed.Marfy1639

  • The Quiet Girl

    Reading The Quiet Girl  was absolutely thrilling.  I don’t think I have been as involved, or had as much fun, reading a novel for quite some time.  The reviews have not all been good, and I can even understand why, but I loved it nonetheless.  Reading this book is something of a roller-coaster ride, filled with thrills and chills, and a blindingly furiously clamoring abundance of ideas, disassociated thoughts, and actions.  There are many references to music which made sense to me, but might not to some.  The writing is very sharp, with short staccato sentences that echo the overwhelmingly furious pace.  And yet it is also very thoughtful.  Sometimes sentences jar the mind.  The characters are not always pleasant and their thoughts and actions not always comprehensible.  But the book is incredibly witty and incredibly fun.  It is rather addictive as well.

    I actually cannot begin to simply tell you what the book is about.  Is it a mystery? I was asked on the train.  Yes it is.  But it is not a mystery either, although it will keep you guessing until the very end.  Is it an exploration of love and life?  Yes, but not overtly so.  Is it an adventure novel.  It is very fast paced, blindingly so at times, and yet it is far too contemplative for most adventure fiction. 

    It will probably drive many people crazy.  The short phrases, the long expositions of the protagonist’s thoughts.  The way ideas and observations come out of nowhere and don’t seem to connect.

    Sentences like this:
        "It was beef soup; it tasted of eternal life and of the fact that all living beings consume one another."
    Will drive many people crazy.   But in the context of this novel, and in the context of Kasper Krone they make sense.  They make sense to me anyway.  A lot of this novel wraps itself around the story the way a curious, intellectual, introspective person might lets his or her mind wander around thoughts and ideas, seemingly random, but all connecting in the end.

    I think it is rare that one finds a novel that really challenges one’s assumptions, makes one think and is also such pure addictive pleasure.  I don’t think it is possible to fully absorb this novel in one reading.  I will be reading it again.  I may even start tomorrow, although perhaps, a little distance will be better.

    Obviously this is not a normal review.

    I have now read 4 of Hoeg’s novels and I think this one might surpass Smilla’s Sense of Snow as my favorite.  I can concede however, that for many, Smilla might be more popular; it is certainly more accessible.

  • Japanese Pattern Book Update

    Thank you Rhonda for inquiring about ISBN numbers on the Japanese books.  I have gone back and added the ISBN numbers to the discussion of the books in my January 16th post.  I will try to do that in the future whenever I discuss a Japanese book.  I know from experience how hard it can be to find a book I have seen on someone’s blog without the ISBN.

  • Butterfly Brain??

     

    Butterflybrain2_2

    courtesy of  the Alexander McQueen Spring 2008 collection at Style.com

  • Japanese pattern drafting and sewing books

    Part of my ongoing plan this year, and the past couple in fact, has been the process of eliminating and consolidating.  In the past I went through much of the house, but of course, the difficult things have been left to last, and one of those areas is the area I call "the dreaded piles".  These consist of piles of boxes of patterns, piles of sewing and knitting magazines, and generally piles of stuff that I thought I might use someday, but for which someday has yet to arrive.  It also means that I am trying to stop piling everything that "I can’t get to but hope to someday" on my sewing table or in my sewing room.  This may not sound like much, but if you are a person of many enthusiasms it is amazing how quickly they get out of hand.

    And so I have been cleaning off the cutting table, but I have been trying to do it in a thoughtful way, not just shoving things aside into another pile to be dealt with another day.  I have found many things:  the travel jewelry pouch with my favorite heavy sterling silver ring,   a pair of slacks that needed mending, the patterns I took to San Francisco in September.  In fact, I found everything I took to San Francisco in September.  I apparently got busy, stacked the contents of my suitcase on my sewing table, and left it there, where it only formed the foundation layer of ever increasing piles.

    I also found the remainder of the order of Japanese Sewing Books I received the week before last:.

    Japanesepatternbooksa
    The Green book, titled Pattern Drafting, is one of my favorite sewing books.  My mom gave me this one and I remember watching her use it when I was a child.  I do not have ISBN information on this book but my copy is 8th edition printed in 1969). Even though I have many other books, I am always amazed at how much help I get from the little book and it is one of the first books I turn to when I have a pattern fitting or drafting question.  It has a section on fitting problems, and also patterns for some basic garments, which are granted, somewhat dated but still interesting.  Here a couple of sample pages:

    Japanesepatternbooksa1
    Japanesepatternbooksa2

    The green book inspired me to get the red book called Pattern Making (ISBN4-579-10714-4) .  It does not have English translations, like the green one, but I can see that it too is going to prove very useful.  The day it arrived I spent a fair amount of time looking through it, and I took it with me today after unearthing it this morning.  I can certainly say that I was the only person in the waiting room at the doctor’s office reading a Japanese pattern book.  Here are a few sample pages:

    Japanesepatternbooksa3
    Japanesepatternbooksa4
    .
    Japanesepatternbooksa5

    Japanesepatternbooksb

    I also purchased two books about sewing jackets and I am thrilled with both of them and they are quite different.  I had not been certain when I ordered them what the differences would be but I am so glad that I went ahead.

    The book on the left (ISBN4-579-11016-1), is basically about drafting patterns for jackets and other garments.  It explains, in a very visual way how to draft a base pattern and then it goes on to build an assortment of patterns, including the ones on the cover from that base.  The layout of the book is very methodical.  There is also a pattern sheet that includes the base pattern from bust sizes 30 to 42.  I think this will help me with many pattern alterations and with working from my collection of Mrs. Stylebook magazines.  Here are some sample pages:

    Japanesepatternbooksb1 Japanesepatternbooksb3

    The second jacket book, the one on the right with the orange and brown jackets on the cover (ISBN4-579-10962-7), is not about pattern making at all, but is about constructing jackets, and it looks like it is a treasure.  You might wonder how a garment construction book in Japanese would be any help at all.  I don’t read Japanese.  But this book is fully illustrated, almost like a picture-guide to building a jacket.   Here is a sample:

    Japanesepatternbooksb4
    Japanesepatternbooksb5

    I am sure there are important details that I am missing by not being able to read the text of all of these books, but there is also much to be learned just from the fabulous illustrations and photos.  There are times when I am reading sewing instructions where I can’t really wrap my head around what I am supposed to do until I actually see it in front of me.  These pictures, and the great illustrations in the pattern drafting book really help me with that.  Even though a lot of the techniques illustrated are for things I already know, I have made jackets before, there is always something new to learn and these books look very promising.

    ** Edited on 1/29/2008 to add ISBN information.

  • Blinded by the Light

    I have been out driving late the last three nights and I am being driven to distraction. 

    When I was learning to drive, way back in the dark ages apparently, I was taught that one should turn off one’s bright headlights when oncoming cars approached, or when one came to close to another vehicle on the road.  I have always done this, and when someone forgot to turn off their lights, as I too have occasionally done, I would flash them, flipping my high beams on and off, with the expectation that another driver would do the same to me and I would respond, and that the person being flashed would reduce their beams in response.

    But lately, more and more people drive with their brights on and do not turn them off.  I live in an area with a great many winding hilly roads without adequate street lamps.  High beams are often a great boon at night, especially as there is a lot of open countryside and a substantial deer population.  But what I am finding is that I dread driving at night because I am often blinded by some oncoming fool’s lights.  Not only do people drive with their high beams on all the time, they don’t turn them down when I flip my brights back at them.  And it is not jut the oncoming traffic.  Another driver was behind me going up to Rhinebeck tonight, following too closely, with his or her high beams on, practically blinding me from behind.  When I got to the wider part of the highway, I gratefully moved to the right hand lane and slowed down just to get this person from behind me and regain my vision before I got into the village itself.

    Whatever happened to courteous driving?

    And I would think this would go beyond courtesy.  If the driver of an oncoming car is blinded by your headlights he may not be able to see the road or may so be distracted that he swerves directly into the oncoming lights, not intentionally of course.  Has anyone correlated frequency of high beam usage with accident rates?

  • Tracing a favorite tee

    Novemberfabric2
    Remember this fabric?

    I purchased it a couple of months ago and the moment I saw a photo of it I envisioned what it would become:  a v-neck vest/shell based on a favorite sleeveless tee that I purchased at Chico’s some years ago.

    I love this Chico’s tee, it fits well, the V-neck is very flattering and the cut lies very nicely against my neckline.  It is a little lower than most tees, low enough that I can also wear it as a vest with a blouse or button-down shirt, but not so low that it shows too much skin for everyday wear.

    Chicosvneck1
    As you can see in this photo, the neckline is somewhat interesting:  The front piece extends over the shoulders and form a back yoke with an angled v-shaped opening at the back of the neck.

    Although I love this top, I never really thought about how this was made until I decided to copy it.  I knew it had a back yoke and opened at a v in the back, but I suppose I didn’t think much about it until I was preparing to copy the pattern.

    So how do you copy something like this if you don’t want to cut apart the shirt to use as a pattern?  I still wear this top and I would really prefer not to cut it up and have to resew it.  But it is just a tiny bit more complicated than folding it half and tracing the outline, which would probably work for a standard tank with shoulder seams.

    When I really looked at the top, aside from noticing that there was no shoulder seam (duh!) I noticed that the top is cut with a double layer in front and a single layer in the back, below the yoke.  I also noticed that the extended shoulder/back yoke piece is cut on the straight of grain with the front, but when the yoke piece is seamed at the center back they are pulled around on the bias, which is probably what accounts for the  way this top seems to hug the shoulders in such a nice way.

    So how to trace this?  This is what I did, it is not the only way, and it is probably not even the best way, but it usually works pretty well for me.

    Often, on  a simple shape like a tank or sleeveless shell, one might trace only half the pattern figuring that the piece will be cut on the fold.  Tracing off half the pattern makes it more likely that the side seams will match.  On this piece however, I would have to flip it to line trace the back shoulder extensions and I thought that working with the extra layers of a folded top might lead to further inaccuracies.

    Chicosvneck2

    Since I have a seam, and it is hard to trace off an accurate copy of a seam, I  began by putting pins in the seam line.  Inserting pins into the edges and side seams will also give you a nice, well-differentiated line for tracing as well.

    Next I spread the garment out very carefully on my table, making sure that the grain line was straight and that the garment was not stretched or pulled out of shape in any way.  I was careful to keep it as straight and even as possible.

    Then I put my tracing material over the top of the garment and used tailor’s chalk to make a rubbing of the seam lines which had all been marked with pins.  There are several ways to do this, some people prefer pencils, feeling they get a finer line.   For me, since I have the pins in place, I get a very clear mark where the pins were positioned, so even if there are other chalk marks on my paper, I can still tell exactly where the seam was positioned.

    There are many options for tracing paper.  You can trace the garment directly onto muslin, cut it out and sew it up and you have a test garment.  Or you can use pattern paper.  I used "soil-separator" paper that I bought at Lowe’s some years ago when it was being discussed on one of the sewing boards.  I don’t really like it for pattern paper as you can’t see markings on it, although it is sheer and good for tracing, and you can also sew it up like fabric.

    If you are using something sheer like soil separator-paper be careful what you use for rubbing as certain things can bleed through the very sheer soil separator paper and mark the garment.  This is OK if the marker is washable and the garment is one you own, but I would not recommend this for a borrowed garment for example.

    When I traced this garment I first traced the front, and marked the fold lines at the shoulders, then I flipped the garment, making sure I lined each of the back shoulders up with the corresponding fold lines.  I also checked the grain line of the fabric to make sure I had positioned it on-grain, then I traced each shoulder extension.

    Once I had a rough copy of my garment on the soil-separator paper I could copy it to pattern paper.  This is the nice part about the soil separator paper.

    Chicosvneck3 First I laid a sheet of pattern paper out on the table.  Then I put my soil-separator paper rubbing on top of the pattern paper.  I made sure I could see all the proper lines and understood where I would be tracing, as there were a few wider and rough areas of my rubbing. 

    Then I simply took a washable Crayola marker and traced the lines on the soil-separator paper with the marker.  The ink from the marker soaked through the soil separator paper, marking the  pattern paper as well, much easier than tracing.  I use a washable marker because I am incapable of doing this without getting it all over myself, the cutting table, and anything else that might happen to be in the way.  After I have traced over all the lines on the soil-separator paper, I remove it and copy over the lines on the pattern paper to be sure they were all clear.

    Chicosvneck6 Now I have a first draft of my pattern.  It is not yet finished.  The lines on this pattern would represent the seam lines — the seam allowances have not yet been added.  I also need to  check the pattern pieces to make sure that everything is correct. 

    To do this I must make sure that all seams that will be joined together are the same length — for example matching the neck extension seams to the top back seam that will form the yoke and making sure that the front and back side seams
    are the same length.  It is also a good idea with a pattern like this, which is a full front, to ascertain that the pattern is actually balanced from side to side by folding it and making sure that the right and left sides are mirror images of each other.

    Once everything has been checked and I am sure that all the pieces are correct and properly aligned, I am ready to cut the fabric.

  • What makes it?

    A couple of quotes:

    "When you are born a woman, you must live as a woman,". . . . "The quicker you understand that, the easier it will be to accept."
                                       Ayaan Hirsi Ali  Infidel pp 49

    "because I was born a woman, I could never become an adult.  I would always be a minor, my decisions made for me.  I would always be dependent–always–on someone treating me well."
                                       pp 187

    "It was Friday, July 24, 1992, when I stepped on the train.  Every year I think of it.  I see it as my real birthday: the birth of me as a person, making decisions about my life on my own.  I was not running away . . . I was just a young girl who wanted some way to be me"
                                       pp 188

    How fortunate was I to be born a woman in the United States, in a non-muslim family, with other options and other perspectives. 

    But even within the constraints of any given culture, why do some submit and some rebel, even from a very very early age. 

    I cannot conceive of not thinking that a person is not a full person because she is a woman.  I don’t think this would have ever occurred to me, even as a very small child.  On some basic level it would probably not occur to any person, so how and when is it programmed out, and why, in some does the programming fail to "take".

    Even as a small American girl I dreamed of becoming a princess — standard fare — but I never dreamed of being rescued.  Even when I was as young as 4, which is as far as I can confidently remember, it was always I who rescued myself and, often, the prince as well.

    I am not offering comparisons here; there is no comparison between my life or my strength of character, and Ali’s.  I cannot imagine the life she led, the choices she had to make.  I applaud her strength.  I am merely wondering why and how. Why does one question when another does not?  Why does one one succeed and another fail? Or as someone dear to us used to ask "What makes it?"

  • It’s Here!

    New Japanese Books arrived in the mail!

    Japanese_002

    It looks like there will be lots of fun pattern play ahead.

  • Is that it for winter?

    At some point during the fall we were told "December would be a real winter".  We had snow, snow that actually stayed on the ground for a couple of weeks granting us that fabled "white Christmas" which is actually fairly rare around here.  And then we were told it is basically over, that the rest of the winter will be warmer than average leading into a long cool spring.

    Has winter come and gone?  Certainly the beginning of the year has been interesting enough.  2007 ended with 9 inches of snow.  2008 began with another 7 inches of snow.  Then we had a little cold front and on Thursday the temperatures dropped below zero.  I suppose if this is all there is to winter we have still met our average minimum temperature requirements for zone 6 (0 to -10) and so we could let winter rest peacefully.  I can’t say that I would mind if the rest of the winter were mild.

    The ground was still frozen solid and covered in snow Saturday morning. By this afternoon large swaths of brown grass and semi-frozen mud have appeared.  Walking to the compost bin requires crossing a combination of hard slippery ice, slush, and wet marshy semi-frozen sodden ground.  Perhaps the muddy season is upon us.  Only time will tell.