We head off to Kansas tomorrow for an extended Thanksgiving trip and will be back next weekend.
Although I am packed, I still hope to make it to the gym this evening and squeeze in a couple of hours of office work, just so I will not be quite so inundated when I get back.
The jacket waits…and waits….and waits….
Have a happy Thanksgiving.
Here it is September already and I have little to show for my summer. For those of you who have stuck by me during my hiatus from sewing, I am very grateful for your continued loyalty. Goodness knows there have been precious few projects here and little inspiration.
But September will be different. I itch to sew. I need to sew. Next week I will be in San Francisco for sewing camp and that will be my big kick-off back to sewing, although I am truthfully hoping to get a little sewing time before I leave as well. Sometimes I seem to need a little distance. More likely I need to give myself permission to walk away from whatever else is going on and just sew.
But that does not completely account for my absence. I called this blog Sew Distracted in order to write about how sewing distracts me from the various stresses and tasks of life, but also to write about how my far too many interests distract me from sewing.
Distractions are always present. This is the price of being interested in too
many things, the price of being too scattered in my attentions, the cost of a
continued lack of focus. But I hope there is a cohesiveness somewhere if only I
can find it; perhaps then I will also have found my voice as concerns this
blog.
Lately it seems the distractions have been legion:
Here I am next to the cleomes in the overgrown flower bed that is blocked by the temporarily located spa, dumpster, gravel pile and a ton of construction debris. The cleome have grown quite tall, determined to be seen over all the obstacles to their viewing. I am 5’9" for comparison.
And of course the wealth of summer produce has kept me happily occupied for hours in the kitchen. Shopping the farm stands, planning menus, cooking…. all this pleasantly occupies hours of each day. I’m not complaining here either. I will miss this in the dead of winter when there is no decent vegetable to be found. Of course I will have more sewing time then as well.
And the construction crews are back. Even though I am not doing the work, there seems to be an endless variety of things to be done, people to talk to, little tasks to be undertaken. And then there is the time spent following the progress, watching one’s house be transformed. That is distractin enough.
But a little fiberly progress has been made:
I finally cut out all the pieces for the nursery room set. How many weeks ago did I wash this fabric and set it aside? There is no point in counting the days. What is done is done. It took me bits and pieces of two days to get this far: Saturday and Sunday. Nothing further has been accomplished since, at least not on the sewing front.
Three weeks from today I will be in San Francisco sewing.
Or
Three weeks from today I will be Knoxville Tennessee doing grandmother duty.
Hopefully I will get to do both and they will sort themselves out accordingly.
How has summer passed so quickly? There are many things that should have been sewn by now. They are all stacked, none to neatly, on the end of my cutting table:
First, I need to make that crib set that I have promised. It must be done before the baby comes so that moves to the top of the list. Then the other sewing, tops and skirts perhaps, then pattern work.
Second I need to sew clothes that fit me now. They don’t have to be fancy clothes, they just need to fit the body that exists at the time they are sewn.
I don’t even know what clothes I have to wear in San Francisco. My summer clothes are all too big (big smile) and I don’t know what fits among the fall things and the things from last summer. Some might fit, others might still be too small.
I got myself into this boat, being depressed and stressed and fat. Now I have dealt with depressed and stressed but the rest of it is remains a work in progress. I had hoped to be back to the weight I sported last time I was in San Francisco, but that might not happen. Of course two weekends revolving around music and food did not hasten the weight loss. The freshly made ice cream and steak frites with Aioli were worth every calorie. At least I did not backslide.
I’ve always taken nice tailored separates and suits to San Francisco, kind of classic American sportswear, my kind of wardrobe, but this year I might be reduced to chinos and tees. Chinos and tees will be all that are needed in Knoxville, while I cook and do laundry and rock a a new baby. Chinos and tees are all I need here while I watch the men on power equipment and with shovels and saws climbing over my house. Chinos and tees would work in the sewing room. I can probably rustle up a dress or two for those wonderful dinners out in San Francisco restaurants, the other high point of my trip. I suspect a few simple pants and tops are perfect transitional weight-loss garments. How boring. How necessary.
As to what I will work on when I am there, who knows. Perhaps I will work on one of my coat projects. But perhaps they, like other epic projects, are best put off til later. The pattern alterations made for the "spring coat" are already too big and so the pattern needs to be re-altered. Perhaps it is foolish to make a coat too far before it is to be worn.
Perhaps I will just sew things to wear right away, perhaps even while I am at sewing week. This depends on the state of my fall closet and at this point I have no idea how my fall closet and I will mesh.
It looks like there is a lot to do in the next three weeks.
Just a brief status update. The past week was very busy, as I knew it would be; the week between the two Bard Music Weekends always seems to be packed, and weekend #2 kicks off with a symposium all day Friday which we always attend as well, so it was a short week as well as a busy one.
Still, I did manage to get in my sewing room a little bit even though I did not get the muslin finished and I don’t know what size pattern to order yet.
I had previously traced the pattern. I made my standard forward shoulder alterations and also a full bust alteration, or at least my first attempt at same. Then I cut out the first muslin. I did not finish making it. I am still obsessing working on the fba. It is not something I had to do until a couple of years ago and I have not had much practice.
I did realize however that I am going to order the patterns I want whether I do it now, while shipping is cheaper or later. The shipping price is not going to deter me. Therefore there is no reason to make myself crazy and rush. Things should lighten up next week, I can take my time making a decision, and order when I am ready. I am not going to be making these patterns until a little more weight comes off anyway.
After several additional hours of work on the brown pants I was trying to alter, the same pants I wrote about a few posts back, I gave up, and threw the whole wad in the trash in a fit of pique. I did come back later and retrieve the zipper, but otherwise, left the pile to wend its way to that place were all discarded things go.
I experienced a brief moment of guilt — I could have just donated the pants to some worthy place where someone else could wear and love them. But I did learn a great deal and I have a nice zipper as well.
I should have paid attention to Ann’s comment and just made new pants to begin with.
Another plus yesterday was the arrival of this book:
which is filled with loads of simple yet inspiring pleated garments. It would be worthwhile solely for the inspiration I derive from it, but it seems to have pretty good instructions on how to pleat the fabrics and make the garments. Of course, the instructions are in Japanese, which I cannot read, which may be difficult.
Hopefully the pictures are clear enough that, using them as guidelines, and getting bits of help with the Japanese where ever I can find it on the web, I might muddle my way through.
Of course, this may, like my plans for felting, just sit around for a while before I ever actually get started.
In a typical American grocery store, blueberries, cherries, and strawberries are signs of summer, flown in regularly from whereever they happen to be in season. However, in the reality of any one region’s weather and seasons, they do not usually overlap.
Here in the Hudson Valley of New York State we are truly fortunate this year in that the strawberries, cherries, and blueberries are all in season at the exact same time and are available for picking at local farms on July 4th.
This truly is a cause for celebration.
Happy 4th of July! Happy Independence Day!
May we all be thankfull for the words and acts this day commemorates and the priveledges and lifestyle afforded us by those words written long ago and the ideals and beliefs addressed therein.
I tend to be very reluctant to sew for other people. This is not because I wouldn’t like to make them things, but more because I don’t want to deal with their expectations, and the pressure to make something they want on their schedule. Selfish I know. And yet, as life becomes more structured, rushed and complex, my needs from my sewing become more relaxed and less structured.
I started sewing because I needed clothes and I realized that I could make exactly what I wanted for less money than I could buy it, if I could find it all. Then I fell in love with the process. I also fell in love with having the styles I wanted fit the way I wanted. Along the way my standards got higher and I became less willing to accept what I find available. I think I can just sew my own.
Still, it doesn’t always work out that way. Most of the reasons I sew, and most of the things I make are not made for practical reasons, even though the resulting garments are indeed practical: they fit me, they fit my lifestyle, they get worn. I tend to sew what I feel like sewing at the moment. Perhaps I fall in love with a piece of fabric. I imagine a specific garment. The garment I am dreaming of or working on may not be for the current season. The garment I want to sew may not be practical in that it may not be what I could use the most at the time I am sewing it. I an live with this. It took me years to learn that I sew more when I allow myself the freedom to sew what inspires me and not chain myself to a schedule. In the sewing room I chafe at schedules..
The world is too full of practicalities, of things that must be done. There are too many demands and expectations, too much complexity, too many distractions. Sewing time is dream time, play time, creative time. This is a large part of why I don’t really sew much for others – I don’t want their expectations and schedules running my sewing time. It is also why I have avoided doing a SWAP, even though I think a SWAP would be a good and useful thing and I would even like to do one. I have pulled out fabrics, but then I pause. It just seems to regimented, too practical, too much what I don’t want to do with my sewing time. Still I admire people who actually sew SWAPS.
But sewing is also a skill, a skill with very practical applications. Although I am constantly amazed at people who are proud of their lack of sewing skills, “I couldn’t even sew on a button” they might say, and I am saddened by this, I also sometimes envy them that very lack of skill. If you can’t sew you don’t feel the need to mend things, and I hate mending. I would rather make something new than mend something. I find countless excuses to avoid mending, although I will admit that I mend family members clothing before I mend my own. Whenever they complain at how long X has been put off, I can happily find some garment of my own that has been waiting on the mending pile far longer than anything they have offered up.
Another practical application of sewing skills is the ability to do alterations. I do not alter anyone’s clothes but my own. I am totally selfish about this. I actually don’t object to alterations as much as to mending, don’t ask me why. I do put it off – the worst part of alterations is the deconstruction portion, the part where you take things apart so you can fix them, make them bigger or smaller, shorter or longer. Ripping is not inspiring. You have to formulate a plan of attack: what needs to be accomplished, what needs to be ripped to achieve this ends, how long will the process take. Once the seams are open and everything is ready for reassembly, the fun begins. I have learned a lot from alterations, partially by learning how things are put together when I have to disassemble them, and also by figuring out how to get them to fit the way I want. It is probably a backwards approach to fitting and construction, but it has worked for me.
A lot of the sewing time I have not been blogging about has been time spent on alterations. There have been lots of alterations this year.
First I lost some weight and had to take some things up so I would have spring clothes. Yes, there was that mad euphoric period when I thought I would just sew a whole new wardrobe, but then weather and lack of time intervened and a few well placed alterations helped make the transition so much easier.
Then I gained volume (although not weight) and had to de-alter, or let out. In fact it for a while it seemed like I was on an alteration see saw, as what I needed would vary on very short notice, in, out, in, out, periods where each day may be different than the day before. One wonders why one even bothers. A burlap sack would have done. The architecturally unsound life can be an interesting one at times.
And then the volume disappeared. Poof. The jeans that were snug on Tuesday were falling off my hips on Saturday in Knoxville. My carry-on bag did not have a wealth of alternatives. A borrowed belt got me through the weekend. Upon my return home I saw that another round of alterations awaited. Loose is one thing, saggy and baggy must be corrected.
Luckily the volume issue has been one that has raised its ugly head occasionally the last few years and most of my clothes have been simple and easily altered. Even that particular pair of jeans was easy to alter, at least as easy as jeans could be: The waistband had side seams and a center back seam, simplifying the alteration process considerably.
Perhaps I will even feel confident enough of issues of space and volume to make more complicated clothes again. The new Vogues are out and there are some patterns calling my name, aside from the many things I have been saving up to make over the past year or two.
I have one more pair of pants to alter – a once favorite pair of dark brown linen pants. They are a bit more complicated in that they have lovely side seam pockets, shaped and beautifully top-stitched. The pants are so loose through the hips and upper thighs as to resemble jodhpurs more than regular pants. I am inclined to think that, in order to preserve the pocket, I will have to totally dismantle the pants and recut the tops. Luckily they have a front zipper so I don’t have to do anything with that. Is it worth it? Or should I just buy brown linen and recreate them? Well, it can’t hurt to take them apart and give it a shot.
When I was in JoAnn Fabrics the other day I saw this piece of pleated silk. It immediately said "cool summer skirt" and found its way into my cart.
To me these skirts always look best if one does not scrimp and allows for plenty of extra fabric, allowing the skirt to hang in pleats without too much stretching over the curves and bumps of the body. It still hugs the curves, but billows in an attractive way.
The whole thing took about an hour. I cut three skirt lengths and sewed them together. Notice I did not try to match the stripes on the fabric; that was much more effort than I wanted to put in this skirt, and, since I had bought the last piece on the bolt, I was not sure there was enough fabric warrant that kind of perfectionistic attentions. I then finished the whole thing off with a shirred elastic waistband.
Today I felt cool and collected in the summer heat. I felt refreshing, almost minty fresh, as if I carried around my own burst of icy cold air.
The last two days have been fairly busy with various real-life intrustions and sewing time has been limited.
Well, that is not completely true. I have been busy during the days: what looked like 2 to 3 hours of accounting on Tuesday ended up occupying the entire day and today was spent running around in the rain, soaked through and freezing, taking opportunity of the absense of workmen around the house, but without considering expected plument in temperatures into account when dressing for the day.
Rather than work in the sewing room this evening, I have been bundled up in a blanket knitting a baby sweater — a sudden necessity determined when we decided yesterday that we would fly down to Knoxville on the 16th to see Miriam and help out, if we can, with baby preparations. The stack of fabrics for a soft-animal chain for the crib has also been set aside, as one of our tasks will be picking paint colors and fabric so I can make a set of crib bumpers. With an idea of what the nursery will look like it will be much easier to pick the colors and fabrics for my brightly colored animal chain.
I really must do some sewing. I want to make the coat, although it is certainly not high on my list of needs right now. That is always a problem, reconciling what I want to sew with what I should sew. I need casual summer clothes for running around town — I am set for gardening clothes but not much else. Everything else in the closet seems to need mending or altering, tasks which I always find some excuse to avoid.
Too much screams for attention and I seem to have trouble setting priorities. I have fabric and patterns and ideas galore. Please someone help me settle the scattered brain waves. I know I just need to start somewhere, anywhere, but each day seems like a new challenge.
In the shady front yard, summer color is dominated by green
and the only touches of color tend to be the ones provided by pots full of annuals and tender perenials.
Since we have suddenly, with the advent of Memorial Day weekend, made the transition from cool prolonged spring to summer heat, perhaps it is no wonder that I was drawn to green:
I stopped in to JoAnn for felt and a couple of patterns and was distracted by this fabric. Unlike my garden however, which is mostly in the shade and mostly green, this green is only destined for the sidelines. I had a sudden mad urge to pair it with this brightly printed cotton on a maroon background for a casual summer skirt.
Did I need this fabric? No. Should I be sewing other things now? Yes. I still have the "spring" coat, which I will actually still wear, and regardless, I still want to sew. But the heat has brought visions of casual summer skirts dancing through my head. I am fully confident that everything will get sewn, but in what order?
Meanwhile I am working on Back-Tack which must be mailed in a few days. I am having a lot of fun, but despite my best efforts to be clever and creative I keep coming back to my simple original plan. Crafty goodness is not my strong suit. I do hope I can achielve some kind of simple charm however. There are still several choices to be made. No photos to entice however. I shall hold on to words and promises until back-tack is firmly in the hands of its recipient. Well…I might…..cheat a little…just a little. Wait and see.