Random Questions in Lieu of a Real Post

Do you sweat while you sew? More specifically, while you lay out and cut out fabric? I do, like a pig. If pigs sweat a lot. The climate does not seem to make any difference.

Has any of you who have attained "a certain age" as I have found that your fingernails and toenails have begun to grow longer and stronger than they did in your youth? I recall a conversation in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead about whether fingernails grow after death and whether toenails grow at all. Rosencrantz opines that his toenails do not grow because if they did they would be curled around the ends of his toes because he never cuts them. When I first saw this play in the 1970's I was struck by the accuracy of Rosencrantz's observation about toenails. Now my toenails need trimming every couple of weeks or my shoes don't fit. I find it irritating that it is only as I grow too old to reach my toes easily that they begin to require my attention. My fingernails, which have always grown but used to break off and stay stubby, also grow long and strong now.

Should the previous question have begun with "Have"?

Do you get regular manicures and/or pedicures? I got a manicure before my wedding and have never had a pedicure. My friends, however, swear by them.

Do you indulge in notions porn? I can spend hours surfing sewing notions sites like Nancy's Notions or MacCulloch & Wallis even if I have no intent to buy anything. And why are sewing notions called haberdashery in the UK while a haberdasher in the US sells men's clothing and accessories?



What is the best way to develop good taste? I seem to devote a lot of time (and money) to sewing garments that, even if they are successfully constructed and fit me, don't suit me or my situation in life.

And speaking of my situation in life, I am hatching a plan to retire early, sell my house and live on my pension and social security somewhere in Europe. Early could be as early as next summer. DH wants to stay in Los Angeles but I wouldn't mind leaving him behind if I can figure out how to afford it and/or talk him into getting a job. (grumble grumble) What do you think?

MMM '13 Friday Theme Post: My Sewing Space

I am wearing me-made pajamas, which you don't need to see. The MMM photo theme for today is Your Creative Space, so here's mine. Any of you who are embarrassed by the mess in your sewing room may now relax and feel superior.
First: the beating heart from which the flow of creativity gushes forth:



It's an old computer desk. I slide the machines back and forth to get at the one I want. Miscellaneous little plastic boxes and shelves hold stuff I might need or haven't put away. Whenever I use the serger the table vibrates so much that everything falls off the back. My sewing and general DIY library is on the lowest bookshelf over the desk, where I also tape up the instructions for whatever I worked on last. In this case the instructions are actually live as I finish up Vogue 1291 which I may wear this weekend, if I also make a cami and skirt to wear with it. Yeah.
You can sort of see my pattern stash under the desk in the green baskets. Also under the desk are two grocery bags full of final exams to grade. Their very presence inspires me to sew. Or blog. Or sleep. Anything but grade.

Here is where I carefully catalog my projects:



I'll explain my system because I know you may want to adopt it. In the upper left corner, below the beer coasters and beside and below the little pink pig, is my fabric stash database. When each new acquisition comes in from fabricmart or wherever, I cut a little piece off the corner, label it with content (if known) and size, and pin it up on the bulletin board. Of course, I haven't gone back and indexed anything I had before I got the bulletin board, but maybe I'll do that now instead of grading exams … . Also tacked up are the downloaded patterns for Three Hours Past's Blank Canvas Tee and Colette's Sorbetto, and the information sheet for Sandra Betzina's pants fitting class on Craftsy. Hey, maybe I'll make a pair of pants this afternoon… . The tea towel was a gift I demanded for my birthday last year: you'll never guess how old I am. I don't remember what's under it but I'm sure it's important.

Then there's my fabric stash itself, and my dress form wearing my nearly complete Vogue 1291.



The bottom bin is for linings and interfacings, I think. I forget what the top bin was suposed to be for but I can see remnants of stuff I made in the past. Several nice active wear knits, some dupioni silk I got at the ASG convention in Los Angeles a couple years ago and a pretty burnout that Margy of a Fool For Fabric Oops, no, it was Jilly Be at JillyBeJoyful (but it's black and white!) made a lovely top and scarf of but I've just sat on for 3 or 4 years are all hanging in there. It looks pretty bare in there, actually, and I don't have a major league fabric stash, really, but fear not, there's more.

Here's my desk (aka my treadle table with a 1953 Singer 15-91 in it--the treadle machine is pretending to be a knic-knac in the living room) where I write and catalog patterns in an excel spread sheet. And grade. Next to the desk you can see another couple of bins of fabric. I don't know what is in them. The shelves hold some UFOs and bits of yarn and lace.



Then, finally, there's my … well, my, um, guest bed, which holds stuff I want to alter, or listen to, or read, or put away, or send to somebody else.



If I ever have another guest I guess I'll have to buy another bin!

Me-Made-May and -- All Better!

OK, I'm in with 500 or so of you in taking Zoe's Me-Made-May Challenge. I had been hoping to spend May sewing and wearing new me-made clothing. As soon as I finish this paper which I am about to begin (it's all written in my head, don't worry). And then finish grading. And then attend a memorial service in Washington, D.C. and then my little brother's wedding in Ohio the next day. And then visit with my mother until the end of the month when I'm off to present the still-hypothetical paper at a conference in Boston. In my still-hypothetical me-made clothing. But I can do it, right? I am Woman! Meow. So anyway, Day 1 I wore this, including these shoes (which I did not make) although this is an old picture.



Meanwhile, back at the ranch. I wanted to comment on some blog or other and had to sign up for Disqus to do it. A Perfect Nose mentioned Disqus as a way of evading spam on my own blog such as the following, which I find kind of cute in a delusional psychedelic way …

A гaw onion may pеrhaps be гubbed on unbrοken chilblains with exсeρtionаl good reѕults. This have nearly alwaуs bеen a favored actіvity іn my household. Continue 11 miles, and observe fastidіouѕly for the indication to Laupаhοehoe Level Seаshore Park on the correct.

… without subjecting people to impossible Captcha exercises. So I (think I) signed up my blog and (think I) imported all your comments but I don't know where they went! FWIW, I can still read them all on my Blogger Dashboard, but until I test commented every post showed 0 comments and 0 reactions. Now the last post says it has 1 comment (mine) and over a billion reactions which I can't see. Oh well.

Update: On the advice of my wise friends, I dumped Disqus. Happy again.

Sad Things On My Mind.

I've had a few things on my mind.



If you bicycle and you can make out the white bike amidst the flowers and candles you know what this is. A boy on his bike was hit by a car and killed on Easter in the crosswalk at an intersection near my house. He was thrown 100 feet. The car, a Mercedes Benz, did not stop.
Did. Not. Stop.

Friends of the boy, who would have graduated from high school this June, keep the flowers fresh and the candles lit.

I pass by this corner every day.

Then there was this on Patriots' Day in Boston.



Not in my neighborhood, but it still seems to matter.
More people were probably killed in Damascus that day. But

But

I have nothing to follow that but.

And then this.

Walmart, H&M and Gap: Do your part to stop the murders of garment workers in BangladeshHere is a report on conditions in Dhaka Bangladesh, prompted by the Tazreen Fashion fire last November, and why they are so hard to change.

There is so little I can do about any of this but at least I try not to buy new clothes.

On their way!

Two bundles of plus-sized patterns are on their way to Dixie and Karen at long last.



I don't do snail mail well, I'm afraid. But to compensate for the wait, the patterns are wrapped in lovely gauzy knit reminiscent of 1970s nightmare nightwear but in fact harvested from the $2.50/pound bin at Michael Levine's loft.

Big Winners in the Plus-Sized Pyramid!

Congratulations to Karen in VA of Karen's Fiber Musings and Dixie of With Needle and Brush! You have won this tier of the Plus-Sized Pyramid of Patterns launched by Beverly aka BeaJay of On the Road to Sew Wear! Use the link on the right to send me your snail mail addresses and I'll get the patterns out to you asap!

Sewing on the Red Carpet

Twitter, I'm told, was abuzz when Anne Hathaway appeared on the red carpet at the Academy Awards in this Prada dress:

Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Image

"Look at those nipples!" tweeted the ignorant masses.
But you and I know those are just badly done bust darts! Sewing is important.

Another view: