Monday musings

It was such an odd and harmless whim that I couldn't resist... Sometimes our plucky heroine gets tired of not having eyebrows, so last night I drew some line and dots designs on my face where the eyebrows should be.

I think eyebrows add another layer of expression.

but with or without eyebrows, I believe in the truth of the sign on my bathroom mirror: " Beauty has many faces. This one is your very own ♥ "

:::

Yesterday I wrote on my thoughts about having a wardrobe of just enough:

"I actually like to have a basic set of eight clothes* rather than five,
so that it is theoretically possible to go for a week without needing to do laundry!"

Today whilst putting the laundry away, I decided to actually looksee how I was doing in that respect... Not as badly as I had imagined, and having looked, I can now do a better job of planning my future sewing for the year.

• I have 8+ knit tops already, so those will only need replacement sewing when/as they wear out.
• I only have 5 tee shirts, so adding to that cache will be useful, (and there are at least two more in the works currently).
• I have 8 pinafores, 2 of which are starting to wear out, so replacing those (one brown, one grey) will be a good idea.
• I have 4 summer dresses, so that category may move near the top of the priority list, particularly as two of those are very wornout
• I have 5 underdresses, all of which are in good condition, but I intend to make a few more of those as well, since they work well worn not-under-a-pinafore for all but the hottest of summer days.
• I have no pants. (Boy howdy does that sentence sound a bit raunchy) I think that one or two loose Marcy Tilton pants would be a great idea for summertime, just in case there is a chance for either woods-walking or a trip to the beach. Making a pair of overalls would be a great idea, as that is my very favorite kind of bifurcated nether-garment.

Let's do the math: 3 tee shirts + 3 underdresses + 4 summer dresses + 1 pair pants + 1 pair overalls = 12... That looks like several months of spare time sewing; fortunately all those are things that I have TNT (tried and true) patterns for.

M3 2013...why not?

It's almost that time of year again... time for Zoe's MeMadeMay. For obvious reasons this was a no-go last year, but it has been a lot of fun when I did it in the past (MeMadeMay 2010, SelfStitchedSeptember 2010, and MeMadeMarch 2011). Since pledging to wear a me-made garment each day is pretty easy for me, I am going to pledge to get better at learning to take pictures of me wearing my clothing, I think that I remember seeing a tripod somewhere in one of the closets here, which might let me take pictures somewhere other than on the front porch...

Watching the slideshows of the former "Me-Made" challenges, it is obvious to me that the reason that my everyday wardrobe is looking rather tatty around the edges is that a lot of those clothes are two or three years old, and being in heavy rotation due to having in intensive rather than extensive wardrobe. Making up some new clothes is not just a fun idea, but it is needful. I don't have a closet full of more clothing than I use, but have yet to find a good idea of the timing for replacement sitchery. In long past years I would stitch up four or five new dresses a year, to wear as festival clothes to the Oregon Country Fair, Then that year after Fair, those would become my "better" clothes, and the ones from the previous year would get moved to the "work" clothing category, and anything left after two years would become "grubby" gear...

I actually like to have a basic set of eight clothes* rather than five, so that it is theoretically possible to go for a week without needing to do laundry! The clothes closet has never yet made it that far, but it is a goal... that combined with a pair or two of overalls, a pair or two of loose pants, and an assortment of outerwear and underwear, makes a very tidy, unextravagent wardrobe. Rather like the "Not So Big House" movement, where a smaller house allows for a greater quality of materials and density of design, my Not So Big wardrobe allows me to pay a great deal of attention to the various components.

*
8 pinafores
8 underdresses
8 knit tops
8 tee shirts
8 summer dresses

I am not the 1%

Yesterday our plucky heroine took herself off to see the Alabama Chanin trunk show which was held at a downtown boutique. This was an experience both very pleasurable and very awful...

The shop that hosted this event was not the sort of shop I would ever set foot in voluntarily, being the sort of shop intended for the small subset of folks that might actually purchase Alabama Chanin clothing retail. That known, I put on my most dressy artist clothes, left my everyday knapsack at home in favor of a leather pocketbook, and set out to see what I could see... I did ask permission from the "doorkeeper" if I was allowed to take photographs, and was assured it was permitted, but when I went upstairs to the floor with the women's garments I was immediately accosted by the saleswomen, in a way that left me wondering if I had inadvertently stepped in farmyard leavings on my way up the stairs... Not since I was a young student, and was followed closely while shopping in the suspicion that I might shoplift have I been made to feel so out of place; truly if they had been looking any further down their noses, I would have not only seen their nostrils but under their chins...

Since there were no other customers, I was able to look at the garments set out, but was forbidden to take more than a few pictures; and as I was not placing an order, I could only dream of the delights that were inside the design notebooks that hold examples of the various combinations of stenciling, stitchery, beadwork that make up the surface design vocabulary of Alabama Chanin.

I was particularly taken with the use of wide bands along the armscye  and neckline edge of some sleeveless garments, a sort of "non-facing"  facing, that added substance to those edges

The fabrics are thinner than I expected, which gives the garments quite a  bit more drape than might be expected, even double layers had a  softness to them.

One thing I learned on this expedition was that most of the hand stitchery is at the large/long end of the spectrum she suggests in her books, more 1/4" than 1/8".

There was some use of variegated floss which added a subtle richness to the embroidery, and a variety of ways to fasten garments closed, from tie cords, to crochet-covered snaps, to loops and self-covered shank buttons.

It was a real treat to be inspired, to get a sense of the hand of the fabrics used, and to be able to see the details of her garments in person.