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Being Janus this January

1/1/2023

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Month of January feat. the Roman god Janus, by French illustrator Adolphe Giraldon, 1911
New Year is a good time to--like the Roman god Janus--look both backward and forward. 

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Pussycat, pussycat, where have you been?

8/30/2022

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Here's a brief update on my life.  I last posted in October last year.  I was stalled, trying to finish the appliqué dandelions for my self-designed quilt.  I wanted to finish them soon, to have a quilt for the winter.  *Narrator voice: She did not finish the quilt for that winter.*  In fact, I still haven't finished the appliqués.  I will... eventually.

Instead, I've been making other quilts, some of which I even bothered to photograph!  More on that, soon. 

On the home front, we lost Cutie Pie, and several months later brought a new kitten, Buckaroo, into the home.  It was sad to say goodbye to Cutie Pie, but our li'l Bauckaroo is lively and adorable.  He's also a bit more destructive than Pretty Kitty (who has now entered her dotage) or Cutie Pie, who was too shy to do much damage.  Buckaroo loves string and fabric, but instead of staring and occasionally swatting at it, he jumps on it and scatters it everywhere! 
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Cutie-Pie, our sweet talkative boy
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Buckaroo!
On the work front, I have thoroughly loved my job as a caregiver/DSP (Direct Support Professional, but give it a few years and they'll re-name the job, again) at a group home.  I love the five guys I support, and it's a joy to be there.  Given that, it's sad to contemplate leaving... yet here I am, leaving.  The reason is that working in that home has opened my eyes to a previously unknown field that I can be good at, and education I want to pursue.  This is the first time in years that I have had anything like a long-term plan or career ambitions.  I've mostly been trying various things without a sense of purpose.  My ambitions were personal, not professional.  Now I have a plan: short term, get my CNA-1, and work as one while applying for Mt. Hood Community College's Physical Therapy Assistant (PTA) program; next fall and the next two years, work as an agency CNA (more flexible hours than being employed by one facility) while getting my PTA; long-term, get employment as a PTA. 

Alas, I can not stay at my current job, much as I love it, and afford full-time college next year, and so becoming a CNA is my stepping stone.  By changing jobs, I automatically give myself a $4 raise, with employer-assistance for college after a year of employment.  I can expect to make a bit more with bonuses/incentives once I'm doing agency work.  I also think having worked as a CNA will help me later, since I'll have experience in a variety of healthcare facilities with different populations.

Overall, I am excited to be walking a new path, with a destination in mind. 
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Fun Updates

9/8/2021

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In no particular order, nor any particular relevance to this blog...

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1880's Basque - Construction (part two)

8/31/2020

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* Karen opens door.  It creaks, and a bit of dust swirls around her feet.  Karen peeks in. *

I haven't been here in a while.  2020 has been an interesting year for everyone.  When the USA went under stay-at-home orders to try to stem the spread of Coronavirus, I spent a few months at home, sewing and relaxing and getting a much needed vacation.  I blogged a bit, then, since I had new projects to share.  But then I got a new job, and though I've been sewing, I haven't been blogging about it.  There are two reasons for that. 

My silence can be partly explained by my increasing sewing skill.  There was a time when I could make a whole blog post about a hem, but now I barely take pictures, and I find the write-up boring.  When I was a beginner, I found plenty to interest me in talking about the basics.  Now I'm more intermediate, I do the basics without thinking, and so I need to rethink how I approach my project diaries.  For instance, I've really enjoyed sewing new shirts for my brother and sister, but not blogging about them.  I've really enjoyed blogging about the Basque project because it's new territory, and I've got a lot to learn and a lot to say. 

Another reason for my silence here is that there's so much going on in my world, my mind, and my heart that I can't focus to write.  I feel like I'm swept away in deep water, and I need to keep my nose above the swells.  Later, when the waters shallow out, I can perhaps write about the parts of the experience that make sense to me.  (Or maybe, as my sister reminds me when I'm months overdue in replying to her letters, I need to just write something and let go of the need to encapsulate my whole life experience in one place!  The word "essay" means "attempt" or "trial", not "success" or "perfection", after all!)

BACK TO THE BASQUE

Anyway, here I am again, to update the Victorian Basque project.  To recap: I have a cool antique bodice, circa 1880's; I copied the pattern by drafting and by draping.  Assembly being complicated, I broke it down into six steps:
  1. cut out fabric pieces
  2. make trim
  3. make sleeves
  4. sew bodice together
  5. finish bodice Seam Allowances and add boning
  6. attach sleeves to bodice
I blogged last time about the first three steps.  This post will detail steps four through six. 

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Quarantine Check-In

5/23/2020

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Picture
Evil pomander ball.
A little over two months ago, I began self-isolating at home, doing my (admittedly easy and small) part to curb the spread of Coronavirus.  I am blessed with many advantages: I live with a roommate and cats, so I'm not lonely; I am collecting unemployment benefits, so I'm not broke; and I have a whole house and decent-sized yard to play in, so I'm not cramped.  Today I'll take stock. 

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Updated Tags

5/1/2020

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A little while ago, I thought I should revamp my tags to be a bit more useful.  So that's been an ongoing project.  Here's what I've done. 

"Historical" is history

The tag Historical was too broad because it encompassed history lessons and tidbits, historical costumes, and historical inspired modern clothes.  Plus, everything from the dawn of time to yesterday is technically historical.  So I went through everything with that tag and replaced it with one of the following, more specific, tags:
  • Antique - This tag is more about material culture and artifacts (like the 1909 Home Needlework Magazine) than is is about my sewing projects.  After all, if I make a historical costume, that is not an antique.  An antique is an item at least 100 years old.  There are some things from the 1920's that aren't quite 100 years old, but they are almost there, and they fit better in the Antique category than anywhere else, so I put them there. 
  • History - Posts with research, history lessons, and tidbits, like the Colbertism & Needlelace essay. 
  • Vintage - This tag covers true vintage clothes and vintage-inspired sewing projects.  I'm defining "Vintage" as from the 1920's through the 1960's. 
  • Retro - For patterns from the more recent past, i.e. the 1970's, 80's and possibly 90's.  (I grew up in the nineties, so it doesn't feel "retro" to me, but who knows what kind tadpoles frequent this blog?)  Since I buy a lot of sewing patterns from thrift stores, I have a bunch of "retro" stuff without seeking it out. 
  • 1910's - Because I have enough projects from that time to make a tag!  It's annoying that that time period doesn't have a good label... "The Teens" is not century-specific, "Titanic Era" too narrow, and "Edwardian" too broad. 
  • Regency - Same rationale as the 1910's tag: I have a few about that time period, and it's something people might search for, so I tagged it. 
  • Modern Elizabethan - All posts related to my Modern Elizabethan Project. 

"Project Diary" Problematic

The Project Diary tag was originally meant to distinguish between posts where I simply showed a finished product (not a diary!) and posts where I did a step-by-step walk-through of making it (diary!).  I no longer care about that distinction, and I doubt my readers ever did.  So I went through all those posts and filed them according to era or one of the following:
  • Self-Made Pattern - for patterns I made myself, either by draping, reverse engineering, or drafting.
  • Other Sewing - for miscellaneous sewing, modern clothes, and tutorials on technique. 

Other New Tags

Added the following:
  • Dyeing - for my silk scarf stuff
  • Embroidery - because it's not the same as plain hand-sewing
  • Terminology - for those posts where I talk about etymology, the differences between terms, labels, or other nomenclature. 

Deleted Tags

  • Historical - explained above
  • Project Diary - explained above
  • Stash Busting - Like Project Diary, it was too broad: most of my sewing is from stash. 
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"Irish Pennants" - some thoughts on being offended

4/13/2020

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Picture
Waud, Alfred R. (Alfred Rudolph), 1828-1891, artist / Public domain
My uncle was a US Marine.  Like many Marines, he came out of his service with a fanatical sense of order and cleanliness.  Boy, do they ever bang that into their heads in the Corps!  Anyway, from him I learned the term "Irish pennant"--a stray thread or scrap of fabric in his uniform.  The term comes from the British navy, first recorded use in 1829 to refer to any untidy or loose end of rope, or out-of-place line.  Its use in the US Marines for untidy threads on a uniform developed later. 

My question today is whether the term is offensive.  Its history was almost certainly derogatory: a pennant is a flag; to say that an untidy mess is an Irish flag is to suggest the Irish are untidy messes.  An obvious dig.  But an offensive origin story doesn't make something offensive forever.

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Reorganizing My Stash

4/2/2020

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Previously, my stash was organized by color.  But as I have recently been digging in there for projects, I realize that color doesn't cut it.  So now I have re-organized. 
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The smaller pile on the left is silk scraps, and the big pile is miscellaneous.
First, I pull out everything under a yard.  With a few exceptions (tank tops, mini skirts, or baby clothes) most patterns call for more than a yard.  I put all my short pieces together.  In this picture, they're in a pile, but soon they get moved to a bin. 

Short pieces are not useless!  Many can be used for hats, bags, contrast details, et cetera.  But I don't want them getting lost with my longer pieces. 
Next, I gather my wool pieces together in one drawer.  Gosh, I love wool!  I have plans for some of them (blues and purples for my sister, eventually); others I just bought because they were unique. 
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Wool
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Blouse weight
The next three drawers are sorted by weight.  This  is the top drawer, which has top-weight or blouse weight stuff. 
The middle drawer is medium-weight stuff, mostly cottons.  When I say "medium" weight I mean it could be used for a slightly more structured top, or a bottom. 
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Medium weight
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Bottom weight
The bottom drawer is for bottom-weights!  (Corny, right?)  This is a mix of heavy cottons, denim, and polyester/rayon twills. 
Finally, there are two overflow bins: one for fur (faux and real), and the other for upholstery stuff that I like using for historical looks.  It was good to sort the stuff: I have fabric I'd forgotten, and I am excited to work through it in my quarantine downtime. 
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Observations on Blogging

3/27/2020

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I started this blog in January 2017, and it's now March 2020.  I blogged steadily for much of that time, putting out two posts a week for years.  More recently, I stopped posting, and now begin again.  Here are some of my thoughts and observations about the process! 

  • I like blogging.  I enjoy writing, teaching, sharing thoughts, and synthesizing information. 
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  • I enjoy having a record of my past work and a place for my research. 
  • Though I pay a lot of attention to my output, I pay very little attention to my blog's analytics.  It doesn't matter to me how many people read this, or how the trends change over time.  My friends and family look at it, and they are the ones who matter to me. 
  • It's always fun to get a comment! 
  • Despite generally ignoring my analytics, I do look at them occasionally.  My most popular blog posts, for years, have consistently been Hemming with Horsehair Braid and the Ahsoka Tano Costume diary.  The first one makes sense because it's a tutorial, but the second confuses me: my Ahsoka Tano costume was a one-off.  Maybe my SEO for those posts was amazingly good. 
  • Someone spams my posts with ads for kilts.  I... don't know why.  I just delete them. 
  • My Portfolio has gotten too big.  Part of the problem is that I don't have a clear vision for that section of the site: should it show everything I've ever done?  Only my favorites?  Should it be a nice gallery or a navigable pictorial Table of Contents?  How should I organize it?
  • Choosing tags makes me realize library science is hard.  The "Project Diary" tag seems too broad, since most posts are project diaries of some sort.  I think I need to re-categorize.  Same goes for the Tutorial section of the site... what's the difference between a tutorial and me simply showing you what I'm doing? 
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A sudden unfurling of time...

3/17/2020

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This blog has been quiet lately, as I have not had much time for either sewing or writing in a while.  Plus, winter always gets me down, and I find it hard to get excited about things when all I want to do is sleep.  But, today my life took a detour: my job is closing its doors for the next few weeks to help curtail Coronavirus spread, which means the next few weeks are a vast vista of unscheduled time for me!  Wow. 

I am determined not to let this time go to waste.  I have unfinished sewing projects, blogging ideas, a garden I'm putting in, letters unwritten, et cetera.  Oh, and while I'm unemployed, I need to find new income sources.  So here's my tentative schedule for all the time that's opening in front of me:
MORNING: Gardening, while it's still cool and quiet outside.  Use that time to talk a little to God. Try to listen more than I speak. 
MORNING: Important phone calls, because if I don't make them, I'll procrastinate them.
NOON: Lunch
AFTERNOON: Sewing/art -- no computer
EVENING: computer stuff: blogging, research, et cetera
I do not promise regular posting, but you will certainly see an uptick in posts while I am "sheltering in place"! 
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    Karen Roy

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