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1880's Basque - Construction (part two)

8/31/2020

4 Comments

 
* 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

2 Comments

 
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. 
2 Comments

"Irish Pennants" - some thoughts on being offended

4/13/2020

5 Comments

 
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. 
Picture
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. 
Picture
Wool
Picture
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. 
Picture
Medium weight
Picture
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. 
1 Comment

Observations on Blogging

3/27/2020

1 Comment

 
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. 
Picture
  • 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? 
1 Comment

A sudden unfurling of time...

3/17/2020

0 Comments

 
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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Thoughts on Buying Secondhand Patterns

12/5/2019

1 Comment

 
Patterns are expensive... around $20, sometimes, for the Big Four ones.  I understand why they cost a lot: a ton of work goes into making a decent sewing pattern!  But I am glad of that work and want to support the people who do it. 

I also like to scrounge through the second- or third-hand patterns at a thrift store and find cool patterns to try!  I find patterns I might not spend $20 on (because I would save that amount for a truly unique or special pattern), but patterns that nonetheless are fun to sew and often become favorites.  My thrift store experience is broad: I grew up with the Salvation Army thrift store and local church and charity shops, and as an adult, I now frequent Goodwill thrift stores, which are plentiful in my area.  So if you want to buy second-hand patterns, here are a few tips.

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Feastwine and Penge!

11/3/2019

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In October 2017, my musician friend Tyler Burns asked me to make him a costume for the cover art of his album Penge, which he was working on.  I made him first a pair of pieced leather trousers, then a modified motorcycle jacket, then a stenciled cape.  He took the costume and continued working on the album with another friend, Alec Eagon.  Now, two years later, they've completed a music video and released the album! 

It is very gratifying to see my friends' hard work and creativity come to fruition.  Read on for links to their art! 
Picture
Album Cover for Penge (2019)

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Girly Gorget Idea

3/21/2019

1 Comment

 
I have long felt that--for me, at least--clothing is a kind of armor.  Of course, it can also be a diary, a poem, an invitation, or a window... but some days, it's the armor I need. 

Recently, I encountered the word "gorget", realized I didn't know how the pronounce it*, and looked it up.  A gorget is a piece of medieval armor that covers the neck.  That lead me to do a Google image search, which led me to this interesting bit of machine embroidery.  So much to love: the concept of a purely decorative fabric gorget, the way it's a variation on the idea of a tie, the tesselated bird pattern...

Now, obviously, a wee little gorget like that wouldn't protect anyone's neck in battle, even if it were made of metal, but gorgets have evolved with modern warfare into badges of authority rather than actual armor:
Picture
Archives of Pearson Scott Foresman, donated to the Wikimedia Foundation.
Picture
Gorget of Nicolas Gabriel Marie Maheu, 1st Lieutenant, 22nd Regt. Infantry, "Armee de la Loire" under Napoleon Bonaparte. Between 1805 and 1813

You can see how the Napoleonic gorget is smaller, and wouldn't cover much of the neck at all.  It might be tied on with ribbons, as a decorative element to a uniform. 
This is more of an idea-post than a project-post... but wouldn't it be cool to make a similar embroidered gorget, to wear with collared shirts?  It's a neat idea! 
* It's pronounced with a hard-G: "GORE-jit".  "gor-ZHAY" is a common alternative pronunciation, as people think it's a French word and they make the -et sound like -ay by analogy with "ballet" and "valet".  However, it's not a French word; it's an English word with a French root.  It comes from the Old French word "gorgete", but the modern French word is "gorgerin".  I'll say "GORE-jit" but not correct people who say "gor-ZHAY".
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    Karen Roy

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