Exhibit B

This is Exhibit B in my "I have too many beautiful clothes I don't wear" show. I actually really like this dress, even though it's not a knit. The pattern is pretty, the colors are subtle (but do exist) and it's very cool and summery. But I don't wear it often because it's see through-ish and the light color makes me hesitate to wear it in public. The see through parts I usually remedy with nude underthings, but the light colors I haven't figure out yet. With dirty subway seats and my messy table manners, I may have to figure out ways to remix this is as a top with other skirts. Maybe this weekend, as per Style Underdog's suggestions?

Thanks for all the great suggestions for yesterday. Sadly, I've been to a tailor already with that dress. I should reiterate that I don't like wearing fitted woven dresses (at least ones fitted below the waist). I looked over some of my sewing books on alterations to make sure it's not just my tailor being lazy. The top right picture (from The Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing) reconfirms that there isn't much one can do about pulling across hips, except let out more fabric.



And back to the shopping ban: I will still allow sewing new clothes for myself during the new year, mostly because I see sewing as a hobby, not as a means for accumulating clothing. Maybe someday it will be, but I like the creative process more than the wearing. I also like how I am learning more about clothes and fit from trying to make stuff for myself than from buying and wearing off the rack. Taking my measurements and comparing them to ready to wear and pattern measurements has been helpful. I know what parts of my body don't fit standard sizes, and therefore I can avoid certain off the rack styles (usually, many fitted bodices are suspect) and figure out how to adjust things.


Finally, totally unnecessary kitten shot. This little freak is 4 months old (estimated) now and he's getting bigger and stronger everyday. Buster does this when we don't let him eat our dinner.

"Please, can't I have some borscht?"*

*Part of not shopping is not looking at clothes online, a favorite procrastination hobby of mine. Instead, I am trying to fill my boredom and desire to step away from the office with less spendy activities, like cooking with my CSA veggies. So many local vegetables!

Jumping into it

Thanks for your interesting comments, bloggy buddies. And for indulging my over analysis of probably spurious faux academic thoughts about fashion. Graduation was fine. It took a while but the students were really happy and really cute. I especially liked the following:
- Honorary degrees: The people who get them are generally amazing. This year's crop included a history-changing (no joke) investigative journalist (old school kind, not the silver fox Anderson Cooper variety) and a social justice oriented actor/playwright.
- Shoes! We can only see their shoes under their robes, and they did not disappoint. Towering, staggering architectural stilettos, intricate gladiators, earthy 70s style platforms, flip flips with sequins- you name it, I saw it. The dudes' shoes were also cool but less impressive. My very nice chairperson asked, "How can they walk in those shoes?"
- I was there last year but I've forgotten about it already. My chair said, "Be prepared for some Liza Minelli song on the way out." The faculty walked in on Pomp and Circumstance and the exit song? "New York, New York." The students and the parents were dancing and singing along. Corny, but adorable.

OK, now that I have a day or so of grading ahead of me, this means summer. I have many goals, but in the short term, I do need a little break. I'd like to reactivate my fledging, mostly vegetarian cooking blog, which has dwindled this semester. I'm hoping the CSA veggies will help. And to get a leg up on that break, Brilliant Analytical Philosophy professor and I (herefore referred to as BAP) got started on the jumpsuits. Did you think I had forgotten about that? Like many women, we are a bit longer in the torso, which makes buying jumpsuits hard, but making jumpsuits more doable. Since we're no seamstresses, yesterday we did the muslin shell. As you can see, we pinned a couple seams the wrong way, but it worked for fitting. (There's a joke here about how many PhDs it takes to pin a 1970s jumpsuit).

This is view 2 of this Simplicity pattern, which many readers liked. While I originally wanted to make the longer pants version, I realized that I needed a perfect bike riding outfit. It is probably about a 1/2 inch too short in the length. We'll slash the traced pattern and add some length. And don't worry, this is only the shell for fitting the torso. The actual pants will be much longer.


But to satisfy my need to be a Charlie's angel, we are also making view 1 of this pattern, although we'll shorten the sleeves to elbow length. We aren't making view 2 because it doesn't have awesome cuffs or a fab button tab. This will be in a grey doubleknit.



I took about 10 shots of the fabric, but this was the best I could do with my open source photo editing software. The top blue woven fabric is for the bike outfit. I want to look like one of the workers in Germany or London that I saw during my time there, who'd wear zip up jumpsuits and carry lunch pails. A combination of those worker dudes and Rosie the Rivetor. (I don't know why, but construction workers in the U.S. with their bright orange plastic vests and overalls are less inspiring for me, fashion wise).

Do any of you folks have creative, non-academic/work goals for this summer?

Mission: Jumpsuit

Too much sleeping during the day, mucus overruns, and general restlessness had me up at weird hours, thinking about possible clothing wants for the spring/summer. I probably need a linen skirt/shorts and a top or two, but these can be found easily thrifting or via ebay.

I have also been itching for a terribly impractical, but hopefully very rad jumpsuit. Not one of these formal numbers, like this Marc Jacobs deal. Seriously, I don't see the advantage this holds over a dress:

source:

I am thinking more about kicking butt and taking names. Perhaps fixing things too. Maybe like this:

(Source)

For a mere $350, I could have this Ali Ro silk/linen blend number. That is a cheeky price to charge for a one piece garment that is basically a scoop neck tank with a shirred top, that morphs into a simple straight cut of pants. It has minimal tailoring (resulting in a sloppy pajama-like appearance from the back, which you can see if you click through on Sak's page) and looks out of place for most formal occasions, yet with materials seem too fussy to allow one to adequately kick ass and take names, you know?

I had something in mind more like this middle image:

source

It's sufficiently maverick-y, but there's a weird crotch thing going on. In addition, it's Free People 2009, and I don't particularly relish giving up 1/10 of rent for a trendy outfit. Nor does Blokey.

There are some nice vintage options. The HuffPo featured this lovely number (in fall 2008!) so it' s long gone. Plus, one pieces, sight unseen, are tricky for torso-long ladies like myself. This model looks quite petite and there would be nothing sadder than the perfect jumpsuit, just 1" too short in the body.

It seems the best solution is DIY, as it's pretty easy to add an inch to two to bodice of a pattern. Luckily, the interwebs is awash with affordable jumpsuit patterns. I'm thinking Farrah Fawcett meets Top Cruise meets Annie Hall. Here are some possibilities:

number 1 (this one is "Fast and Easy", my favorite kind)

number 2 (It says here that I can just sew and go, which appeals to me)

number 3 (simple-to-sew: do I sense a theme here?)

number 4 (Does it come with a jumpsuit for Blokey? And could I trick him into growing that mustache?)

number 5 (this is the most dressy, like what a sassy schoolteacher might wear)

The best part is that not a single pattern is more than $7, and they are all relatively simple to sew. I am completely off my rocker, or do you think I could possibly pull of this fringe trend?

Springy again, and sewing

Springy again, originally uploaded by Cohabitating_Closet.

First, thanks for all your thoughts on my culture rant yesterday. My thoughts are still in flux, because I'm no scholar of culture (I do law, international stuff, and economic related stuff. But I'm not an economist. I'm what a crude Marxist might call a "Base" person). Yesterday I was overdressed for the weird, windy, 65 degree weather. Today I am layering up and brining a tote bag in case I need to carry my clothes home again. The subway is A/C'd, but school is hit or miss.
I don't teach on Fridays (although Blokey does), but I'm going on in today for a research talk, which I hope will inspire me to do my own. Fridays at work definitely call for stretchy, knit jersey dresses and separates that feel like pajamas, but the denim jacket hopefully gives it more "structure." I was inspired by Audi to layer skirts and dresses, and Erin to bring back my hoodies.

I'm dreaming about the end of the semester

Angie on YLF posted recently about boots in summer. I am a huge boots in summer fan, especially cowoby boots but black boots with florals work for me as well, until it gets really really hot. I hate how mean sandals are to feet. Do you folks wear boots in the summer?

On the creative front, I've been making progress on the "Oktober dress" in the Built By Wendy Dress book. I bought quite a bit of super cheap coral Swiss dot fabric (really sheer, but I didn't think about that while in the fabric store months ago).

Don't most sewists (or in my case, wannabes), like to read about financial crises and central banks?

Before finishing the seams, I tried it on and I decided I hated the cap sleeves and odd wider neckline. So I took my tailor's chalk and went nuts, designing a new neck and chopping of the sleeves. Then I added my homemade bias to the neckline, without trying it on first. Oops. This may be another "learning experience" (or Blokey says I can wear it when I'm preggers, one of these distant days). Reminder to self: when learning to sew, remember you can't screw around like when cooking.

But I am proud of the gathered skirt and how evenly I attached it to the bodice. I have enough fabric to redraft the bodice but I may abandon Wendy's pattern to use one of my others (I have many).

Unrelatedly, the birds in Bed Stuy have been ignoring my awesome (wedding gift) bird feeder for a month now. I know there are birds here. I see them eating off of abandoned fried chicken bones (ew?) and the bread that local folks throw on the ground for them. Are the Brooklyn birds like American children who would rather eat McDonald's then kale and brown rice? I filled it up with millet and seed blend. Sigh. Any advice, fellow urban bird watcher wannabes? (I'm not picky. I'll take pigeons!)

A lonely, top of the line "Squirrel free" bird feeder

Dress: Zara (via Beacon's Closet)
Hoodie: H&M
Socks: Gap
Boots: Palladium (via Heavenly Soles, Minneapolis)
Jacket: Levi's
Skirt: Urban Outfitters

Life as a draft

Black and blue (and grey), originally uploaded by Cohabitating_Closet.

In graduate school, my very famous advisor once told us that we need to approach scholarly writing understanding that "everything is a draft," and that things are never "done", they are must "due." This was great advice (and probably explains why my dissertation, publicly available, feels so "drafty.") Like many academics, I need writing motivation and there's nothing like a due date to get me to produce. A group of us in g-school adapted the motto that "life is a draft." There's no finality or need to get obsessed with perfectionism, because we're always learning, evolving, etc.
I thought that this "due date" might work with sewing. As you might remember, I made (drafted?) this 1958 quasi-shirt waist dress in magenta-ish silk/satin crepe (or taffeta? Or shantung?) and it needed fitting work. I did end up getting a bunch of fit books from the library but I was too impatient to fix the top, so I pulled out seams and decided to turn the skirt into a stand along piece, and fiddle with fitting on the top separately. I have a wedding to attend this weekend (Chicago suburbs, maybe I can meet Anne to go to the fair?), so I thought I'd wear it there. It gave me 10 days to create some kind of finished waist seam, and I wanted to add pockets and belt loops. But I should have consulted my new (in 1980 something) Reader's Digest complete guide to sewing instead of veering off into Rad-self-teaching category. Oops.
The invisible zipper and pockets were fine, but the belt loops- why didn't I study my own belt looped clothes. I ran out of steam last night, and decided to wear something else. I am not discouraged, but I think I've learned that sewing should not be treated like academic writing. Sometimes, things are just not done.

The loops are too big and crooked. I'll fix them next time.

(How I imagined the outfit, minus the emo cow hair. It still needs significant hemming)

I am still pretty happy with my progress. That invisible zipper kicked my butt but I ended up victorious in the end (maybe not exactly).
Hope that you have a lovely weekend!

Scarf: originally from discount store (MPLS), DIY into circle scarf
Scoop neck tee: Uniqlo
Black cardigan: Uniqlo
Skirt: DIY, Built by Wendy Pattern, fabric from Modeani
Socks: Target
Shoes: Aerosoles

Patience

I have sewn before. I sewed a lot of my own clothes that my mom rarely let me wear outside the house between ages 7-12. Using really careful handstitches (my mom encourage me to learn to sew, because of that whole immigrant woman thing), I made dresses out of paper, garbage bags, my dad's shirts, etc. I even made a paltry "cheerleader" costume in third grade out of old tshirts and a ballet leotard (I felt ashamed when I saw other girls' "real costumes," but in retrospect, I think was pretty kick ass). But trying to learn on a machine with patterns, without the benefit of being really young, is more complicated.
Today I made a muslin. I did a very fast job and I didn't pay too much attention to details, just fit. McCall's 8466, copyright. I don't quite have the right fabric chosen yet.


Like a good vintage sewist wannabe, I first put a paper iron on interfacing on the back of the pattern pieces. It's simple: only 5 pieces, including a loop for these shoulder buttons that I will be skipping.
There is a weird button design on top that I think I'll skip. The end result was not so elegant as the ladies on the cover (surprise). I think it should be hemmed to above the knee.
I thought maybe adding a belt would help, but I realized that it might be a problem with the woven fabric. This would probably look nicer with a more drapey, knit fabric, although I am scared of sewing knits (my machine has a faux overlock stitch though, and a special walker foot, so maybe I don't have to be scared).
There's also some odd kind of shirring going on the "skirt" pieces. I had to do a baste stitch on top of these pieces, and pull to create the ruffled top edge, but it looked really sloppy.
Then I realized I had a similar piece from American Apparel from last year. The stretch jersey seems to cling and fit in a much more flattering way, although I may use a woven fabric anyway (the pattern envelop recommends a range of fabrics, from linen, pique, jersey, synthetic blends, etc.)
Please excuse my giving the camera a dude head-nod. I was listening to a "This is Hell" podcast and I was feeling smug about Jamie Gailbraith's interview about critiquing right wing claims that the U.S. is going to go bankrupt if it accumulates any more deficit spending. (It is not, by the way).
What's great about this top is that instead of more random shirring, it has 4 evenly placed pleats on the skirt, which I think I will reproduce for the eventual final version of this piece rather than attempt a more even distribution.
It's spring break, so that means grading and writing. Happy Monday.