On Blogging and Babies

I come here with a common complaint, especially among mothers; there are just not enough hours in the day. With 2 jobs, 2 “jobs”, 2 children, a house and a husband, things are definitely hectic.

Not that I’m complaining.

Thankfully, everybody has overcome their various illnesses, the baby has finally cut her teeth and my back problems seem to be taking a break. Summer vacation has begun. I am starting projects for this summer, several of which will be made into posts.

This is more of an explanation post, really. Explaining my long, though productive, absence. I have 6 book reviews coming, along with several sewing posts. I’ll be putting them up as I have time to edit and upload. The sewing posts will definitely be picture and, occasionally, math heavy.

So, until next time, happy reading and stay creative!

Making a kilt

This is not a "How-to" post. I may write one of those later, complete with pictures and diagrams. I'm not working on any right now and, with this economy, I don't expect to be doing any for a while. Most of the people who've approached me about it are generally a bit taken aback by how much it costs.

I don't make Utilikilts. They are very cool and quite reasonable in price. They are also their own company (go figure!).

The kilts I make are designed to fit the person I'm making them for. I take measurements and everything. I also use real, 100% wool tartans and I sew them by hand. It's really the only way to get them to lay just right. You can get close with a machine, I'm not saying you can't, but an iron, needle and thread is the best way.  I've been told I do it the "authentic" way but, really, what's "authentic?" A brief look at the history of the kilt will show that, depending on how far back you go, I'm doing it the wrong way.

The question I get asked the second most, usually after "How much does it cost?", is "where do you get the fabric from?"  I buy all my tartan fabric through Scotweb. They have the best quality of tartan fabric I've ever found and every tartan pattern I've ever looked for.

I was honestly surprised by what 9 yards of wool tartan looked like in the box when I first got it.

9 yards of quilting cotton doesn't fold down that small!

It was so soft and easy to work with, I just loved it.
The finished product didn't turn out so bad, either.

That's the Irish National tartan and the young man had just tried to climb a Jacob's ladder at the Renfaire. I'm surprised there's not still hay on it.

I need to make more of these. Not just because I love a man in a good kilt but because the fabric is a joy to use and soft to handle.

Fairy Find

Good grief do I have a lot of books. Sadly, not nearly as many as I had 7 years ago. The story of the loss of most of my library is not one that I will relay here. It causes me a lot of grief and anger and I'm just not going to go into it.

As we're moving, I'm going through closets and bookshelves to decide what gets to stay and what gets to go. I've got two boxes of books ready to be traded in for credit at the friendly local bookstore. I've also got a box of clothes ready for Goodwill.

While going through my closet I came upon this dress:

I wore it to an awards dinner 5 years ago and spilled some dessert down the front that the cleaners weren't able to get out. I loved that dress.

As I was folding it up to put it in the goodwill box, I thought to myself, "Fabric like that is so hard to find. It would make great fairy wings." At that thought, I ran to my sewing desk and started pulling out fabric.

Yes, just as I suspected. The colors match perfectly with a fairy costume I'm already making for a friend. I was never going to find another fabric that matched so perfectly. Out of the Goodwill box it came and into the sewing bins.

I love finding fabric in my closet!

Photo Critiques

I took some pictures of some bags I was making to put up on Etsy. I needed a background other than a cluttered desk so I put some fabric down that I pulled at random from my stash.




While the fabric is definitely cool, I'm thinking I'll be doing some new photos. What do you think?

Why Do I Sew?

This question was posed to readers of Threads Magazine and it struck me as a question that could be incredibly mundane as well as incredibly profound. Why does one really do anything? We eat, drink, sleep and mate out of a desire for survival. Everything we do beyond that is for reasons that are far more complex, though most of them boil down to a survival as a creature that is more complex than a simple beast.

I first became aware of sewing as something beyond a way to make clothes when my mom started making a quilt for me. She pulled scraps of fabric that looked familiar out of boxes with no labels on them that had sat in the back of closets at 2 houses. These were leftovers from the clothes my mother had been making for me since I could walk.

Making a quilt takes time and I was fascinated by the process. I sat with her while she cut out and pinned together the pieces. She told me stories about making my dresses and making her dresses when she was younger. Winning awards in 4-H and designing aprons from scratch without a pattern were magic to a very young me.

As I got older, I wanted to make magic myself. I made pillows. Lots and lots of pillows. Then I made a stuffed unicorn. It was difficult but I did it, and I loved it. When it came time to try and make my own clothes, I insisted on doing them all by myself. I grew out of the first few outfits before I finished them but my mom saved them. They're in her attic still and may some day fit my daughter.

I designed the dress I wore to my senior prom because nothing in the stores that year looked good on me. This was to become a theme. Once I discovered what shapes looked good on me, I began to lament the lack of age appropriate clothing for girls my size. Fashion has come a long way since then but I got a lot of practice making clothes that looked good on me.

I can now find clothes off the rack that look good but costumes? Forget it. While my obsession with costumes, particularly period costumes, is another story, my closet full of them, most of them ones I designed myself, is a very clear indication of the direction my journey has taken. The books on corsets and the making of undergarments that I have give a good indication of where it's going but the why of the journey goes all the way back to the beginning.

I sew because it's magic.