200. A Meme from Jessica

Jessica from A Yen for Craft tagged me last month with an 8 questions meme.  I don't think there are any hard and fast rules with this meme.  I'm always interested in other people's responses, so if you want to play along, please post the meme on your blog, and leave me a link here in the comments so I will be sure to read and learn more about you!

1) What is your favorite "me time" activity?
I enjoy my "me time" no matter what I'm doing!  Obvz. sewing, participating in sewing meetups, reading, doodling, travelling, going to sing-along nights at a local theater with my mom friends about once a quarter...

2) Favorite made-by-you item?
I like to wear my dresses a whole, whole lot, and I've sewn many dresses the past few years.  Here are a few:

The refashioned shirts also get a lot of wear -- very comfy.

3) What is your "crap I have no time but must make something to eat" go-to meal? [Jessica says: I need more of these in my repertoire and am shamelessly hoping for new ideas!]
An avocado.   I can eat a whole avocado, in one sitting, by myself.  Piggish, I know.  But I don't do that often.  Before I went vegan in April, it was a fried egg and avocado sandwich, on toasted bread, slathered with a layer of mayo.  Now it's a hummus and avocado sandwich.

Avocado is a superfood, so if I'm going to pig out on something, it might as well be a superfood.  Sometimes I'll throw on fresh veggies, a slice of soy cheese, and/ or a vegan boca burger patty, but hummus and avocado are tasty and filling all by themselves.

For Jessica, my simple and best hummus recipe: throw one 16-oz can of garbanzo beans, 2 cloves garlic, the juice of one lemon, salt, pepper, a handful of cashews, and some of the reserve bean liquid into a blender and whip it on up.  Easy, tasty (very garlicky), and good for you.

4) One way you've changed that would seem most surprising to the other people attending your high school reunion?
I'm sooooo much more laid back.  I think I was a pretty angry teenager much of the time, and very Type A.  I was almost 30 when I finally chilled out.

5) When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A private investigator.  So influenced by 80's TV.

6) The next craft you want to learn?
Do I have to pick another?  ;)  I can knit and crochet but rarely enjoy either.  I wouldn't call it a craft, per se, but I'd love to get better on Adobe Illustrator for actual illustration.  Also not necessarily considered a craft, but I may finally this summer get a new lens for my camera, which could open up whole new areas of photography for me.

7) Do you like having your photo taken? Why/not?
I don't mind so much anymore, as evidenced by my lackluster effort to gussy up for blog photos ("I think I have some tinted lip balm around here... somewhere...  Guess I won't find it today.").  As I get older, authenticity of emotion matters more to me than any technicality.  I hate photos of me with fake smiles, period.  I prefer a nonsmiling photo (even if it's blurry) rather than one with me sporting a fake smile.

8) Current favorite color combination?
Who needs a combo when you have black?

196. Hotlanta

This brief update is coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia, USA!  This is a quick work trip without my family, which means I fly in, teach the 2-day class, and fly home.  Barely 60 hours will have elapsed from leaving my doorstep to returning to it.  A few quick observations:

I will need to put all my "cloud pics taken from airplanes" in one Flickr set.  It doesn't seem natural that one person could love clouds so much.  I never get tired of seeing those clouds from above -- the happiness and peace and contentment always feel fresh to me.

185. Aloha! Simplicity 2927: Aloha Dress

Aloha, my blogging buddies! I'm on my first visit to Hawaii, and it is picture-perfect every single minute of every single day. No exaggeration. Like this random shot from our hotel room balcony:

May I also thank at this time each of you who encouraged me to enjoy the trip and not feel guilt that my family is not with me. It has been a lovely time so far. I'm sure it would have been lovely if my family were here, but in a very different way. For instance, it is about 1:30 p.m. local time and I have not left the hotel today. I haven't even really left the room except to get coffee downstairs, and have spent the day editing photos, uploading them to various places, catching up on your beautiful blogs, and just doing exactly what I want to do when I want to do it. Such a foreign concept with a little one.

Just to re-cap, my BFF Emily and I are here for a week, during which time we are attending a wedding and some related social events for a work friend. One of our first activities was whale-watching with our friend Joe. Grown-ups only, about 16 of us, with a great crew on a decent-size boat. I def. recommend this specific tour if you want to give it a shot! We went swimming with turtles and schools of fish, and got to see a whale family (pod?) doing their thing:

Are you amazed? I was stunned! I'd only seen this kind of thing on TV, never in person. Pretty spectacular! Unfortunately, after the first swim, I let my breakfast go into the big, blue Pacific about 12 times. I really do believe that is an accurate count. You may ask yourself how big my breakfast was that I could afford this. I assure you that my breakfast was meager, and yet there was still more to offer. Despite this, I might be talked into another whale-watching excursion on a future trip!

Although I have taken lots of photos since I've been here to document the trip, I seem to forget to photograph any of the interesting clothes I've shared with you. I wore the low-cut metallic denim dress to the family & friends BBQ on Friday night, and it was perfectly modest with a black tank underneath. I decided not to wear the floral rayon dress to the wedding -- the sandals I brought on this trip were too casual so I decided on a more dressy dress.

I did finish Simplicity 2927, my birthday present for Emily, which she wore to the wedding Sunday night:

I went the entire evening without taking a full-dress photo of Emily, and now I don't have it in me to ask her to put it on again just for a photo, so a hanger shot it is. I will post a review on PR.com sometime, but for now I will say I was super-happy that blending between sizes was pretty simple with this pattern because there are no adjustments to be made along the front princess seams. The neckband is simple denim, the piping is your garden variety Wright's piping, and the bodice is made from some lovely Kokka fabric. I am normally wouldn't consider using Japanese crafty fabric for apparel, but this fabric met all my criteria for color, motif pattern, opacity (no need for lining), weight, and everything else I could think of. It isn't the softest fabric in the world but I hope it will soften with a few more washings.

That's all for now. The beach is calling! If you'd like to see a few more photos, I am uploading the best of the best of Hawaii 2010 over at Flickr. Hope you are having a great week!

178. The 3-Hour Jack Skellington Costume

People who know me first through my work as a business trainer often comment that I must be the most meticulous, prepared person they know. They are often surprised to hear what my blog buddies know: I am meticulous when it counts, and the rest of the time I fly by the seat of my pants. When Louis told me a week before Halloween he wanted to be Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas, I jumped on the idea of putting this cool costume together: skinny suit with nipped-in waist, cool bat dickey/ whatever, long coattails, etc. I didn't consider that I'd just come out of a busy and exhausting work and volunteer week, and that I was about to go out of town and return to my sewing machine on Oct. 30.

You know how the evening of Oct. 29 went, with smoke alarm and all, so after I got home Friday afternoon I found myself ready to doze by 6 p.m. There was no sewing to be done that night! I decided to spend Saturday sewing his costume, remembering that his Halloween party was at 3 p.m. I was wrong. Saturday morning, at 10, after an hour of sewing (during which time I finished his pants), I looked at the party invite and saw the start time was 11. (!!!!!!!!!!)

I took a short-sleeved black men's shirt from the stash and hacked away at it, with the help of Simplicity 4760. I cut those "tails" while he was wearing the shirt, and attached them by machine to the collar. Funny how easy my son complied when I asked him to let me take a photo of the coattails. That Ace Ventura instinct to put one's rear end on display is alive and well for him.

I sewed up a white hood from cotton jersey -- literally draped it on Louis' head, pinching fabric and drawing on it with pencil, and then I sewed it onto the neckline of a plain white t-shirt. Louis had a white night shirt on which we'd freezer paper stenciled Jack's likeness last summer. The night shirt was getting small and badly stained, so I just cut the face out and sewed it to the top of the hood, leaving the bottom open so he could lift Jack's face out of the way and see better when he needed to.

And don't forget that bat detail! With more time, I would have sewn in boning or done something to make the "batwing collar" stand out more, but I couldn't leave out the bat detail closure at the front neck.

We got to the party late, but just in time for cake and an hour of company. I felt like the costume was a total hack job, not worthy of Halloween, but my husband was impressed and my son was happy. So much for meticulous and prepared!

175. Kreativ Blogger Award

Before I forget again, let me first share photos of my first paid "commissioned" piece. I wore this dress, a prototype for a dress I thought I would make for Vocabulary this summer, to a party a few months ago. A friend saw it and wanted a work-appropriate version of her own, which I finished last week:

We lowered the waist to the natural waistline, nipped it in a couple of inches for a trimmer waistline, decreased the volume of the skirt and put most of the fullness at the front and back, extended the neckline placket to the skirt for easier on/ off, and lengthened the skirt to just above knee (for her). The fabric is this beautiful linen/ cotton blend, with brown warp and blue weft threads. The bronze sheen is amazing in the sun! And here, side and back views:

Onto the Kreativ Blogger Award: Thank you to the fabulous Faye for nominating me for this award! If you haven't visited Faye's blog yet, get ready for her great taste, mad sewing skillz, and authenticity and humility. I don't think there's anything quite like her blog in Blogland!

To earn this award I must share 7 things about me and nominate seven other bloggers. I think I've done a few "reveal" memes and shared random things and secret personal facts. I don't think there are rules this time so I will go random again:

1. I am your stereotypical morning person. Everything just feels better in the morning. In college I tried being a night person, thinking it was more romantic and college-y. I hated waking up when the sun was in high noon position and I could never rely on my brain to work well after 10 p.m.

2. I am a mosquito magnet. A few years back I did a little research on why this might be. Don't think I found out anything definitive. I'll go to an outdoor party with 50 people and be the only one covered in bug bites from head to toe. On days like that I will take a Claritin and try really hard not to scratch.

image from Wikipedia

3. I do not suffer from lack of ideas. Often I have more ideas than you can shake a stick at. No shortage of possibilities where I come from. Not to say that I am the best idea picker, though I've gotten good at that over the years, too. And, as witnessed by my two efforts this year to host or co-host sew-alongs, you see that follow-through on very long-term ideas on which I am not getting paid is hard for me... **whistles, fingers drumming table, eyes darting at the skies**

4. This has never been a blog topic but many friends IRL know that I have an aversion to chemicals. This is not the same as being a germophobe -- witness a recent conversation about H1N1, in which I remarked, "Meh, virus schmirus." Chalk that up to my college job in the microbiology lab, where no stinkin' bacteria made me wince. Nor am I a clean/ neat freak -- witness photos from earlier this year when I had pictures on the floor instead of on the walls.

No, for me it's about the chemicals. We don't wear shoes in my house because I can't stand the thought of all the chemicals from the street being spread all over my home, though I know they are spreading anyway, to a lesser degree. Nearly all of our household care items (cleaning products, bug sprays, etc.) are "natural". A few weeks ago I started tasting chemicals in the water. I knew how Julianne Moore's character in Safe felt (is it me or is it real???). I had a full-on freak-out until I theorized it wasn't the water -- it was the cups, being washed in the dishwasher with very toxic stuff that my husband insisted got the dishes the cleanest, and it was not being rinsed off well enough. And my theory has proven true. Moved back to the Seventh Generation dishwashing powder and everything tastes fine. I've contemplated no 'poo but struggle with the heavy, greasy feeling on my hair after skipping more than one day of shampoo. There is a shocking lack of hair and skincare products out there without parabens and sulfates, in case anyone is looking for a new business idea.

5. I love my 6-year-old son so much, and he's probably my favorite companion. But some days I just want to say, "You know, you really need to turn the intensity dial down a few notches, child." And then I realize it's very possible that... he gets that from me... **whistles again, averting eyes**

6. I have just taken up jogging again. Recent life stress pushed me back to my running shoes and I was amazed at how much better I felt, how much more creative I was, and how much more I got done. So I went again. And again. I'm no athlete but I think I will stick with this for a while.

7. I noticed as a child how much neater my handwriting was based on what I was writing with, so I am very picky about my pens and pencils. My doodling is much better with a 0.5mm mechanical pencil. One of my fave pens is the Pilot P-500 Extra Fine.

image from OfficeDepot.com

And now I nominate 7 others... I have tried to stick with sharing new blogs with you when I pass on these memes, but this time I will honor those bloggers who post often/ regularly, like I can set my clock to them. This takes a lot of time and commitment and I appreciate their efforts!

1. Pam - Sidewalk Shoes

2. Kyle - Vacuuming the Lawn

3. Outi - Outsapop

4. Lindsay T - Lindsay T Sews

5. Johanna Lu - The Last Stitch

6. Tina - glam.spoon

7. Winona - Daddy Likey

171. Dressing My Age

Thank you for all the comments on my recent question about dressing your age. If you and I were chatting over coffee, we might have this conversation over several visits! (Maybe we will have this conversation over several visits anyway, in Blogland.)

A work colleague who I playfully call "my personal style icon" told me that she was assessing her closet contents by whether they were age-appropriate. She is beautiful, high-energy, smart, and talented, and in her mid-50's has two adult children and a grandchild. And she dresses really, really, well. She has a unique ability to look professional and credible without sacrificing a very identifiable sense of relevant style. Not long after this conversation, I read Angela's birthday post, and then I'd been considering for VOCABULARY who would wear the clothes I make. Are they too "young"? Too "mature"? Will I ever get to an age where I am making clothes I would not wear myself?

Multilayered issue, this dressing your age thing. It can get complex.

I think that we access something very powerful when we decide what to put on today. It is sometimes a reflection of how we feel about ourselves, and conversely (sometimes simultaneously) it can do a lot to influence how we feel about ourselves. And it almost always influences how people see us -- an obvious first clue others look for when they try to understand who we are.

I remember the point in my youth when I understood that clothes had the power to establish my identity. As a child, I was 100% tomboy, kind of tough-minded, and in junior high school I didn't wear a skirt or dress once. (I never had a boyfriend then even though I had my share of crushes and I'm betting the tomboy thing had something to do with it.) We moved the summer I turned 13, and knowing I was going to a new school with people who'd never met me, I took the opportunity to change how people would see me by changing the way I dressed: I showed up to my first day of high school in a sunshine yellow knit romper. I noticed that my attitude softened a little, too.

Me at ~age 9, tomboy as ever, looking like I'd just been playing baseball, but

still chill with Ricky Schroeder, in all his Tiger Beat glory, looking on.

Since then, I've spent a lot of years trying to wear clothes to appear older than I looked. I remember trying to be very smooth in college, working some snug-fitting clothes into the mix, to accentuate any hint of curve to compensate for looking like I was still 14. And right out of college, I took the advice of my first business mentor, who suggested I only wear suits when working with clients to increase their confidence in working with someone who looked so young and "green".

I stopped thinking about these things when I got pregnant -- "Can I just get something that fits?" -- and dressed a bit sloppier than usual until my son was about 3. And now that I've been paying attention again these past few years, I wonder if I'm coming out on the opposite end when I address the question, "Am I dressing my age?"

This is where your feedback really helped to get clarity this year. Dressing one's age overlaps issues like dressing with confidence, dressing to show respect for yourself, dressing to show respect for others, dressing in flattering styles, dressing with trends. The styles that stay in our closets for the long haul are really ageless -- we simply change what we wear with them. As I study Chanel more and more, I see the genius in a designer who created a garment so iconic it's still revered and copied 60 years later, and looks appropriate on women of any age:

I must apologize for the lack of credits for these photos. I am trying very hard

to finish this post as it's been languishing for a week and I grabbed these from

Google image search. Please let me know how I can credit you if these are

your original images, etc. etc.

Can you imagine my surprise when I saw yesterday an article related to this very topic in the W magazine (Sept. 2009) on page 180?

Sooooo... feel free to grab your cup of coffee/ tea and keep this conversation going with another comment to this post. The subject is not closed by any means. You know I'll ask what you think about it again in another, oh, 350 days or so.

168. Refashion 29: Coco Top from Men's Dress Shirt and "Dressing Your Age"

Before I forget: PR last night was fun to watch in a large group! I highly recommend trying this if you haven't done it before!

It always starts out with an idea. In this case, after a couple weeks of Chanel immersion, I got an idea to make a birthday top for myself, refashioned from a men's dress shirt, of course. I have wanted to get more comfortable with asymmetry since the start of the year, so this was a great opportunity to work on something simple and to play a little.

From Chanel: Black & white palette; "epaulets".

From me: Pintucks; asymmetry, buttoned openings at the shoulder to get in and out.

From my mistakes: Asymmetrical pintucks (below) didn't drape well so I made them symmetrical (as in photos above)... better but far from perfect; as a result neckline is a little poochy; cut the armholes way too low, so little cap sleeves were not an option; changed my mind about how I would use the shirt placket so there are no pintucks on the back; just an inverted pleat (sorry, no pics).

I have to admit that, after weeks of torturous pattern refining and production sewing, this was quite a bit of fun, even though it didn't turn out like I thought it would at all!

There have been a lot of thick topics floating around in my head...

• A question about retro styles and gender inequality
• A rebuttal and bigger inquiry into ethical fashion, and,
• With my birthday yesterday, endless internal musing on the topic of "dressing your age".

I am really curious to know what you think about "dressing your age". This is subjective and personal, but please do share what's on your mind. For me, this has a lot to do with grace. When I turned 30, I got rid of those ridiculous miniskirts and chunky platform shoes in my closet. I mostly don't wear sweats ever, have banished most capri pants and hoodies for good, and assess, each year as my birthday approaches, if I feel like I'm "dressing my age".

What does "dressing your age" mean to you?

167. HBD to me

Every year on my birthday, I am a little more amazed and definitely more thankful I am still alive to greet another year. Life is a marvelous journey. I am so grateful.

What a blessing among many blessings then that Project Runway season 6 premieres tonight. I'm headed out to a local cafe to watch with friends and PR fans. Even though I haven't enjoyed the last two seasons so much, I have a feeling it's going to be a lot of fun! Can't wait to hear what you thought!

165. Revisiting the Nurse Ratched Shirtdress

The last post and a few of the comments got me thinking about why I haven't blogged more about sewing projects gone wild, i.e. the "failures". I certainly don't feel any shame in sharing the questionable along with the experiments that work. I guess I've been doing a lot of work and volunteer stuff in Excel lately, so I put my thoughts into a little worksheet, and look at what came out of that private brainstorm:

Note that these percentages are not calculations -- they are guesses, though I bet they are pretty accurate. And I purposely didn't pick round numbers like 10% and 25% because I like to counterbalance my obvious geek tendencies with a good dose of snarkiness.

Also note that a personal decision when I started blogging was to only show finished projects, not works-in-progress. The purpose behind that decision was to increase the number of finished projects, as the other goal was to blog twice a week.

So check out those numbers:

• Most of what I sew gets finished, and the results are "good". I wear these clothes.
• There is a tiny percent of clothes that are really perfect the first time out. Put them on and it's instant magic.
• Only a small percentage of the clothes are so "tragedy in the making" that I throw them in the UFO pile before they're actually done. It's good to see that I'm doing this a lot less. These are the projects that I would deem the "failures", and I am not used to blogging them because I typically don't blog unfinished projects! (Mystery solved.)
• Maybe 8% of the projects are in good functioning condition but I am always messing with them. I might wear them, but I feel when I wear them like they are not complete. Usually the clothes that land here are really simple styles need some embellishment.

One of the projects in that always-messing-with category that I wore today is the Nurse Ratched Shirtdress. This was my sixth refashion from almost a year ago, and was a white shirtdress made of two men's shirts. I took some reader suggestions as to what to do next, and ended up dyeing it a teal blue from Rit or Dylon, can't remember now.

The original dress was white, and I thought it had looked like a nurse's uniform. I laughed after I dyed it, threw it in the laundry, and took it out of the dryer: It was the color of medical scrubs!

Picture taken today. I remembered one of my little secrets, that there are two patch pockets, one from each original shirt -- so one pocket is in a herringbone-weave like the shirt that the skirt is made from:

And the other pocket is in a regular twill weave, so it doesn't match the skirt fabric:

And this surprised me -- the serger thread (yes, the serger was broken when I sewed this so it is wonky) did not dye teal like the thread I used on all the seams. It stayed white, even though it has a hint of blue in it:

So do you think this dress looks too scrubby? Do you blog about the projects that don't go well? What do you do when it looks like a garment is headed for a sewing train wreck? Do you build little secrets into your clothes as you sew them?

161. Chanel-Style Blog Header

Just a quick little weekend note. In case you haven't noticed, there's a bit of Chanel madness 'round these parts. The new sew-along blog badge is in the sidebar and, with the Chanel-style font on my computer, I couldn't help but mess around with my own blog header and have a little fun.

The last blog overhaul was around for maybe a month... I'll try to keep this one around longer for some continuity. ;)

158. Coco Before Chanel

I love Audrey Tautou. I'll be cheering for this movie. Might be in a theater near us on September 25. [BTW, IMDB says it's rated PG-13 for sexual content and smoking. And smoking? First time I've seen that!]

156. Dear AngelaPea and Umatji...

... Will you please leave me your email address in a comment so I can contact you about the meme? When I tried to reply to your comments, they weren't linked to your personal email addresses. I have visited both of your blogs, and can't find your email addresses there or on your blogger profiles. Thanks! :)

I've been offline most of the week with the workshop and then I just felt kind of brain-fried yesterday. (BTW, did any of you see The Fashion Show? If so, did you vote for a collection? Guess next week's is the last episode of the season. And soon our beloved Project Runway will be back! Just a month away now!) Getting back in the swing of things today and I look forward to catching up with everyone's blogs! Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

155. Blog Goodness + A New Way to Pay It Forward

Oh my oh my oh my. Seems like every emotion is hitting me three times as intensely these days (I have surely left a comment at your blog this past week in which I repeat myself three times).What's causing this emotional intensity for me?

Part of it is preparing to deliver a 2-day workshop on Fierce Conversations, which is a very meaningful and personal honor I'll share with you sometime if I haven't already. It's kind of intense.

And part of it is that tons of people, all over the world, in every country and at every socioeconomic level, have been experiencing stress and contraction in their lives. I read the news and I read blogs and I know and talk with real people, so the pain and stress are very real to me as they are to most of us. And magnified at the current moment.

And we've spent a lot of time with local friends since returning from our June trip to Vegas. We're lucky to have such great friends.

And, frankly, this whole blogging thing has grown into something I cherish. It's been about a year since people other than my husband actually started reading this blog (and I wouldn't even have called him a regular reader, if you know what I mean), and I have gotten to know so many of you at various levels and enjoy these unique friendships. You may remember a blog giveaway I hosted a few months back? The winner is a young lady who lives in Israel named Selvi. A friend of hers visited Austin and stopped by my house this past Sunday to bring me a lovely thank-you gift from Selvi, all the way from Israel. It's a handmade ceramic pomegranate, and symbolizes fertility and creativity.

Selvi's friend stayed for an hour over summer cake, fresh sweet cherries, and nice conversation. I thought about how that giveaway created two long-distance friendships, and how generous it was of Selvi and her friend to commit to bringing a precious and fragile gift from so far away!

And earlier this week, Dana at MADE posted about Craft Hope.

And two days ago, Angela at RiAnge Creations posted the coolest pay-it-forward meme I have seen so far. I'm so so so in love with this idea that I'm going to post it now, get absorbed in the Fierce workshop for a couple of days, and hopefully come back to find 5 names and start generating ideas for 5 pay it forward gifts.

I just want to say that, if you have stumbled across this post, and you're feeling the squeeze of life, and you need a pick-me-up, and you need to have someone show you some care and you're number 6, go stalk the blogs of the first 5 who respond until they post their pay-it-forward and get on their list. Seriously. That, to me, is exactly what this meme is about. It's about caring for those who need it, and passing that on once our soul has been refreshed in some small way.

I love it I love it I love it!

I am entering into the following agreement with the first 5 people who comment on this post and then commit to doing the same on their blog. Just read below and if you feel up to the task copy the following into your blog and leave me a comment.

I am willing to post overseas (I am in the U.S.), but remember you must commit on your blog to do the same for others.

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I send you. But you may be pleasantly surprised. It will definitely be sewing/craft related.
2. What I send will be made just for you, with love, by my own hands. You'd be surprised how much of our personalities does come through online.
3. I will complete all 5 gifts this year - 2009.
4. I will not give you any clue what it’s going to be. It will be something made in the real world, that you can touch and feel, and not something cyber.
5. I reserve the right to do something strange. It may be weird or beautiful. Or it may be monstrous and annoying. If you find it truly horrendous, just let me know. Perhaps you'll send it forward to someone who will absolutely love it.
6. In return, all you need to do is post this text on your blog and make 5 things for the first 5 to respond to your blog post.
7. Send your mailing address - after I contact you to confirm.

Everyone is welcome. I guarantee that you will receive something from me providing you do the same for 5 other people in your blog post. Are you game? Let's do this and I can't wait to send you what I hope you'll consider a nice surprise!!!!!!!!!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

153. More giveaway news, the Pollyanna Dress, etc.

There are so many short items to cover that I will number them:

1. What fun responses to the honesty meme from my last post! Keep 'em coming. If you're getting a kick out of it, too, please consider yourself tagged and let's read your honest truth. :)

2. Columbia Lily Designs is hosting a giveaway, too! Found out about it after my last post, but do visit her blog for giveaway info.

3. I still have one dress from my Las Vegas trip last month that I didn't blog about. I'd wanted to use the immaculately-fit bodice from New Look 6723/ Sid & Nancy dress and add a short circle skirt at the natural waist. I wore this to my niece's graduation, and apparently it was a good choice for visibility from the graduation floor (my niece said that as she searched the audience for us, her nearby friend said, "Your parents are near the lady in the yellow dress.").

The bodice is self-lined and I have finally settled into a preferred method for hemming circle skirts: Serge the bottom edge in a thread color close to the fabric, press a hem the width of the serging (in my case, 1/4"), and sew this very narrow hem. So easy. Yes, it requires a serger, and yes, it's worth it.

Clementine clearly ate too many Cheetos when I was in Vegas. There was a little struggle to get the back zipper zipped up. OK, just kidding. She can't eat; she's a dress form. The dress is actually comfy for me to wear -- it's got just enough ease -- and at times like this I'm reminded of what that one inch difference between our busts can really mean for fit.

And Carmen... she always has to do the rabbit ears when there's a shot she's not in. Such a camera hog. Photobomber.

4. I've been struggling a little with how to respond to comments on my blog. I've in the past only responded via email to those who leave their email addresses, or I've responded with my own comment if someone has asked a question but didn't leave their email address. Without an email address, at times I would seek out the commenter's blog and leave a message there but it felt awkward to answer a question they asked on my blog in the comments of their blog!

I'll respond with my own comment from now on -- just FYI in case you would like to start checking the box in the comment form saying you want to get follow-up comments emailed to you. I've been doing this on Facebook and it works aaaaaaalright.

5. I've been a sewing and patternmaking maniac. I haven't posted several of the most intensive projects because they are leading up to debuting that new independent clothing label I mentioned a few months back. I think I'll be ready to "open shop" in the next couple of weeks so I can reveal a few projects I've been working on and what I've been learning along the way.

6. Our Favorite Swedish Sewist (tm), Johanna Lu, just published a very considered (and because I totally agree with her, a very accurate) review of The Fashion Show. Coincidentally, about a week ago, I sounded off about it again via email to Kyle, who suggested another blog post about it. Rather than hijack Johanna Lu's comments, I figured I'd jot down a couple other thoughts about Our Favorite Substitute for Project Runway (tm):

• TFS needs to find its voice, which is ironically the same advice they have given to their contestants. They kind of rush through the show, like a few designers rush through making their garments, and by the end of the hour I'm trying to find the "point of view" of the show just as the judges are struggling to see their designers' points of view.
• There is very little focus on the creative process, which I'd like to see more of.
• TFS gives their contestants equal screen time, but democratic coverage simply isn't as interesting as getting to know a few of their folks better.
• They've moved away from showing judges' comments during the runway shows and saving them for the judging, which I prefer.
• When choosing to eliminate a designer who is not impressive nearly every week vs. a designer who's pretty strong but had a very bad week, they eliminate the weaker (overall) designer. This is much more crowd-pleasing but also much more predictable.

And again, having said all of that... I keep watching. :)

152. Blog awards and someone else's giveaway

Actually, let's do the giveaway announcement first: Novita at Sew I Do is hosting a giveaway of a really fun, bright bag to celebrate the opening of her Etsy shop. The deadline to enter is July 4 so head on over if you'd like to check it out.

I have four blog awards to share that have come in over the past month! The first came from Melissa at Moonshine and Piffle, about a month ago. I recall reading about the award mere days before our long trip and letting Melissa know it might take me a while to pass it along, but that I was grateful for her acknowledgement and I would. Well, I went to her blog yesterday to read the rules, etc. and, inexplicably, I kept getting referred to a domain placeholder web page. For those of you who have not been to Melissa's blog before, she is an amazing photographer. Her blog is just a thing of beauty. She herself is adorable and so is her writing style. And if that's not enough, she recently returned from a long-awaited, much-deserved trip to Paris, photos and all. If you can see her blog just fine, please let me know. Otherwise, my dear Melissa, if you are reading this, something's up with your fine blog. Please keep us fans and followers posted. xo

The One Lovely Blog Award from Lulu at Gus & Lulu:

A One Lovely Blog Award from Meg at Elsie Marley, though this award looks different:

The Honest Scrap Award from Catherine G:

The two Lovely Blog Awards have different rules but the same intent, which is to share lovely blogs which are new to me. I'm always in awe of the many, many beautiful blogs in the world that I just find out about, but it's never a secret because I add them to my blog list in the sidebar.

The Honest Scrap Award is one I'd not seen before and sounds fun, but involves a game of truth or dare but without the dare. Ten things. Let's see...

1. Austin is great but I am having escapist fantasies of moving to a cooler climate.
2. I eat really healthy meals and really awful, junky snacks and desserts. I like to think it all balances out in the end, but fear a two-inch layer of fat surrounds my heart.
3. I love black clothes.
4. My son's and my favorite TV show to watch together is So You Think You Can Dance.
5. I will easily drop $6 for a plastic toy to put on the shelf, but have a real problem paying $6 for parking. It's the principle...
6. I adore the whole Japanese street culture thing, even though I'm prob. way too old for it.
7. I work on aging gracefully, i.e. accepting that I am not meant to eat such spicy and acidic food anymore because of the acid reflux and heartburn.
8. Most of the time I think I'm 6 feet tall and a big bear of a woman, and I often act like it.
9. Sometimes I dream of eating meat again. The desire doesn't feel the same in real life.
10. I'm terrified of the teeth-falling-out phase of my son's childhood.

I'm to pass on the award to 7 other bloggers but I'll pass it on to anyone reading who wants to fess up! I'll read your blog confessional. Tell us the honest truth. I dare you.

141. Stop

I can't remember if I've mentioned here that I'm the yearbook editor for Louis' elem. school.  Well, this is the last full week before the book goes to print, so I've spent all week tracking down the 27 or so faculty, staff members, and kids who missed photo day and photo make-up day last fall.  I've dragged around this yard of blue cotton broadcloth and a roll of masking tape all week, to set up impromptu backdrops in sunny hallways around the school.  And I photographed the morning safety patrol crew, as above, and a few of us will spend the entire morning photographing today's track & field day, which is a huge, school-wide event.

There are a host of other teeny, tiny details, too, like making sure pages are numbered and a there's a 0.25" border around the artwork on each page, etc.  And bigger details like rounding up the last few pages that volunteers are putting together.

Don't get me wrong -- this yearbook has been a waaaay fun volunteer project and it's been a blast working with some very cool parents.  But I've got a fun new dress to show you that I finally finished Wednesday, and no time to pick accessories and take pics for you, so it waits until the yearbook is done.  Thanks for helping me stay connected through your blog posts and emails this week!  Miss you and see you again soon!  :)

P.S.  During weeks like these, I also turn to my three fave teen bloggers for quick inspiration:

• Sea of Shoes
• Childhood Flames
• Style Rookie

136. Pop Quiz answer and an Earth Day class project

The answer to yesterday's pop quiz is: You never know!  I appreciate all your comments, and have had similar ideas and strategies.  It's really a universal experience, isn't it?

You probably guessed I was in line when I wrote that post, and this time I chose the faster cashier with million-item-cart-lady ahead of me.  By the time my cashier got to wrapping the breakables, she signaled a nearby back-up cashier to open a third checkout lane, and I got served right away, to my pleasant surprise!  This almost never happens.  Like some of you, I inevitably pick what ends up being the slowest line, no matter how much or how little thought I put into the choice.

This long checkout line scenario, almost no matter the day or time of day, is one of the reason I avoid the craft store except for that inevitable, once-a-quarter purchase.

Thank you for playing along and commenting!  

*****

This is for Cindy and I'll be quick.  Last week I worked on an Earth Day project with Louis' class.  Each child brought in an outgrown t-shirt they wanted to give new life as a reusable bag.  Two weeks prior, I started receiving the first of the bags and prepping them by:

1. Cutting out rectangles based on the size of the shirt and orientation of the design, if any.
2. Sewing 3/8" twill tape to the top of the rectangles to reinforce where the handles would be attached.
3. Cutting and sewing grosgrain ribbon handles to each rectangle.

Another mom brought her machine to the "sewing station" we set up in class, and we helped the kids sew the three seams to create their reusable fabric bags.  It took about 50 minutes for the two of us to work with about 18 kids.  The bags turned out cute, and the kids were sooooo excited!  Here are a few:

135. Pop Quiz

You are at the craft store, which you normally avoid, for the one bona fide craft item you need this quarter. The checkout line on the left has four customers ahead of you, a few items each, with the slowest cashier in recent history. The line on your right has a fast cashier with one customer ahead of you, with a cartful of Easter clearance items, some breakable. Which checkout line do you choose?

Answer coming in next post.

125. Thank you, BWOF

Not for a pattern, but for this:

And this:

Which helped me get this:

I usually grow my hair out in the cold (well, OK, cool) months and thought about skipping it this year in favor of a Beatles-esque shag.  I scoured Flickr for just the right photo, but most were either not mod enough or too androgynous (I am OK with a boyish cut but don't want to be mistaken for a boy).  So I grew it out like normal.

Last summer I decided to buy a BWOF to see if I actually sewed anything from it before investing in a subscription, but I didn't like most of the styles in the summer issues.  Fall rolled around and I liked many of the clothes in BWOF 11-2008, plus the cover model had The Exact Haircut I Wanted.  Someday I'll get around to sewing one or two of the garments, for sure.  No really, for sure!  I really mean it.  Kind of.

*****

Kyle mentioned Blogging Project Runway to me when we met up in San Anton. a couple weeks ago, so I paid a visit this morning and saw the news that Project Runway's next season - 6 - will start in June on a new network called The Weinstein Network.  I will have to check out whether this new channel will be available on DISH or if I will need to look at Time Warner or DirectTV or whatever.  I'd rather subscribe online... maybe through iTunes?

Update 9:41 p.m.: Blogging Project Runway was playing an April Fool's joke, and there's no TWN or a season 6 that begins there in June???  That's choice, that I have never gone to the site except on APRIL FOOL'S DAY and decided to share the good but inaccurate news!  Yeah, you got me.  Awesome!  

But really, Kyle says no April Fool's, it will be on Lifetime for 5 years?  This time though, look for yourself.  The last time I tried to report on it I got punked.