Month: August 2013

Colette Patterns’ Laurel. It’s a shirt! With the tiny ruffle variation.

Oh my gosh, do I like these shirts!  I love the color, I love the tiny ruffle variation and I love how quickly they came together.  I hoping that the dresses will come together quickly too, since I spent a lot of time fitting the shirts.
 
I especially love how the back is fitted. It’s not something I feel like I see a lot in shirts.

Are there things I would improve on, given my druthers?  Yep.  The top of the back is a bit too poofy and I probably could have given the bust another half inch or so.  Also, the tiny ruffles like to roll and expose the bias binding, perhaps because I over stay-stitched the neckline, perhaps because it’s just too much bulk.  The sleeves are weirdly puffy and I clearly have a ways to go in the setting-in-sleeves skill.  But overall?  Very happy.

Colette Patterns’ Laurel: Ruffles and necklines. Also, starting the first apron.

These are the millions of threads it’s smart to cut off before attaching the ruffle.  Also, notice the spools of thread on the sewing machine.  I’ve sewn through two spools of thread for the three shirts and I still have two more dresses to go.  Back to the fabric store I went for more thread.
 
A realization I had more than once while working on this project:  It’s time for a new ironing board.  This one tends to randomly collapse.  Plus, I think my loyal readers are a bit tired of looking at the stained floral pattern.
 
But look!  Uniform shirts finished!
 
And we are continuing on to the apron.
 
With my trusty assistant.
 

Prompt Writing

This spring, I took a writing class offered through Write Around Portland.  It was called “Prompt” because each week we would meet and write for a limited amount of time–usually 2-8 minutes–to a number of different prompts.  As the school year grinds to a start and I have less time to write, I will be featuring excerpts from my writing class in lieu of the weekly essay.  Here’s the first one.  The prompt was, “Come on in.”

“Come on in,” my boyfriend called to me from the middle of the river.  He’d gotten himself there by jumping off the bridge above him, the bridge that I sat on the edge of, my legs dangling above the water.  My eyes narrowed.  I knew his offer was a challenge more than an invitation.  He didn’t think I would do it.

Of late, our relationship had changed.  I sensed he was bored with me and I suspected his head had been turned by someone else.  We were clearly headed toward “over” but the asshole hadn’t actually taken time to break up with me.  Instead, he was mostly unavailable.  This river outing was the first I’d seen of him in a week.  When we did get together he found ways to imply I didn’t measure up to whatever I had been before.  It was ridiculous that I didn’t end things myself, but his cowardice just made me more stubborn.  I wasn’t going to break up with him if he wasn’t going to break up with me.

I looked down at the water.  This was a stupid challenge, or not much of a challenge at all.  I was a duck in the water, a seal, a sea otter.  I felt more comfortable in rivers, lakes and pools than I did on land.  And the jump itself wasn’t very high, no higher than the diving board I’d mastered by age twelve.  The water was deep and calm below me.

“It’s no big deal.” he called, goading me on.  He had jumped feet first, flailing a bit on the way down.  I could do better than that.  I stood up and turned, placing my back to him.

“If you aren’t going to jump, you can come in from the bank,” he called to me.

I rolled my eyes and launched myself backward, my feet flipping over my head as I spun in the air.  I brought my body into a perfect line and slid into the water, barely making a ripple.

I could do better than this.

Colette Patterns’ Laurel: Attaching tiny sleeve ruffles and setting up sleeves.

The good thing about making three of the same shirt is that there is time to improve on one’s task at hand.  So it went with attaching tiny ruffles to the sleeves.  I learned that I should trim all the tiny ruffles down a bit before sewing, so the millions of bits of thread don’t have to be removed later. I learned that it’s best to smoosh the ruffles so there is maximum ruffle, because that will still be enough to go around.  I learned that one should attach tiny ruffles to the sleeves and then trim a lot of the bulk from the seam line, which will make it easier to attach the bias tape.
 
Here’s some bias binding happening.  I’m noticing I still haven’t learned the trick for making sure the bias tape endings aren’t raw.  But I learned that trick too.
 
I’ve set in sleeves in my day and I like the process, if not always the result.  I like putting in three rows of gathering thread, which will be exuberantly ripped out once the sleeve is securely in place.  I went with bright orange because I’ve been ripping through the blue thread on this project, but also because contrast is easier to pull out after the fact.  Those are six sleeves, ready to be inserted and three shirts, ready to receive those sleeves.
 

Three sentence movie reviews: The Wolverine

This was much better than the previous Wolverine movie which shall not be referred to ever again.  As with Iron Man 3, the superheros are more interesting when they can’t be quite so super.  The movie was a bit slow in places and I had time to contemplate the fact that really only Hugh Jackman could pull off some of those lines, but overall, a pretty good way to spend a summer afternoon.

Cost:  $5.00 ($5.00 Tuesday special)
Where watched:  Regal Tigard Cinemas, with mom and Matt

Of Sound Mind’s choices.

From an Ask Amy Column, July 23, 2013
DEAR AMY: I am a 17-year-old woman. I do not want children and cannot picture having any. I am a very bright student with a lot of drive and a full college scholarship waiting for me next year, so it is safe to say that I am taking my life and future career to a far higher level than the ordinary stay-at-home mother.
I have decided I want to have surgery in order to guarantee against ever becoming a parent, and yet family and friends scoff at me for making this decision.
I know that numerous men and women out there have found their children to be the light of their lives and have no regrets (even if the children were not planned), but parenthood is just something I do not want. A baby is not going to make me happy. I am going to be the one to make me happy.
How do I show to the people I know that, although I am young, I am not going to change my mind on the baby subject tomorrow, next month, next year or even when/if I am 35 and single?
If I ever really do want a kid of my own, he or she will be an older adoptee, and I will have lived a pretty fulfilled life; I’ll be financially and emotionally ready to give that child everything they need. How can I convince people I want to be surgically sterilized? — Of Sound Mind
Oh, Of Sound Mind, I’m going to skip Amy’s response, which I found so-so and a bit condescending, and tell you that I completely feel for you.  When I was seventeen, I didn’t want children either.  Like you, I had plans that didn’t involve children and I didn’t want them, not when I was seventeen, and not when I was thirty-five.  When I told people this, they all said “you’ll change your mind.”  It was infuriating, to have them dismiss one of my core beliefs.  It drove me crazy.
In my twenties, I still didn’t want children. Not then, not even when I was thirty-five.  When I told people this, the response was, “Well, I used to think I didn’t want any children. But then I turned X.”  And funnily enough, X was always two years older than I was at that time. It became rather comical, hearing the same story over and over, with the age adjusting just a little bit later as each year went by.  I had finally learned not to spit with rage at their doubt, so I just smiled my Cheshire Cat smile and moved on with my childless life.
By the time I hit my thirties, I still didn’t want children.  Not then, and especially not when I was in my forties.  And people, for the most part, had stopped telling me I was going to change my mind.  Instead, they started conversations assuming I had children. I had to learn to navigate through the slight awkwardness, of the, “Oh no. No kids.” response.  It was tough, letting them know that I myself was happily childless, and that I fully appreciated that they were over the moon with their wonderful children.  But I figured out that conversation.
But here’s what I’m going to say to you, Of Sound Mind.  I fully trust that your seventeen-year-old self knows yourself well enough to know that you have no desire to bring a child into this world.  My own seventeen-year-old self did, and I’m guessing you aren’t so different.  But I’m going to advise you to hold off on the sterilization.  Here’s why.  One of the best things about the stage of life you are in is the incredible amount of choices you have.  You could decide to travel the world.  You could decide to go ahead and get that advanced degree.  Maybe you want to focus on Chemical Engineering and Mexican Pottery.  You can do all of that.  Your world is wide open right now.
However, this limitless existence most likely won’t last forever.  Eventually, the choices you make will narrow your focus a bit, and then a bit more. Pretty soon, the decision to travel the world will be a lot more difficult to pull off.  Not that you can’t, but maybe you would have to quit your awesome job, or maybe your very cool boyfriend you love doesn’t want to come along. Perhaps your parents will get sick and you will have to care for them.  Or, you might have to choose between the Chemical Engineering and Mexican Pottery, making the pottery your sole focus and fitting the Chemical Engineering in here and there with some freelancing.
The narrowing isn’t bad.  You will give up a lot of “maybes” for some good actuals and that will be pretty cool.  But there is no way to be 100% sure at seventeen that you won’t want to have a baby in the future.  Maybe your thirty-one-year-old self will wake up one morning with a grand desire to procreate.  And that older self is going to be very mad at you and your youthful action and then is going to have to do a big old expensive workaround in order to have that baby.  Now for myself, I never did wake up with that feeling, but you, who knows?  It’s good to keep your options open.
But here’s the best part about living in today’s world.  In the realm of sex, you can have your cake and eat it too.  Pretty much like the guys have historically done.  Because you are completely sure you don’t want to have a child, research long-term birth control options and then pick something that works for you and works for a long time, but is still reversible.  You’ve got a bevy of choices. And I would suggest doubling up on the birth control, (a.k.a. use condoms) just to be on the safe side.  I’d also advise you to be very upfront with your sexual partners about your desire to not have children and be very clear that should the birth control percentages work against you and you do become pregnant, that pregnancy will end soon after it begins.  It would also be a good idea to always have money stashed away in case you need an abortion and also to live in a state where you still can get an abortion. (I can’t believe I had to write the last part of that sentence, but it can be an issue.)
Sure, it would be easier to be able to skip the whole birth control stage, but look at it this way:  you are taking care to support the choice you are making today while keeping the potential future choice (that I totally get you aren’t ever going to take) wide open.  You also have the bonus of that if you always insist on condoms, you have a better chance of avoiding disease that sexual shenanigans can sometimes bring.

And if things never do change, if it’s been a few decades that you’ve been of childbearing age and you still don’t want to give birth to a child?  Go ahead and take advantage of one of those permanent measures.  That will feel good too.