Odds and Ends, Vol. 11

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Stunning photographs of the Badlands.

The War That Changed Everything.  The Wall Street Journal reflects on the impact of the Great War.  Consider this article a good primer to understanding the modern and post-modern landscape.

Meagan Francis addresses some tricky parenting dilemmas for older kids.  My kids have a few years (I hope!) before these things become an issue, but I'm going to keep this article in mind as we hurtle along.

Nathan Bieberdorf puts paid to the notion that everything is beautiful.  There is much in life that is valuable above physical attributes, and frankly, not everything in life is beautiful.  There is much ugliness and sorrow in the world.  From the article: 

"Because we have created a culture that values beauty above all other innate traits…for women, at least. Men are generally valued by their success, which is seen as a result of talent and hard work, despite how much it depends on luck and knowing the right people.

But women are pretty much a one-note instrument. Society says, you’re hot, or you’re not. Your looks affect your choice of mate, the friends you have, and even your job. And this factor that will affect every part of your life is something you have next to no control over."

Sally McGraw at Already Pretty discusses how to define your body (or, as I've said before, appreciate your body's own particularities; it is so much easier to find or sew clothes that fit and flatter if you are comfortable with your own skin and familiar with your particular shape and proportions)

I've noticed this trend in the last few years of women plasticizing themselves, partly (I think) in response to the preponderance of Photoshopped, airbrushed magazine ideals.  I loved this video response by singer Colbie Callait.

Sarai reflects on the 3 biggest joys of sewing.

The Rule of Three for keeping wardrobes functional and small.  I'm definitely using this rule going forward.

Without the devil, without sin, there is no reason for salvation, no reason for Christ to save us. The Church of England seems to have forgotten this basic fact.

A plutocrat warns against modern day peasants storming the castle.  Hanauer's thoughts on employment, wages, and economics are fascinating, particularly coming from someone as ultra wealthy as he is. (Also, Rod Dreher has a nice response to the article, along with a good reflection on folly in society)

Philip Bess might just be my new favorite intellectual.  He is a New Urbanist, and his thoughts on sustainable community in the 21st century are spot on.  I particularly appreciated his thoughts on the role of the Church in creating community around itself, rather than asking the community to come toward it.  Christ comes to us;  the chalice proceeds from the heavenly altar, all we need do is approach with fear and trembling.  

On the other hand, one of the reasons I love being an historian is that I like to imagine life as it was before, and imagine myself back in that life (this is one of the primarily reasons that Outlander strikes a major chord with me).  Turns out, I could be living the medieval dream.  Oh, don't tempt me.

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I love this: 50 photos of motherhood in the mid-20th century.  Further proof (as if we needed it) that women come in all shapes and sizes, and how mothers interact with their children remains unchanged.

Every time I go to IKEA, I get visions of compact, simple, streamlined aesthetic in my head.  Those showroom apartments where every square inch of that 700 square foot apartment is utilized, and livable for a family!  The 100 square foot studio apartment with no wasted space.  So cozy, so compact, so useful!  But then I get home, and see the realities of my Victorian-era row-home, and realize, the Scandinavian modern aesthetic isn't going to work here.  But I can dream!  This slide show takes me away.

Alan Jacobs reviews Jonathan Haidt's Righteous Mind.  Haidt is a leftist secular scholar, but he understands how institutions bind us together, make us feel morally superior, promote group-think, and also prevent good dialogue between opposing sides.  Jacobs nicely summarizes Haidt's arguments.

This article deals with a question that is often on my mind: waste.  Specifically, textile waste, as fast fashion has ruined the textile industry, garments aren't made to last, and the consumer mindset of modern society pushes us to buy ever more clothing (the average American buys 70 pieces of clothing per year!)  All that clothing tends to cycle in and out, as fashion trends change quickly these days, and garments are designed to wear out in three washes (!!!).  I wish more companies would get involved in textile recycling in America, as I think there is not only big business there, but it would at least be a buffer of sustainability in a sector of the economy that seems little concerned with the environment.  The first step, obviously, is to consume less, but I get that it is hard when garments are poorly made and wear out easily (even the ones from so-called "good" brands are no longer as well made as they were even 15 years ago).  I do donate almost any clothing we aren't using anymore.  I consign whatever is in good shape to ThredUp, and donate the rest to a local charity, where I presume a lot of it is recycled.  I haven't done as well with garments that are beyond the pale (mostly clothing from my husband, who wears things completely dead), but this article makes me think I should just be donating them as well, marked for textile recycling.

Dreher skewers the notion of "the right side of history" and the idol we make of it.

Caroline Vuyadinov discusses the body after death--it is not disgusting, or a casing to be discarded, but the housing of the soul, and should be respected, and buried properly.

And related: a doctor gives some perspective on death and dying in the post modern era.

Dreher was on a roll there for a few weeks, and this article caught my eye: why hard news is like eating kale. From the article:

"The ugly truth is that people consume news like my kids consume food: they hate anything that might be remotely challenging or unfamiliar, and all things considered, they’re rather eat sweets than meat or vegetables."

Mark Lilla on why the dogma of democracy doesn't always make the world a better place.

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Ingenious ways to hide the "ugly" in your house.  I don't actually think most of these suggestions are practical, or even that attractive (hello, dog bowls in a drawer.  Ick), but some are clever.  I also think that we don't need to hide the "ugly" in our homes--we live there, they don't need to look like an unoccupied magazine spread.  That said, there are plenty of practical reasons to tie up cords, hide them behind things (to keep Small People out of them, for example), and some of the ideas listed are useful.

And related: A manifesto against the tyranny of luxury kitchens.  Yes.  Exactly.  Give me small, functional, and perhaps ugly or dated to empty, unused, expensive showpieces.

Bigger is better, when it comes to managing a family.  

As the mother of four small children in a child-hostile urban setting, I've received my fair share of weird comments over the years.  Wendy Jenssen hilariously responds to the most common (and sometimes bizarre comments she receives).  Also, Scary Mommy skewers them all.  Just.don't.go.there, mkay?

I'm not militant about breastfeeding, but I do think that women should feel free and comfortable to discreetly breastfeed in public.  Julia Wykes' story made me sad about the whole thing.

Calah gets real about NFP.

In an older article, Frederica Mathewes-Green discusses the pros of (wed) teen pregnancy.  The key?  A supportive surrounding community.

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Have I cracked on enough about Outlander yet?  No?  Good.  Here are the reasons we care about Claire (the main protagonist of the series).  Series premier on August 2!!  First episode is free on Starz.com--I can't wait!!

Our society is profoundly uncomfortable with, well, discomfort.  Anything that isn't shiny or pretty, or fit into a nice category is hard to deal with, and grief or personal tragedy is no respecter of persons.  I found this  little infographic a useful way to think about how to help when life gets tough, and what not to say.

Nichole talks about the reality of parenting small children.  Her best observation? 

"In the modern world of shiny blogs and perfect Instagram photos and everything we want when we want it, there is a great fiction that we can control everything around us, so that we’ll never experience discomfort. According to modern society, discomfort is the worst thing that can happen. But parenting little people will involve difficult, sometimes painful stuff. Most of it is amazing, wonderful and unimaginably fulfilling, but not a small amount of parenting is dealing with challenges you have no way to prevent. Stomach bugs happen. Tantrums happen, mostly in public places. Sleepless night HAPPEN, oh those sleepless nights. Parenthood comes with a higher level of discomfort than almost anything else you’d willingly choose. Our society asks the question, why chose parenthood if it sucks so much?" 

Yes, exactly.  But, as she notes, parenthood is filled with much joy and love that balances out the discomfort, the sleep-deprivation, the anxiety, the agony.  It is good for our souls to choose things that are difficult, things that are uncomfortable, things that hurt.  Sometimes we can grow and change no other way.

Talking Tuesday (on a Wednesday): The Great War

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This is a picture of the telegram sent by the Austro-Hungarian foreign minister to Serbia, informing them that they were at war, following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, launching the devastation of Europe, and forever changing the world.  This month marks 100 years since the beginning of World War I (or the Great War).  These days, the Great War is largely overlooked in favor of World War II, or later 20th century conflicts, but it really deserves much more attention.  It is difficult to explain the scale of change that came about as a result of that war.  The entire landscape of Europe was changed on many levels; almost all the major monarchies fell, revolution and civil wars followed, country lines were redrawn, and a generation of men and women lost their faith as a result of the devastation wrought by modern trench warfare.

The Great War changed the way that war was waged, and the civilian and military losses were devastating.  The way that the war was concluded--with onerous reparations for Germany (who, rightly or wrongly was blamed for the war in the end), arbitrary national lines drawn in the sands of the Middle East and Africa, and a hugely disillusioned and wounded population--not only set the conditions for the wars that followed and the cultural revolutions of the 1920s and 1960s, but for many of the Middle Eastern troubles that continue today.

I recently finished watching Parade's End, a miniseries that aired on HBO earlier this spring, and while there are some definite flaws with the script and costuming, the acting is superb, and subtly illustrated to me some of the ways that society changed during the Great War, and in particular, the costs borne by the men who fought.  (I thought several times during the series that it must have been a book adaptation, because I felt there were gaps in the storyline of the sort that happen when a large book is condensed into a television series.  Turns out it is based on a four-book series by Ford Madox Ford, and I intend to read it as soon as I can to understand what I missed)  Another excellent movie that illustrates these themes for me is Sunshine, a story which examines three generations of a Hungarian Jewish family, beginning at the close of the 19th century and going right through the middle of the 20th.

The book I always tell people to read if they want to better understand the origins of the Great War is Robert Massie's Nicholas and Alexandra.  The book is about the last of the Romanovs, and covers the time from Nicholas' coronation to 1917,  just before everything fell apart, but there is a section in the middle that contains the correspondence between European heads of State from early in 1914, and Massie's analysis is spot on.

Our world is the legacy of the Great War, and we would do well to understand its lessons.

Talking Tuesday: Communities Vs. Networks

Every once in a while, I run across an article that just encapsulates a lot of what is running through my head on a particular topic. Today's Talking Tuesday excerpt comes from such an article, forwarded to me yesterday by my husband. I talk a lot about community, and the ways in which post modern society is disconnected, isolated, and lacking in grounded community, but it is difficult to be prescriptive on this subject.  I've thought a lot about the topic of community, and living with my feet rooted to the ground a lot, especially since reading Rod Dreher's excellent book, The Little Way of Ruthie Leming.  I think what I find difficult to work through is that we are not in a position to uproot ourselves and move nearer to either of our families.  So every couple of months we struggle through our choices all over again, wondering if we are making the right decision to stay in the city, to work within the fractured networks that make up urban living. So far we have always come up trumps on staying in the city and making the best of our situation now (and there are many reasons why our current situation works well for us at this stage).  But still.  I struggle with online life (as evidenced by my frequent hand-wringing on the subject), and the substitutionary community that it provides.  This article nails it:

"Oftentimes people lament that they want to be part of communities, but what they really mean is that they want to enjoy the benefits of communities without having to deal with any of their responsibilities and hassles. They want to get, but not give. Being part of a community means not only taking from the pot, but putting into it; if you’re not willing to help out fellow members when they’re in need, and deal with the annoyances inherent to any close-knit group, you’ll never move beyond existing in a network.

... 

In order to form a community, you need to live and interact with the same people for a long time — to go through a myriad of ups and downs together. People will never know your whole self if you trade them in for new friends every two years. Community requires being rooted in a single place for an extended period of time."

Brett and Kate Mckay, Communities Vs. Networks, The Art of Manliness Blog, 

Making it Work: Hello Birdie Dress Revisited

I think the theme of my sewing this summer has been to make my clothing work for me.  This spring my sewing was more about exploring new techniques, different patterns, just getting the rhythm of regular sewing.  But I ended up with several garments that just didn't work well for me.  The two New England dresses, and the Hello Birdie dress.  I fixed the New England dresses (and showed them here and here), but the Hello Birdie dress sat neglected.  

I did wear it once or twice to church, and I appreciated the nursing friendliness of the zip-front, but the set-in sleeves just made me feel frumpy, no matter what I did to try and make them more workable. 

 The basic problem is that the dress was too big, especially in the bust, and I don't really have the skills to take it in, and I didn't really want to try in the summer heat, but I'd made the dress for summer, so I was sort of stuck with a closet trophy.  

At first I thought I'd try to salvage the bottom into a stand-alone skirt, but quickly realized it would go with none of my tops, so I made a quick Portrait blouse out of some of the left over fabric (of which there is *quite* a bit).  

I've worn it several times since then, and I'm pretty happy with it now.  I had to take the skirt in quite a bit with some darts, and I kept the waist ties (for now; I might just lop them off and wear this with a belt, but the fabric ties make this wearable in extreme heat, which a belt would not). 

It's not a perfect fix, but it is wearable, and I like the print, and I'm much happier with the profile, so that's what counts, right?

Outfit details:

Hello birdie top: me made, Gertie Portrait blouse

Skirt: me made, hacked New York 927

Pin: Andrei Sakharov House Museum, Nizhni Novgorod (had it for ages)

Earrings: Black Hills gold hoops from the Route 80 Museum in Kearney, NE, a gift from the husband, years ago

 Shoes: Sofspots via ebay

Hair: derp (it is summer, what can I say?)

Talking Tuesday: A New Body Ethic

I ran across this short article recently on the commodification of fitness, and how, despite the multi-million dollar industry of fitness experts, a plethora exercise classes, online tools, etc. the Western world continues to struggle against obesity.  I'm also increasingly suspicious of any "trend" that begins to look like religion.  I think it is important to note that as Christianity loses its toehold in post modern society, and large portions of Western society no longer understand what it is to believe as a Christian or understand the history and tradition, more and more mundane things (food, exercise, etc.) are made over as religion, with temples of worship (the grocery store, the indie restaurant, or the gym), rituals of doing and being, and all the other things that accompany any serious practice of religion.  Human beings are naturally religious, being created with a God-size void and will seek to fill it any way possible.  

This article (written by a fitness industry insider) really gets to the heart of the issue, which is namely, commodification of all aspects of life, the choices we have to make on the daily, and how that affects us.  I would recommend reading the whole thing, I've excerpted the part that stood out most to me.  

"Every fitness modality mentioned above is targeted at individuals (or, at most, small groups). They seek to engage the attention and resources of individual people in an effort to sell a choice: buy this product, attend this course, subscribe to this service, read this book. The unspoken assumption (of the consumer) is that making that choice will lead to a lifestyle change that confers better health. As it turns out, that’s a pretty bad bet.

Joining a gym or hiring a trainer is not choosing a lifestyle; it’s acquiring a resource. It occupies the same area of your brain as buying a pair of shoes or a candy bar: “I desire [unspecified neurological reward], possessing this resource generates [unspecified neurological reward], therefore I am compelled to arrange an economic tradeoff to acquire this resource.” It’s a transaction that satisfies the need of the moment.

“Unspecified neurological reward” can be anything from the cessation of hunger or pain, to social gratification and personal pride. It isn’t a bad thing; life is made up of these little transactions. It’s the basis for what we eat and when we sleep; it’s central to our relationships, our hobbies and what we do for a living. You are constantly making choices like these, sometimes consciously, mostly not. Your environment presents you with alternatives, and you choose. In the end, that’s all a “lifestyle” really is: a mosaic made up of many choices within the context of the world you live in."

A New Body Ethic, Reembody Me Blog, July 4, 2014

Examining the Simple Life

It came to me recently that a simple life is the absence of decisions.  The post modern, Internet-fueled world is one that is characterized by constant, minute-to-minute decisions about everything from what to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and everything, if anything, in between) to how to raise our children and how to live.  The fracturing of culture into a million pieces of individual tastes mean that there is no longer a more or less universal Way of Doing; therefore, everything in life is up for grabs.  

While there are undeniable advantages to post modern life, there is a cost to all the "freedom" we enjoy.  One of those costs is the mental overload associated with constant evaluation and choice-making.  It is exhausting, all these decisions.  This is why resort-type vacations are so relaxing and restorative; most of the mundane daily decisions are made for you by the resort, relieving the mind of its daily burden.

The life of the monastery is one in which decision-making is largely removed from daily life.  The monastic still has free will, but has chosen to subvert that free will for the greater good of the community, but also for the greater good of his or her soul.  The rhythm of the monastery is one that is defined by the cycle of church services, the liturgical year, and individual daily activities and obediences are assigned by the abbot of the monastery according to ability and talent.  The fasting cycle is relatively easy to keep because everyone is keeping the fast according to his or her abilities, and there isn't much in the way of alternatives available. It isn't a rigid sort of life, but it is a disciplined sort of life.  

Discipline sometimes takes the form of deliberately making fewer choices.

I think one of the things that draws people to Wendell Barry-style agrarianism is that there is a simple rhythm to life in the country--animals must be fed and watered (and milked) on a fairly consistent schedule, crops planted and harvested according to the season, tasks done in good order according to the external rhythm of the farm, and all within the context of a rooted surrounding community.

It is difficult to impose that sort of order and rhythm on one's own life, as a singular person or family unit, especially in a Western urban setting, as I'm fast coming to realize.  In part this is because the city runs to a much more chaotic drumbeat, and there is much in daily life that works outside one's control.  Buses don't run on schedule (or run at all sometimes), city services are erratic, shops are open and closed at all times of the day, nothing runs according to natural order.  Mostly, though, it is because in order to remove decisions from every moment of every day, the order must be imposed externally, but some other source.  In a monastery, it is tradition and the abbot who impose order; on a farm, the natural cycle of sun and dark, the change of seasons, and the animals and crops impose the order.

So what is to be done?  I'm still pondering that.  I'm taking some time right now, examining the points of stress in our lives, and trying to figure out where a decision can be taken out of the equation.  Piglet is going to 1st grade in the fall, and the school requires uniforms, which makes my life much easier in the kid clothing department going forward.  The younger kids have a few more years before they will need them, but it helps me to know that at least one area where I make a lot of decisions about what to buy, how much to buy, and what they will wear will be simplified in time.  I'm trying to stick to a relatively small number of recipes that I rotate through for my meals, which is another area where I feel like I make a lot of minute-to-minute and day-to-day decisions.  The boys' lunches are basically down to two options, and the girls pretty much eat the same thing every day.  I don't mind eating the same thing for breakfasts and lunches either, so I'm tending to rotate between three options to make sure that I a) eat real food at both meals, and b) eat both meals in a timely manner.  The number of toys the kids have is fairly manageable, and I've severely restricted the amount of toys we keep in the living room where the kids primarily play, because Birdie is in a serious fill-and-spill stage of play, and the boys are terrible about cleaning up after themselves.  Less stuff=less stuff to clean up=fewer decisions about storage and where things need to go.  I think they are able to better play with what is there when there is less of it too.

I think it is also important to separate a simple aesthetic from a simple way of life.  The former is an interior design feature, the latter a conscious choice to reduce the amount of stress, chaos, and decisions in one's life.  It is true that less stuff generally means a simpler life, and often the aesthetic either flows from the choice, or precedes the choice.  It is also true, however, that some people have simple lives and have more than the bare minimum of stuff in their houses and lives.  So it can go both ways.  

Stuff has a way of being visually overwhelming, however, and tends to create decisions about storage, clean up, and so forth.  Even digital "stuff" can be overwhelming if there is too much of it.  I try to keep the desktop uncluttered, files stored according to type, and regularly get rid of things I don't need any more, but my husband isn't as great about keeping his own digital things cleaned up, so there's that.  At the same time, I do find myself evaluating our stuff constantly, and I think that process creates a bit of stress for me, so I'm trying to let it go, and do stuff-evaluation on a more quarterly or bi-annual basis, rather than all the time.  I also recognize that stuff-evaluation is a stress response in myself, so I'm also trying to find different ways to cope (that don't involve food).  We've made some modifications to our bedtime routines for the kids to not only streamline the process, but also to remove some of the chaos of family prayers and the number of transitions that have to happen in such a short amount of time.  It's not working perfectly, but it is better than before.  I'm trying to spend my afternoons reading or doing non-computer related tasks, so as to reduce the number of technology-related decisions in my day, and that also seems to help.

I'm sure this is a task that will continue, but as I'm trying to lay off the decision-making, and reduce my choices, I'm also trying to spend less time analyzing it, and more time just moving through my days.

Not Quick Takes

I know it is Friday, and I should be doing Quick Takes, but I just don't have anything much today.  So you get another sewing make.

Remember how I said my New England dresses weren't working well for me?  And that I made them both into skirts?  And then added a blouse to the red one to make a faux dress?  I intended the same for the blue one, but just got around to it two weeks ago.  (I actually did something similar to my Hello Birdie Dress, but haven't gotten around to photographing it, even though I've worn it)

I finished the blouse in about an hour, but I had ordered buttons from an etsy seller, and they took a long time to ship, so I didn't actually finish it until earlier this week, since I had buttonholes to work and buttons to sew on.

(By the by, lately I'm working buttonholes with DMC embroidery thread, and I like the results a lot better than silk buttonhole twist.  I know that is sort of scandalous to say, but there it is.  Plus DMC is a lot cheaper and easier to color match.  But I digress)  Now it is done, and I'm pretty pleased!  I was trying to color and style match the belt buckle, and I'm pretty pleased with how well they work together.

The buttons are gorgeous--I couldn't get a great photograph of them but you can get the idea anyway.  The are 1940s French buttons with a lovely weight to them and carved deco detailing on the top.  The buckle was one I picked up in a lot from an etsy seller several months back.  They both have a sort of triangular/diamond shape thing going on.

The original buckle I put with this dress just did nothing for it.  It was a great color match, but the butterscotch really dulled the pattern down, and the red really pops, which I like better.

I also fixed the facing on this version, so I think the pattern doesn't need any more tweaks unless I want to add the back darts back in (the original Portrait blouse pattern has a lot of shaping but needs a side zipper, and I left all but the bust darts off the pullover version.  I've added back in the front waist darts to the button down, and might add the back darts in on a future iteration, but I needed this to be not-hot for summer).

I paired the dress with an old Acorn and Will brooch--a nicely carved resin owl.  Some of the flowers in the dress are off-white, so it works nicely as an accent.

I like that I essentially get four outfits for the price of one with the faux dress, as the top goes with at least three different bottoms, and the bottom goes with a couple of different tops, and I can swap out the fabric belt for a few different ones that look nice.  Plus it seems to resist wrinkles pretty well for something that is 100% cotton.

Plus: mustard shoes.  Win.

I think I'm fast coming to the conclusion that I'm allergic to sunscreen.  Which is bad news given my complexion.  So that is why my cheeks and nose are a leetle bit pink.  Mostly I try to stay indoors during the summer anyway.

Coordinating pedicure!

Happy Friday!

If it ain't broke...

Surprise! Another Portrait blouse.  In red gingham.  *yawn* 

Sorrynotsorry. 

What can I say?  I sewed this up on Monday morning, and I can make a Portrait blouse from cut to final press in an hour.  Which pretty much makes it the perfect summer project because I can crank one out after breakfast while the temperature in my kitchen is still a mere 83 degrees.  Blech.

 

Why another red gingham blouse, you ask?  I'm glad you did.  The original one was made with a scant one yard piece from my grandma's stash, and while I really liked the slightly orange-y red of the gingham, I really made the top as a test garment since it was my first traced off pattern;  the blouse ended up with some issues that I've since fixed with the pattern.  I really liked the gingham, though, and have been wearing it a lot, even though it didn't really look right. 

The first iteration had a too-narrow neckline, so it was a bit tight to get on and off over my head.  I hadn't quite gotten the facing right either, so it wants to flip up despite top stitching. I also had to fabric piece the bottom section and didn't think to match the stripes at all, so it looked a little odd, even when tucked in.  I also zig-zagged the sleeve edges for a decorative top stitch and didn't really like how that looked (I wouldn't have remade the blouse simply over that, but it was one of those things that made me not like it as much).  I also prefer this blouse to be 1" longer, so I fixed all those things on this version.

This version came out perfectly.  The topstitching around the neckline is pretty good, the color is a bit more cranberry, which I think suits my coloring better, and I discovered a better way to finish kimono sleeves that made putting this blouse together a snap.  It is light and breezy like the first one, and the fabric was under $4/yard at fabric.com, so bonus for an inexpensive summer blouse!  I kind of want to make a green and blue version now. 

I'm really into making faux dresses this summer, and the idea of a gingham faux dress is pretty appealing, but I think I'll put that off to next summer, as I really do have enough clothing for this season now (barring disaster), and it really is too hot to do serious sewing.  I took these pictures yesterday midday when it was just disgustingly hot.  I know my skirt is too long, but I sort of don't care.  It is linen, fits well without being binding, and I kind of like the longer length for these torpid days.

Outfit details:

Gingham blouse: Portrait blouse pattern by Gertie, me-made July 2014

Light blue linen skirt: Cherokee via ebay

Blue canvas shoes: Crocs via ebay

John Horse brooch: Acorn and Will (mother's day giftie from the husband)

Vintage 1980s sunglasses: via ebay

Lessons From Me-Made May (in July)

Oops, wait, did I not say I was doing that?  (For those who don't know, Me Made May (MMM) is a little challenge to wear something you made every day during the month of May.  No panic sewing allowed!) Actually, I didn't make an official announcement about doing Me-Made May because I knew I'd never get all the photos taken, but I did participate, honest!  I flaked out on the Sunday after Mother's Day because my shoulder hurt so bad and I just wanted to wear something knit and loose, but otherwise, I wore at least one garment I made myself every day of May.  I actually didn't find it too hard--all my sewing this spring has pretty well filled my transition wardrobe gaps, and I'm pretty happy with everything I've made so far.  Nevertheless, wearing me-made garments every day is also a useful way to see what sorts of things I reach for again and again, and to be honest with myself about which garments I sort of ignore and shove to the back of the closet for one reason or another.

I read Sarai's MMM round up post, and thought I should do one too, because I'm still learning things about my body, and how to dress it and feel good in my clothes, and since it seems like at least some of my readers find these posts helpful, I'll give my own round up.  My main takeaway from Me Made May is that I'm never going to have a 100% self-sewn wardrobe.  I have several RTW garments that I love, and there are certain garments I have no interest in learning how to sew (undergarments, foundation garments, etc), and right now, I have a low frustration threshold with sewing, so my patterns have to be easy and basic, which is naturally limiting.

1. I like dresses but tend to reach for separates.

2. My summer wardrobe is a whole separate beast.

3. My ideal skirt length is 26"; 27 is heading into frumpsville territory, and 25 is just a wee bit too short for my comfort level.

4. My ideal shirt length is 1" longer than Gertie's Portrait blouse pattern (I've since added an inch to the pattern the last few times I've made it and like it much better)  I also don't care for collared shirts or blouses, generally speaking.

5. High necklines don't do me any favors.  I need my collarbones to show at least a little or my face and neck end up looking cut off and wide.

6.  Similarly, blousy tops make me look heavier than I am because I am so pear shaped.  Peasant blouses just don't look as good as a fitted top on my figure.

7.  Gathered skirts, while super easy to construct, are not my friend.  Box pleats, darts or small gathers at the dart area, on the other hand, are quite flattering.

8.  I've given up on trying to make the Simplicity 1590 work for me.  I don't really like the way it fits, and every time I make it, something else goes wrong, so I'm sticking to novelty print Portrait blouses for now.  And since my redraft to make a button-down version is working fine, I'm happy with that.  Similarly, I'm really only working with a handful of patterns, and that is fine with me at this stage of my sewing. (I guess that makes me a printy-utilitarianist).

9.  I don't have a skirt pattern that works well for me without a lot of fiddling every time.  The New England skirt works okay, and I'm mostly happy with the fit, but the pattern still could stand some fiddling with the back piece.  I'd really like to find a skirt pattern that I can make easily, that fits right every time, and I don't have to spend endless time fiddling with in the beginning.  I have that in the Portrait blouse pattern, but need a skirt version. I'm going to give the Miette a try in the fall, and possibly the Hollyburn (my birthday is coming up, so who knows what lovelies will come my way?) and see if they fit me better.

10.  I need to find a dress pattern that I really love.  I have a couple of 1940s original patterns that are good candidates to be my go-to dress pattern, but I'm curious to try the Emery, given Tasha's success with it.

Talking Tuesday: Louis Markos and Dante

Rod Dreher has really been killing it lately, and I'm probably going to be featuring a bunch of posts from him in my next Odds and Ends, but the introduction to his post on Dante yesterday really resonated with me.  I started out as a medievalist, and I think, in our ahistorical modern mindset, that it is easy to forget how people viewed the world for many generations prior to the Industrial Revolution and the skepticism that accompanied the Enlightenment.  Personally, I think something very important has been lost, and I'd be interested in a discussion on how to reclaim it.

"Dante, along with his fellow medievals, lived in a sympathetic universe that was fraught with meaning and purpose. The stars were not dead and cold, cut off from the lives of men; their positions and movements rained down influence on the Earth, even as great upheavals in the earthly realm were reflected and broadcast in the heavenly. The medievals, like the ancients before them, referred to the universe by the Greek word kosmos — a word whose root meaning is “ornament” (as in our modern word, cosmetics). The cosmos was considered by ancients and medievals alike to be ordered and harmonious, because it was created by a God of order and harmony. It was, in fact, God’s ornament. Both humanity and nature were part of God’s cosmic order and harmony, and thus it was only natural that the two should exist in sympathy with one another. Dante’s universe did not simply exist; it meant, and it meant intensely. The universe was less a thing to be studied than a poem to be loved and enjoyed."

~Louis Markos, Heaven and Hell: Visions of the Afterlife in the Western Poetic Tradition. New York: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2013, quoted in Dreher.

Weekend Festivities + WIWS

A short recap of the holiday weekend:

We spent July 4th hanging around the house in the morning, as it was raining, but by afternoon the rain had stopped and the sun was shining, so we walked down to the Jam on the Parkway and had a look-see.  It was kind of nuts, and super crowded, so I'm glad we took the girls in the double stroller.  It was hard to enough to keep track of the boys on their scooters. 

 

So hard to navigate with all the people!

Lots of food trucks, and several places were giving out free food, like Wawa and Morningstar Farms.

At first, I was sort of surprised my husband wore green for the day, but in the end, I was grateful, as it was easier to spot him in the crowd!

Some pretty flowers we saw on the way there.

And, what I wore!  This is a favorite dress of mine, and I've been eager to be nursing less to be able to wear it.  It is actually a maternity dress from Old Navy, but from several pregnancies ago.  It has weathered well.  I love the color (so versatile!), shape, the sleeves, and the knit comfort.  And the length is actually good.

Plus, my new go-to hair-do for summer: Heidi braids.  (and you can really see all my gray hairs here!)  I can put the braids in when my hair is wet and sleep on them for several days and they still look fine.  A summer win. 

  This is one of those hairstyles that makes me grateful for my cowlicks and front wave because they work in my favor on this one.  I've since experimented with starting the braids higher up on my crown and I like that even better.

On Saturday, we  met up with some neighborhood friends and spent the morning at one of the nicer splash grounds in the city.

Birdie was so tired at supper last night, she was yawning and rubbing her eyes, and I said, 

"Are you tired? Do you want to go to bed right now?"  

Still rubbing her eyes, she muttered, "I'm not tired.  I'm jus' getting a bug out of my eye."

Okay then.

I've been looking for some super casual vintage-type bottoms to wear to a family reunion later this month, and while I've not worn shorts for probably 10 years (or more!), I found these chambray high-waisted shorts on ebay recently, and I think they will do nicely! 

 I'm aware I'm in dangerous "mom shorts" territory, given my hip width, but I don't really care.  I was comfortable and felt good about my clothes that day. 

  

And finally, what I wore Sunday: a 1930s style crepe dress from Dress Barn (circa 1990s, I think), a vintage 1930s linen hat, Heidi braids (under the hat), Sofspots shoes, and some random accessories.

I'm not a great one for hats.  My head is very big, and I have a hard time finding hats that fit properly and don't feel costume-y.  I got this 1930s linen hat for my birthday last year, but didn't really get a chance to wear it much during the summer, and it isn't really a winter hat.  I also had a hard time figuring out how to secure the hat to my head without giving me a headache, but I think I cracked it today!

I wore this dress to Ponchik's baptism last summer, which was almost exactly a year ago today, and it definitely fits better this year, so I'm happy about that!   It is also cooler right now than this time last year, when it was disgustingly hot and muggy.  We had that through Thursday afternoon and then the rains came, and by Friday, it was positively pleasant.  It is a bit warmer today, but not disgustingly so.

I think perhaps the hat could stand to be shaped a bit, as it does take a bit of doing to get the pins in, but I wore the hat all morning and didn't notice the pins at all, so that is good.

I'm off to make dinner as the natives are definitely restless.

July 4 outfit deets:

Dress: Old Navy Maternity (old)

Necklace: Sarah Coventry, found at an antique mall

Earrings: Target (old)

Belt: Target (old)

Shoes (not pictured): Lace up danksos

July 5 outfit deets:

Feedsack blouse: me-made from a modified Simplicity 1590

Chambray shorts: Gap 1969 via ebay

Belt: beltparadise

Shoes: dansko via ebay

WIWS Outfit deets:

Dress Barn dress, via ThredUp last summer (still had the tags on!)

Necklace: $1 at an antique mall

Yellow floral enamel earrings: Target (two years ago)

Shoes: Sofspots via Ebay

Hat: birthday gift (but it was from an etsy seller)

Go see the other ladies at Fine Linen and Purple!