Spring for Cotton--2015

Rochelle over at Lucky Lucille announced the Spring for Cotton sewing challenge last week, and I'm pleased to join in the fun!  I don't think I'll be quite as prolific as last year's Sew for Victory challenge, but Spring for Cotton is meant to be a one-garment deal anyway.  I spent some time over the weekend cutting out fabric, and have nearly all my planned garments for the spring and early summer cut out now. (I just have to cut out one more dress, but it is a new pattern, and I admit I'm a little intimidated...a problem for another day)  As almost everything I'm sewing this spring is cotton, it was easy to pick one for the challenge.

I'm using Penny Rose Hope Garden in Red fabric for Spring for Cotton and a vintage button/buckle card I've had for a while that just happens to coordinate perfectly. (The green in the fabric is actually much darker/richer than pictured--it is a nice dark kelly green color)

I've got yarn to make a coordinating cardigan (although I might not get that done this spring) and I really love the fabric.  I used Penny Rose fabric for the Green Geometry dress, and I'm quite pleased with how it wears throughout the day, so I'm confident that this red floral dress will work just as well.

I'm using my Frankenpattern with a couple of mods to keep things interesting, but I'll just wait to give all the details until I'm ready for the reveal.  I'm currently fighting a nasty chest infection (thanks to the kids) so I'm probably not going to get stitching until next week at the earliest, but at least I have everything cut out and my supplies are gathered together.

For today, however, it's back to my couch to convalesce.

Five Favorites: Communist Bloc Edition

Been a while since I did one of these lists, but I was listening to some music in the car, which reminded me of a movie I love, and well,...things sort of rolled from there.  So without further ado, I present five favorites of the Slavic/Communist Bloc variety.

~1~

The CD I was listening to in the car was La Vent Du Nord's Dans Les Airs.  They are actually a French-Canadian folk group, but it suddenly occurred to me that several tracks remind me of the soundtrack to one of my favorite Russian films (see #2).  I've really enjoyed this album in the past few months.  I took a break for Lent, but I sometimes need a break from Lenten music in the middle of the season.

~2~

One of my favorite Russian movies is Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears.  It is from the early 1980s, and it follows a group of friends for about 20 years, starting in the mid-1960s.  I find so many things about the storylines compelling, and I realize that it is a fairly sunny view of life in the Soviet Union, but I've also seen some of that life lived out, so there is some truth there as well.  I think some of what I like about the film is that everything seems so familiar somehow.

~3~

I can't really mention Russian films and not talk about Ostrov (The Island).  I was fortunate to be in Russia on a month-long language study when it was in theaters there, and was able to see it twice in Russian.  I missed some of the details, owing to my own less than stellar language skills, but I really loved the film.  I was grateful to watch it again with English subtitles about a year later when it came to the States.  

~4~

I have to mention another favorite film that I've written about on the blog before, long ago: Zelary.  It is in Czech (with a little German thrown in here and there) and it is just so wonderful on so many levels.  It technically takes place before the Communists took over, but I still think it belong in this list, and since its my list, I can do what I want to.  (nana-nana-boo-boo).  I think the best part for me is the picture of old-world village life--the simplicity and complexity of human relationships in a small intimate setting.  I like that it doesn't romanticize the people who live in small villages, but yet the richness of human connection is very present.  Plus it is a cracking good story.

~5~

And finally, Slavenka Draculic's How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed.  She is writing from Yugoslavia/Croatia in the 1980s, and she captures so much of what I find fascinating about Soviet life.  It is light and readable, with many personal touches and lots of dark humor, which I enjoy.

~Bonus~

I have a handful of German films from the Communist period (or about it) that I really love:

Goodbye, Lenin!, Barbara, The Lives of Others, and The Promise.

***

There are obviously many other books and films about Russia, the Soviet Union, and the former Communist bloc countries that I would recommend, but this is my short list.

Linking with Jenna for Five Favorites!  

Tokyo Train Ride

Cotton + Steel has ruined me for other fabrics, honestly.  It is a good thing that a lot of their colorways don't suit my complexion or I'd really be in trouble!  I've had my eye on this fabric since the collection preview was posted in the fall.  It didn't actually come out until January, and I admit I preordered mine, I was so eager to get it. But then it sat, as my weight fluctuated wildly and my sewing mojo fled.  I'm glad I waited, because the changes I made to the Green Geometry dress were ones I was able to carry forward to this dress, and it is fantastic.

My Frankenpattern mods:  I kept the larger sleeve openings (same 1 1/2" addition to each bodice piece), and I used the Hollyburn pocket piece to modify the front of my normal skirt pieces so I could get this out of 3 yards.  My mistake was cutting the skirt sections first, as I didn't quite have enough to cut the back bodice without piecing.  (I could have cheated the skirt length an inch or so and made it, fabric-wise--I know for next time to start with the bodice!!  Also, I didn't account for the directional print--3 1/2 yards would have been just right for this fabric; a non-directional print would have been fine with 3)  I cut the front skirt piece on the fold so that I didn't break up the print with a seam down the middle (and it drapes a little better when cut on the fold, so I think I'll continue to do this).   I cut a little more ease into the top of the skirt pattern pieces to mimic the fit of the Hollyburn.  

I ran out of fabric to make a belt or sash, so I found a fat quarter on etsy for a few dollars and pieced together this buttoned sash.  I had intended to wear this with a leather belt, but it didn't quite look right, for some reason.  The sash is actually closed with a jumbo snap, as I didn't fancy trying to figure out how to handwork the buttonholes through four layers of fabric and interfacing.

I agonized over the buttons--I even had our babysitter weigh in!--and decided go with a two-toned pink set that I had in my stash.  They came in a bag of pink buttons, and I despaired of having a project for them, given they are a) pink, b) two-toned, and c) only three.  But this was perfect--they matched both the pink trees and the orange accents, plus coordinated well with my sweater.  A total win.  The stitching on the sash is a little less than perfect, and I may end up redoing it at some point, but the dark background keeps the mistakes from showing too badly.

I also figured out how to miter a corner with bias binding, thanks to an old tutorial I found on the Wearing History blog.  I've seen lots of ways to do it, but Lauren's method made the most sense to me for the way I use bias binding.  Expect to see more square or sweetheart necklines from now on!

I also have a moss-green winter weight wool sweater that matches well, but the weather is so nice right now, that even my cotton sweater was almost too much!   

The fabric is so soft and lovely--I can't recommend it enough.  I may or may not *cough cough* have ordered dress lengths of two more pattern ways.

Details:

Toyko Train Ride Dress: Frankenpattern (heavily modified Emery bodice, McCall's 4275 skirt, modified for Hollyburn self-faced pockets), Tokyo Train Ride fabric from Cotton + Steel, Streamline vintage two-tone pink buttons (etsy), vintage Wrights bias binding

Style & Co. cardigan: via ThredUp

Shamrock pin: etsy

Earrings: etsy

Boots: modcloth

Sunglasses: ebay (retronettie)

Green Geometry Dress Update and Yarn Along

After photographing my Green Geometry dress earlier this week, I realized that the buttons looked a little strange, just hanging out there in a line with nothing to set them off.  I wrote that dresses of the era would have set off the buttons with a placket (real or faux) but that I didn't have it in me to draft one.  

It suddenly occurred to me that I could get the same effect with trim, and I remembered I had some red middy braid in my stash that would work well.  I pulled it out, pinned it on, sewed it down, and Bob's your uncle!  I really love it now--it finishes the dress quite nicely.  Unfortunately, winter has decided to make a reappearance, so I had to put my woolies back on after photographing the dress!

And in knitting: progress on the 1918 pullover--I'm about 2/3rds up the back now, and I've gotten a few stripes back into the striped beret.

I finished Anne Hollander's excellent book, and it has really revolutionized my thinking about the intersection of imagery and clothing norms.  Basically, her book points how the ways in which what we see influences what we consider normal, not only in clothing, but in many other areas as well.  Her observations about the ways that nudes have been portrayed--how the basic shape of the figure reflects not only the clothing norms of the day, but the ideas about what is desirable in the human form--have given me much to think about, particularly in the language we use to talk about bodies and clothing.

I'm still pottering through The Making of Home by Judith Flanders, and continue to be fascinated.  I feel like she is doing for domestic matters what Hollander does with clothing.  My main takeaway thus far has been that the rise of technology in the home, starting from the late 1700s, has not only removed a lot of human economy from the day-to-day life of women, but has introduced an element of shame that women feel when they cannot "do it all" domestically.  (This book goes well with Ruth Schwartz Cohen's More Work For Mother, although Flanders' book has a much longer timeline, and traces many more mundane technologies than does Schwartz Cohen)  The truth is that, historically, the home was run by a lot of people, and the man was a particular contributor to the smooth running of a home.  Technologic advances not only removed the male contribution to the home, but placed an inordinate burden on the woman of the house to do it all alone.  Where once women commonly sent out the washing, or the mending, and traded tasks with those who needed the income and the work, now machines made all domestic tasks the responsibility of the woman of the home.  Women's work, previously a valued contribution to the smooth running of society, became economically unvalued because it was unpaid, and therefore invisible in the eyes of the larger culture.  So even though women do an enormous amount of work every day, keeping the house going, and often carrying on a job outside of the home (another historic norm), the domestic work is completely unvalued.

It is much more complicated than this quick summary, and these things take a long period of time to develop into the stereotypical isolated suburban housewife of the 1950s, but I find it interesting that many of the common complaints of our post-modern era are present in the changes wrought by the early Industrial Revolution, and also that stuff begets work.  More furniture begets more cleaning, more clothing begets more washing, better heating and cooking technology begets more and complicated meal preparations (and subsequent washing up, as dishes must be washed as well).  In short, better technology, lower cost consumer goods leads to more decisions, which in turn leads away from a simple life.  I don't think that we should all empty our homes and closets in order to lead simple lives, but I do think that fewer things means fewer decisions, which naturally leads to a simplicity of life.  I'm just not sure where that balance lies.

I'm hoping to get into this short history of the Cold War after I whittle down my reading stack a little--I read a review of it a week or so ago and it sounds excellent.  I'm intrigued to see how the authors manage to cover the entirety of the Cold War in 100 pages with any depth; according the review, they do, and this book should be considered a wonderful primer on the era.  As a Soviet Cold War historian, I'm always looking for good books like this.  (Although, be forewarned: shipping is more than the book cost!)

Linking with Ginny for Yarn Along!

Talking Tuesday: Bearing Our Crosses

I'll post this without much commentary, as I think Fr. Matthew's sermon speaks well enough for itself, but what I do want to say is that like Fr. Andrew Damick, Fr. Matthew's death has caused me to think more deeply about the sort of person I am, to become more aware of my limitations and pain, my weaknesses, to try better to understand the limitations of those around me, to really consider what it is to show love to others as Christ loves me.  It is not a task for the faint-hearted.

"Now all of us here today have weaknesses, profound limitations, of which we may or may not be aware. All of us have encountered crosses in life, some of them very painful; crosses which perhaps we did not choose – crosses which we are probably still learning how to bear with thanksgiving. And further, each of us here – every baptized man, woman and child – has been called by God. He has called us to be sharers in Christ’s “royal priesthood” (1 Pet. 2:9): to make the whole of our lives – our work, our rest and play, and all of our relationships – a living sacrifice to God (Rom. l12:1).

This is a high calling, an arduous task. Yet I suggest we can make a start today by beginning, not with our strengths, but with our weaknesses. If we can look realistically at our own deep limitations – the ways which we so often fail in bearing our own crosses – then perhaps we can begin to approach others with that gentleness which – as one of the Desert Fathers said – comes of remembering that “each and every person we meet is engaged in a deep and bitter struggle.” Then we can begin to see the wounds which we have received in life for what they truly are: a way in which the Lord is preparing us to bring healing to others. We can begin to exercise the priestly virtue of compassion.As in the Holy Eucharist itself, our very brokenness can become the opening through which life may be shared with others. Then our crosses truly become the Holy Cross. By coming to terms with our own weakness, by showing gentleness towards the weaknesses of others, we can begin to make our whole life a sacrifice: a priestly offering to God, through Jesus Christ our great High Priest."

~Fr. Matthew Baker, Sermon for the Sunday of the Cross, delivered at St. Tikhon's Seminary, 2007 or 2008

May God have mercy on us all in our weakness, in our limitations, in our burdens and pain.  May He lift us up, carry us in our weakness, show us how to love, how to sacrifice ourselves again and again without resentment, how to bring healing to ourselves and those around us.

HSM #3: Stashbusting (No. 2) Green Geometry Dress

Update 3/18/15: I've added trim to the bodice to frame the buttons and sleeves since posting these pictures, and the effect is much better!  You can see the photographs here.

I finished this dress at the beginning of Lent, but haven't had a chance to wear or photograph it before today because it has been too cold.  It is really a bit borderline to wear it today even, but I wanted to wear something cheerful.  I'm also putting this one into the Stashbusting Challenge for the Historical Sew Monthly.  I've got plenty of examples of this style of dress from the mid-1930s to the early 1940s, even though my pattern isn't vintage.  (Although, it must be said, at a certain point, for basic shaped garments, everything new is old and vice versa)

I'm quite pleased with this one--I made a few changes to my standard Frankenpattern, and I like the different options I'm getting.  

My main change was to redraft the sleeves to have a larger sleeve opening--I've always felt that the sleeves on my other versions could stand a bit more ease.  I added 1 1/2" to each side of the pattern and that was just about right.

I also straightened the bottom of the back bodice pieces just slightly (maybe 1/2") to give a bit more ease in the back.  (Which now looks like a lot of excess fabric, but believe me when I say that that little extra is nice right now)

I also used the Hollyburn skirt pattern for the bottom, since I had 4 yards to make this dress.  I might have to revise my poor opinion of the Hollyburn now--I really like it as the bottom of a dress.  I still don't like how fabric hungry it is, and I don't love that I have to cut each piece out individually, which means I have to pay extra close attention so I don't make cutting errors.  But as a dress bottom, pretty nice!  And skirts of the late 1930s have quite a bit of fullness to them--a surprising amount, given how much that changed during the war years.  I still like the all-in-one pocket/facing piece, and I've figure out a way to modify my other skirt bottom to accommodate it.

I also made a sash instead of a belt, because my main goal with this dress was to have something slightly less fitted for days when my middle is bloated.  I realized after I made the sash that I can slide a belt buckle on it for a temporary belt look if I want some variety, so that is good.

This fabric is so fabulous--the geometric pattern reminds me of Art Deco era fabrics.  It has a nice hand and drape too--I got it from Hawthorne Threads in the fall and I will definitely buy this designer again!  This particular pattern comes in a bunch of different colorways--I was very tempted by the red, but the green seemed more versatile.

I found the yellow cardigan on ebay a while back and it is a very lovely spring piece.  Yellow isn't really a great color for me to wear near my face, but I think the green off-sets it enough here. 

Details:

Green Geometry dress: me-made, March 2015

Vintage 1940s buttons: etsy seller

Yellow cardigan: Notations brand, via ebay (size large--it is a tad big on me)

 Earrings: inherited from my gram

Boots: modcloth

Brooch: Acorn and Will

The Challenge: Stashbusting

What is it: Mid-1930s era housedress

Fabric: Penny Rose Hope Squares in Green from the Hope Chest fabric line

Pattern: Heavily modified Emery bodice plus Hollyburn skirt

Year: 1937/8

Notions: vintage buttons, seam binding, detachable vintage buckle, vintage zipper.  I reused the seam binding from the original iteration of my Hooverette, and everything came from my stash.

How historically accurate is it? 7/10.  I've got a whole book full of examples of 1930s/1940s house dresses like this.  My caveat is that I don't have an example that has all the elements of my dress in one place.  The back zip is wrong--dresses of the period would have zipped on the side or wrapped like a Hooverette, but I prefer a back zip.  My vintage zip is also plastic instead of metal.  The slash pockets are appropriate, although patch pockets were more common.  Kimono sleeves were very popular throughout the 1930s and 1940s for house dresses and other casual tops; the fabric pattern is in keeping with other designs of the time.  The fabric weight is perhaps a bit off--it is a lighter-weight quilting cotton with a nice hand and decent drape, but I suspect that an actual dress from the era would have been made from percale or sanforized cotton.  Dresses of the period also used non-functional buttons, but often had a placket or some other design detail to set off the buttons.  I didn't quite have it in me to attempt something like that from scratch.

Hours to complete:  About 5.  I can usually make these sorts of dresses in a couple of hours, but the cutting took a bit longer because of the skirt section, plus the sleeve redraft.  On the other hand, the sash was faster to complete than a belt because I only had to hand sew a small section in the middle. 

First worn:  March 16, 2015

Total cost: $40 ($35 for the fabric, and probably $5 in notions when I bought them)

Yarn Along: Neckwear

I finished two neckwear pieces last week during the big ice/snow storms and even had a chance to wear both before the big thaw over the weekend.

The snow fall meant a lot of heavy shoveling (the snow was very wet and we got about 7" in 12 hours time), but it was so pretty the next morning.

Unfortunately, the hard freeze meant that both of our cars were stuck in the ice from Wednesday morning to Sunday evening.  We finally chiseled out enough ice to get free for school drop off on Monday morning, thank God!  We are blessed to be able to get the kids to and from school on the bus, but it is a royal pain to do so.

Anyway.  My knitwear!  I made another Claire Capelet, this time in wool.  I really love my cotton one, and wear it a lot, but I wanted a warmer one with a slightly longer collar.  I used some Ella Rae superwash bulky yarn that was the perfect color and knitted it up one afternoon.

I also did a double crochet tie, which I like the look of much better than my original version.

This one is slightly more pink than the cotton one, but it is very warm!

I also finished the remake of the Soft Shoulder Cowl that I made last fall and frogged after discovering several mistakes and fit issues.  I corrected the fit with some notes from another raveler who'd made the shoulders wider and made sure to count my stitches carefully and place stitch markers appropriately.

Steam blocking the edge helped it lay flat (although the front does want to flip up a bit) and making the neck 5" long instead of 9" looks much better and less bulky.  I'm pretty pleased with it.  It looks odd when not on, but quite nice as an accessory.

I find that scarves that loop around the neck a bunch of times tend to overwhelm my upper body, as my neck and torso are quite short, and these sorts of neck warmers are just right.

The purple is very pretty--a deep reddish purple.  I used a twisted rib stitch on the outer edge instead of the stitch called for, as it was easier and produced nearly the same result.

In reading, I'm making progress with Gold Rush by Charlotte Gray and enjoying it very much--her narrative style is very engaging.  There are quite a few differences from the Klondike mini-series, but I'm okay with it.

I've also gotten a bit more into The Making of Home by Judith Flanders and I'm just fascinated.  She discusses the differences in the development of the family structure between what she calls "house" countries and "home" countries--that is, countries that linguistically differentiate between house and home.  Southern Catholic Europe, for the most part, are "house" countries, and northern Protestant Europe are mostly "home" countries.  In home countries, a late marriage model was norm, as was the setting up of nuclear family households, with the wife being a major economic contributor to the household and family after marriage.  Home country families also tended to have fewer children by virtue of marrying later.  House countries tended to have high rates of illegitmacy (although Flanders admits that she doesn't fully understand the reasons for this; she just notes the statistics), a rather extreme gender imbalance (boys far outnumber girls)  

She also spends an early chapter discussing domestic life in Renaissance art and notes that like our modern era, there is much that is "invisible" in paintings but, according to household inventories, were definitely common parts of a home.  She cites the spittoon as an example not only of a household item that is frequently omitted from domestic paintings, but also as an example of human behavior at the time.  She notes that our modern photographic spreads of even "ordinary" households omit things like toothbrushes and dishrags, but are clearly present and used.

I think what I find helpful about that part of the discussion is to realize that images have always been manipulated to present an idealized view of the home, and, in order to maintain some equilibrium about the disconnect between idealized imagery and reality, I need to be more choosey about the imagery I consume.

I'm very curious to see what else she has to say about it all.  

Linking with Ginny for Yarn Along.

Talking Tuesday: Silence in the Commons

Matthew B. Crawford writes in the New York Times that our experience of silence in the commons (or common public spaces) is under siege.  He observes that nearly every moment and surface is filled with advertisements, capturing the attention of the captive audience, drowning out silence, cluttering minds, creating visual chaos and confusion.  All these ads require our attention, even if only for a moment, and require a certain amount of brain space even if only to process and disregard.  The cost of all that visual and auditory chaos is palpable, and now we find ourselves in the unique position of having to pay for silence.

"Settled in at my departure gate with an hour to kill, I shift in my seat and try to avert my gaze from the chattering of CNN, but find that the fields of view that haven’t been claimed for commerce are getting fewer and narrower. Of course, you can seal yourself off by putting on noise-canceling headphones, staring at a smartphone or opening a novel. But what is lost is the public space that is required for sociability, the kind that depends on people not being self-enclosed.

An airport lounge once felt rich with possibilities for spontaneous encounters. Even if we did not converse, our attention was free to alight upon one another and linger, or not. We encountered another person, even if in silence. Such encounters are always ambiguous, and their need for interpretation gives rise to a train of imaginings, often erotic. This is what makes cities exciting.

***

"Silence is now offered as a luxury good. In the business-class lounge at Charles de Gaulle Airport, I heard only the occasional tinkling of a spoon against china. I saw no advertisements on the walls. This silence, more than any other feature, is what makes it feel genuinely luxurious. When you step inside and the automatic doors whoosh shut behind you, the difference is nearly tactile, like slipping out of haircloth into satin. Your brow unfurrows, your neck muscles relax; after 20 minutes you no longer feel exhausted.

Outside, in the peon section, is the usual airport cacophony. Because we have allowed our attention to be monetized, if you want yours back you’re going to have to pay for it.

As the attentional commons is appropriated, one solution, for those who have the means, is to leave it behind for private clubs like the business-class lounge. Considering that it is those in the business lounge who make the decisions that determine the character of the peon section, we may start to see these things in a political light."

~Matthew B. Crawford, The Cost of Paying Attention, New York Times Sunday Review, March 7, 2015

Lately, I find myself pushing back against the noise of the modern world.  Almost every store and coffee shop has pop music piped in (some at more annoying volumes than others), every cab and airport has a constant chatter of television screens.  Even road signs are now more like televisions than billboards, with blinking lights, digital ads that change every few seconds, and are larger and brighter than anything on the road in front of you.  I begin to think that we live in 1984.   Orwell and Bradbury seem scarily prescient.  

When I lived in Moscow, I used to wear headphones on the buses and trolleys a lot, but these past few years, I almost never wear headphones.  I'm trying to be intentional about when I put the stereo on at home, so that it doesn't become just one more mindless soundtrack to our lives, but is rather an enhancement to the environment.  The children make a lot of noise, just being children, that I find my tolerance for optional noise to be much lower than it was previously.

  

I'm also reevaluating how much news I consume.  I used to be an eager consumer of news, and prided myself on keeping current with events both domestic and international.  I still read The Week, but I'm less interested than I once was and, where I used to read every single story, cover to cover, now I skip around a lot.  Being so immersed in the news, particularly in our Internet Outrage era, brings a lot of mental noise, I find.  I still think it is important to be at least a bit informed about what is going on in the world, but so much of what passes for news these days is half-baked, half-informed reporting, scare-mongering, and political posturing.  I find it all so wearing.  

I'm not sure exactly how to strike a balance.  I don't read a daily newspaper, but I do read The Week most weeks, and skim The Economist occasionally, plus a few articles in a few philosophical magazines.  I try not to read listsicles any more.  My feedly is mostly full of sewing and vintage bloggers, which helps, but I find I have to be choosy about what I read from the few non-sewing/vintage bloggers.  I've mostly been off Facebook for the Fast, which has been lovely for the noise in my head and has made me reconsider how I use Facebook going forward.  I've been checking in with Presv. Katie Baker this past week, obviously, and with a few private groups every couple of days, but that has been it.  I may stop using the newsfeed all together as I think the schizophrenic nature of it is hard for my mind to handle in a peaceful way.

Unless we are leaving the world entirely for the monastic life, I think we must remain at least somewhat engaged with the world and with the larger culture, but I also think we must be careful and intentional about our level of engagement.  The world is run by the ad-makers, and if we are to have peace, spiritual dialogue, and growth, we must reclaim silence in the commons and in our minds.

(all images via Google Images)