Sewing and beyond in the blogosphere

"Society is complex, yet it is simple. It binds together people of diverse tastes, beliefs, and habits of thought, but it comples no one to affiliate with his neighbor beyond the extent of practicing toward him the polite formalities which are the social currency of enlightened people. Whoever does more than this is valued accordingly; and by the subtle workings of sympathetic affinities; those whose mutual aims and ambitions are nearest alike form circles within which their special enjoyments or pursuits are followed."

--Good Manners (Butterick Publishing Company, 1888)

I was taking a little trip around the blogosphere, wondering what other passions people were blogging about. I know sewists can be fanatics, but most of us aren't really writing specifically about sewing, so much as about life, really.

Well, no matter what the topic, I found some amazing similarities between bloggers with a "human" quality. Sites focusing on other creative topics eventually touch on crafts, or knitting, or sewing, and eventually... pets. No matter who the author, it seems all readers are eventually forced to look at 10,000 pictures of your cat/dog/precious rodent/whatever. I laugh every time I come across another "kitty" entry. Check for yourself! The universality of it is hilarious! Sorry, I'm not a pet owner, so I don't understand.

There is also the obligatory "what I ate for breakfast/lunch/dinner" entry when people feel compelled to write, but have nothing to say. But here's the amazing part... I read them. With interest. I read about stay-at-home moms with the summertime "blues", frustrated artists, witty, snarky, and beautiful comments about everything... and it all started to blend into one voice. This blogging trend is bigger than just tiny slices of ordinary lives. It is amazingly democratic, real, fascinating, and nothing is too small or mundane.


Today's item for the daily purge...



This book was never opened by my mother-in-law, and, after sitting on her shelf for a decade or so, it was never used by me. For some crazy reason, I decided that it was something I should keep. Guess what, guys? 1982 was a long time ago. Time to let go! It can be yours for the price of postage - just let me know.

Drowning in stuff...

Today's mission is to start getting rid of all these "good" things I know I'll never use. I don't know why I am keeping all this stuff. Last night, it occured to me that I'm not a messy or disorganized person, but this habit of not parting with things I don't use is making me look like one!

First step...

After careful introspection, I have decided that I will never want to dress as Batman or Robin. So, why have I had these patterns for 10 years???? To make it worse, these are both adult sizes... Can you say... Ebay? If any reader of this blog wants these, let me know, and they're yours for the price of postage!

Wouldn't it be Glover-ly????

"When in doubt as to local customs, put a pair of gloves in your pocket, and if you cannot judge with certainty whether others will wear them, be on the safe side by putting them on before you enter the drawing room."

-Good Manners (Butterick Publishing Company, 1888)

I have an obsession with gloves, although I almost never wear them. I am fascinated by the making of gloves and the completely foreign shape of the pattern pieces! My beloved glove pattern from 1943, which I am absolutely baffled by, but hope to figure out someday, calls me to create something as lovely as the illustrations on the pattern envelope. The instructions are so spare, I wonder if they are joking.




After reading the "instructions" again a few more times, I have determined that the pattern company makes the following assumptions; that the gloves will be sewn by hand (which appears to be necessary, due to the shape of the pieces), that you know what type of fabric to purchase (there is no guidance for fabric at all - but it certainly shouldn't fray), that you know what it means to "glove stitch", and that you know how to determine your glove size. Okay, so I'll have to do a bit of research and make a muslin before I can tackle this one. My goal is to make gloves with embroidery travelling up the fingers. This will take time. Maybe my pattern doesn't need to be from 1943, huh?

For online eye-candy, the Martin Margiela artisinal clothing featured on Inhabitat.com is so inspiring and beautifully weird, that I felt I needed to share... Check out the top made of overlapping gloves!

Climbing down from my high horse...

Recently, I posted "Who are You Wearing?", a short entry featuring a photo of a Eva Gabor wearing a leopard coat. I went on to mention a BBC article that explores the plight of garment and textile workers in impoverished countries, and how their labor provides us with $5 T-shirts.

So, I took a short trip this weekend, and, while on that trip, had a moment to take some deep breaths, and thought..."Hey, wait a minute...who said that everyone who works to make high-priced goods is fairly compensated?" And a strange connection popped into my head.

Long ago, when I was a college student, a friend of mine wrote a truly incredible term paper on the danger of "truth". To illustrate his point, he looked at great leaders -- Martin Luther King, Gandhi, JFK, etc. He pointed out that these individuals were a threat to no one as long as they spoke for a specific segment of the population.

The bigger picture point of it all is that no person... not a woman, not a man, not a race, not an age, not a socio-economic status or geographical location, makes any person inferior to another. No one deserves less than fair wages for his/her labor, and anyone who contributes to a profit-making enterprise should share in the wealth that work helps to generate. So, while it is common to champion the cause of the underrepresented group of the "moment", the fact is, injustices are all around us, all the time.

In Wilmington, NC, where my in-laws live, the Bellamy Mansion is a beautifully restored Civil War-era estate, featuring the work of so many who were not yet allowed to fully participate in the economy. I bought a lovely book there, entitled "Stitched from the Soul" by Gladys-Marie Fry, documenting slave quilts of the Antebellum South. The author writes elequently of the stitches, the tears, and blood as "time markers" of the everyday events of their lives, stitched into the quilts. Denied the opportunity and often, the ability to write, the slaves stitched their journals into the quilts. Nowadays, locating the quilts themselves is problematic, but harder still, is locating the written data to document their origin.

So, it is easy to point at people in a far away country, and take up their cause, but what about the daily injustices all around us? Some slaves had quilting as an art form, a way to tell stories... I wonder about the stories, talents, outlets for artistic expression of the people who help to make our $5 T-shirts?

Creative artists

"The charm of a golden sunset, to a real admirer, is not complete without silence. A voice dispels it, even though that voice be as sweet as the silvery nest of a forest-bird - a charm in itself, but inharmonious with that entrancing the vision.

So in Art. Although we are obliged to dally with the practical to reach the ideal, no words can add to the enchantments of artistic productions. They surround the worker with an influence that is like a dream, and in it he lives, with Genius for his master and Silence for his companion."

- Needle-Craft: Artistic and Practical (Butterick Publishing Company, 1889)


In New York City, we live with so much noise. Constant noise. To make it worse, it seems every artist within spitting distance of a microphone must over-explain his art. This is why I love to go to the beautifully quiet exhibits tucked away in our city's fabulous museums and galleries. No words, unless you seek them out.

One example of a visual feast, perfectly presented, is the Luxury exhibit at FIT. This display of gorgeous garments in the gentle light and silence of the gallery is a fabulous place to stop, examine, and truly appreciate the art of beautiful craftsmanship.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Who are you wearing?

"The only things that do not change are dead things. Clothes are exceedingly vital and alive."

-Jacques Worth, 1927

Which of these is this coat? Alive or dead?

The caption of this original photo, (from my family's collection) originally from TWA Aviation Press Pictures, reads, "NY International Airport, February 11, 1960. Glamourous Eva Gabor, who appreared on the Jack Parr Show last night, is pictured wearing a leopard coat prior to boarding a TWA Jetliner to Los Angeles where she will enjoy a brief visit."

The airport had not yet been renamed JFK, for obvious reasons... but notice the mention of the leopard coat? My, how times have changed.

Or... have they?

This coat would have been quite a status symbol in those days, but would now be a very unpopular item (to put it mildly), if worn by any celebrity. While such a coat, which once turned heads, now turns stomachs, are animal rights just the popular issue right now, due to the marketing efforts of groups like PETA?

I know there are always other fish to fry, but I want to specifically turn your attention to an article on sweatshop labor, offered by BBC News. Do we think about the human price paid when we buy $5 T-shirts? According to the article, workers in Burkina Faso would love to stop laboring for such low wages, but, unfortunately, cotton is their only cash crop.

So now, here's my bigger point... as you read this, "Who" are you wearing?

99% Inspiration, 1% Perspiration

"As to color in dress, there are three things to be considered by the individual: the effect of color on yourself, on those around you, and on your background. Health, spirits and efficiency are affected by the colors you wear. Drab, hopeless, tasteless shades turn the whole course of your life one way just as inevitably as gay, stimulating, pleasure-giving colors will turn it another."

-The New Butterick Dressmaker (Butterick Publishing Company, 1927)

Well, that's really a rather dramatic way of putting it, dontcha think?

Color and its influence on my mood is undeniable. The inspiration for the project shown below was immediate, but it took almost a year for it to manifest itself into a garment...



Now, to you, it may simply be a shirt. But to me.... well, if you've been reading my other posts, you know already...

Conicidentally - Yes, I only read the paper after writing today's post...

Today's Wall Street Journal article on Claude Monet starts with a lovely quote from William Butler Yeats. It refers to the illusion that art, if it achieves its goal, looks as if it were easy for the artist.

"A line may take us hours, maybe
But if it does not seem a moment's thought
Our stitching and unstitching has been naught"