Where to Draw the Line

SewStylish is having a Spring Sewing Contest, and GertieT emailed me to let me know that her adorable dress has made the finals (it's there up above). Go check out the other two dresses, too, and vote! Voting closes TONIGHT (the 16th) at midnight.

She also wanted to let me know that several of the less-courteous commenters had said things like "Your tattoos are disqusting [sic]......I wouldn't vote for your dress even if I liked it...." and "too bad!!! [about the tattoos] coz the dress is lovely!!!"

C'mon, people. This is how it goes. You can certainly refuse to vote for a dress if you don't like GertieT's tattoos -- it's your right to cast a vote based on any criteria you like. However (just so you know) you pretty much make yourself look like a blithering idiot by commenting to that effect. What will those comments accomplish? GertieT getting hers lasered off? (No.) Will they prevent some other person from getting a tattoo? (Unlikely.) All they do is make you look like narrow-minded ignoramuses.

Now, if this had been an actual moral issue -- say, one of the contestants had been convicted of assault, or was an avowed racist, or something like that -- I think you would be within your rights to announce WHY you weren't voting for a particular candidate. But because you don't like tattoos? Sheesh.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of tattoos. What does this mean? It means *I* don't have one. I've never found any image that I liked enough to want to make a permanent part of my skin. But that doesn't matter -- what other people do with their skin is no concern of mine. And it's certainly not pertinent to the questions at hand, which is: "What's the nicest dress?"

The contest wasn't SewStylish's Spring Beauty Contest -- it was a sewing contest! It takes a lot of gumption to pose for a contest picture, and if there are going to be these sorts of ad hominem comments, I bet there will be fewer contestants next round. What if next time one of the contestants is "overweight" (whatever that means) or is "too goth" (as if there was any such thing) or has an unusual hairstyle (whatever that is) or, heaven forbid, has something pierced other than her ears?

I don't want to be all "Oh noes! People are mean on the Internets!" but really, sewing people, I expect better from YOU. So if you're ever tempted to make this kind of comment, safe and protected behind your keyboard, think about how you would feel if a bunch of bozos decided to leave similar comments about you.

It's the Golden Rule, peoples. It's not difficult. Or if the "unto" in the Golden Rule trips you up, you can ask yourself two simple questions: "Is it truthful? Is it kind?"

"lovely, clever, labor-intensive"

"Lovely, clever, labor-intensive" was how Robin described the dress in this eBay auction, and I just love it. I am loving it from afar, though, because it's $160. I don't even think I'm going to attempt this myself, although I'm always tempted to be clever with striped fabric. There's clever, and then there's too clever by half, and every time I veer into "too clever by half," I wind up with something that never gets finished, much less worn.

(I actually just put a lot of "unfinished business" -- i.e., projects that I finally accepted that I'm never coming back to -- in the box for the Salvation Army today. There are still a few "somedays" left hanging in my sewing room, but they're precious few.)

I'm trying to let go of a lot of "somedays", or "just-in-cases", especially when it comes to books and fabric. If I am not head-over-heels in love with fabric, I think it's going to leave me in search of a more appreciative owner. And if I take a book off a shelf, open it, and don't feel like sitting down to read a few pages, it might wander off, too.

The Internet has obviated the need for hoarding, in my opinion. For instance, years ago I bought a copy of this book. It was a dollar, and it looked interesting, so I bought it, and read it. (I really liked it, although its author has the prejudices of his time and the vocabulary to match.) But now (as that link suggested), it's available online, and I don't have to hold on to my copy for fear that if I let it go, I wouldn't be able to find it again. Google can hold on to it for me — and I can download the PDF (it's well out of copyright) and have it on my hard drive in reserve against any Chicago-meatpacking-magnate's-advice-to-his-son emergencies.

Of course, you can't download fabric and keep it on your hard drive (although I'm sure my long-suffering husband wishes you could!) but I don't feel the need to hold on to "eh" or "just-in-case" fabric when a few clicks will take me to plenty of fabric that makes me say "ah" instead ... and when I already have enough "ah" fabric to swathe my entire house, Christo-style, if I felt like it.

(Another thing the Internet is making it easy to let go of is petty resentments. If I want to feel angry and pissed off, there are plenty of places I can go online to read stuff that will make my blood boil. Why carry that around with me in the meantime?)

What is the Internet helping you let go of?

The Dress I am Wearing RIGHT NOW, Pt. 2

Is this one:



It's from fabric I bought very recently from FashionFabricsClub, and it's the same pattern (Vogue 9670) as Tuesday's dress. (I wore yet ANOTHER version yesterday, but I didn't have time to post about it!)

I didn't do anything fancy with this neck facing except cut it with the stripes running the other way; it's so lightweight that I didn't want to fuss with it. Not that you can really see it in this picture:



And the back, which I'm afraid doesn't match from the bodice to the skirt AT ALL, whoops:



The stripes on the front matched more-or-less accidentally, but then I didn't have enough fabric to recut the back skirt to make them match on the back. Next time I'll know how to do it, it's simultaneously easier (to get the fabric cut right) and trickier (to get the pleats to match right) than I thought. It was complicated by the fact that I've adjusted this pattern to be about an inch bigger all around at the waist, which means I always have to re-jigger the pleats, anyway.

The zipper is a bit nicer on this version:



I hadn't sewn up the hem yet when I took these photos so you can see it in the pictures -- it's gray bias tape and hem tape.

My only uncertainty about this dress is just HOW much it's going to wrinkle today. It is pretty lightweight shirting cotton, after all ... but it's also really nice and cool and feels great!

Stripes and Pockets Forever

Frequent link-sender to the blog Robin is making a little room in her closet by listing some dresses on eBay, including this wonderful 1940s stripey dress. Robin thinks it may have been a candy-striper's uniform ... but it could certainly have a new life at work or play, no sponge baths required. Think of it with little navy wedge shoes ... It's B36/W26.5.

I love these 1940s striped outfits -- they're so precise! And that center-front zipper is just perfect. This is a no-nonsense, get-it-done dress, but it can still have fun.

I think Robin has the right idea, too. If you're not wearing something, you should set it loose into the world to be free and be loved by someone who will wear it. (Which reminds me, I should REALLY do a purge of my own over the next month or so. Especially of shoes!)

I. Love. Stripes.

Seriously. I *love* stripes. Especially ones done like these, on this dress from Anthropologie. (Summerset sent me the link.) Click on the image to get a bigger picture; it's absolutely worth your time.

Don't you just love how the chevrons really accent the waist? I might even violate my own "no sleeveless" rule to wear this ...

Of course, the best thing about this dress?




Pockets!
Look how nicely the pocket welts are set into the stripe. Just wonderful. I would have been lazy and done side-panel pockets, myself.

It's $168 at Anthropologie, and this is one of those times that I think that more than $100 for a dress is probably worth it. I know I'd spend more than $100 in aggravation trying to get this made so nicely!

And after all that talk about how I want to concentrate on yellow, gray, green, and baby blue for this spring/summer, red keeps sneaking into my sewing plans. I really love the red & light blue combo here, and I'm now obsessed with making a deep teal and black Duro with red piping ... watch this space!