Grandma's Sewing Cabinet » Musing

Crispy Fried

Dr. Julie-Ann — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 03:55:53 +0000

During my eight-week summer vacation, I only sewed one thing (other than the Tailored Curriculum samples): A Simplicity 2900 dress for Baby Alice (that is her modeling it for us). The only reason I finished her dress was because I wanted to finish it before she outgrew it. Her mother says it “just” fits her which means she’ll only get another one or two more wearings out of it because she is growing like wildfire.

I couldn’t bring myself to sew.

I wasn’t interested in reading the sewing blogs I usually follow.

Patterns and fabric I bought over the summer just sat on my sewing machine.

I was crispy fried when it came to sewing.

I’m sure you figured that out because there weren’t many updates coming from the sewing cabinet.

And you know what? I think it is perfectly legitimate to give one’s creativity muscles and juices a break. For ten months they had been working overtime despite Alice’s surprise birth and my grandfather’s mostly surprise passing (he was 96, after all).

But school has started for the year. I am tutoring the intro to fashion course and taking both intermediate and advanced sewing classes. After a two month break, I am ready to jump in and learn, learn, learn and sew, sew, sew!

Oh, yeah, and share with you all what I’m learning!!

PS: Don’t forget to become a “fan” of Grandma’s Sewing Cabinet on Facebook for in between blog/podcast posting updates and conversation.

Ode to Hand Work

Dr. Julie-Ann — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 17:49:21 +0000

Hand sewing has a bad reputation for being tedious. Right now that tediousness is my refuge. I am in a high-stress situation taking care of sick family members and a needle and thread are helping me process my stress.

I started embroidering a couple of pillowcases last year. Thankfully, I brought them along with me. What others may view as tedious–the same stitch over and over–is my salvation. It gives me a soothing rhythm that allow my thoughts to ride along and then settle down.

Truthfully, I’m not sure I could sit at a machine right now. But I can still find solace in the creative process.

There’s NO WAY I Could Ever Do That!

Dr. Julie-Ann — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 23:32:40 +0000

I don’t know if you’re like me but I kind of have a love-hate relationship with sewing magazines, blogs, and TV shows. I find them very inspiring and informative but they also discourage me. I see the amazing things that other people are doing and think, “There’s no way I could ever do that!” I thought it just today when the June issue of Sew Beautiful arrived and I saw all of the intricate heirloom sewing that I want to create for Baby Alice….while she is still a baby!

And then I got thinking. A year ago, if you had told me that I would be able to create patterns from scratch, I would have laughed so hard I would have cried. I was always so envious of other sewists who had some secret insight into manipulating patterns but I struggled just to make a full bust adjustment. And yet, here I am, a mere year later with the confidence to reproduce my favorite vintage patterns! And have it look good, too!

So, the next time I get in a funk and think, “I could never do that!” I’ll remind myself that I may not being able to do it then, but I can certainly learn how to do amazing things with fabric, too!

Theatrical Thursday: Sew What’s New

Dr. Julie-Ann — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 10:20:52 +0000

I owe a lot of my sewing ability to Nancy Zieman, of Sewing with Nancy fame. I’d religiously watch it on WHYY (Philadelphia’s public television station) every Saturday afternoon in the late 80′s and early 90′s (sadly, I had to give it up when grad school got in the way of my television viewing pleasure). Since we didn’t have cable television with the myriad of sewing experts, it was the only sewing show I could watch.

I wish I had started watching PBS during the 70′s. If I had, I would have discovered “Sew What’s New” with George Trippon. I just learned about him this week while reading the vintage board at Pattern Review. And the most disheartening aspect of just learning about him is that he had a design school just over the hill from where I grew up and had worked in the entertainment industry as a costumer designer before and after The War.

He wrote some sewing related books–Let’s Design, Cut, Sew, and Fit With George W. Trippon, Becoming a Dress Designer: What Every Designer Should Know, and Sewing Tricks ‘n’ Treats–that are hard to find and go for well over $100 if you can find them. He passed away in January so his books are even harder to come by right now.

I don’t know about you, but I always feel a little sad when I discover someone or something….just a little too late.

Did you know about him already?

Here is a promotional tape of “Sew What’s New:”

(Click here if the player does not work)

The Smartest Decision I Made in 2009

Dr. Julie-Ann — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 03:52:23 +0000

I just bought the Draping for Apparel Design textbook that I will be using in my Draping class this winter. As I was clicking the “buy” button, I was reflecting on how the one “little” decision to go back to school to study fashion has completely changed my life:

For the longest time, I’ve considered myself an advanced intermediate seamstress. It has been frustrating being stuck there but I couldn’t seem to move beyond that level. Starting over at the beginning sewing lessons has enabled me to fill in knowledge gaps that I didn’t even know existed! Because of the coursework, I will be able to become a master custom clothier.
I had forgotten how fun it is to be a student learning new things. Yes, sometimes it gets weird straddling both sides of the podium but all of that schooling I had and all of those years being a professor and, of course, my expertise in how people learn, has enabled me to learn the material at a depth my young classmates aren’t able to achieve. They often turn to me for guidance and help, which leads to…
In helping my classmates, I get to practice my own teaching and sharing of something I am so passionate about. That is not to say that my professors aren’t good in their own right! But, everyone has their own teaching style and since my goal is to teach what I learn to home sewers instead of people going into the fashion industry, there are some differences in how I would go about teaching the material.
I feel inspired and feel like my life has been given back to me. So many listeners of my podcast have written to me and told me that they can hear the joy in my voice again. And they are right! As long-time readers and listeners know, I was feeling pretty beaten up. My confidence had been destroyed by a sexual assault in the early part of this decade and then to be laid off, twice, and not have any prospects for full-time employment at other universities and struggling to earn a living as a life coach in an economy spiraling down had pretty much left me feeling demoralized and “non-essential” (yes, that is the term used by both universities when I was laid off). Taking these classes has shown me that I still have passion and that others also value that passion. (By the way, I want to thank those of you who stuck by me during those times when I felt so helpless and hopeless).
Finally, every day I am discovering ways to combine my educational psychology expertise with my passion for sewing. Most notably, of course, is the Tailored Curriculum program. But as I sit in class, I get excited about what I’m learning and am eager to share with you all what I’ve learned. Much of it can be shared in the blog and podcast but I’m also starting to percolate ideas for workshops and retreats and can’t wait until we can start gathering together sharing in our common passion for sewing.

As I mentioned in my Modern Retro Woman blog today, a year ago I was a mess. But, thanks to that one “little” decision to go back to school, I am eager to greet the future as we welcome in 2010.

Christmas Miracles

Dr. Julie-Ann — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 06:12:37 +0000

I hope your Christmas was filled with great joy. I will be taking a few days off to spend time with family and to celebrate our 23rd anniversary.

This is my brother-in-law singing to Baby Alice. I think she tried to join in with him for a split second…

Thank You, All

Dr. Julie-Ann — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:46:57 +0000

I saw photos of Baby Alice today and started crying. She is such a peanut although she is bigger than I thought she’d be. And, biologically, she may not be a “Mears Girl,” she is already showing the same sort of spunk that people claim make my sisters and me different than most families of sisters. My sister is a dancer and one of the photos of Alice shows her doing a major arm flourish. She’s already her mother’s daughter!

Needless to say, the family is filled with extreme joy while being overwhelmed at the same time. We thought we’d have plenty of time to prepare for the arrival of a baby….you know…do the baby showers…help my sister set up the nursery…make lots and lots of adorable looking baby clothes. But Alice and G*d had other ideas, so here we are.

I must confess that I feel a little helpless in knowing what to do to comfort my sister as she and her husband go through all of the legalities and deal with the well-meaning people who are telling her what she HAS to do (but she can’t do because of the legal and medical issues involved). My sister is heart broken that she hasn’t even been allowed to visit with Alice because she is recovering from the flu and not allowed into NICU (and she understands the danger she poses to all of those medically fragile babies…but that doesn’t make the hurting go away). As I write this, I am waiting for news that the court has granted them guardianship today–the first step in the adoption process.

And so I turn to the one activity that spans the generations for comfort–sewing with grandma’s sewing cabinet. How I wish she were here! She’d know just what to say and do.

But she isn’t here so I rely on the community of women (and a few men) who share the common bond of sewing with me….the women who have encouraged me and celebrated with me over the years.

I want to thank you all, so much, for your words of encouragement and the ideas and the resources you sent my way…both in the comments and via email. By far, the most recommended website via email was this one:

http://www.angelfire.com/planet/mcshelpsite/sewingstuff/freepatterns.html/#preemie

I was grateful for this link because it helped me expand my understanding of what Alice will need. I am now waiting for the go ahead to make a “snuggler” or “burrito wrap,” a positioning “snake,” and an isolette cover.

Thank you again, for your immediate response. I KNEW I could count on you!

PS: Now I have an excuse to subscribe to Martha Pullen’s Sew Beautiful!

Reflections of Taking Fashion 1A

Dr. Julie-Ann — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:35:35 +0000

Juki, My Assigned Industrial Machine

For the past 16 weeks, I have spent my Mondays in a class that was designed to provide me with an…

Introduction to fashion, career concepts, research and clothing construction. Orientation to fashion careers, aptitude to fashion, life skills, time management, and education planning. Industrial sewing equipment, tools, and materials will be used to produce samples of elementary level garment construction as foundation to the understanding of pattern construction, fashion design, manufacturing and production.

The first half of the semester focused on introductory level sewing and the second half focused on draping and “designing” a basic skirt with a hem detail of our choice.

Even though this course is the “intro to sewing” class, and people often asked me why I was in the class with my 35+ years of sewing experience, I learned an enormous amount of stuff. Yes, I went into the class with a level of sewing confidence that many (most?) of my classmates didn’t have but I was amazed at how many of my knowledge gaps were filled with the back-stories of why we do some of the things we do in sewing, not just the how-to-do-its that people have generously shown me over the years.

Classmates Thy Ahn Tri and Lele Luong working on their skirt slopers

My professor commented once, appreciatively, that my reactions to her demonstrations are over-the-top with enthusiasm. Compared to classmates who stood there stoically, I stuck out like a sore thumb. I think what she didn’t realize is that I could practically hear the connections in my head locking into place with every “a-HA!” moment I had. I could feel some of my creative frustrations melting away and the excitement within me grow as I began to realize that my visions were within my grasp.

This class also helped me tap into a long-dormant part of myself. I am chomping at the bit to figure out more and more ways to share what I’ve learned with home-sewers so that they can discover all of the amazing things I’ve learned so far and will learn in future classes. I’d love to teach sewing at the college level but my heart is really yearning to help women learn “the feminine art of sewing” once again.

During the winter term, I will be taking a draping class where I will really learn how to design clothing using Joan (as compared to the introduction and making the skirt that I did in this class). I can hardly wait to share with you what I learn in that class!

****

I’m thinking about facilitating workshops, sewing camps, and online stuff. What topics would you be interested in me teaching/you want to learn?

Rut-Roe

Dr. Julie-Ann — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:44:51 +0000

Well, stop the presses… As Scooby Doo would say, “Rut-roe.”

Monday, my intro to fashion class had a field trip to Los Angeles’ Fashion District (you have to love a class that requires you to fondle fabric all day). While we were at Michael Levine’s , I showed my professor the pattern envelopes for the two reunion dress candidates. It was decided that the Vogue 8593 would be the better option and she helped choose a stretch woven in eggplant for it. I was totally excited about it, even though I forgot to check for the fabric content and care and everything. But it was only $3 per yard and even my professor was impressed by the bargain.

And then my invitation to the reunion arrived today. It said to dress casually. I don’t think that dress will be considered casual. But I can make it to wear to workshops. So, it will be okay.

The reunion is at my BFF’s house and she will be here on Friday so that we can go shopping for the stuff for the centerpieces. I’ll show her the pattern and the fabric and see what she says.

I guess I should have waited until the invitation arrived, eh?

A Firm Foundation

Dr. Julie-Ann — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 21:12:24 +0000

Maidenform Ad Early 1960's

When I was a teenager, my older sister worked at Robinson’s Department Store in the foundations department. There was a time when lingerie was lingerie and foundations were foundations. Lingerie was the beautiful stuff you wore in private moments. Foundations were the bras and girdles you wore so that your clothes fit you well.

I think we should go back to calling our undergarments “foundations.” If we did that, then we would have a better understanding of the importance of well-fitting undergarments. A bra that doesn’t fit will visually add 10 pounds and a matronly look to the clothes you worked so hard to make. A protruding stomach and “hip fluff” will ruin the line of the garment.

Although I’m a nag about making sure my readers/listeners are wearing the right bra, the importance of a quality bra was driven home to me the other day while I was at Nordstrom’s for my fitting.

Because of the economy, I had to put off buying new bras. But it had reached a point that I couldn’t put it off any longer. I usually will wear a fitted sweater to my fittings. It helps me get a better visual if I put the sweater on after I put on the bra I’m trying on. The bunching and bulging really shows up after I put the sweater on. If I look good in the sweater, then I know the bra is a keeper.

Surprisingly, my size hadn’t changed. But I went with a different brand than I had before–Fantasie. These are not inexpensive bras by any means. But the difference was night and day between what I had been wearing and the new bras. As they say in the commercials, the new bras help me look more “uplifted and youthful.” I seriously looked 10 pounds lighter. (As an added bonus, a well fitting bra will reduce shoulder and back pain–the shoulder straps shouldn’t be holding everything up. Think European style where the bra band does all of the work)

Since moving to California, I usually am bare-legged ten months out of the year. In the dressing room, I was noticing the impact of not wearing super-control-top pantyhose. Every bulge and pooch showed. I looked kind of dumpy. Not the image I want to convey. Either I’m going to have to get serious about Buns, Thighs, and Abs of Steel or I’m going to have to wear the undergarments that will give me the look I desire.

So why am I talking about undergarments on a sewing blog? Because if you are dissatisfied with the way your garments look on you, you might consider that the problem is with your undergarments and not your sewing ability.