Accidental Sewist

Butterick 5955

Sometimes you choose your next project, and sometimes the project chooses you. While virtuously trying to attain some semblance of order in Studio Hunting Creek, I happened to notice the the Japanese print above harmonized nicely with the black embroidered fabric on the same shelf.( Digression: Did you read the article that said that creative people had messy desks? )  When my new Butterick pattern arrived, I thought, "What do I have that will work for this?", looking at my options. While trying to pull out some jade green charmeuse, I saw the Japanese fabric again. It is from the deepest of Deep Stash: Mr. Hunting Creek brought it home to me from his mother's stash. It's definitely vintage. But is it too much like the picture?  I have an irrational dislike of making things that look like the pattern illustration. (The good student in me thinks this is akin to plagiarism.) I expressed this thought to Mr. Hunting Creek, while asking him if he liked the combination. He gave me the Are you Crazy look. "Because of the 7 people in the world that you never see who will notice that?" he commented, with that patient tone he reserves for my irrational moments. (You know, that tone that makes you want to smack people with your clear ruler. It is especially annoying when he is correct. I did not tell him this.) This will be my project for my Use a New Pattern monthly challenge.This Butterick is hot off the press, is super trendy (even though I am the least trendy person on earth besides Pope Francis, I do notice trends.) and it looks easy to sew. I hope saying that does not bring a curse upon my head, causing sewing machine tension problems, or thread breakage or some other exasperation.
Do you make things that look like the pattern picture? Or do you avoid doing that? (Or, in other words, am I alone in my No Copying obsession?)

Zinnias are My Favorite Flower

Zinnia Skirt with pleated pockets

This is the new Colette Patterns Zinnia Skirt Pattern.   I just decided to make this in a maxi length for the Holiday Season. (It's easy to do, just use lengthen/shorten lines, plus I have a cheater method - I measure the length on an existing maxi and go from there)
If you'd like to make one too, I have them in stock. For this week only, we'll give free shipping on all Colette Patterns. I'll take the shipping off in the cart. (Websites are tricky) Use the code ZINNIA.
So the only question is, what do I make my fabulous maxi skirt out of? The pattern says: 

• Versatile. You can use a wide array of fabrics, from wool flannel to delicate chiffon.

This makes me think maybe washed dupioni or heavy silk would work too.

Off to cruise the stash. Happy Gardening!

UFO Sighting

Inside Out style Hawaiian Shirt

This shirt is older than my 22 year old son, yet I just finished it. How does one end up with 23 year old UFOs?
Way back in 1990,we lived in Southern California. I had a little sewing room and I would put my cut out projects in a little basket on my desk,to keep all of the pieces together until I was ready to sew them. In this basket I had a simple blouse, the Hawaiian shirt and a pink batik sundress for my daughter, then aged 5. But that Spring, Mr.Hunting Creek got a new job in Washington, DC, so we had to move. The mover people came and packed up everything, wrapping our items in copious layers of packing paper, and labeling each box with their own inscrutable codes. .They labeled boxes "Fragil" , "Dinning Room", "Book" and my favorite: "Things". When we arrived in Virginia, sewing was definitely not a priority. Also I had a new job, a five year old, and I was pregnant. The sewing projects box was neglected.
I didn't even have a sewing room. Then I had a new baby, a demanding job and there was no sewing for a while...but I missed it. I had Mr. Hunting Creek find my machine and supplies. I made Christmas Ornaments, sewing on the kitchen table. I made my daughter's First Communion Dress. The little basket of cut projects lay packed in a moving box, forgotten....for years. Fast forward to last year, when finally I had a new, improved sewing room of my own. Not in the basement, not in the kitchen, not sharing the TV Room downstairs but upstairs, next to my office. Mr. Hunting Creek found boxes in the garage full of my old patterns and my basket of projects from 1990. Just cut pattern pieces, no notes as to what pattern it was. At least I had marked the pieces. The 23 Years ago me assumed that I would remember what pattern the pieces were from and use those directions. The 23 years ago me didn't match the pocket. Could I put a shirt together without instructions? I assured Mr. Hunting Creek that when you've made one shirt, you've made them all. You know what? That's actually true.
This shirt, and the following one, count against my goals this year of both Sew a Hawaiian Shirt and Finish Something. A twofer! 

Surfer Girl Shirt

Surfer Girl Shirt sighting in the Wild

Here is a recap of my yearly goals so far:
January: Sew a scrap quilt - done!
February: Make something out of silk - done
March: Use a  border print - in progress, lost buttons, so need new ones
April: Sew a Hawaiian shirt - done - made THREE
May: Make something formal - totally flaked out on this due to lack of formal occasions
June: Make pajamas- done - made two for me, two for Mr.Hunting Creek July: Make T shirts - they are cut out but not sewn, got distracted by non-sewing life
August: Make a Baby quilt - in progress. The baby is born, so I have to finish the quilting part by the end of this month
September: Finish something -hooray! Two unfinished projects shown above, FINISHED
October: Use a Vintage pattern
November:Use a new pattern
December: Make a Holiday decoration

Seven out of nine isn't bad. I still have some August left and I already did September's. I'd like to finish the year having completed ALL of these.

What UFOs lurk in your sewing life? Does it feel like they will never be finished? Do you need to declare UFO bankruptcy and start over? Are you the kind of person who doesn't even have UFOs?

Perchance to Dream

Our friends at Simplicity think that we are either getting very sleepy or that all that we require for our fall wardrobe sewing projects are Pajamas. Twelve Pajama Patterns!
I blame myself. Earlier this year I made a list of sewing projects, and one of my projects was Make Pajamas.  Simplicity must have  misunderstood and thought that I wanted to make nothing BUT pajamas. Of course, with the world becoming much more casual, Simplicity might think that pajamas are all we need.
It is a little known fact among sewists that you do not really even need a pajama pattern at all. Anything can be pajamas. Basically they are nothing more than loosely fitting pants, a T shirt top or a basic shirt. My kids wear their pajamas all the time when they are home. I've seen teenagers wearing them to school, and my daughter reported seeing people, both men and women, wearing them around campus when she was in college.
I hate to buy pajamas because they are so easy to make, but I seldom make them because they are so simple that they are boring. Therefore my existing pajamas had become somewhat threadbare. I've made three pairs this summer, two for Mr. Hunting Creek ( I had to surreptitiously seize and destroy some of his old ones) and one for myself. I dd not use an official Pajama Pattern; instead, I used an elastic waist pants pattern that I designated Pajamas, by virtue of using classic car fabric for Mr. Hunting Creek and a pretty paisley cotton print for mine.They are are boring to make, yet so amazingly useful.Like the potholders, lap quilts and pillowcases I sometimes make, these get used all the time. (there's a message there somewhere about utilitarian sewing,but I am willfully ignoring it. I like to have fun in the sewing room. I like a challenge. Pajamas are not remotely challenging to make .Not even silk ones.)
So why did did Simplicity make the majority of their fall patterns "loungewear"?
Is it because many new sewists don't really know how to sew anything more complicated? Are they dumbing down their offerings? Do they think that all we want to make for fall is sleepwear?
If I could tell them what I'd like, my fantasy sewing list would include a chic winter coat, a stylish jacket, cute, different t shirts that remind me of the stuff at Anthropologie and J Crew, a dress or two and a nice men's shirt and pants pattern. Is that too much to ask?
Instead all I get is pajamas..Thank goodness for Independent Designers.
What would be on your fantasy sewing list, if you could have any pattern you wanted? I'm betting it's not pajamas.

Scary Patterns: Poncho Edition

Hooded Double Poncho for two(!!!)
With picnic kit pattern included (of course, because who doesn't go on a romantic picnic in their cool, double poncho?)
This might be the scariest pattern yet; most men I know would disapparate immediately if faced with the prospect of wearing this in public.
However, it would make a great Halloween ensemble.
If that's totally your thing, find it here. 

A Series of Unfortunate Events

FOUND: Large fish, evidently dropped from the sky by a large bird, maybe an eagle or an osprey. Is it a warning? An omen of impending doom? Last week Mr. Hunting Creek found a squirrel tail - the tail ONLY- on the sidewalk when he went to get the mail. Is someone trying to tell us something? Or, to paraphrase Freud, "Sometimes a fish is just a fish."

Are MOOCs the Answer? Depends on Your Question

My son has been reading since he was three, and he said last night that he feels that there is too much emphasis on reading and writing and not enough on math in American education. He thinks we’d do better with a more balanced approach. He got an almost perfect score on his SAT and was a National Merit Scholar Finalist (the only one from his high school), so he might know something about this subject.

I've been thinking about education a lot, since I’m a former teacher, and also since I started my edX class on The Greek Hero. I’d never taken an online course before. (I went to Berkeley when the internet was but an infant).

If you’re not familiar with this subject, Bad Mom, Good Mom had something to say about it earlier this week,and I strongly recommend that you read the links in her posts.

There are some people who think that online education is the future. These people may be right that there will be more of it in the future, but while I have been enjoying my class, I do not think it would be a good idea to move all of our education to this platform.

People are very much the same now as they were in Ancient Greece. We like to think that we've improved and grown and changed, but as I see it we haven’t changed much in the way that we learn things. The best way to teach a child to read is to read to him or her and discuss the reading. When I taught high school kids who had trouble reading, amazingly enough , that was still the best way. No one had done this when they were small, so we had to make up for lost time, and read slowly together. I got such a feeling of satisfaction when they would start to catch on and figure out the trick. Reading is more difficult than you think - if you don't learn it when you’re small, it’s as if you're trying to read a foreign language; which in a sense you are.

Which brings me to online learning: it’s the worst way to learn something if you know nothing about the subject. If you were learning a foreign language, or calculus, or anything that a little interpersonal interaction would be helpful, online learning is not the answer. It’s great for people who already know how to learn, but for anyone else, it’s the second best option.

The problem - the really smart people of Silicon Valley are trying to monetize education. Since they are Really Smart People, the kind of people who, like my son, got perfect scores on their SATs and started reading when they were three, and corrected the tests for their third grade teacher, they do not know how difficult it is for some people to learn. They might not know what it’s like to try to learn under trying circumstances: parents don’t speak English, their family is on food stamps, they have a part time job, there is no place to study...circumstances that the RSP might not consider when they make their grand educational plans. They see State educational budgets as a resource to harvest. They aren't considering the human costs of one size fits all education. If we have a permanent underclass of uneducated people in our country, we all lose. It isn't saving money to cut costs on education - it costs us all money. But money isn't the only thing to consider - we’re losing brilliant kids - kids that might have made a great contribution to our world. And you know the saying, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”.

Don’t let your State Representatives try to sell you this as a “better” way to learn. It’s just cheaper.I don't think MOOCs are the answer for education. For lectures  for enrichment, I can see their place, but they can't really replace one on one teaching

Devoting huge portions of our educational budgets to MOOCs is a mistake.

I can already see what will happen - small states will close satellite campuses, have those students do online learning and go to  secure monitored place to take tests. It's clear as day that some states are desperate to save money any way that they can, so they will sacrifice learning.

Our educational system will become even more unequal than it is now. This is the exact opposite way to solve the problem of inequality

There’s politics involved - some want to eliminate teachers, close schools, raise tuition, lower taxes. There's a lot riding on your voice in this matter.The future of all education, not just online, is up for debate. I've already written to my State Representatives. Don't wait - as the MOOC people say, the future is now.