Sick-Week Synopsis

Readers, I'm stunned.   Yesterday I attempted to plant the seed of prosperity in your lives with some timeless New Age wisdom and you responded with a shopping list worthy of a wedding registry at Bed, Bath & Beyond.

To think that your great grandmothers treadled their calves raw with no electricity and just a rudimentary straight stitch and probably clothed the entire family.  There were no self-healing cutting mats, no sergers, no embroidery machines.   And not to make an example of Nessa, no Sunbeam Mixmasters. 

And grateful great granny probably shared her sewing room with eight children and a cow!  Seriously, though, I predict that at least half of you will get what you wished for by year's end.  The other half, well, it doesn't look good.

And on the subject of modern miracles, the universe has restored me to health with just a little residual morning phlegm!

Now lest you think I spent last week just blogging in bed beside a box of bon bons, here's a quick wrap up of my activities:

1) I decided to give pattern drafting another try, this time using Donald McCunn's How to Make Sewing Patterns.



As he suggests, I broke the book binding and put the entire contents in a three-ring binder.  With Michael's help I took my measurements and then I got to work on the basic men's bodice.



I chose this book because, unlike Dorothy Moore's pattern drafting book, McCunn directly addresses the male body and mens clothes.  But there's a great deal of confusion about waistlines!

In one section, addressed to both men and women, McCunn states clearly that the waistline is to be taken by tying a string around the narrowest part of one's midsection.  He then explains that actually, ...men's pants are almost never designed to fit at the natural waist.  They are 3-4 inches lower.  

What he doesn't say clearly is if a man taking his measurements should use his true waistline or not.

In his description (on p. 19) of the CENTER FRONT/WAIST TO SHOULDER measurement he states This measurement is diagonally from the intersection of the Center Front and Waist (the navel) to the the Shoulder Point.

Now I'm confused.  Are we measuring from the true waist (the narrow point around which we've tied a string, some point 3-4" lower where our pants generally sit, or the navel?

Maybe I just wasn't thinking clearly in my health-compromised state.

Anyway, I drafted a bodice.  And then I ran out of steam.







2) Feeling stronger, on Saturday I met up with MBP reader and self-described lurker, Jo of Vancouver, for a visit to the latest FIT Museum exhibit and a dig through the Chelsea Flea Market.  That's Jo on the right.



Parenthetically, readers, are all Canadians endlessly polite?  I have never had so many doors opened for me as I did that day. I felt like the Queen. (No cracks)

More about the exhibit, "Japan Fashion Today" later in the week but in a word: Spectacular.

3) Yesterday, on my own, I returned to the flea market, and made a completely unplanned purchase.  Notice anything different about me, readers, beside the fact that I haven't shaved in weeks?





Here's a hint:



Yes, boots!  Dead stock (i.e., vintage but never worn) cowboy boots from the Seventies that fit great and feel super-comfy.  Not bad for $40 -- less than half what I could have spent on a prized vintage sewing machine I didn't need and thanks to The Secret, knew it.





This is the sewing machine in question, by the way, an Elna Lotus.  Johanna, if you want her, she's yours (sob!).  Craigslist, Brooklyn.

Readers, today I return to the cranberry corduroy jacket.  If Gertie can tailor a jacket and live to tell about it, so can I!

But enough about me.  What's up in your neck of the planet?

P.S. -- I need to wear longer pants with those boots, right?  Do you think they are too Glen Campbell?  Naomi Campbell?   Be honest.

Wardrobe guidance, please!