Monday: You're off the hook, kids.

Greetings from DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) in Brooklyn, where I spent most of Sunday with my old friend Nora and her bf Derek.

Michael and I brought the dogs, and a great time -- as well as delicious whole wheat pancakes -- was had by all.  (Actually, only we had pancakes; the dogs watched.)

So it's Monday again and time to check in and I have a somewhat shocking confession to make:

I didn't sew at all last week.

So I'm hardly in a position to hold anybody else accountable, am I?  Therefore you're all off the hook, peeps.  Consider it your metaphoric snow day.

So what did I get accomplished over the last seven days?

1. I bought some fabric: four yards of blue cotton twill and a vintage flowered sheet.

2. I prepped Simplicity 3873, my 1941 dress pattern, all ironed and sitting atop my ironing board, awaiting next steps.

3. I fulfilled some family commitments -- my brother got engaged! -- saw friends, and generally enjoyed the fine weather.  All were welcome distractions; I needed a break.

4.  I wrote a lot. I think last week was one of my most interesting, blog-content-wise.  If you haven't been here for the last four days or so, take a look.  I especially want to thank all those who left comments, and there were many.  It's what you write that keeps this blog dynamic and creates a sense of community; I couldn't do it without you.

And for the week to come?

1.  I want to finish my 1941 dress.

2. I still want to simplify my scrap stash.

3. I'd like to make myself a pair of pants.

Simple enough, right?  Let's see how it goes...

And how are all of you doing?  I know there's been some impressive progress made.

Look at the lovely dress and pinafore reader Laura recently completed for her niece:

This is so beautifully detailed; I love it.  Great job, Laura!

And if you haven't read about the gingham shirt Bloggette Elizabeth made for her nephew, Thor, you can read about it here.  A renown sewing celebrity even makes an appearance -- and it's not me!

And so, my friends, another week stretches before us, full of possibility.  I'm going to dust of my Singer 15-91 and get to work.

How about you?  What's on your plates this week?

Dressing for "me" or for "thee"

Happy whatever-you-may-celebrate-even-if-it's-nothing-at-all, everybody!

In response to Thursday's post about "age-approproate" dressing, a reader commented:

I think the degeneration of appropriate dress comes from a general decline of public civic life. We all have a civic responsibility to dress in an appropriate and dignified way.

The way we dress isn't just "all about me" but actually constitutes the culture of our families, our neighborhoods, our towns and cities. It makes up the civic backdrop of our community.

Now, I don't want there to be a dress code or anything, I think freedom to wear what you want is a big and important political freedom, but along with freedom comes responsibility, in fashion no less than any other area of life.

When I read this, I immediately had one of those "aha!" moments: Yes, I thought, that's exactly it!  It's great to dress as you please -- for you --  but how about the rest of us?

So I was in the lovely Hudson River town of Tarrytown yesterday with Michael, my mother, and the dogs -- just a trip out of the city on a lovely Spring day.

We bought soil and plants at a garden center in Ardsley, ate a picnic lunch in a local park, and had coffee and scones at a charming independent coffee cafe in town.  Everyone we saw seemed happy to be taking in the sun and fresh air: children, seniors, men and women and plenty of cheerful pets.

 But a few things caught my attention.  The contrast between the elegant, small-town setting and the way most of the young people were dressed -- men in flip flops, baggy cargo shorts and tee shirts, young women in flip flops, mini shorts and tees, multiple tattoos and piercings  (Do I really want to go there?) -- was jarring to me.  I guess I'm just from a different generation.  I witnessed no unruly behavior, just the opposite: everyone seemed perfectly pleasant and well-socialized.  But still...

I had a long conversation about it last night with Michael in relation to the comment up top.  Do we have any larger obligation to the community to dress in a more "formal" way in public?  Does informality in dress portend a breakdown in civic life?  Does one have anything to do with the other?

We concluded that, as much as we might long for the days when men wore suit jackets and women wore hats in public, we wouldn't want to feel like we had to dress any particular way.  Michael said that the history of public dress codes was more related to honoring the nobles on whose estate you lived than it was to self-respect or modesty.

If as citizens we have (ostensibly) the same ranking, then there's no reason to dress a particular way to honor anyone else -- not nobility or any sort of power greater than ourselves.

Most of the dress codes I'm familiar with, in fact, have to do with organized religion and it doesn't seem right that other people should have to abide by the laws of my religion and traditions, or vice versa.  If you want to dress up for Easter, that's fine.  But if I don't celebrate Easter, why should I have to?  

Anyway, this has been on my mind and I'd love to hear what you have to say about it.

Is an "anything goes" attitude toward dressing simply the price we pay to live in a "free" and essentially non-sectarian culture?

If we really don't care how we look to others, but other people consider it disrespectful towards them (or to ourselves, in their eyes), what should we do about it (if anything)?

Jump right in!

Sunday papers...

Photos in today's Sun-Herald and Sunday Telegraph newspapers from the Pussycat Dolls lingerie launch.

4 New HOT Tattoos For Females

Greetings to All!

Heh, I never wrote something like that before...kinda funny.

Ok, let me start over.

Hi Guys!

Now that's very me. :P

Well, I know it's been a while since the last time I made tattoos.

I think it was last year before Christmas.

I thought I've more than enough tattoos (to open a tattoo shop :P)

so I don't need to make them anymore.

But I've seen a lot of people use my tats for their upload/project

and I'm very happy, excited (of course :P) so I decided to make more.

 Anywayyyy, I have these tattoos sitting in my folder for months.

Yes, I'm serious. I've been keeping all of these for myself!

(Whoah, that's mean NewOne! How could you?! )

Yeah, yeah I know. Sorry about that. :)

So now I'm being generous again. I'm sharing these with you. :P

Happy? Good.

Off topic, I named one of these tats 'Hot Wings'. It has wings on it.

I was hungry when I made these so I was thinking about food.

Then out of the blue the name Hot Wings came to my mind.
(Me being creative when I was hungry)

Also if you notice, the pic on very top 'Hot Tattoos'

almost sounds like 'Hot Tacos', doesn't it?...or maybe just me, lols.

(Taco Bell is Heaven :)
Btw, that pic is muy caliente!  I love how it turned out looks good.

Oopsie, I forget...

Some of you maybe don't know or never heard of Taco.

Oh well, just Google it. It won't take five minutes to find out. :P

Now on topic, I made all these from real tattoos.
They're all recolorable so you can go crazy recolor them
with any color you want. Just like I did in pics.

Plus I made custom thumbnail (they're super cute!)
so you'll find these tats very easy in CAS. No need to wild guess.

There's 4 Tattoos:

+ Hot Wings +
+ Double Flowers +
+ Guns & Flowers +
+ The Key To My Heart +

Again, these are
RECOLORABLE
Teen - Elder
All category outfits

Just to make it clear,
I used the socks slot so your sims cannot use these with socks.

Now let's see the pics! ^^

(click on the pics to enlarge them)

ALL TATTOOS

CLOSE UP

MORE CLOSE UP

HOT WINGS
(Yum! :P)

GUNS & FLOWERS

(I almost named this Guns N' Roses)

DOUBLE FLOWERS
Cause it has two flowers (and butterflies)

THE KEY TO MY HEART

Gorjus <3

CAS Thumbnail
Check out these pretties! ^^

As always..

Enjoy and Happy Simming, Everyone!

NewOne

+ DOWNLOAD +

Hot Wings

Double Flowers

Guns & Flowers

The Key To My Heart

ALL 4 TATTOOS


Credits:
CTU Team for the tool
My model Alice <3
for letting me take pics of her butt gazillion times.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IT'S OVER: Why I Broke Up With The Sartorialist

I tried to make it work, really I did.  But at a certain point you have to accept that it wasn't meant to be.  There were no angry confrontations, no broken plates or slamming of doors; I just left.

We met by chance, really: someone on Pattern Review had told me last summer that something I'd sewn was worthy of The Sartorialist.  I didn't get the reference so naturally, I had to find out who this Sartorialist was.  I paid him a visit, and then again, and again and, well, you know how these things happen.

Initially I was attracted, oh, so strongly.  All those stylish people from so many different countries wearing beautiful clothes and looking so great in them.  I saw unusual looks that made me think about new silhouettes, and fresh color and pattern combinations.

But like many ill-fated relationships, this one got old fast.  This is NOT meant to be a criticism of The Sartorialist, btw.  It wasn't him, it was me.

Here's why I drifted: 

1. You probably know by now that I'm really into context.  I'm interested in why we dress the way we do, what clothes mean and why, and how we use them to express who we are in the world and who we want to be.

At the Sartorialist, images are usually decontextualized (i.e., displayed out of context).  We just see a photo of an attractive person wearing stylish clothes; a typical heading reading, "On the Street...Suzette, Paris."   I want to know, who is this person, what kind of life do they lead, where did they get what they're wearing and what did they pay for it?  Do they have health insurance?

2)  As much as I enjoy making clothes, I'm not a fashion person.  I'm interested in the history of fashion design and I like to play dress up but I don't care much about today's trends.  I dress very simply.  The Sartorialist usually features fashion people: editors en route to a fashion show, models, stylists,  photographers.  Of course, those people are going to look stylish, it's their job.

3) This relates to yesterday's post about class: You may disagree, but to me most (not all, most) people featured in The Sartorialist look affluent.  I see people whose lives allow them to wear uncomfortable shoes, beautiful and expensive-looking designer clothes, and live in glamorous cities. 

It's the same way I feel about home decor magazines: you're shown some wealthy couple's fantastic country house that they usually haven't even decorated themselves  -- they've paid someone else to do it for them so of course their house is going to be gorgeous.   Who are these people and why do they have so much money?  Did they inherit it or did they earn it and if they earned it, how?

I enjoy looking at beautiful things but at the same time I resent the display of wealth, especially when it's not treated as worthy of comment.

4) Too many of the younger, non-fashion-editor-types featured on the Sartorialist look...ordinary.

5) The comments people make on the Sartorialist -- and I don't blame the Sartorialist for this -- are vapid, generally things like "great shirt!" "awesome shoes!"  (It's not like he made the shoes, for Pete's sake!) As someone who sews, I can't get very excited about someone wearing something purchased, as challenging as it can be to assemble an outfit.

So that's it, my five reasons.  I'm not trying to change any minds here.  I'm still going to visit the Sartorialist from time to time; no hard feelings.  There's still some attraction there for sure.  We're just not together anymore.

On a related note, there really is too much fashion imagery in our lives already.

I find myself agreeing with reader Monica, who commented the other day, "there is way too much judgment based on personal appearance in this world, and I wish we would all be more understanding the next time someone's appearance triggers feelings of discomfort or contempt."

I want to add that while I write a lot about clothes, no one has to look or dress a certain way to earn my respect or love.  I really don't care.

High Class and White Trash

If you're a fan of old Hollywood movies, you may not think of them as anything more than highly entertaining comedies, dramas, and musicals full of glamorous old stars.

But a large number of those films, especially the ones made for female audiences, dealt very directly with issues of class: stories of women either magically transcending their social rank or failing to do so.  Off the top of my head I think of Katherine Hepburn in "Alice Adams," Joan Crawford in "Mildred Pierce," or Ginger Rogers in "Kitty Foyle," to name only a few classics.   Much more than today, there was a huge cultural gulf between rich and poor and much less social mobility than exists today (yes, even today).

In the movies, social class was always expressed through clothes.  The worst way a woman could look was cheap and/or vulgar -- a dead giveaway that you were from the "wrong" side of the tracks.

My all-time favorite movie about class is "Stella Dallas," starring Barbara Stanwyck.

Stella is a poor mill girl who marries her boss but is unable to fit into his high society world.  Her husband divorces her and Stella tries hard to raise their daughter, Laurel, on her own.  But Stella's common ways --  her vulgar taste in clothes in particular (too many ruffles, too many feathers) -- are such a humiliation and potential social hindrance to sweet Laurel that -- realizing she can never give her daughter the life she deserves -- Stella hands Laurel over to her ex-husband and his wealthy new wife and erases herself from Laurel's life forever more -- all for Laurel's own good, of course!



Emotionally excruciating and over-the-top manipulative, it's my all-time favorite weepie, too.

Back then (the nineteen thirties), it was a given that the rich were well-bred, and anyone who aspired to appear elegant would hold the rich up as their role models.

To a large extent, that no longer holds true today (Paris Hilton, hello?).  Certainly, too many clangy bracelets and loud prints no longer signifies hardscrabble roots.

BUT....

What was/is the preppy look all about if not a way to look old-money?  Same goes for the Ralph Lauren "Polo" label (who plays polo, after all?).  Why do we buy designer knockoffs or "accessible" luxury brands like Coach?  What is the "status" that the status symbol refers to?

Conversely, how often do we refer to something as being "trailer park," "red neck," or "trashy" when we're not talking about the contents of a Hefty bag?

I remember reading that even in Renaissance Florence, peasants would aspire to dress like the nobles they'd see.  Doesn't a fairy tale like "Cinderella" tell us that if you look like a princess, you can be a princess (same with "My Fair Lady")?

Doesn't it just seem right that regal Audrey Hepburn was descended from dutch aristocracy?  And then there's lovely Grace Kelly who actually became a princess.  These two women are still style icons today; former foster child Marilyn Monroe, not so much, imo.

Little girls still play princess, and all those old Disney movies are full of them.

Is the princess fantasy about being powerful, living in a castle, or just getting to wear fancy gowns?

Wise readers, I ask you:  Is looking elegant today the same as looking wealthy?  Have trashy (whoops, there I go!) "celebutantes" like Paris Hilton helped make dressing "rich" more attainable?  

Do the rich really dress differently today than the rest of us?  (If you're rich yourself, maybe you could share the inside scoop.)  How about when you were growing up, did the "rich" kids dress differently than everybody else?

Do you ever dress to impress by consciously trying to look prosperous?  (I do!)

Readers, your thoughts please!

April Fool's Joke - A Real One :)

Hey, you wanna see something funny? :)

Well, check this out!

Be ready to ROFL.

Note. It was really a coincidence when I saw this.

I was checking my uploads on MTS last night.

This one is from Ashton Reed's post here

Just click the pics to see the bigger size

Now this is the BEST part

So, what do you think?

I hope you get the joke :P

 Peace 'n <3

NewOne