Cheap Entertainment Priceless Learning

Yesterday, on Already Pretty, Sal posted about her journey to discover her style. If you haven't read it, you'll love the pictures. They so clearly show her development over the years. She compared finding your style to developing your voice as an artist which is exactly true and what I'm experiencing. In the posting, she included the quote below from Ira Glass.

What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me — is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.

I particularly love those last three lines. So true.

Mel wrote - I wonder if your recent struggling is that you don't have a satisfactory creative outlet. You're exploring, searching, just haven't quite landed yet. Does your creative outlet need to be textiles?

YES. Definitely. I have explored many different mediums and in the end, textiles are mine. I think in fabric. I cannot imagine - and don't even want to think about - the day when I can't work with textiles. They are my area of expertise and of interest. I know a lot about working with them and there is still so much to learn. It's never ending. It's very much like the quote above. There's a learning curve to moving in new directions. To grow, I can't avoid that struggle and I don't even want to because there's so much to learn from the process.

While it may look like I'm drowning, I feel I've made tremendous strides in the last few weeks, gaining confidence with the style lines and fabrics that suit my figure and identifying that jewelry is often my focal point. Now, when looking at fabrics and styles, I am thinking in terms of complete outfits as opposed to individual garments and including accessories in my thought process. I've also started applying art lessons to my garment construction which is already and will continue to evolve things differently. Yesterday, I started a project, which I'll tell you about below, whose sole purpose was to stretch my creative muscles and may - or may not - have resulted in a wearable blouse. Either way was okay. As I used to tell my students, masterpieces are a bonus.

In terms of the clothing/attire path, if we were talking about following the pattern exactly, I'd be worried. That would bore me to tears in no time but that's not the direction I'm headed in and there's a huge big world of sewing and fashion to explore while finding my place on the path. As the quote says - It's going to take a while. It's normal to take a while. You've just gotta fight your way through.

Mel also wrote - The blandness that you speak of... I agree with you that some of that is the calm after the chaos of having children. It takes a while to work into other things. I also wonder if some of the bland feeling is your food issues that have arisen. Food is now more boring... well, make that a LOT more boring. So that means you need to make other parts of your life even more dynamic to compensate for the food issue.

Just to clarify, the blandness has never had anything to do with my children. The chaos I was referring to was major and ongoing upheavals in my personal life, extended family, and career. My kids are normal kids so we've had our issues but overall they are responsible, caring, and supportive and are maturing into wonderful adults. I'm very lucky to be their mother. The food...

... well, that's another story. I definitely miss many things associated with food but I've chosen to believe that when menopause is over, my food issues will also improve and possibly disappear completely. It appears that the aloe vera and pre/probiotic treatment that I've been trying is helping. When I do accidentally - or rebelliously - eat those forbidden ingredients, I'm not reacting as strongly to some. Fingers crossed. I'm hopeful.




Here's the fabric I used for yesterday's blouse. It's a very loose weave, not quite cheesecloth but moving in that direction. It was in the bargain center so I'm not sure what the fibre content is but most likely a polyester blend. It has five shiny stripes spaced every 13" and is three hundred and something inches wide because it's a drapery fabric. The stripes reminded me of pin tucks so I bought it for a challenge and a challenge it has been.




The fabric is horrible. It frays and puckers, pulls and shrinks, and generally behaves quite badly. I've had to come up with all kinds of ways to make it work because I told myself I couldn't quit even though I've wanted to several times. In the process, I learned a few things I'll be able to transfer to other garments - like how wonderful fusible tape is for maintaining seam lines and helping to finish ravelling edges.


I used McCall's 6035 - the blue version with the tie sleeves. I've sewn this pattern twice before except that the pattern pieces are missing. I'm not sure what happened. I vaguely remember wanting to make some changes. Either way, I redrafted them and now that I've sewn this version will make some more modifications. I started by...




... sewing the shiny stripes into three evenly spaced pin tucks and then cut out the two fronts separately so the tucks would lean away from center front and look identical. They had to remain pressed in the same direction because the bottom of each tuck has a different coloration.

There's one stripe on the collar. I had to sew it twice. The first time, I didn't interface the under collar and it frayed to nothing while turning the collar right sides out. That version had three stripes which looked visually heavy. I decided that one was enough on the second version and interfaced both collar bands and the upper and the under collars. It worked. Interface both sides is a lesson I'll take forward for lighter weave fabrics.

You can see in the image above that I attached the collar band right side to wrong side so that the hand stitching ends up underneath. I can't remember where I learned that method but it's much neater especially when you wear the collar open at the neck.




By last night, the blouse was completely finished except for the buttons and sleeve ties and it will stay that way. The fabric was so horrible that the resulting blouse is completely skewed and something weird is going on with the back neck. The shoulder seams are set too far back. I'm not sure if that's the fabric's fault or the pattern's but most likely it's the fabric's as the other blouses sewn from this pattern didn't have the same issue. Just in case, I'll re-check the draft.

Do I regret spending an entire day sewing and ending up with an unwearable muslin. Not at all. It was cheap entertainment and priceless learning. Among other things, I confirmed that I prefer to sew with stable fabrics. When I attempt to sew with chiffon, gauze, or other light weight or loosely woven fabrics, I'm almost always unhappy with the results so I either need to avoid them or need to learn how to sew them more effectively. For now, I'll avoid. They're not even on, never mind near the top of, my learn list.

While I was sewing, I thought about the teachers I have studied with and what they are known for. I was first attracted to studying with Sandra Betzina by her creativity. She's very much a think outside the box kind of person with an energy that vibrates. She's also incredibly skilled technically as is Ron Collins who works with her. Both have well developed skill sets and know numerous tricks and short cuts but they especially enjoy the creative details that make garments individual. Pati Palmer and Marta Alto are both fabulous sewists with all kinds of tricks and tips in their repertoire and yet their number one focus is fit. The clothes they sew are more classic. Studying with these four instructors has nurtured two areas of importance to me - fit and creativity. Other teachers that I know about but haven't studied with seem to be more about couture skills. Those don't interest me as much. I would like to take a workshop on figure flattery.

I enjoy learning and perfecting a skill. I enjoy tricks and shortcuts. I enjoy quality fabrics and quality stitching. I enjoy doing my best at every stage resulting in the best possible garment at the time. I enjoy adding details that make a garment uniquely mine. I enjoy (over) thinking who I am and what I want and what suits me and - as I said earlier - I feel like I've learned - accepted - come to terms with - a few things in regards to me and sewing in the last few weeks and am, for now at least, moving forward positively. I really enjoyed my slow and easy sewing day yesterday and I'm looking forward to another one today. YES YES !

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - good friends in tough times