Sew Distracted

Patrones Updaate, answers and comments

To answer a few questions:

Shannon and Christina write that Around the World in NYC carries Patrones and they are willing to ship.  I love Around the World and stop in there whenever I get a chance to walk anywhere near that neighborhood.  They were my source for several of the Patrones I got before the subscription.  They do ship and they are accommodating.  But competition for these magazines in NYC can be steep and you have to call while they have the books in stock, or just before they arrive.  I have had success with Around the World and Kinokinuya (for Mrs. Stylebook) with calling just before they expected a shipment to come in and pre-ordering a book.    But one has to keep up with publishing schedules and shipping schedules to pull this off. The standard issues of Patrones do not stay on the shelves long (if you are looking for large size editions, or children's issues you will have more luck).  Neither store will sell a subscription for the magazines.   I have decided that I am just too disorganized or too lazy to go to the trouble if I can get the book shipped directly to me.  I have loved every issue of Patrones I have seen.

Now some issues are children's issues, I think about 4 issues a year, but I am not certain.  In the first 4 months I have gotten 1 children's issue.  That is OK because I do occasionally sew for nieces, nephews, friends children, and grandchild, although I don't generally write about it (except for some grandbabby sewing) because It is not as interesting to me as making adult garments for myself.  I know there will also be a couple of  large size issues but that is not a problem because I am not a small person to begin with, although the large sizes are often larger than I want, and I can alter anything I like to fit.  So we will see how it goes, if there are too many children's issues, I may not renew.  Let's see.

As to price, the price of 288.4 Euros currently translates to $393.72 which is less than the Amazon subscription price of  $425.  The only rough part is figuring out how to fill out the Spanish subscription form, but there translators on the web to help you with that.  When I purchased my subscription the Euro was cheaper against the dollar and DH paid 321.89 for the subscription, so I can see how it would be beneficial to pay attention to exchange rates and subscribe accordingly.

There are twelve issues.  At $322.00 for a subscription that works out to $26.8 per issue, not cheap but not that far off what I was paying on e-bay for the fast shipping from Germany.  AT the current exchange rate it is more expensive at 32.83 per issue.  Of course, if you just throw away the children's issues it would be considerably more expensive.  Then you would have to decide if you got enough usable patterns out of each issue that it worked out in terms of cost per pattern. AT the moment, for my use, I would say I get more than $27 worth of patterns out of each issue, but I may have to reconsider if the dollar keeps falling against the Euro.  Luckily I have a few months, and lots of sewing time, before that decision will come up.

Iris Made Me Do It.

Well, that is not exactly true, but she did help.

You see, I had been eying these teal boots by Delman for several months over at Zappos .  They had been in my "favorites" since December I think, and I would periodically look at them and drool.  But I realize that teal boots are not a necessity, and I have many pairs of boots.  In fact I was just complaining that I have more boots than will fit into the allotted storage space and I was contemplating liberating a few pairs. I am not sure that will really happen, especially considering that I just purchased these boots and absolutely love them.

After looking at all Iris Apfel's beautiful books all weekend, and then staring longingly at these teal beauties, and noticing that they were STILL available in my size, I bought them.

They fit perfectly, they are the exact shade of teal as several things in my wardrobe, and they coordinate perfectly with a favorite skirt that has proven very difficult to match and pair with other garments.

As I placed the boots lovingly in a temporary spot in my shoe closet while I ponder the issue of expanded boot storage, I noticed that the oldest pair of shoes is also probably** a pair of Delmans that I thought extremely frivolous at the time, but which has proven to be a long term standard and favorite.

These suede flats were purchased, I believe around 1985, give or take a year. and have been worn steadily, every season since.

***  There are actually three pairs of shoes from the mid-eighties still floating around in the wardrobe, but I believe these are the oldest.  These date just before the time my feet decided to suddenly grow from a 7 1/2 to an 8 1/2, much to my shoe-collecting chagrin, or there would be more survivors.  If my feet hadn't grown I would still have the gorgeous royal blue suede and lizard pumps I wore on my wedding day.  My feet might have been in a transitional stage at the time, because I bought an 8, or they might have only come in even sizes,  because I am pretty consistently a true 8 1/2 in Delman and Ferragamo, my benchmarks for well-made, well-fitting, comfortable shoes.

Patrones Subscriptions

A couple of people have asked about subscribing to Patrones.   I don't know of any subscription service that sends Patrones to the US, although there may be one available.

I got my subscription directly from Patrones by going to the Patrones Website  and clicking on the button called Subscripcion.

Everything is in Spanish, but I think it can be figured out.  Basically, if you are not in Europe you need the bottom choice "Resto países, correo certificado vía aérea 288,40 €." which basically means airmail to the rest of the world.  There seems to be no option bo subscribe by slow boat, and you will note that the rest of the world pays far more than the Europeans do, based on the exhorbitant cost of the airmail. The service has been quite prompt, except for April, my first three issues arrived right away, February and March were here by the 3rd day of each month.

My subscription was a gift from my DH.  But I will renew it next year.  Although I might have spent less ordering issues on ebay and having them shipped express from Germany, it wasn't that much less, and I never opted for slow boat delivery as I am far too impatient. Besides there was all the trouble of looking for issues and dealing with ebay. 

If anyone knows of another way, please let me know.

SWAP

Well SWAP is officially over and the submissions are absolutely fabulous.  Instead of sewing I have been drooling over the 31 collections and kicking myself for not participating. 

I have never done a SWAP.  I have trouble conceiving of doing a SWAP.  As those who know me well will attest, I have trouble sticking to even the simplest plan without being lured into something else.  Chaos should truly have been my middle name.

That does not mean that I do not greatly admire all those people (they were women, but there might have been a man) who have created coordinated wardrobes of 11 garments.  I am stunned, actually stunned at the variety and quality of the submissions.  Check them out here .  They are positively drool-worthy. Everyone who participated is a winner here just in terms of what they have achieved. 

As a member of Artisan's Square, I am entitled to a vote, and I have been seriously contemplating the choices.  With 31 submissions, it is hard to choose, and I am trying mightly not to judge arbitrarily.    I have spent time listing what I believe to be the important points, carefully analyzing the photos, and attempting to look at the choices fairly and clearly.  I have narrowed them down to 7 in my mind.  After much deliberation, II have eliminated one and decided on my first and second place picks, but the remaining 4 all vie for third place.  I have yet to discern how I can choose between them.  In the end I will probably have to make some completely arbitrary decision about how well I think they succeeded in creating a wardrobe that meets their stated needs.  A lot of this decision will depend on how the intention of each swap was described and then how the final results are presented, and whether the collection works as a whole to meet the stated goals. 

If you have a better idea let me know.  Perhaps another night's sleep will help.

Dreamland

I spent the weekend perusing and dreaming over this newly arrived book:

The book is valuable mostly for its pictures, and oh, what pictures.  This book is full on inspiration and dreams.  Even if they are someone else's choices and someone else's style, the pictures remind me to be true to myself, and have courage.

I could sew an entire wardrobe based on the ideas I see in this book.

It reminds me to buy what I love.  It reminds me to hold on to what I love, not purge in the name of "space" or "fashion".   It makes me think "Oh why did I get rid of those mustard suede flats I loved so much".

This is a good book to look through whenever I get caught up in that old mantra of "should be".

I spent the weekend looking at this book and dreaming. 

I spent the entire weekend in shorts, tank tops, and flip-flops, whereas a mere week before I was wearing fur-lined raincoats thinking Spring would never come.

Hallelu! Hallelu! Halleluia!

Patrones Came!

(no offense intended at any irreverance)

This is a wonderful issue filled with some lovely suits and very cute sundresses, and a few othr things that are giving me ideas, even if I don't like the actual garment portrayed. Here are the best among a plethora of treats:

New Book

When I went to the post office today I was very excited to see that I had a yellow slip, which means that I have a package to pick up at the window.  Sometimes the slips are pink, and I have yet to unravel the mystery of why sometimes the slips are pink and sometimes they are yellow.  Supposedly they are for different things, excess mail or packages, but they seem to be used interchangeably.

But back to the package.  Despite my hopes it was not the April Patrones.  Instead I got this book:

I had ordered it before G went into the hospital, after reading about it on Blackwater Park,   but the truth is that it had been on my list for some time, I had just not bothered getting around to ordering it.    I have owned Mansfield's other book, Clothing Construction for a couple of years and treasure it as one of my favortie sewing books. 

I had in fact, forgotten that I had ordered it, and read about it again when I was catching up with Tany's blog   yesterday.  Luckily I checked with my various orders and saw that it was on the way.

I think I am going to love this book as much as the other.  I curled up with it and read the first chapter, on dress forms, and can't wait to get to work.  I think I need to reread some of my other sewing books as well.  So many new things to learn and absorb and try, and eventually a new dressform to pad out.

I will take Tany's suggestion and look for a copy of the April Patrones if mine does not arrive, and I will e-mail or call the publisher and find out what happened to my copy if it does not show up.

Where o where?

I am home trying to catch up on piles and piles of things that have been allowed to accumulate in the house, and hundreds of blog posts, e-mails, and message board entries. 

I can't catch up with all that has happened, but know this:  all is well.  My darling has had surgery and is home, tired, weak, and uncomfortable but in good spirits.  It appears that all of the evil stuff was caught during surgery and things look good.  I have been in and out of the house, mostly out, and certainly out of the office.  I have so much to do that should have been done before that I will never make it up -- so what health and happiness are far more important than a few days work. Now, while G convalesces I shall try to put everything back in order.

Despite the fact that I should be working, I have started catching up with blogs, very slowly.  I was reading Tany's Blog, actually catching up with posts since mid March because my mental state was not such that I could give her the attention she so richly deserves, when it struck me that she has pictures of the April Patrones  up and I don't think I have gotten it.  With my new subscription, I received the first issues (Jan - March) so quickly that this surprises me.  Now I admit that I have been terribly distracted, and I have piles of mail that have not been gone through.  They roughly sorted into "handle immediately" "not so urgent" and "no rush at all", but I would think that no matter what was going on, the Patrones would have been in my hands and unwrapped right away. I did get the April Burda and I remember reading it although I don't remember where I put it right at the moment; I most certainly did not put it where it belongs.  Oh well.

As I said, there are piles, so I shall wait until May, see if it comes, see if the next issue comes, then begin to panic.

And why am I worried about not getting more patterns anyway?  Do I not have enough?  Have I sewn anything in the last month?  So much for good intentions.  But, as stated before, patterns are dreams, and dreams are very dear right now.

Back to work

The "high priestess flunks HTML

Well, I copy the text for the previous post.  It looks great when I am writing it.  It looks great when I preview it at Typepad, all properly aligned and centered, but after I save it and go look at the actual blog, what do I get?

Bah! Humbug!

So what am I doing wrong?  Why isn't it centered?  Obviously my priestlessly skills don't extend to HTML.

High Priestess

You are The High Priestess

Science, Wisdom, Knowledge, Education.

The High Priestess is the card of knowledge, instinctual, supernatural, secret knowledge. She holds scrolls of arcane information that she might, or might not reveal to you. The moon crown on her head as well as the crescent by her foot indicates her willingness to illuminate what you otherwise might not see, reveal the secrets you need to know. The High Priestess is also associated with the moon however and can also indicate change or fluxuation, particularily when it comes to your moods.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Thanks to Ann at Gorgeous Things  and Barbara at Cat Fur Studio for steering me toward this diversion.

I'll be back.