Sew Distracted

New Month, New Project, New Boots

I cut the first muslin from the blue fabric yesterday, and was happy to be doing it even though I had originally thought I would be so much further along this week.  

 

I was feeling so proud of myself, telling myself "see you did work on more than one project in one month" and then I realized that yesterday was September 1st, and it was a new month already.  So far I have managed two skirts in two months.   I'm going to be daring and say that this month I will make two garments.  I actually want to make more than that, but as we have seen, my record in that department has not been particularly good.

 

In the meantime I have done some more shopping.  In fact I did more boot shopping.  I wanted a pair of black ankle boots with fairly high heels, higher than the heels in the black boots I wore when modeling Avril, and those are mid-calf anyway, which I manage to convince myself is not at all the same thing.

 

As usual, I spent a lot of time in pursuit of the perfect boot.  The fact that I was shopping online was not a time saver as there were so many more choices, and most of them were not quite what I wanted.  Or worse, I would see something I would like, it would not be available in my size, and I would fritter away more time searching for other vendors.  Bah!

 

I kept falling for a lot of fairly sophisticated "city" boots.  Does anyone use that terminology anymore: city or country??  Anyway there were boots that I would love if we had a different lifestyle, a lifestyle I once had an may or may not have at some other  time in my life.  That part is irrelevent, the "will I" or "won't I" question, because the point is that I need boots with a heel that I can wear for my life now with the clothes that I wear now.  

 

Perspective is always good.

 

I ended up with these boots from Frye.   They are the short version of the Harlow Campus Boot and they are just exactly what I wanted even though I didn't know it until I saw them.  They also make me smile because my first pair of Frye boots ever was a Campus boot, purchased my freshman year in college.  I loved those boots.  They were not nearly as sleek as these, but I love the idea that there is a campus boot for every age.

 

 

The shoes of summer past.

I am still thinking about sewing, and thinking about clothes for fall, although it is still warm enough that the transition is more in "feel" than in actual garments.  And all this thinking about clothes and sewing has actually inspired me to get the cutting table at least partially cleared of clutter, cleared enough that I can see the surface, and cleared enough that I had enough space to block a sweater.  I might even have enough space to cut a new slip/lining for that maroon skirt, which is shamefully still sitting on the cutting table waiting for me to do something about the lining.  Luckily, the color is good for fall, and I have more things to wear with it that are appropriate for fall than were appropriate for this past summer.

And the clutter should be a little more confined soon.  I really do need to stop that habit of punishing myself when I get behind by piling everything up on my workspace.  It is as if I have some mental taskmistress that is telling me I can sew when I get all my chores done, but I never quite manage to get them done.  Enough of that!

But back to my current chain of thought.  I have been thinking about clothes for fall, and I have ordered a few things that aren't here yet, and I do want to sew several things, including that pleated organza coat (and everything else I have written about here). 

Part of the process of thinking about sewing is thinking about what I want to sew (organza coat, wool fused-yarn coat), what I need to wear (very casual) and how to work out some equilibrium between my actual and my fantasy wardrobes. 

At the end of each season I do like to look back on what I wore the previous season because it gives me a kind of idea of where my life is.  That period of reflection, along with a look at my calendar and my closets helps tell me what I might need or want. 

It also always intrigues me that although I love reading the fashion magazines and looking at the runway shows, there is more or less correlation of what I wear with what I see/buy/make based on a wide variety of factors.  Looking at all the fabulous clothes coming down the runway now for next spring reminds me of all the things I wanted to make for this past spring.  But I have never been consistent about making something and wearing it in its season.  Sometimes I wear it in a timely manner; sometimes a garment has to mellow in my closet a year, or even two before it is ready to come out and play.  I never intend it this way.  I always think I will wear everything I sew or buy right away.  But I am too much a creature of moods.  So I find "what did I wear?" to be much more interesting than "what did I buy?"

So what did I wear this past summer?  I'm going to look at the shoes here as we all know there was little sewing, and you will have to trust me that the clothes were completely boring, basic linen and chinos and an assortment of tees.

As I mentioned it was a casual summer and several old favorites were in constant use. The blue Aerosole wedges shown up at the top have been a favorite since I bought them (how many years ago? 3? 4?) They make me smile every time I put them on. I will be heartbroken when they finally collapse from overuse.

  Other old favorites were a couple of pairs of practical "comfort" sandals, which I hope still have a little more style than the average merely functional shoe. But even if they don't, one always needs comfortable shoes for wearing around the house with chinos and shorts.  Since I rarely got out of the house except to go to the grocery store or farmer's market these shoes got lots of use.

But it wasn't all comfort and practicality:

 I surprised myself by falling in love with some sandals I bought last year but never wore.  In fact at the beginning of the season I was considering whether this pair had been a mistake and was contemplating selling them.  I should have known better, I make few major mistakes, at least in terms of purchased clothes, anymore.  I can't imagine why I thought they were too stiff and uncomfortable last year.  This year they were pretty much the sandal I wanted to wear almost every day.  Of course it didn't happen, shoes need to breathe and they didn't go with everything, after all.

What didn't go with the bronze sandals more than likely did go with these sandals however and these were the second most frequently worn sandals for this past summer.  Oddly enough I didn't wear them last summer either.  I thought the strap was too tight across the top of my foot.   Do you think 12 pounds would have made that much difference in the size of my feet?  I don't think so.

Whatever the reason, they were perfect this year.

One new pair of sandals made it onto my frequent wear list:

I bought these sandals early in the season for an obscene amount of money.  I am rationalizing it away by telling myself that I bought fewer things than usual this summer, and I have worn these so frequently and I love them so much I know I will wear them as long as possible, even when they are completely out of fashion.  I love the style, I love the purple heel, I love the thick almost industrial buckles at the ankle -- I guess I should have taken a better photograph of those.  And I can wear them well into fall.  No dainty summery sandals these. I feel tough and pretty and in control. 

Gee, that is a lot of pressure to put on a mere shoe.

And although I had little reason or opportunity to dress up this past summer, if I did, I made sure that whatever I wore had to go with these sandals.

This was another sale pair.  I do sometimes love the way everything goes on sale right in the middle of the season in which you want to wear it.  I think it is stupid, but I don't mind taking advantage. 

Besides, it would have been a very sad summer indeed if there was no room for frivolity.

Still working

Here I am looking tired, still setting up the new computer and running the old computer on the cutting table.  It is taking longer than I had hoped, not that I should be surprised at this point in my life, although the task is not so much difficult as time consuming, especially as I want to sort through stuff as I transfer.  Computers, like houses tend to fill with stuff.

The old computer keeps shutting down on me, one of the frustrating issues that prompted me to get a new computer in the first place, and that prolongs the process.  Today also we have had several thunderstorms and about 3 inches of rain.  It hasn't broken the heat any but the power has flickered on and off and I have lost the internet connection a couple of times.

Linking directly to the old computer was becoming too problematic so I am transferring the data from an internet back-up but the last batch of data hasn't arrived.  I don't remember if I actually sent it, or just got everything lined up and meant to click send but didn't either due to an interruption or absent-mindedness. It is also possible that I accidently clicked on the restore to CD option rather than the "restore to download" option.  Silly me.    I also did not think to order a copy of Adobe photoshop until after I set up the computer so I am waiting for that as well, but things are progressing.  Of course some data requires manual conversion from PC to Mac format as well. Actually I am enjoying this enough that I wonder why I didn't do it sooner.  Of course, for a long time Apple was pretty much a dirty word in this community which revolved around IBM.

I haven't spent all my spare time at the computer.  I did shorten three new pairs of pants for DH and it was so nice to just sit in a chair and lose myself in the rhythm of the hand stitches.  Even though I might prefer to make something new for myself, I can really enjoy just sitting down and listening to a piece of music and hemming.  Frankly it made me happy to see that my newly serged edges and hand hems looked much better than the original ones that came on the pants -- not that it is at all important, or that anyone will ever know but me.  

Since I am also interruptible when hemming, I was able to get all three pieces done, whereas I don't think I would have had such a long stretch of time in the sewing room.  Don't think that means I am going to get better at doing the mending though:  there is still a huge stack, and I would rather just make new, unless it is a favorite garment.

I've been thinking about clothes and summer shoes, and not just because Materfamilias happened to post about sandals today.  I have been thinking about the occasional post about shoes or what I am wearing or just what I am thinking about clothes and style as that also all channels into what I sew (and knit) as well. I find that I am have been getting more and more interested in clothes again, perhaps partly because I am either more confident (ha!) or just more willing to experiment with what I like with less concern about what other people think about my choices.   I have been collecting more and more inspiration photos, and in doing so, and looking at clothing websites, I am also realizing that I am just not interested in making all my own clothes.  I will still shop. People do things that I would never think of, and if I can find something that I like and looks good on me and fits (a lot of ifs, I know) I have no problem buying.  And of course shoes are easy, because I am not going to make them anyway.

So today, even though I was home all day, I am just the kind of person who has to feel a little pulled together and ready to answer the door when FedEx comes or I need to run out to the Post Office.  But since it was a casual day, I am just wearing  a white tee and periwinkle cotton knit pants.  

I actually made these pants in 2005 and this is an old photo.  I don't have Photoshop up on the computer and can't figure out how to crop out the part of the picture I don't want, and things are too piled up to get a decent new picture, so this will just have to do.  They have held up really well, look practically like new, except for perhaps a little fraying at the bottom of the hem.  So I guess it does pay to buy or make clothes out of good quality fabrics.  Even though these are cotton kni they don't sag or bag and look just as nice as they did in that photo.

But of course, I had on accessories as well. The scarf is one of the first scarves I ever bought myself.  I picked it up at a craft fair soon after I graduated from college.  The silk is rather light and delicate and it has been hand painted,  The colors seem perfect for so many summer things, and the weight is just right for the warm weather, so it remains a favorite.  I actually don't wear it all that often anymore, but when it do wear it, nothing else seems to quite work as well.

And yes there were shoes.  I wore one of my current favorite pairs of casual, flat sandals.  I bought these last summer from Thierry Rabotin.

I actually had qualms about white sandals.  I hadn't owned a pair for several years.  But DH thought the shoes were very graceful, and they are.  Since they are also very comfortable  and go with so much, I am glad that he encouraged me to buy them. As you can see, they have had their share of wear.