Me Musing . . . January 20, 2007 (wee hours . . .)

It has been two months since I wrote my first musing which included these words: 'The walking meditation known as flanerie (the French invention of strolling) is a key that unlocks your creativity'.

And it occurred to me that when I first moved to California in 1969 and was still making all my own clothes, sewing was my form of meditation (even though I had not heard of that word at the time . . . remember, I was born and raised outside a little town in Ohio and the first artichoke I ever ate was after moving to California!).

After I downloaded the last Musing page, then ate dinner, I decided to work some more on the next jacket I had cut out. I have been collecting patterns, just as I have been collecting fabric for a few years and this one 'spoke to me' the first time I saw the pattern.

It has a casual sort of look with drop shoulders and when buttoned, a sort of wave is created on the right jacket front which makes it appear as if the right side is longer than the left .

(This is waaaaay too hard to describe,
so I'll just scan the picture so you can see for yourself!)

Sewing Workshop's San Diego Jacket

Now you get the idea!

I began the jacket last night; however, got stumped early on in the instruction sheet and decided it was better to stop for the night than 'cut to the dot' and then find out that I'd cut where I wasn't supposed to!

Sooooooooo, today I called the pattern company to ask for help. (They are a small independent group and offer help like that, which is nice . . . AND . . . a real person even answers the phone when you call!). Kathy walked me through the process and even gave me tips on how best to manage that section, plus ideas for more garments using that same pattern.

What a treat that was!

Off I went to the sewing machine to forge ahead.

Since I have been getting more confident in my sewing the past few weeks, I have found that it is once again slipping me into that 'meditation frame of mind' . . . opening up spaces where ideas can begin to surface.

I guess, for me, there is a fine line between meditation and musing!

I was thinking about how much faster I have been able to take a garment from cutting to hemming. And then chuckled as I thought of our high school Home Ec class in sewing. At that time I could make a skirt in an evening, after finishing my homework.

The shock was, when we began 'the shift' from cooking to sewing in Home Ec, the teacher told us we would be making a skirt and the lessons would last 6 weeks!!!!!!!!! I couldn't figure out HOW that could be possible. Well, as she began to describe what we would be doing, I began to realize that it might be the end of my sewing career as I'd never be able to sew that slowly.

And it only got worse. The pattern she picked was dorky; we were to sew with 1-1/2 inch seams instead of the usual 5/8 inch (which I was used to taking down to 1/2 inch if I was skimping on fabric when I had cut out the skirt!); and all that basting stuff . . . yikes . . . by that time I had figured out how to put in a zipper without even pinning it!

Mother instructed me to just keep sewing in the evenings and weekends and to endure the few hours a week of sewing torture at school. So I did.

At the end of the six-week period we were to have a fashion show of our skirts. I had already determined that I would never wear that skirt where anyone I knew would see it, so that too was a shock!

The last part was the hem and final pressing. One of my dear friends, Sue, was NOT a sewer. It got to the point that we all felt sorry for her and almost wanted to sew the skirt for her, as she just wasn't adept at any part of it.

I was recalling as if it just happened yesterday . . . we were encouraging her as she put the final stitches in the hem and she was soooooo proud that she finally finished the skirt.

We all applauded her and she beamed . . .

Until she picked up the skirt off her lap where she had been holding it to sew . . . and realized she had sewed part of it to the skirt she was wearing. We all cried with her as we didn't dare laugh.

As I was thinking all this (in a matter of a few seconds), I was serging the side seams of the fabric I had picked for this jacket as they were getting pretty frayed. Thankfully I stopped in time, as part of the jacket front fabric had managed to creep very close underneath the part I was serging on the side seams!!!!!!!! I was just about ready to serge it along with the seam I was working on. Having 'been there, done that' a few weeks ago on the lining to the Rain Swing Jacket, leaving a big cut out place(!!!), I decided I'd better get back to present time and pay attention!

I had already picked out the buttons I would use and seeing that this fabric was too thick to make loops (not only don't I 'do' black, I don't 'do' buttonholes!), I found some leather/suede in my stash to use for the loops. And while finding those, I came across a package of that lace-type seam binding we used to use on hems. (It must be at least 25 years old!!!!!!) Still in the original wrapper and will be perfect for the facing edge and hem!

The buttons are wooden faces.

I must have 'a thing' about faces as they appear in all kinds of artwork/clay/masks throughout my home! If you haven't visited my Studio website fix yourself a cup of tea and spend some time there with the 'Dreamers'!

Anyway, I had found those buttons (actually they were sold as beads!) a number of years ago and thought they would be interesting on a wrap/jacket I was contemplating how to make.

I got the idea from an Erté design . . . sometimes it's a wrap (right side shows this when the buttons are unbuttoned) and sometimes a jacket (left side shows this with buttons fastened to form a sleeve)

That one is still on the drawing board!

Well, I got the jacket finished. Decided to put the button/beads at the wrist also to draw them in a little as I must have small wrists!

The fabric is really supposed to be used for upholstery, but after washing it a few times, that coating layer dissolved and softened the fabric. It will be a nice addition of a light-weight casual jacket to my new wardrobe.

Those of you who have been here to the house might recognize it as I have used the full length piece of it at times as a drape to cover the 'Lazy Boy gray/pink' sofa fabric that seemed to be popular for a number of years! I like buying long pieces of textured fabric for just that use!

Well, guess I'd better stop and drift off to 'Dream-land'.

Until soon,

Che'usa

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