for people who make stuff
I’m not given to resolutions in general, but I love the fresh feeling of a new year, watching the light sticking around a little longer in the afternoon, and the plants recovering from their blanketing of snow. Our little family’s recent delight in making (and eating) bread at home has reminded me that there will always be something new to get excited about, and here we have a whole twelve months to do it in.
Hope you too find many more things to invigorate you in this coming year.
Another thing that is disappearing is Bloglines. When I read about it last week I was sad, even though I jumped their ship a few months ago. Like many of you I jumped to Google Reader, and I’m happy enough. I guess I feel sad because of the streamlining that always happens with new internet thingys: once there were many social networks, and now there is just facebook, for example. And with the transferral of another arm of my online life into Google’s hands, and at the same time the utter mushrooming of online places I should be keeping up with, I felt a little tired as well as sad.
I am, you see, an internet dinosaur. I met Mr J because of the internet, way back when I was hand-coding a website for my boss. It’s so far back that animated gifs were the latest in technology. Yes, I’m that old. What this really means is that for me the internet is an adjunct to the real world – it is brilliant, and exciting, and it lets me talk to people I wouldn’t get to meet any other way. But I run this life parallel to my outside world life – the two can gently bump into each other but they are not enmeshed. I can best explain this using facebook: I see it as a way of connecting with people I have actually met, such as the classmates from my japanese class, or people from school that I am nosy about for ten minutes and then, curiosity satisfied, never need to think about again. Hence I do not link my twitter feed or my blog to facebook or vice versa, since I think my family could do without my wittering about fabric and wotnot, and I do not think it’s appropriate for people I haven’t met to be able to see intimate family pictures which may also include pictures of other people’s small children.
But it’s me and people like me who are disappearing. People ten years younger see facebook as just another part of their social lives and have no delineation between it and their real world life. It is just life. It’s why they have 400 friends – they add anyone they meet in a cocktail bar. It opens a gateway to social exclusion (imagine not being included in an event, or not having access to the internet for a week and missing all the invitations and gossip) as much as it opens up communication and ways of sharing life stories complete with photos. I am knocking it a little, yes, but that’s only because I’ve already had an email that asked why I hadn’t responded to an event invitation, which begged the question ‘why not email and ask me to your event instead?’ See? Dinosaur.
I don’t mind that. I’ll continue with my compartmentalised life for as long as I care to, because it feels right to me. If it ever feels wrong then I’ll mesh everything together. That’ll be a shock for everyone I should think…
The Tool Kit – the things you need to begin sewing. I have them all, but I just love the seam ripper on this post. Recently I’m finding that Sarai’s blog is becoming one of the first I go to in my reader (when I have a spare five minutes to actually get to the reader). August is fabric month and I like this post (and useful comments) on weight and drape. It’s a blog chock full of useful advice for dressmakers – go! Soak it up!
How to make good buttonholes (video)
Tips on Sewing with knits by Meg, including the introduction of a new to me notion – woolly nylon thread. I must find this soon.
Sew Mama Sew Make It Wear It list of links – a handy summation of a whole month of dressmaking advice.
Alexander Henry Cotton Lawn (via Sew Liberated) Oh yes please!
I’ve had a break from the sewing room lately, partly due to family visits & general otherwise occupiedness, but also partly due to firing up the internet and making a home for a spot of writing. Since I realised this morning that Florence has outed me I can at least out myself – I’m practising writing, over here at practicewriting.co.uk. Come and have a look, but do remember it’s only practice.
Don’t forget you can still leave a comment for a chance to win ‘Made At Home’ and some lovely fabric…
Or how I learned to stop worrying about losing that ever so useful thing I just read.
Despite having sworn off the making of clothing for myself for now, since I’m still trying to shed some of the excess middle I’ve been left with (and you’ll notice I seem to be putting the blame for that on some mystery imaginary ‘other’, as if it had nothing to do with the daily cake habit I developed in late pregnancy), yes, despite all of that, I’ve been reading a lot of posts this week about making clothes. It’s one thing to say you’re not going to do something, but it’s another thing entirely to stop thinking about it.
As usual, the list of things I’d like to make far outstrips the time I have available to make anything, even if I was making clothes, which I’m not, but that shouldn’t stop a person from dreaming. So – here’s a wee collection of links I may need one day, and perhaps you will too:
Dritz bound buttonhole tool tutorial
Grumpy Person’s Guide to Knit bindings
How to Sew a narrow bias edging
Darts – their essential role in clothing
Measurement Chart – very cute sheet for marking down your own measurements
And as inspiration for what is possible, in terms of both sewing and reduced middles, you should take a look at this awesome swimsuit. Cracking.
Subscribe: