Where Is My Sewjo?

By in sewing

I have so much wonderful fabric, boxes of patterns, and even ideas about how to combine them, but absolutely no desire to do anything about it.

I think part of the problem is everything feels like it’s in limbo: there’s midsummer limbo, where you want the heat to break but it’s too soon to think about jackets and fall sewing; the “am I going to keep working from home 100%?” limbo, where you don’t need fancy jackets or dresses to wear to the office; and the “am I going to keep working with dudes who wear whatever jeans are clean, or am I going to change industries?” limbo.

So maybe that’s where my sewjo is. I do keep looking at knit pencil skirts, and big dresses, and knit easy dresses, so maybe I just give in and make a dress and that will get things going again?  I can always wear it with sneakers to match the dudes in jeans.

(images from my sewing inspiration Pinterest; they’re old enough that the links are all broken so I can’t credit anyway)

It’s Monday

By in Toby

Do you feel like you’re in the driver’s seat?

Or are you a passenger today?

Either way, hit it!

(Someone likes to enjoy a hot car when it pulls back into the garage.)

Friday Links

By in Friday Unrelated Information

1. My favorite thing I read this week:

…even in the mundane ways we feel we are failing or are completely alone in our perceived deficits, this is never actually true. Our weaknesses and faults aren’t special. We allow them to loom large in our imaginations and our fears while, unbeknownst to us, someone else somewhere is doing the exact same thing.

2. Forget going gray, maybe I’ll go colorful: The Tweet That Launched A Thousand Dye Jobs

3. This is hilarious to me (click through to see all images):

Career Thoughts

By in advertising

Post-pandemic, I’m looking at what I want my life to look like and what I want to do to make money. And it might not be continuing to work in agencies–especially after reading this piece by Zoe Scaman about misogyny in the ad industry: Mad Men, Furious Women.

…how challenging it is to navigate the pervasive ‘bro culture’ which remains the dominant dogma in agencies today; the desperate need to ‘fit in’ or else risk being booted out, with women feeling that they MUST participate or else be penalised…

The energy it takes to play along, to pretend it’s all just ‘banter’, whilst also watching your every move and every word, in case you come across as too meek, too brash, too abrasive, too confident, not confident enough, too sensitive or just ‘too much’ requires superhuman strength.

And while we’re using up a huge chunk of our mental and emotional capacity on this stuff, day-in and day-out, we’re also expected to work at pace, to deadline, to dream up ideas, strategies, manage challenging clients and not fall over.

[…] trying to fit within agency culture seemed to not only impact women’s ability to rise within ad agencies, but also their desire to. Many had just had enough.

 

Reading this was way too familiar. Bosses that expect you to laugh at off-color “jokes”? Check. Men getting paid more than me because “they have a family”? Check. Management that allows clients to harass employees because “they’re our biggest client”? Fuck those guys, and check.

I haven’t had a female boss in fifteen years. I currently don’t even have a female team member. And I’m never going to be a boss at my current agency, either. Reading this made me realize why (beyond entrenched sexism and three levels of male bosses, of course): Women my age have had enough and get out, exactly like I’m considering.

Throughout my career, I’ve joked about using my powers for good instead of using them to sell people shit and grease the wheels of capitalism, but maybe now really is the time. “You didn’t just survive a pandemic to put up with this,” after all.

Wednesday Poem

By in poems

This showed up in the Poets.org newsletter a couple weeks ago and there’s a lot to love in it: I, too, own a drill I’m not great at using! I, too, want people to say, “damn that’s a nice house! But this part right in the middle is the best:

which tools repair/ the aging dog, the wilting snake plant, the crow’s feet/ under my eyes, the stiff knee or bad back./ & maybe this is how it is—how parts of our small universe/ dissolve like sugar cubes in water—a calling to ask us/ to slow our busy breathing so we can marvel/ at its magic.

 

Everything Needs Fixing

Karla Cordero

in your thirties everything needs fixing. i bought a toolbox
for this. filled it with equipment my father once owned
to keep our home from crumbling. i purchased tools with
names & functions unknown to me. how they sat there
on their shelf in plastic packaging with price tags screaming:
hey lady, you need this!  like one day i could give my home
& everything living inside it the gift of immortality, to be
a historical monument the neighbor’s would line up
to visit even after i’m gone & shout: damn that’s a nice house!
i own a drill now, with hundreds & hundreds of metal pieces
i probably won’t use or use in the wrong ways but what
i’m certain of, is still, the uncertainty of which tools repair
the aging dog, the wilting snake plant, the crow’s feet
under my eyes, the stiff knee or bad back.
& maybe this is how it is—how parts of our small universe
dissolve like sugar cubes in water—a calling to ask us
to slow our busy breathing so we can marvel
at its magic. because even the best box of nails are capable
of rust. because when i was a child i dropped
a cookie jar in the shape of noah’s ark,
a family heirloom that shattered to pieces.
the animals broke free, zebras ran under
the kitchen table, the fractured lion roared by
the front door & out of the tool cabinet
i snagged duck tape & ceramic glue. pieced each beast
back to their intended journey.  because that afternoon
when my father returned from work i confessed
& he sat the jar on the counter only to fill it with
pastries. how the cracks of imperfection mended by
my hands laid jagged. chipped paint sliced across a rhino’s neck.
every wild animal lined up against the boat—
& a flood of sweet confections waiting inside.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Swimwear In Search Of A Lake

By in sewing, Tuesday Project Roundup

We’d planned to take a quick trip to Bear Lake in northern Utah over my week off, so I’d been planning this bikini for a bit. We canceled the trip but I made it anyway as a stress sew, checking in on poor sick Doc in between steps.

This is another pair of  Greenstyle’s Waimea Swim Bottoms–with POCKETS–paired with a Greenstyle Elevate Crop Top modified into a swim top per this tutorial on the Greenstyle blog. (I promise I’m not sponsored by Greenstyle; I just really like their drafting.)  The top fabric is the last of some nice “Olympus athletic” from Fabric.com a few years ago and the bottom fabric (and all swim lining and the rubber elastic) is from The Fabric Fairy.

I’d read somewhere that thin rubber swim elastic (vs. knit or braided elastic) is the trick to making your swimwear feel really professional, and that is correct. This was my first time using it and it really cuts down on bulk on the folded edge. The cover stitch machine continues to pay for itself with topstitching the elastic and finishing the back edge in one step.

I ended up taking my nephew to the pool at the end of last week, when Doc was feeling a little better, so this did get a “vacation” wear after all. It stayed in place on a water slide, in the lazy river, and while swimming after a 10-year-old, and I got a compliment from another lady there on it.

It’s gonna be great when we make it to the lake.

Nature Rx

By in Uncategorized

Well, that week off turned out to be less relaxing than I hoped: Doc isn’t feeling 100% and we’re still trying to figure out why, so a lot of worry and tests and appointments and worry. About mid week we went up Millcreek for a drive, just to get out of the house, and even a quick stroll in some nature really helped.

 

Nature! Suitable for all humans.

Friday Links

By in Friday Unrelated Information

1. Oof what a week. I’m taking next week off (just a staycation) and getting enough work done to prepare for that has been ridiculous. The joys of being a department of one…

2. From Laura Olin’s newsletter, a quote attributed to the Talmud: “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”

3. I probably won’t post next week for more of a “real” vacation feeling, so see you mid July (!). Here are some grams to tide you over.


(both from here)

 

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A post shared by Pablo Rochat (@pablo.rochat)

Wednesday Project Roundup: Hiking Kit

By in sewing, Tuesday Project Roundup

I’ve been trying to use up some remnants and had a big piece left from some space-dyed spandex I bought for gym tights, so I made some new hiking shorts. Of course, then I bought fabric for a top, negating any benefit from using what I have, but hey! look at my new outfit!

The shirt fabric is a deadstock Under Armour “cooling jersey” and it’s the best technical fabric I’ve used to date. With a lot of my gym tights, the fabric says it’s wicking but it really isn’t. But this stuff was magical–I could feel a breeze through it and the minute I started to sweat, it was cool (but also didn’t show sweat on the surface? magic!). I used the Waimea Rash Guard pattern from Greenstyle and, like all Greenstyle patterns, it went together beautifully.

The shorts are the Venice Beach Shorts, also from Greenstyle, and this Elder Millenial loves the late 70s/early 80s summer vibes. I used the free “Contour Waistband” download on their site instead of the waistband as drafted and they sit great under my pack. I also added inset zip pockets instead of the regular slant pockets and made the pocket bags out of mesh for more ventilation.

Like I said Monday, we’re not hiking as much lately–but a new outfit is a good reason to start again, right?

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