OOPS! Now I Have Done It!

I have committed myself to an impossible task, just in hopes that I will get some of it done.  I found this cute blog on Sew Retro.  The English girl (http://sozowhatdoyouknow.blogspot.com/2010/05/join-me-self-stitched-september.html)  is forming a group of seamstresses who will get serious, and really try to make what they wear.  My theory is--if my name is on the dotted line, I am at least semi-committed and might even get something done!  So, I have taken the following vow (not in blood, mind you).

I, Rosie O'Grady,  sign up as a participant of Self-Stitched-September. I endeavour to wear as many handmade (at least one piece of clothing, preferably a whole outfit) every day for the duration of September 2010'.  If I can just finish what I have started, the challenge will probably have been accomplished.  First, I will attack my Koos Van Den Akker skirt, even though I don't like the fabric I bought (choices are limited in Midland).  I am going to do it!!!!

And now I just have to tell you about the fashion world that  Mark Twain described  when he went ashore to visit Constantinople.  "Ashore it was--well, it was an eternal circus.  People were thicker than bees in those narrow streets, and the men were dressed in all the outrageous, outlandish, idolatrous, extravagant, thunder-and-lightning costumes that ever a tailor with the delirium tremens and seven devils could conceive of.  There was no freak in dress too crazy to be indulged in, no diabolism too fantastic to be attempted.  No two men were dressed alike.  It was a wild masquerade of all imaginable costumes--every struggling throng in every street was a dissolving view of stunning contrasts.Some patriarchs wore awful  turbans, but the grand mass of the infidel horde wore the fiery red skullcap they call a fez.  All the remainder of the raiment they indulged in was utterly indescribable."  The Innocents Abroad 

I just hope that we can produce clothing that is just half as exciting as this!

Time is Up!

Alas, the blue moon is waning, and so is my Christmas break. We will be back at it on Monday; two more weeks in the semester, and then the wild spring semester will begin. Kids will be going every direction--basketball, UIL academics, One Act Play, track, and every other conceivable outing. The sky was beautiful this morning--no wind to stir up the dust. There was a cool layer of blue on the horizon with a layer of rose between it and the light blue sky, and the moon was bright and big. I just wonder what that old water tower has seen down through the years?

Here is the only thing I made during the break--a tree skirt. Bob asked me, "Aren't you a little late?" "You, might look at it that way, but actually I am really ahead of the game for next year, and besides, the only time you can see the thing is before and after the presents, so I timed it just right." I have a stack on my sewing machine, and if I will just allocate 15 minutes a day, it will be done. That is my resolution--develop a new habit of using bits of time instead of putting things off until I have half a day (which never happens). I hope everyone made a resolution; it's good for us to set goals even if we don't reach them all.

More about trying to catch up!

I have a confession to make--I am addicted to fabric. I love the way it feels, the way it looks, and all the dreams it evokes. Of course, my eyes are always bigger than my output. It takes way longer to make something than I every remember when I go in the store, and as a result I have lots of fabric stashed here and there just sitting waiting to be made. I decided this has got to change, so here is the first product of the summer--an apron for my dear friend Jackie. I hope she likes it, after all it has flamingos on it, and she will look HOT in it! I have enough fabric for another one if anyone is interested.