Saturday July 5, 2008

We had very Fourth of July fare yesterday. The weather cooperated enough for us  to grill things (my husband) and to have a walk in the park (me) and #1 son even went out with friends to the swimming hole.

The rest of us were total slackers, reading and watching movies and playing video games, as our assorted preferences took us.

I went and bought a couple of sewing patterns. Hancock Fabrics has been having patterns at 99 cents, rotating the brands, for a month, and I haven’t gone and bought any because a) I have plenty of patterns and b) I haven’t sewn a thing in months.

I am thinking, however, that I might make this top today, if I find that I have done enough lolling around.

I’d been working on my dressmaking skills for a couple of years, and had really gotten to the point where I could do quite a lot of things successfully. Then my life got complicated, insanely busy, and uncertain, in that order, and I gained 10 pounds. Somehow, it began to seem that actually taking the sewing machine out and setting it up was too much of a commitment.

I’m inclined to dither when I sew, anyway.

I said something about dithering at a party recently and an acquaintance looked at me oddly and said “Are you a ditherer?” with patent disbelief. It is true that all my dithering is internal, so that only the readers of my blog and my closest friends and family know about it, but I think I am a bit dithery about sewing. Should I attempt this pattern, and if so, should I chance it with that lovely fabric? That kind of thing.

I’m still a bit sad about that unsuccessful skirt I made last year out of a gorgeous rayon which is no longer available. Sigh.

So my recent dithering about sewing has been about whether I should go ahead and make clothes when I don’t actually know what kind of work I’ll be doing or what size I’ll be when I get around to it.

I even went, with #2 daughter’s help, and bought a job interview suit, since I was dithering about the possibility of being called for an interview and having only home-made jackets to wear, and were they really nicely made or was I deceiving myself? Not to mention the fear of being at client meetings in gear that was too tight.

With one thing and another, then, I’ve only sewn a couple of things in the past year, and nothing at all in 2008. But I am still on the mailing lists, which is how I was tempted by that tunic pattern.

And even though I am not fashionable, I do like to see what the fashion trends are for the coming season. So I was interested to see that the fashion people are once again offering jumpers, wide-legged pants, dressy shorts and culottes, tunics, and swingy jackets for fall.

Didn’t they suggest those things last year, and weren’t they mostly ignored?

It seems to me that the pattern above includes a jumper which could only be worn by young women, and a jacket and vest which would only be worn by elderly women, so I don’t know who they’re pitching it to. I didn’t buy it.

Isn’t the basic rule that you shouldn’t wear any style, if you wore it the last time it was in style?

However, I did buy the pattern on the right, though I am too old for the jumper and too easily amused for the bolero and gaucho look, because I really like the jacket.

I am amassing a nice collection of jacket patterns, I am sorry to say. I also have a nice collection of jacket fabrics. Whether I will get the two collections together at some point and make the jackets I don’t yet know.

But it is possible that I will make that top today. It seems like the sort of thing that I could wear with jeans at the computer all day, and still be able to answer the door to a client and rush out to a meeting with one, both of which happen sometimes.

I have been knitting.

The insanely pink prayer shawl has grown some inches, but it doesn’t look different enough to warrant a photo.

Erin is coming along nicely, though. The latest band of knotwork seems to me to have a nicely knot-like appearance, and I now have just a few more bands to do on the back before I can sew the whole thing together and begin the button and neck bands. Or, considering how hot it would be to work on a great wooly object like this in July, to set it aside again for cooler weather.

In any case, today we are planning to go to the movies, all the kids and I. My husband has already informed us that he doesn’t like to go to the movies, and doesn’t intend to come along just in order to make a family outing of it, either. I go to the movies so rarely (possibly because my husband doesn’t like it) that it is a special treat for me, and I am looking forward to it. I may take along the prayer shawl.