All posts by Sam

Lost

The Woods

Something hasn’t felt quite right for the last several weeks.  Life has felt especially hard, which I know is difficult to believe for those of you who subscribe to the notion that there’s “Wittchen Good Fortune.”  (I know you’re out there.)  But really, it’s been like the universe has been conspiring to make things trickier than usual.  I don’t expect things to be easy–in fact, I often find myself falling prey to the spurious notion that if it’s not hard, it’s not worth doing (see also: why I went to engineering school)–but I do believe that if things become too hard, they may not be meant to be.  (It’s a weird dichotomy of thought, I know.)  I’ve been having trouble focusing and motivating myself to do almost anything, and several initiatives I’m involved in seem to be going through rough patches.  I feel like I haven’t been doing enough, and then I’m not entirely sure what I should be doing.  I’ve been feeling paralyzed by the fact that I have so many projects that I want to start, but only a small handful of them offer an immediate financial benefit.  In short, I’ve been lost.

It all came to a head last week when I did something supremely stupid–I deleted my website.  (Yes, this one.)  It’s a long, technical and boring story how I did it, but for someone who self-identifies as being meticulous and careful, it was a real blow to my ego.  Right in front of me was the electronic manifestation of how I’d been feeling but couldn’t put a finger on.  Not only was I metaphorically lost, but now a big part of my electronic life was literally, well, lost.  I wanted to throw up.

I’ve gone through these directionless periods before, and almost always there’s a little signpost along the way that tells me that I need to do something different.  The signpost usually comes in the form of doing something that’s uncharacteristic for me–something that challenges one of my own internal stories.  You know the stories–the ones we tell ourselves about who we are, who we’re supposed to be and how we’re supposed to feel and act.  Sometimes those stories are helpful guides for how to live our lives and other times they’re just…stories.

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Sewing Sunday: April Edition – The Timeless Pencil Skirt

Zipper on skirt

I’m not sure if it’s because Mad Men has returned or if it’s something else, but I’ve really been wanting to make myself a pencil skirt.  They’re super versatile, and they’re form-flattering.  Since the weather’s getting warmer, and I only own about three summer weight skirts, I decided this was a good project for April.  Your basic pencil skirt really only consists of three pieces of fabric–front, back and waistband (okay, really it’s four if you count the two halves of the back)–so I figured it would be pretty easy to make.  Since I still consider myself at the beginner intermediate level when it comes to sewing, I figured this would be a fine project to tackle.  There would be some opportunities to try some slightly more advanced techniques, like altering the pattern to get the right fit, and I had never sewn an invisible zipper to a piece of clothing before, so that would be a first.

I debated making myself a pencil skirt pattern using my measurements, as there were a few tutorials online, and this one especially looked good.  In the end, though, I decided that it might be safer to find a pattern I liked and alter it.  (I also didn’t have paper that was large enough to cut out the pattern, so that was also a deterrent.)  As I mentioned last month, my mom has a whole bunch of patterns that she inherited when my grandmother passed away.  A lot of them are from the 60s, so I thought I might be able to find a pencil skirt pattern in her stash, but no luck.  I ended up purchasing a McCall’s pattern from Joann Fabrics (on sale for 99¢!).  It was pretty close to what I wanted, so I figured I could make just a few alterations and be good.

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Sewing Sunday: March Edition – Domestic Bliss

Finished Apron

For about a year now, I’ve been wanting to sew myself an apron.  I’ve been increasingly interested in the idea of the apron as a metaphor for domesticity, as well as what appears to be changing attitudes about what domestic life means to women.  I feel like so many professional, well-educated women I know (myself included) are also really embracing the trappings of homemaking, choosing to spend time cooking, sewing, baking, decorating and generally making their homes these inviting, beautiful places–all the while finding enjoyment in these domestic tasks while maintaining professional careers.  These same women also seem to frequently have an apron they love to wear and talk about as if they are extensions of themselves.  While watching Mad Men last winter, I was thinking a lot about the apron metaphor (as Betty Draper so frequently wears an apron at home), and it really made me want to have my own apron.

So yesterday I finished March’s Sewing Sunday project–an apron.  Yes, I know it wasn’t Sunday, but in my defense, I had planned to sew last Sunday, but then my body was under assault from some mighty nasty allergies.  So instead, I spent last Sunday sleeping and watching season 3 of Breaking Bad on Netflix.  Since we had plans to see my grandfather today for Easter, yesterday had to be the day to sew if I was going to get the project done by the end of March.

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