Summer School Blues

Maybe when your career is keeping you from doing the things you want to do it's time to consider a new career. 

From the movie Summer School, posted on this site.

Summer school is a drag. I'm sure that's what my students are saying too. There is just no time. I have no time to get anything done, for work or pleasure. Classes in the summer are longer than normal and I commute to Woodland for one of my classes so I'm busy with school from 7:30-5:00. When does that leave time for preparing, reading, responding and then all of those dozens of other projects, unrelated to school, I want to get to?

Hobo Swag Bag from SaltWaterKids

Cargo Pants Messenger Bag from Noodlehead

Finish cleaning the dining room, office and garage.

And clean, sort and store all the fabric.

It doesn't. Oh, and forget about sleeping and eating. Ha.

And, we have family in town. And life and death keep happening. And there is still stuff to do like buy dog food and make sure there are clean socks and shorts for everyone. 

I really think summers are too busy. In this economy I can't say no to any class I am offered--and since this blog is not about the politics of higher education I won't go further as to why that is the case--but I wish I didn't have to say yes. 

As much as I enjoy my students and their stories, I'd rather be living than commenting on essays. At least today. And probably tomorrow, too.

Where's the 40-year-old bag now?

Remember the 40-year-old bag of fabric my neighbor sold me at the garage sale--for all of two dollars? 

 Well, it's not the only old thing cluttering up my house these days. I've got so many cool bits of this and that but what the heck am I doing with them? I can't seem to get them all up on Etsy and I'm not moving very fast on the sewing myself. So, I did indeed pass it on. Of course I passed it on to my favorite male sewist and blogger.

Fortunately, Peter from Male Pattern Boldness has a "yes" only policy when it comes to free fabric and patterns so he was happy to add them to his clutter. What exactly did he add to his clutter?

These fabulous colors of...some shimmery fabric. It burned fast and I couldn't tell what it was.

And this very hip and contemporary (1970) tie, bow tie, vest and ascot pattern. Michael, Peter's significant, has seen him in harem pants, but I'm not sure if he's ready to see him in an ascot. And Peter, if you're reading this, ascots do not go with striped tanks.

Probably, Cousin Cathy will end up with a new purse from the fabric, which would be fine by me.

Identifying Fabric is Harder Than Remembering Grease II Lyrics

I'm not a scientist. (Shocker!) And, if a piece of information is not tacky song lyrics, bad movie lines or useless commercials from the 70's and 80's, I'm likely not to remember it without lots of effort. So identifying different kinds of fabrics and remembering sewing vocabulary is not something I'm naturally good at. We didn't have a house full of different kinds of fabrics either, so it's not like I had a lot to learn from growing up. We had denim, cotton and polyester. I got those down, so now on to the other hundreds of options. (I do have the entire soundtrack of Grease II memorized, from watching it on Cinemax after school everyday during some very impressionable years of my life. Ahh, wasted braincells.)

One of my troubles with identifying fabric is that I buy them all at thrift stores and garage sales so they are not labeled. I pick what is interesting and feels good or what I think might be fun for a particular purpose. I'm just not always sure what it is I have. Is that acrylic or wool? Is that acetate? polyester? silk? Sometimes it does not matter because they behave the same when sewing. However, the care and cleaning of the fabric often makes a big difference, so how I wash and deal with stains and smells matters much.

I also have some vintage dresses I want to post on Etsy, but I don't know what kind of fabric they are made of, so I find myself making educated guesses and typing five question marks after the word "blend."

I'm taking a class at American River College this fall about textiles, and although fall will come faster than I want it too, it doesn't help me now. I'm enrolled in this class: Fashion 320--This course is a study of natural and man-made fibers, methods of fabrication and finishes. Topics include the selection, use and care of modern fabrics as they relate to clothing and home furnishings. I wanted to take "History of the Western Fashion World" and "Apparel Construction" but those interfere with the classes I'm teaching and I still must make a living I suppose.

There are a number of references for learning more about fabrics on your own. A few months ago I noted that I was checking out a bunch of books from the library and I'd do some reviews if I found some good ones. Here's what I learned: there are entirely too many books out there with almost nothing in them. (And, I check out too many books from too many different libraries and can't remember when to return them to which library. My husband puts all of this information in his digital calendar, but that's so practical. I prefer to wake up sweating in the middle of the night stressed out about returning my library books. I once returned a book to the wrong library and they never found it. I had to replace it. Unfortunately, it was a lame book to begin with so I was irritated that I was perpetuating lameness. I would have rather bought a better book for the collection, but no, rules are rules.)

Besides the books with almost nothing in them or the books with way too many ruffles and appliques, here are two that were most useful to me.

I cannot recommend The Sewing Bible by Ruth Singer enough and I bought one for myself immediately after checking it out from the library. It's got just about everything you need to know about sewing, stitching, and basic techniques like hemming, seaming, and buttoning. The instructions are actually coherent and the photographs are clearly displayed. This is a win.

Sew Any Fabric, by Claire Schaeffer, is probably the best book I've seen as a general reference to fabric types and behaviors. The pictures of made products are quite matronly, but the info is good and the descriptions are very helpful. There is a full page or more devoted to each kind of fabric and they are organized well and cross-referenced. There is also a glossary and each entry has headings and topics organized in the same manner. Useful.

Organizing Fabric

I've been making some progress on my goals from last week, although I did get side tracked on things like cleaning Benjamin's room. 

(My husband keeps telling me it's normal that his room should be that messy--like dirty clothes under the carpet messy--but I couldn't get in there to put the laundry away on Saturday and I couldn't take it anymore. And, he couldn't put his own clothes away because his drawers were so messy they were quite literally about to break off the rails. As I was cleaning, I had a flash-forward of him being 15 and me finding pot and condoms in his room instead of broken nerf bullets, dried out markers and lego pieces. I don't think five years will improve his cleaning skills but it's likely to change other things. Yikes.) (Update: Monday p.m. I'm cleaning out B's end of the year backpack and I find the stuff photographed above. What is it? An entire pencil bag devoted to colored pencil shavings.)

Although I really need to start the syllabus and website for summer school (boo!), I've progressed far enough in the rest of my cleaning and sorting that I need to figure out what to do with all of this fabric I've been buying. I've got it in piles and boxes and dresser drawers and plastic storage bins right now. And none of it is washed. So, the plan is to sort and cut it, then wash, dry, label and organize. How is the question.

Here are some possibilities I've seen online. 

I like what Urban Grace did with the tags. Of course, they were only organizing swatches. (I need an Allison too.)

I love these labels for rolled fabric from Just Something I Made. When Kevin and I used to quilt we did something similar. Labeling the size of each piece is not that important to me--I can eye-ball it to see if I have enough. But I do like to have all of certain kinds of fabrics together. Cottons with cottons, etc.

The studio below belongs to Saldos de Concha. 

I like the fabric in the glass cabinet. It's protected from dust, but still adds to the color of the room. That's nice, I think. And less messy looking than some of the other systems I've seen about as I search.

Of course, I still am dreaming of this studio I found months ago.

What have you seen?

The 40-Year-Old Bag

I scored at the neighborhood garage sales and I didn't even really get to go to them I was so busy at my own. A gal was at my sale buying some of my fabric remnants and craft stuff and my son told her the lady four houses down had more fabric. This was news to me, so, we both made a b-line down there. She drove; I walked; we got there at the same time. 

Frankie did not, in fact, have any fabric out--our information was bad--but she got some out and sold it to us. (While we were there, her husband got out a ladder at someone's request, and sold that. They also got out some canning jars, and sold them. They were very accommodating.)

What did I buy besides some lovely vintage earrings that belonged to Frankie's mother? Well, Frankie worked at a fabric store 40 years ago and this bag has the new pattern and cut fabric for the project ready to go--as if she'd just come home from the store. In 1970. 

What exactly is in the bag we'll keep a surprise for just a bit. But I was thinking as I went to bed last night that I was putting the focus on finding an outfit for the wrong cousin. I like dresses and that's part of the reason I wanted to style Cathy; she gets all the attention, which is natural with her charisma, and the camera just loves her. But, where is the love for Peter? When left to his own devices he picks out harem pants! Maybe he needs some old-school style a-la my neighbor's garage sale. But, I'm not sure he can pull off poly/silk patterns straight from 1970. After reading today's post, maybe he's too nice.