The Lot-o Gelato Outfit

I would like to tell you now about a passionate love affair that began when I was but ten years old. Like all good love stories, it is epic, spanning countries, ages, moods and needs, and yet it is simple at its heart. It is the story of a girl, standing in front of a scoop of gelato, asking it to love her.

When I was a child, my parents took me to Italy. I must say, I will forever be grateful for my parents for exposing my brother and myself to travel, to art museums and beautiful buildings and layers of history living around you and different languages and ways of doing things and really good bread and amazing places of worship and the reminder that the world is bigger than you and the way you think, and, most of all, perhaps, gelato.

Look, ice cream is good. No one is saying it isn’t. But it is the wonderbread to gelato’s artisanal sourdough loaf. It is the Venetian in Las Vegas to the actual Venice. It’s the movie, and gelato is the book it’s based on. It is a pale shadow of a thing, the sweeping imitation of life, the puppets dancing across the cave, and gelato is the moment you stand at the cave’s edge, in the sweet air of reality, knowing that you have arrived, the light blinding in your eyes but real, real as nothing has ever been before. 

It’s a pretty great dessert item, is what I’m saying. Come to the light, people. Come to the gelato.

So when I was ten, as I said, my parents took me to Italy (with my older brother of course). It was the first time my brother and I went to Europe, the first big trip my family had taken in years, and my parents were determined to wring experiences of out of every second of the day, waking at 5 to scale the Vatican then tour below it, and be in the Sistine Chapel by 11, out and onto the Spanish Steps by lunchtime. My parents were fueled by a steady stream of espresso, or as they call it in Italy, cafe, which tells you what you need to know about how Italians think about coffee, and my brother and I were fueled by gelato.

Gelato, my friends, is a revelation. It is airy, airy, how can a frozen dessert be airy, and yet it is, and luscious, bursting with flavor, the ice crystals enhancing each scent and taste instead of diminishing them. It is a dish best served cold, but without the bitterness of revenge. When it fell upon my tongue the first time, I knew, with the certainty of Juliet gazing upon her Romeo, that this was my forever love. And I didn’t even have to end up dead at 13 to enjoy it.

I would not say I am a romantic person, but damn, if gelato doesn’t make me a believer in true love. And yet, my love is NOT patient, because I want gelato as soon as possible. It is not kind, because despite its comparative lower sugar content, too much of it still makes my clothing snug. My love envies, because I want to try all the gelati, all the time. I boast of my love, putting photos of my gelato goodness all over the internet (at least, when in Italy, my love’s country fair). My gelato is proud, why shouldn’t it be? It’s gelato, damn it, king of creams. But at least I can say, it’s true, gelato  always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. At least, it does for ME.

So anyway, back in Italy 20 years later (20 years! My goodness! And yet, the devotion, the adoration, they have not waned or wandered, they were simply waiting, waiting to go home), I was back with my love.

And I also wore an outfit I had made. I mean, you want to look good for your lover, don’t you?

So I wish I could like, reach into these photos and yank my blouse down, because it’s doing that blousey bagging out thing that makes me look like I go from breasts to hips with nothing in between. BUT NEVERMIND. It is still a cute outfit!

The skirt is from my block, the very block that the person who photographed me holding both my gelato and her own, helped me make! I’m talking about Liz. When am I not, really.

It’s very hard to keep two gelati from melting.

You have to be creative and improvise.

ANYway. The shirt is a lovely lovely linen georgette (yes, such a fabric exists and it is wonderful) and a much-hacked Scout Tee from Grainline studios which I added a button placket and a bow to. At what point have you just completely re-made a pattern? I think I’ve done that about 10 times with the Scout Tee. Just wondering.

It’s a great shirt, though, honestly, the fabric is just amazing, breathable, drapey, but not as wrinkle prone as linen usually is. I felt so chic, when I wasn’t juggling gelato, that is.

Yes, this became difficult at some point. Also, Liz wanted her gelato back. So I didn’t get a TON of shots here, but I think it’s enough, right? You get the jist. The jist is gelato. Plain and simple. And this skirt celebrates that, right? Both fabrics are from Thakur, and both gelati are from Mara dei Boschi which might be among the best gelato I have ever had and is a must if you are planning a trip to Turin.

So anyway. That’s my love affair with gelato, writ large. I would cry to the heavens, I would proclaim it to the stars. But I think I would rather just…eat some gelato.

What is the first food you fell in love with? And has that love lasted?

The Pretty in Piedmont Outfit

Hello hello! I have been busy here in Piemont, which is in Italy, of course, darlings, working on a new novel (it’s a doozy and I’m really into it. But be sure to try and win a copy of my first novel here!)  and far too busy being delighted by everything around me (what IS it about Italy that makes it so delightful?) to focus much on blogging. Also, honestly, I mean, I didn’t bring my machine so I’m not sewing here! I am knitting up a storm, though, this pattern which is really fun and the first fingering weight sweater I’ve ever attempted (oy). For those who don’t follow me on le Instagram you might have missed my #makingmaisel reveal of my dress, but I  promise to post about it when I get back to Mumbai in June! Whats-his-face left for Singapore before I could get him to photograph it for real for real, so sorry!

Seriously, though, being here has been insanely productive and creative and given me a chance to really think about my work and my life in new ways, so I couldn’t be more grateful. But of course, it hasn’t translated to documenting new makes, even the ones I made FOR this experience! It’s been too cool for the warmer weather things I made, siiiiiigh. Maybe Mumbai had affected my sewing to the point that I misinterpret weather in other places? But recently the weather finally cooperated and I got a chance to document one of the things I brought with me that I made recently, coupled with something I made LONG ago and never got a chance to document. So here we go, two in one, just in time for Me Made May (which I am doing! From a suitcase! It’s insane! Follow me on said le Instagram for updates….)

One of the people here with me is Kaja, who is totally a professional photographer and generously agreed to photograph me, which is very kind of her. Asking for her help is like asking for a modernist painter to help you touch up your apartment walls. Ohhhhh well. She was very gracious and generous, but then again, she is from Norway, they make them that way there.

Without further ado, the outfit!

I had Kaja take these photos nearby the place we are staying, against the walls of an old castle. It’s totally for sale, if you are interested!

I mean, I’m interested. Anyone want to lend me a couple of million euros?

Think about it. ANYway, to the clothing. The skirt is a simple circle skirt, and the shirt is a DEEP level Grainline Patterns Scout Tee hack. I seriously have done so very MUCH with this pattern. I’ve always loved the way a bow blouse looked, (I refuse to say pussy blow, yeeeesh, I’m American, it’s weird. I mean, unless it’s about how the pussy grabs back!). But I’ve always been concerned about the patterns I’ve drooled over, will the bow be too high, will the neckline be flattering, will I look like a librarian from the 1970’s? I’m fine with the librarian part. It’s the 1970’s I worry about. See, I love Janet’s look from The Good Place:

But then I remember this about myself:

So I knew I needed something that honored both of those impulses, in yogi-speak. Well, when you want something done well… hack it yourself.

And this shirt was born!

I’m quite happy with it, as it turns out!

The skirt is basically just a circle. I don’t know, man. It’s one of those things that you made and are forever grateful for because it’s so damn basic and useful, but never think of it again. So it’s actually nice to get a chance to show it off! I made it over a year ago, but….yeah. It’s a grey circle skirt. You get it.

It’s fun to twirl, though!

But obviously the blouse is the hero here. Why? Well, apart from the shape, which is great, the fabric is aces.

YES THESE ARE TINY PATTERNED CROCODILES.

FOR THE WIN.

Back view!

And that is that! Oh, but before I go, just so you can be as jealous as possible, enjoy my view:

YES. So right now, ya’ll, I am pretty in Piedmont and LOVING IT! Happy Me Made May to you all!

The Swing By The Northeast Shirt

A philosophical question for stitchers of the ages. At what point does a pattern hack become…something beyond that? As in, at what point do you change so many things about a pattern that it is suddenly something else? The shirt I’m going to be showing you today is totally based on something but then I…basically changed almost everything about it. So I guess it’s still somehow sort of a grainline studio scout tee, but I doubt anyone would recognize it as such…

Let me backtrack here for a moment. When recently planning a trip with my friends Victoria and Joe (hi, Victoria and Joe!) who so graciously decided to visit me in India, they decided that while most tourists make a beeline for the camels , elephants and palaces, they wanted a different approach, and chose the Northeast of India, specifically the state of Sikkim, as their primary destination. And I’m lucky enough to have been invited to tag along with them to their stopover in Darjeeling and their journey to Gangtok, the capital of the state tucked neatly in the Himalayan mountain range. This is a different India than I had experience before, with Darjeeling, the colonial getaway steeped in tea and history, and Gangtok, rife with monasteries and momos (dumplings), clean and pristine in the clear mountain air, a city of wretchedly steep hills (I swear, despite missing the gym for a week, I think I got better workouts most days…). The mountain roads are terrifying but fascinating, and the weather is cool with clear days and chilly nights.

In steamy humid pre-monsoon Mumbai, the weather was one of the things I was most eagerly anticipating, but as I looked at my wardrobe, I realized that I had a serious dearth of cool-weather clothing. Given that I’m spending a lot of time in a warm place right now, I haven’t been making as much cold-appropriate stuff, and suddenly I realized that I really should be making stuff every once in a while for chilly situations. After all, it’s not like I’m never in them! So I have decided that I will make the rare warm piece, for chilly days and chilly places. Of course, it’s easy to only think about the things that you need right then and there, but hey, a little forward thinking never hurt anyone.

And I must say, this shirt was SO wonderfully cosy in Darjeeling, which, because of its high elevation, was actually colder than Gangtok, which is further north. I wouldn’t say it was freezing, more like in the 50’s and 40’s (farenheit) but the lack of heating in Indian homes meant this wonderful make kept me warm. Of course, it was a little incongruous at our cozy afternoon tea in the fancy Windamere Hotel, but I can live with that.

So here you go! An EXTREMELY modified Scout Tee:

Now, you’re thinking right about now, um, Leah,the Scout Tee is a t-shirt. This is…something else entirely. So what did I change? The better question is probably, what DIDN’T I change?

So, I lengthened the body pieces by about five inches in the front and seven inches in the back for that hi-low situation, and widened them into a swing shape. I also lengthened the sleeves, as you can see, to full length, and cut the front on the selvage, adding two inches for the placket. I also divided the back into a yoke, which I cut two of, one of which was on the bias, and a back piece, which I further widened to have room for a vent.

Yeah. As far from Scout as could be.

I totally did all this on the fabric, by the way, living dangerously, because I’m a rebel, Dottie, a loner, and man if I don’t LOVE the result!

 

The fabric is a flannel I got at my new favorite place in Mumbai, Thakur. It is cozy as hell, and I love it.

I had enough of it to match up the plaids at the side, although one side ended up better than the other. I guess that’s a thing?

Here’s my casual leaning look. I feel like with the flannel and the plaid it’s like a little 1990’s, which I loathe, but WHATEVER. I choose to not see that. I choose my reality, dammit!

There I am, in front of the hotel’s immaculate gates. Can’t you just see a Lord Something-or-other condescending himself right through these?

So that’s my shirt, a total hack, and one I might just have to replicate.

Oh, and those mountains? Fairly magnificent, for reals:

RIGHT?

The Think Zebras Dress

There is a saying, when you hear hoofbeats think horses not zebras. It’s a saying I’ve heard a few times on medical dramas, so I have to assume it’s a doctor thing. I’ve always heard it in the context of looking at symptoms of a disease and thinking of the common options, not immediately jumping to flesh-eating bacteria (although….OH MY GOD THERE ARE FLESH EATING BACTERIA OUT THERE , makes me almost glad what’s-his-face and I never had a honeymoon despite being married literally millions (three) times, because if that’s what happens when you have a honeymoon, I’m out).   Essentially it’s a restatement of Occam’s razor , that the simplest answer is often the correct one.I’m sure that works well for doctors, although it never seemed to be the case on House, but for those of us in more creative less human-mortality based fields, I don’t know if it’s as useful. I mean, why not think zebras? Sure, you might be signing yourself up for a lifetime of disappointment, especially if you live in a horse-rich region, but hey, isn’t the possibility of zebras an exciting one? Surely we all deserve to live in hope, the most dangerous of all human emotions.  Sure, most of the world is horses, unless you life in a zebra-rich region, but maybe it could be zebras, every once in a while. Or giraffes! You never know.

For example, I now live in a city where I frequently see wild green parakeets (thanks, Ronnie, who corrected me when I thought they were parrots) chattering  on telephone wires, and massive brown and gold kites hunt for food and rest on palm trees. God help me if Cadfael gets a look at the kites, he’s dumb enough to think he can take them, the coward. I think this is an amazing, while What’s-his-face just rolls his eyes when I point out monkeys in the trees and kingfishers perching on government buildings. Certainly it’s a high-energy life, noticing everything all the time, refusing to let things be familiar. But I would rather be excited about hoofbeats, and hope for zebras. Maybe someday, that’s what it will be!

And while I’m waiting, I can at least prepare sartorially. On  my fabric-buying trip with Liz this past May, we paid a visit to the Rangotri fabric printing studio in Jaipur, which was magnificent and extremely informative. Moreover, I got a chance to pick up some lengths of fabric from their small but wonderful “overstock” or factory discard section. I scored this piece that I loved, in the continuing white-and-blue theme that is owning my life right now. I used part of it to make our living room curtains, but I had a nice amount left, and much like Maria Von Trapp, I’m cool with wearing curtains. So…

Although she never WEARS the curtains, come to think of it….

But I did! Actually, the original fabric had the stripes above the zebras, but I wanted the zebras on the bust, so I cut the fabric along the zebra line, and stitched it back on, before cutting out this lengthened Grainline Archer shirt-dress. I’m thinking more and more about trying the Alder out, especially after seeing this adorable one by Dixie DIY. Thoughts?

But for now, I have this. This is, by the way, also in my current attempts to sew outside my comfort zone, like my recent crop-top situation. I don’t usually go for something so shapeless, something without a waist. I’m not going to lie, I have worn this dress like ten times now and some part of me still winces when I see myself in the mirror, at least a little bit. HOWEVER. I also have worn this dress like TEN TIMES which should tell you something about how comfortable this dress is and how much the loose shape and airy fabric really feel great in the tropics. I wear a self-made slip (an altered grainline tiny pocket tank, alas, discontinued)  under it, because it is indeed quite lightweight, but even with that (the slip is cotton) I feel fabulously cool on steamy days.

For example, these photos were taken in Singapore, which is humid and sticky year-round, and I was more than comfortable, I was blissful. Of course, the iced coffee also helps.

Here is the thing about Singapore that through What’s-his-face and his friends I have truly come to appreciate. The food. Well, also, frankly, living in India, Singapore is a wonderful place to visit because it is clean and well-organized and more Western than the West, easy to navigate, safe, I don’t see people urinating in corners at every turn…the list goes on. Obviously these are most of the things you just….kind of expect in life, but I live in India now, and boy have my expectations changed. So while I did not appreciate Singapore fully before I had lived in Mumbai, assuming it would be boring (well, fair, it is) with little to recommend it culturally (also true), I did not realize how strongly it holds up in COMPARISON to India. I never thought I would say this, but I love Singapore. It’s awesome.

Really, it is.

Both because it is just too Western for words but with some Eastern accents, and because the food is amazing. It’s quite an expensive place, to be sure, but the food hawker stands have all been moved into complexes and they are cheap, readily available, and consistently some of the best meals I’ve had.

When I first went to Singapore this past January I bought iced coffee in coffee shops for scandalous prices, but then we realized we could also buy that in hawker markets for two Singapore dollars, and once we figured out how to ask for regular milk and not condensed (because then it’s just coffee flavored candy) we were golden.

So here I am in one of our favorite hawker centers, Tiong Bahru, posing with my iced coffee in my shirt dress after a hearty meal of roasted duck over noodles. I think you can see the seam well in this shot.

If you aren’t a coffee person, may I recommend a fresh lime juice when strolling Singapore? Super refreshing, despite looking a little toxic…

What else can one ask for in life? I’ve taken a detail shot of my curtains so  you can see the zebras and the stripes a little bit more clearly, albeit in their original position:

To alter the pattern, I simply lengthened the hem of the non-peplum back variation, and eliminated the curve in the hem. I made a sleeveless version, altering the back yoke as suggested by Jen on her blog for this variation. It makes a tiny subtle difference to me, but it’s nice. I widened the hem slightly to make the dress as loose and tent-like as the amount of fabric I had would allow. That’s about it, variation-wise. I’ve made this pattern so many times, I swear, but hey, if it ain’t broke…

I used the striped part of the fabric for the yoke, as a contrast, and used the zebras for the collar. There is a little bit of lower-back pooling, because I didn’t do any kind of swayback adjustment, ah well. I can live with that.

Don’t you love that Peacock mural photobombing my photos? That mural is like, elephants, zebras, where is the peacock love, lady? All in good time, friend. The animal fabrics, despite what’s-his-face’s judgment, aren’t going away anytime soon! Bahahahahah!

It’s strangely scary sometimes to try a new shape, especially when you have a set idea of what makes you look good, but I’m happy I’m trying some new things this year. The benefits of this looseness in this climate cannot be overstated, and I tend to get compliments on this dress whenever I wear it, regardless of my own self-judgments.

. So hey, I’m happy to think zebras. Why not, right?

 

 

The Trying It Out Outfit

The internet is a strange and scary place sometimes, with its anonimity serving as a kind of cloak for bad behavior, for hatred to pour out unchecked, for bigotry and disgust to make its way out there, and for humanity to be ignored in the face of that all-powerful deity, The Opinion. The fact that it’s easy, it’s impersonal, you don’t have to see the target of said Opinion makes it easy for people to forget that their words, sprayed out into the digital universe, have a real-life effect. And opinions become insults so quickly, because you can’t see someone’s face, you can’t try to meet them halfway, you can’t really interact with them as a human, so “I think you are wrong because…” quickly quickly becomes “You are a fat stupid loser….” or much worse. We all know this, and I’m sure we also all know the way women specifically are targeted, insulted, demeaned sexually and physically and trolled, for want of a better word. I think it’s a shame that trolls get such a bad rap but that’s what they get, hiding under bridges and stealing goats, I suppose. The Guardian evaluates it’s comments before posting them, and honestly, reading this article, it’s not hard to see why. Leslie Jones recently quit Twitter because of the massive outpouring of hate following the release of the new Ghostbusters film, although thank the powers that be she did return to help us all appreciate the Olympics.

Sometimes I think about the internet, this amazing tool we all have at our disposal, and I shake my head. Maybe we don’t deserve this kind of communication, this instant feedback loop, if we are just going to use it to be awful. Of course, who am I to say what we do or don’t deserve, but when I contemplate the swirling mass of humanity or glance at a YouTube comments section or read articles like this, I feel, on the fluttering edges of my otherwise upbeat nature, a rare shadow of despair.

That being said, I can also say that sewing, making things, writing, as also uncovered what for me personally is the best part of the internet, the community that can be formed around mutual passion, respect and interest, that can create educational loops of information, that can answer questions, that can make us feel close to and aware of people and events and things so far away from us. We can learn about people in need, people in conflict, people like us, people not like us at all. It can expand us and remind us of our humanity. I don’t know that I need to go on. You know how the internet works, after all. You’re reading a blog.

I find this comfort in small ways, with the writing I put out there and the responses I get back. In the way I learn about people’s relationships to their bodies, to their sense of self, to the empowerment within learning something and enjoying it, connecting to it, connecting to others through it. Clothing, fashion, fabric, the politics behind these, the way they impact gender, identity, economics, labor, the way the knowledge of these things has changed my own sense of my body, the world, and what I make, I appreciate it. In a recent instagram conversation, because we live in a world where such things can exist, I talked with a fellow blogger about how I would try things through sewing that I would never ever buy, never even consider buying. Sewing is a space of experimentation, as evidenced by my growing love of maxi-length, my recent attempts at a romper (more on that in another post), my unblogged search for the perfect pair of loose-fitting cotton pants (I believe the pants I’m about to show you are as close as I’ve currently gotten) my explorations of tighter shapes, looser shapes, new shapes. Sewing feels like a space where I can try things out, where I want to try new things and the labor involved makes it worth it, even if I don’t end up loving the result. I like the process.

If nothing else, sewing is teaching me that, the value of the process. And that’s a hard thing to communicate digitally, in our content and product driven age. But I’m hoping you, who read this, get it.

So, without further pontificating, I give you my latest outfit, an attempt to try some new things, in shapes I find woefully unflattering, but with a comfort that I cannot help but adore:

I feel like I look like a genie who doesn’t try very hard. NO MATTER!

So yes, a lot of things being tried out over here, hence the name of the post. Number one, is, of course, the elephant in the room, other than Cadfael, who is my very own baby elephant:

But other than him, we know what I’m talking about, right?

The crop top. CROP. TOP. What is this, Saved by the Bell?

Sidenote, 90’s fashion is so in here in India, to a troubling trouble extent. At dinner the other day I counted 4 chokers. Sigh.

BUT. regardless of my feelings that I might be just simply having a Bayside High moment, I decided, after length and extensive conversations with my friend Liz, who is ALL about the loose-fitting woven crop top with a high-waisted bottom, to try it out. I had a little bit of fabric from our fabric trip that I had split with Liz. She got most of it, and I took a meter, thinking I could just get a top out of it, and get I did! Of the crop variety!

The fabric is super cool, with multiple colors woven together to make a not-quite-pattern weave. Lightweight and airy, I decided I could alter my ever-faithful Grainline Scout Tee to make a crop top by shortening it and extending it to a tent shape. I made the sleeves a little tent-like too, so the whole thing has a kind of cow-bell shape.

So on the body it sort of has a very subtle hi-low thing. The hem is a little wrinkled in this photo, so it’s making a weird shape. The fabric is a little crisp, but as it wears and is washed it will soften, I know from experience with Indian hand-looms that this is the case.

You can just see a sliver of skin there, right? Well, I’m not usually a big fan of that sort of thing, but I think exposure to Indian fashion, which is fairly crop-top focused, maybe because a crop top is a hop skip and a jump away from the traditional choli blouse?

Whatever it is, I thought I would try it out. The verdict? Honestly, I’m just not sure. Every time I wear it, I feel sort of silly and self-conscious, but thus far I’ve yet to get any judgmental looks or been stopped on the street and yelled at for how bad I look. I think it would potentially be cute with a pencil skirt, or high-waisted shorts, anything, really, that sits at the waist. Thoughts?

Now, to the pants! Wrinkles abound.

This is, believe it or not, a much altered Simplicity 1887, the third I’ve made but the first that is blog-worthy. Oh, this pattern, what wasted dreams have lived and died on its behalf! I loved the idea of a half-elastic waist, of the pleats, of a loose pant, of pockets. But the reality of that half-elastic waistband was just not working, neither in construction or in appearance. Then, revelation! What if I just made it a regular pair of pants with a zipper? On the side? Of course, I had to take it in a bit at the waist, but that’s okay, a dart here, a trim here, and boom! In earlier incarnations I cut out a 16, but I found it a little snug in the posterior, which looked cute, but wasn’t in accordance with my vision, so I added about two and a half inches in the hips, because I really wanted a baggy loose comfortable pant here. Attractiveness be damned!

The fabric is a cotton I got at my new favorite Mumbai fabric destination, Thakur, which is quite close to where I live. This is…dangerous.

Ah, the slight pouf of the pleats. Speaking of feeling good about myself…it’s a real uphill battle sometimes, I tell you. But you know, I like these pants, I do. I have made and will make more flattering garments, but I am willing myself to like this style, to try something new.

I don’t know if more crop tops are in my future, but they might be. Let’s see if this one grows on me. I do like it, I do, but new things take time to adjust to and enjoy. Nevertheless, making one, putting it out there, trying it out, that gives me joy.

Now, troll away, internet. I will be focusing on the good. And also, this, which has made everything a thousand times better. Read it. Right now. A stranger on the internet told you to.

 

 

 

 

The How the Tables Have Turned Skirt

Before I jump into talking about this outfit (I’ve named this post after the skirt but I also made the top and don’t think I ever talked about it before…strange), I want to say that the title of this post reminds me both of the phrase “how the tables have turned” because it’s right there in the title, and also this season of Orange is the New Black which had this episode called “Turn Table Turn” and it was great. AS WAS THE ENTIRE SEASON. Ugh, you wait so long for things, like Mad Men (RIP) or Game of Thrones or Orange is the New Black (OITNB as the kids call is) and you wait and wait and wait and it’s like:

And then it comes and I’m just like:

 

And then it’s over and it’s like:

And then you meet people who DON’T watch what you watch and you are just like:

If I knew how GIFs work, I would have these here instead, but I don’t, so you just need to deal with that in your own time.

This was a standout season of the show, I personally believe, in so many ways, and I just loved it. See, what I love about the show, beyond the many many many amazing women who fill up my screen in each episode, is the way the containment of the prison forces scenes and interactions to move in a more play-scene way, allowing for reactions to be long and to play out in surprising and emotionally resonant ways. The fast pace of television is sometimes halted in its tracks by the situation of the prison, so that emotions need to have their time and space and relationships have to turn and evolve in a contained space. I love it. I think it’s brilliant, and all the more so for recognizing that Piper is often the least interesting person on-screen and wisely moving to the many other amazing characters. And now I have to wait another damn year for it. I guess I’ll go watch Marco Polo or something now, I mean, Jesus, what else am I supposed to do with my time? Another white guy talking about his life-altering trip to Asia. Puh-lease.

ANYway, speaking of tables turning, let’s talk about how I used to never make maxi dresses and now I make maxi-things all the damn time to the point that What’s-his-face was like, Leah, no more maxis. How many maxis can you own? Now, this is a very Indian way to say things, and sadly What’s-his-face doesn’t recognize that what THAT sounds like is a challenge to which I must respond CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! And have a thousand.

Or five. Or whatever. It’s become such an epidemic in our home that I even made a Maxi shirt! I’ve actually made two, but one is too simple to be worth blogging, so I’m just focusing on this one. To be fair, a maxi skirt or dress is just so flipping useful here, it really is, so regardless of the judgement from SOME people, I’m just going to be like:

and probably keep making them. This is maxi-length land. When in India….

So I got this fabric on my fabric buying trip with Liz (hi, Liz!). In our efforts to find ikats we….found a lot of ikats. That’s what happens here. It’s nice. But this one was really something special, and I thought it would look good in pleats. Check it out! (GET IT?)

I drafted the skirt myself, if you can call it that, it was really just messing around with pleats honestly, and a waistband, and pockets. So it’s that’s drafting then yes, I drafted it.

Pockets! Love em. Big enough for my phone, for my keys, for my hopes and dreams…

The top is a Grainline Studios tiny pocket tank, which I made over a year ago with the remnants of some fabric I had used to make a shirt for what’s-his-face. That was the second I made for him, and now, some ten shirts later, you will still never see one on this blog because what’s-his-face is shy. So you will just have to trust me, they are out there, they exist.

Ugh, I look like I have a double chin here, sigh.

It’s a cute top, the fabric is great, but I think we all know who the fabric star is here….it’s the ikat. Have you ever seen one like this before? I hadn’t, I love it! The colors, the checks, the texture, I just think it’s stunning. I thought pleats would suit it and I’m happy I was correct. It gives me a warm pleasant feeling to be RIGHT. God, I want to ride that high forever.

This is a little blurry, sorry, but the waistband has a button in the back, stone buttons which are vintage and I have a bunch of them. It also has a vintage zipper, which is just peeking out there, it’s a magenta color to match the raspberry of the checks.

You can just see the pleats, there, they meet in the center of the skirt. It’s subtle, but I like the effect.

I hand-stitched the hem, and you can see the fabric a little better here.

The pockets are a contrast, which is subtle but fun! I didn’t have enough of the ikat, though, so that’s also why. Contrasts can do many things…

It’s a fairly simple make, but it’s so useful. Maxi-length isn’t going anywhere for as long as we are here, sigh, and while it may make me look short, at least it works all over the place.

Now, to mourn the coming and going of new seasons of shows, and sigh.

There you go! Any show recommendations, anyone? Bueller?

 

The Wakes With The Fishes Shirt

When you have a pattern stash, of any size, and you are trying to limit that pattern stash, or you’ve been FORCED to limit that pattern stash, because of moves to India, or a place like that (I don’t know what else is like that, Bangladesh I guess?) you might find yourself cycling through patterns, creating trends within your own collection. For example, there might be a time when you are making a handful of patterns over and over again and then for no real reason you stop, and move on to something else. But then you come back to the pattern you loved, after a while.  Has anyone else had this experience?

Of course this pre-supposes that you, like myself, make patterns over and over again. It’s a rare pattern I don’t make multiple times, because I’m cheap, and it just seems like a waste not to, especially when a pattern is expensive. It’s actually why I love Colette Patterns Seamwork, because I can try stuff and feel okay only making one of them, because they are reasonable and release regularly. At any rate, I’m not talking about making 10 pleather body suits here, but classics like a woven t-shirt, well-fitting pants, a full skirt, that’s stuff I just keep on making.

It’s kind of like food. When I was a kid my father was the one who got us up in the morning and got us ready for school while my mother slept. We had to wake up stupid early, like 5:30am early every day for the school bus, don’t ask me why, probably because we lived in the city and our school was in the suburbs, like a punishment for living in a better place. WORTH IT. ANYway, to make things simple my father would figure out a meal we liked, for example, eggo waffles, and buy like twenty boxes of them and we would eat them for years. And then we would revolt, we would rise up and say NO to the oppression of eggo waffles! And then he would give us cheerios, which we loved because they weren’t fricking eggo waffles so they tasted like the literal best thing ever and then he would return home from the grocery school with twenty boxes of THOSE and the cycle, she would repeat itself all over again.

And my clothing production…may or may not sometimes work a little like that. Sometimes I get in a groove and then I realize I’ve made five of the same things in a row, and I feel so bored, and then I try something else and do it all over again! Damn you, Papi, and the things you’ve unconsciously taught me! Sigh. Ah, well. I do like a bit of a uniform, so maybe it’s for the best.

Now the rains have come to Mumbai, but just before the monsoon arrived the heat was laden with humidity and as oppressive as a fascist regime. So on days when I knew I wouldn’t have to run an errand, given that I work from home, my uniform became shorts, which I don’t tend to wear out in India, and lightweight shirts. And that’s when I realized, I had just made my third Archer in as many months, in my new favorite shape, selfless, with a back ruffle, and a little long. Boom.

These shorts are also me made, from FOREVER ago, a vintage pattern from the 1950’s which I no longer have because it was fine but not AMAZING and again, trying to keep that pattern stash in check.

The fabric comes from Mangaldas Market, and it’s a night lightweight cotton. I can’t get over how much I love these fish. When you have animals on your clothing you can never be lonely, because you always have friends! I DON’T CARE HOW PATHETIC THAT SOUNDS IT’S HOW I FEEL.

Apart from lengthening the pattern, which has become my standard adjustment for the Archer, I didn’t change anything about the pattern. I used french seams throughout, like I do, and bias tape for the armholes. Otherwise, pretty standard. I mean, when you make a pattern over and over and over and over again you kind of…get the hang of it. 

I could probably go a size or two down on this pattern, or bring it in at the side seams, but it’s been so nice in the heat of Mumbai to have stuff that just drifts off my body.

Man, I love that back ruffle. I never thought I would, but I’m so damn into it!

What’s-his-face really wanted me to take photos eating a peach. I don’t…really understand why, but hey, what is marriage but doing weird things your partner insists on and being photographed?

And that’s about it! Oh, the name is obviously a joke on mob movies, because I don’t sleep with the fishes, this is a day-time kind of shirt. Although, I wouldn’t mind fish pajamas….new mission? Accepted!

 

The Sleeping In The Tropics Pajamas

In a recent skype conversation my friend Victoria as me if there was a time she could visit India when it WOULDN’T be extremely hot.

Weeeeeeeelllllllllllllllll………..

Look, not all of India is hot, honestly. It’s a huge country, they got all types of weather here. You can hike the Himalayan foothills in multiple states, you can go from forest to desert to jungle, you have options, really. In the North, you can even experience winter, magic thing that it is. Kolkata will get slightly chilly to my senses, although its native denizens walk around in sweaters and coats like it’s Moscow, and I have heard that other regions experience the ups and downs of weather that I was so used to (and loved) in the States.

But here in Mumbai, it’s always fairly hot. It’s the tropics, you see, and there is no getting around that. Some days are hotter than others,we had a brief “winter” like period in which I actually wore pants voluntarily and Mr. Struggle pulled out a flannel shirt claiming to be “chilled” because he is a delicate Indian flower, but generally it’s pretty much hot, hotter, hottest around here. October is notoriously sweltering, in the post-monsoon haze, and now, pre-monsoon or just on the very verge of it, Mumbai is a venerable hot-air balloon of humidity. Apart from messing with my skin (is that a thing, does anyone know?) and frizzing my hair (I haven’t worn it down for any signficant period of time other than sleeping for weeks) it’s made walking around an amazing experience in which I go from normal to sweating buckets within minutes. And the worst part is, people around me DON’T SEEM TO SWEAT.

I walk to the train station about two days a week on average for the voice over work I’m doing for a television show which is being dubbed from Croatian to English. It’s….amazing, it’s this soap opera from Croatia and it’s a constant source of wonder and hilarity for me. So far, plot points have included Somalian pirates, an escaped abused Yemeni bride, desert island desertion, heroin, unplanned pregnancy, a gypsy who sees the future, a coma, a beauty pageant, and so much more in between. And I’m not even halfway through dubbing it! I voice multiple characters, and sometimes I have long conversations in the show between me and me and it’s crazy. ANYway, more on that in other posts, but the point is, it’s a fifteen minute walk from our apartment to the Santacruz West Railway Station and in that brief window I become so coated with sweat that my clothing turns new darker colors from my exertions. Then I go to the studio, which is air-conditioned, freeze for a few hours, the color of my shirt returns to normal, and then I head out to repeat the whole process all over again. Upside? My wardrobe appears far bigger than it is! Downside? So. Sweaty. All. The. Time.

I know there are people out there who don’t sweat. Good for them, I say! But I sure do, and my life in Mumbai so far has been perpetually shiny with it. Now, at least in Mumbai you can pretty much wear whatever you want, unlike other Indian cities where you might want to be more covered up because the culture is a staring oriented one (see this post I did on India’s capital for reference), although of course even here it sort of depends where you live and where your day takes you, geographically. But given that I work from home, and my home is on the edge of Bandra, arguably one of the more liberal centers of this mammoth city, I am usually as comfortable as humanly possible. Even though, however, can wilt in the face of the heavy pre-monsoon humidity that makes the city feel like a greenhouse for tropical plants. Well, to be fair, it rather IS, isn’t it? Certainly the plants here love it….

But transplants like me, we need to figure out ways to cope, especially when it comes  to sleepwear. There is nothing quite so horrible as waking up because you are physically too hot and sweaty to keep sleeping. Luckily, the lightweight cottons also produced here are pretty good with that sort of thing, and I’ve made a few Carolyn pajamas which, after fiddling with the fit a bit, have kept me fairly cool, but this time I wanted something even breezier, even more open, even BETTER. Luckily, I had just the idea, and the fabric to make it happen:

 

Oh yes, the hair, she is up. Get used to that in photos for the next few posts! My mother has commented she doesn’t know why I don’t just cut it all off. Deborah is, as always, correct, but I’m keeping it for now, so enjoy this series of posts whose subtitle shall be, “updos have I known”.

So! This is a modified Tiny Pocket Tank which I adapted using this stellar tutorial (I have actually done this sort of thing before, way back over a year ago for a sojourn to Austin. That pajama now lives in San Juan, its natural habitat). I did my usual size in this pattern, 14, to accommodate the full bust I possess. I suppose I could grade down for the waist and hips, but, like, how much do I care how form-fitting this billowing tank is? Besides, honestly, with the aforementioned heat I’ve been in a trend of making stuff that stands as far away from my body as possible, moderating my Tiny Pocket Tank and Scout Tee patterns to make them tents, trapezes, circles, whatever, something that stays away from my skin.

I usually lengthen this top, but for the pajama version I just kept the length as is, which makes it a cute swingy little top.

Full disclosure: I pinned the back in place for the purposes of this photo shoot. #tricksofthetrade

The shorts are the Purl Bee City Gym Shorts, a free pattern (free pattern!) which are perfect for pajama shorts. These shorts are fairly easy to construct, it’s just the miles of bias tape you need to finish all the visible exterior seams that can be…daunting. But, hey, its super cute, so we do it anyway…I’ve made these shorts a few times, and I have found that they are cut a little slim, presumably to be more flattering, but I like them loose and baggy, especially for sleep. I don’t really get this idea of slim fitting pajamas…..I’m really okay not looking my most fashionable self as I sleep.

Although I do think these are pretty cute!

The construction was fairly simple. The interiors of both pieces include french seams throughout, and the neck and armholes are finished with the same bias tape that you can see on the shorts. Easy peasy. I sat down with this after finishing THREE shirts for Mr. Struggle (because I am the best. wife. ever.) yesterday afternoon, and wore it to bed last night.

The fabric comes from Mangaldas Market, my favorite Mumbai fabric destination. I love this fabric, I actually made a dress out of it, which I need to photograph and post, and then was in the market again and saw more of the fabric and I bought it all right there because how often does that even happen? Once before for me. That’s it! Isn’t it great? I still have some left! What to do, what to do…

Modeling “sleepy” poses or prepping for a jump shot?

You know me well if you guessed jump shot.

Sharing a moment with Cadfael. Man, if I think it’s hot, can you imagine how HE feels? We will wait for the rains together, and now I have a decent pajama to mark the tropical occasion.

Come on, monsoons, get a move on!

In Search of Fabric or Forest for Trees

Oh my goodness, this past month was a total whirlwind, and my backlog of projects to photograph is bigger and better than ever before, just take my word on that. Travel from city to city and hosting friends in Mumbai was layered with furious working and sewing sessions, none of which has been conducive to blogging, but it has been a blast, I must say.

Projects I’ve completed include, but are not limited to, two pairs of Carolyn Pajamas from Closet Case Files, a bunch of Burda Style Jakob shirts for Mr. Struggle, curtains for our apartment, a bajillion Scout and Tiny Pocket tees, a Mission Maxi Dress, by Christina Hayes, a self-drafted box pleated maxi skirt, two more sleeveless Archer shirts, a Seamwork Adeline dress, at least three plantain tops, a McCalls M6696 shirt dress that I finished last night, oh god, the list goes on and on….

How do you guys do it? How do you get good consistent photos of your projects? This is something that has plagued me since I started blogging, how to get photos, how to make time for that, how to even like the way I LOOK in pictures, how to not feel embarrassed to ask other people. I left my tripod at home in the States, and I will say having one did make it a little easier to get photos of myself, but it’s always been an issue for me, getting photos of my projects. I love my friends, but I don’t always love their photos, and I get uncomfortable trying to get them to do what I want them to and usually give up halfway through and say, it’s fine, it’s fine, and never use the photos because they aren’t what I want. I think the trick is to take a million photos, because then about five of them work, but no matter how many times I assure people “just keep taking photos” or “tell me if I look weird” it is rare that either of those things actually happens. But given the kind of backlog I have, I think I need to find some kind of better solution here, because I have so much unblogged…I have the sewing part down, I like the writing part too, but the photography part, that’s the issue.

At any rate, here is a quick outfit and a lot of photos from my travels to the north. India is a great place for fabric, as you may know, but what you might not know, what I didn’t really know, was the amount of types of fabric that are produced all over the country, and the fact that every region has their specialities, their methods, their materials, their weaving and dying techniques. The floaty fine muslins that inspired such fervor in Regency England come from Bengal, things like this:

The thick brocade silk weaves of Benares, now Varanasi, are duplicated all over the world, and they look like this:

Chintz from the Coromandel Coast inflamed the European imagination, and we can see the influence of these patterns and dye techniques even today:

But for many, when they think of Indian fabric, the first thing that pops into their head is hand block printed styles from the great state of Rajasthan, or Land of Kings. A central fabric producing hub since pre-Mughalite India, it wars with nearby Gujarat, the embroidery center and longstanding fabric powerhouse, for dominance of Northern styles, and it’s the place I wanted to take my friend Liz, (hi, Liz!) who was visiting me in India. A magnificent pattern maker and stitcher, although she loathes both (why oh why does the universe give such gifts to those who spur them?) Liz is a costume historian and she works at FIT. Despite her disinterest in sewing she does actually sew, and makes awesome beautifully constructed things I would kill to create, and she was excited to do some textile-based tourism in India. We toured the Anokhi Block Printing Museum (which I had detailed in this post), and even got to visit the amazing Rangotri Fabric Printing Workshop (a must for any Jaipur visitors interested in this form). We also did some damage at Delhi’s government emporiums, which are a fabric education in and of themselves, showing visitors the variety and magnificent quality of Indian textiles.

Check out our bounty:

Block pints and ikats!

Khadi forever. There is so much beauty in this simple cloth, I can’t get over it!

 

 

I know, I know, it’s excessive, but to be fair, half of this stuff is Liz’s….

Now, to show you the guts of the Rangotri Fabric Printing Workshop!

Headed by Vikram Joshi, who worked for Anokhi for a long time before heading out on his own, this company is amazing and does gorgeous work. Using traditional techniques and modern aesthetics, Joshi often enlarges a simple shape or design until it becomes something else entirely as a block, or uses older designs with different colors and combinations, to create something that is at once traditional and new. He does custom printing work as well for people, carving blocks and printing designs that look so unlike what you think of as wood block printing, it’s remarkable. With a workshop that includes all levels of production, from block carving to clothing stitching all in one place, the quality control and design is all supervised by Joshi, who was kind enough to give us a tour and set me loose in his overstock room, where I picked up more than one amazing piece of fabric….

The floral on the left and the zebras and the blue bird are all from Rangotri.

Cadfael modeling his personal favorite. Some of this has already been turned into a living room curtain but the rest is going to be an outfit so I can match my curtains a la Maria Von Trapp!

He also collects wooden blocks, and has an insane collection of textiles and pieces in his own personal little museum. I hope someday he makes a larger museum, because I would so be there….

Check it out!

A block printer carving out a simple design or horizontal lines.

A block and the dye.

The block printing wardrobe. Watching these amazing printers quickly and perfectly place the blocks and print the fabric is insane, both hypnotic and awe-inspiring.

A little close up for you. Most prints require a minimum of four blocks. Every time you see a color, that’s a block to distribute that color.

Prepping a piece for printing.

Once it’s printed, it’s hung, then later washed and dried.

The “true” final color of the print above.

Amazing that this is a block print, right? It looks painted, but it’s all coming from a carved piece of wood. Also, you can see what happens to the color after it’s processed, washed and hung. The colors on the bottom are the “true” final colors.

This guy soaks and beats the cloth. Clearly he doesn’t need a gym membership. I can’t believe no pop-gym has adopted this as a work-out method yet….

Quality control! Having the whole process in one place means immediate communication about the quality of the objects.

Rangotri produces a lot of home-goods fabrics, in fact, that’s most of what they do, which is sad, because I would buy ALL the fabric from them if it was commercially available. As it is, you have to go there and hope they left you pick up a piece or two. Still, it’s totally worth it!

And now, just because I have to get through this one way or another, a little outfit post for you:

It’s a Scout Tee from Grainline Studios in a fabric I picked up in Kolkata and a pair of Butterick 5898 Patterns by Gertie pants in a stretchy crappy fabric I grabbed at Mumbai’s Mangaldas Market, which were great for Delhi in summer (it’s already summer here), because it helps to be more covered up in Delhi, a city where men actively stare at you wherever you go, although it’s so painful to be so in the scorching unforgiving sauna that is Delhi. Capris and loose-fitting tops like this help. They don’t ENTIRELY make it great, but they help!

 

 

Oh! I also did Me Made May, of course, through my Instagram  but honestly, at this point in my life, I wear me-made every day, so I sort of have a me-made LIFE, really. I always enjoy seeing other people’s stuff, though!

Okay, I’m off to put my life back together post-travel, and try to figure out a way to photograph my excruciating backlog, sigh. Seriously, advice is welcome! Happy June, everyone. What are you sewing this summer?

 

The Accidental Patriot Outfit

While I generally feel positive about the country of my birth, I rarely feel the need to coat myself in its colors head to toe. Funny story, though, recently I was at a wedding which included a Western Style ceremony (you know, girl wears white to symbolize purity because of antiquated archaic notions of inheritance anxiety and the social need to police female chastity, guy wears a suit, rings exchanged, embarrassing speeches made by drunk exes/siblings, the usual) in addition to the normal Hindu thing (you know, wear a bunch of red and gold, invite thousands of strangers you’ve never met, find flower petals and glitter on your body in the shower DAYS later, the usual) and this girl, inspired, no doubt, by the theme, wore a dress made of an American flag. This delighted whats-his-face and I so much so that we sort of stalked her around the wedding (which would have been really creepy if it was just whats-his-face, come to think of it, yet another reason to get married, to save curious men from scaring strangers). That was a truly amazing moment in life. One wonders if she wears Indian flags to Indian weddings….

So recently, when visiting a museum with a friend in the middle of the week (let’s talk about working from home and how awesome it is sometime, when I’m not so busy working from home and thinking about how awesome it is), I realized that I was accidentally decked out in colors that showed my American-ness as clearly as my accent does. Could it have been a subconscious longing for the United States? My desires dictating my clothing without my knowledge? Or just a strange coincidence? Maybe the colors you absorb around you somehow work their way into your mind, affecting your clothing choices. My friend Becca (hi, Becca!) and her mother Mary (hi, Mary!) have this issue as art conservators, especially Mary, who realized that she was accidentally dressing to match paintings she was restoring.

Whatever the cause, I look like an American flag a little bit here, fair warning.

Sun blasted photographs aside (hey, man, I live in India…) I like this outfit a lot! I’ve realized I really need to make more solid tops and bottoms, and this skirt, a self-drafted situation, was an awesome start. I wear it so very often, and I am grateful to my past self every single time.

It’s a little deceitful here, because it looks like it had side gathers, but it actually has two large box pleats which because of the drapey nature of the fabric are a little crumpled here. But you can clearly see I put in pockets which is vitally important!

That’s a little better, the rare situation in which an indoor shot is better than an outdoor one. AND you can see this lovely museum, an equally rare thing, a museum in India that looks really nice and is well maintained! Of course, the collection…makes zero sense. But hey, man, that’s Indian museums for you, at least, in my experience. But the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum is, at least, a lovely place.

The shirt is a Grainline Scout Tee. Man, I love that pattern. I just make it all the time and can’t stop. A woven tee-shirt. Who knew it would be such a wardrobe staple?

I had most of these photos taken in a space the museum made for statues that people have been defacing after the end of British rule in India, like a sad little garden of damaged colonial statues. I love it.

I don’t know what they had against that elephant, though. The blouse is a little billowy, but honestly, in the Mumbai heat and humidity, I will take comfort that comes with looking a little fuller through fabric drape any day. You can see the box pleat nicely in this shot, though, and even a tiny hint of the white pocket fabric I used.

How cool is the button? Man, I love that button. I always opt for the waistband button because its a great way to use buttons and it’s fun. Excuse the stray threads!

I love the fabric, too. Mangaldas Market strikes again! If you are ever in Mumbai, get on it.

Want evidence that this museum is super weird? Don’t worry. I took photos! Things that are in this museum include vases, urns, pottery, ancient playing cards:

And….dioramas! A LOT OF THEM:

That says “Rear livestock of good breeds”. It’s like the Met, I’m telling you.

This is a case that shows all the incarnations of Vishnu.

It’s honestly worth going just for the Museum alone.

And I think I made it very clear in there that I was an American tourist. So I really paved the way for my people. You’re WELCOME!