Ten Things I Hate About Sewing

So, we often talk about why we love sewing. But let's have a break from all that positivity and sunshine and get negative for a minute. So here's my list. Top ten things I hate about sewing!

1. Lining things. Making linings is boring, let's face it. No one will ever see it, the materials are slippery and hard to work with, and it's just a big, boring hurdle to face before you can put on your lovely finished product.

2. Scraps. My sewing room is turning into a scrap landfill! (Read more thoughts about scraps here.)

3. Constant scheming and obsessing. I have an obsessive mind, so I pretty much think about sewing in all my free (and not free) time. My internal monologue can start to sound like a broken record, which is really annoying.

4. Pins. Why do they end up everywhere except in my pin cushion?

5. Ironing. Self-explanatory. Ironing is boring.

6. Hemming. Hemming is a constant source of anxiety for me. I'm always worried about how it's going to turn out: will it be straight, will it be invisible? Arrrgggh.

7. Sewing brings out my indecisiveness. Which pattern? Which fabric? I don't know! Let's obsess about it for days on end! (See number 3: constant scheming and obsessing.)

8. Finishing seam allowances. Wouldn't it be nice if fabric didn't ravel?

9. Hand Sewing. Actually, I just hate it when my thread tangles and knots. Which is all the time.

10. And finally, the top thing I hate about sewing is . . . when I can't find time to sew. Because then I can't do what I love. What a second, am I being positive here? Crap.

Your turn! What do you hate about sewing?

What Do You Wear While You Sew?

Even if you're sewing the fanciest evening gown, there is no need to dress up while sewing. In fact, I highly discourage that sort of thing.

In my opinion, the best thing to wear while sewing is whatever you slept in the night before. I'm modeling this look above, which includes my husband's pirate t-shirt and a pair of voile pajama shorts. This ensemble is best paired with fuzzy striped socks.

Even if I come home from work and decide to sew before dinner, I immediately put on whatever I slept in the night before. Even if it has stains on it, as demonstrated above. I highly recommend this route.

The second option is to sew in your underwear! This is very practical, as you can do frequent fittings without a lot of fuss. You should close your curtains first, though.

The third option is to wear a white lab coat (clothing underneath optional), like they do in the Dior couture workrooms. This is perhaps overkill, but it might be fun to pretend that you're a head dressmaker in Paris.

I'm sure I'm missing some possibilities here. So, tell us: what do you wear while you sew?

Fat and Fashion

I woke up yesterday morning with a weird combination of nausea and a fever, so I took a sick day and spent it in bed with a good book: Hungry: a Young Model's Story of Appetite, Ambition, and the Ultimate Embrace of Curves by Crystal Renn. Luckily, my strange malady passed quickly, but the book will continue to stay with me for a long time, I hope. Hungry was written with a collaborator and isn't a perfect memoir by any means, but it is stunning in its truthfulness. (Perfect for National Honesty Month!)


Crystal Renn once lost 70 pounds to achieve her dream of becoming a high fashion model. She got the big contract, along with a severe eating disorder. Eventually, she (and her body) rebelled against the pressure to be extremely thin. She's now the highest paid plus-size model working today. But her work hasn't been limited to Lane Bryant fliers. She's done editorial work in Vogue and Glamour, and she walked the runway for Jean-Paul Gaultier in an amazing couture dress designed specifically for her.

This book is a fast and compelling read, despite the gravity of some of the topics. I identified with Crystal quite a bit. While she obsessed over Elle Macpherson's workout tape and Oreos as a teenager, I have memories involving a Cindy Crawford exercise tape and a batch of peanut butter cookies. I've been a yo-yo dieter since my teens. I've always wanted to be super skinny, though it's gotten to the point where I'm not really sure why I want that anymore. At this very moment, my weight is at a high point on the yo-yo's arc, and now is, historically, the time I start running for diet books and new exercise classes. In fact, I bought a copy of The South Beach Diet just the other day.

There are very direct correlations between sewing, body image, and fashion. As I discussed in this post, sewing my own clothes has, to some extent, alleviated a lot of my body issues. But sewing is hardly a happy fuzzy land disconnected with the grim realities of fashion: in fact, they go hand in hand more often than I would like. Vogue Patterns relies on big name designers, and many of us follow the runways religiously so we can knock off the looks on our own. The point is: we're certainly not immune to the workings of the fashion industry, just because we make our own clothes.

And it's hard to ignore that there's something about the whole culture of fashion that makes most women feel bad about themselves (just check out this article for proof), and Hungry gets to this point in a concise way, exploring how the fashion industry employs a certain amount of victim-blaming and lack of humanity in their continued support of models with disordered eating. And to the people that automatically screech, "But being fat is unhealthy!" this book offers a lot of solid research on why health actually comes in many different sizes. I also found Crystal's take on health to be very refreshing; she's an organic food enthusiast and seems to eat more healthfully than many skinny women who, in our culture, appear to be the "picture of good health."

Health at Every Size is a book that Crystal recommends for replacing weight obsession with healthy habits. I think I've found the perfect book to replace my new copy of the South Beach Diet . . .

Vogue Patterns Winter/Holiday Collection: a Big Batch of WTF

I imagine it must be very hard to work at one of the Big Four sewing pattern companies. In fact, I would guess that it's probably a lot like working in book publishing: you have to toil away with limitless creative energy and enthusiasm at something that many people consider to be a dying art. (Yes, reading and sewing are both definitely endangered in the U.S.) There are probably dreaded bottom lines, scary budgets, and constant restructurings. So, believe me, I get it. But still, Vogue. WTF?

I got an e-mail announcing their winter/holiday 2009 collection yesterday and hopped right over to the site to take a look. What greeted me was . . . befuddling.

Let's start with the Anna Sui offering.

Anna, WTF is this? I actually enjoy granny-chic styles. But seriously, this is way too much of a good thing. A high neckline and an ankle length skirt? A wrist corsage? Goodness gracious.

There was also lots of asymmetrical hem action.

Holy elementary school art teacher!

Now for the real clincher:

What. The. Hell. Is. This.

The hat really takes the cake, does it not? Wouldn't you think that the jaunty chapeau would be an integral part of the pattern? No, my friends! According to the pattern description, that is a "purchased hat." Good god, where does one purchase such a hat?

There are two new Vintage Vogue offerings, which are quite fine and acceptable and boring.

I'm sorry, what was I saying? I seem to have dozed off for a second there.

Ah yes! The Vogue Winter/Holiday collection. In my honest, irritable opinion: a big batch of WTF and tedium.

P.S. If I have offended anyone who might like these styles, please take my rantings with a grain of salt. I'm a cranky old broad, remember? You sew what you want and do it with style, ladies!

Me at My Happiest

This post is in honor of my self-proclaimed National Honesty Month (I guess it's not really national, but it sounds catchier that way). This is Gertie Unplugged. No makeup, no dresses, no sewing machine.

My beloved cat Henry Higgins likes to sleep on my pillow. As soon as I turn off my bedside lamp, he pads up and curls himself around my head, as pictured above. In the moments before I fall asleep, I often think how lucky I am and I send a little thank you out to the universe.

Isn't it funny how the little things keep us going sometimes?


That hairy foot you see on the right is the other crucial part of me at my happiest: my funny, brilliant, adorable husband. And somewhere around there is the other beloved kitty, Pip. Again: aren't I the luckiest?

Anyway, I invite you all to share in National Honesty Month. When are you at your happiest? Is it at your sewing machine, or somewhere else?

October Ennui (with a Side Dish of Nihilism)

I'm afraid I don't have a pretty photo to add to this post, so let me lead you through a guided visualization instead.

Ready? Okay!

Imagine you are in a cozy bed. You are halfway between consciousness and waking. You've just pressed your snooze button for the eighteenth time. You stick your foot out of the covers, and it's greeted with shockingly cold air. You pull your foot back in.

When you at last manage to clumsily heave yourself out of bed, it's with the unwelcome realization that it is the first day of OCTOBER. Your brain presents you with a laundry list of things that make you wonder why you bothered to get up at all:

1. You have a blog.
2. It's about sewing.
3. You haven't managed to produce anything significant for the day ahead of you, in respect to either blogging or sewing.
4. You have lots of great ideas, you swear. Smart ones.
5. You also have plenty of great sewing projects planned. You have enough new fabric to clothe a small country. Why in the world can't you manage to sew something? Preferably, something that will dazzle everyone on the internet.
6. You also have to do your hair and pick out an outfit today. You just did your hair and picked out an outfit yesterday. Do you really have to do this every damn day for the rest of your life?
7. Okay, you're starting to sound like that girl from The Bell Jar. Things didn't go so great for her, now did they?
8. Hey, cheer up, it's Thursday! You can sew awesome things and write smart blog posts all weekend.
9. But the weekend is so short, and then you'll have to start all over again on Monday.
10. Okay, you're doing that Bell Jar thing again. Stop it!
11. Also, you should find a bestselling novel to edit within the next week. If it could be an award-winning one too, that would be terrif. Thanks.

There! Are you ready to face the day, Sunshine?

In case you can't tell, I've decided to make October National Honesty Month here at Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing. Get ready for the cold hard truth, friends.

Have a great day!