An American Sewing Bee Is Casting!

You may recall that I'm a huge fan of The Great British Sewing Bee. I discovered it on YouTube in its first season and became so obsessed with it that I insisted on talking about it with everyone I came into contact with--hairdressers, baristas, whoever. I've longed for an American version since then, and my wishes are coming true!

I've posted the casting flier above, and I expect you all to get right on this! (I hear they're especially hoping for more male applicants, if you're of that persuasion.) I can't wait to see how this all develops.

Will you be trying out?

Mom, Head Seamstress

Good news! My mom took pity on me and came out from Arizona to help me sew the 35-ish garments in my next book. I've had her working away since she got here. (Thanks, Mom!)

Here we are, posing like we're working.

And just posing.

She's been sewing while I'm finishing up the patterns. It's like having two of me!

Henry has kept us good company. Here he is in a nest of muslin.

Ok, back to the workshop!

Are You Going to the Sheep and Wool Festival?

I've only heard good things about the Sheep & Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY, but I've never been. However, it's right up my alley: farm animals and fibers! I know it's more of a knitting thing (which I also enjoy), but there's stuff for sewing enthusiasts too. For instance, the famed Make It with Wool Contest.

Anyway! It's located right in my county, and I'm finally going to check it out this year. It's the weekend of October 19th. My publisher will be there (with my book!) and I'd love to hear if any of you readers will be there. Perhaps we can even have a meet up of sorts!

Attendees, please comment and let me know if you'll be there on Saturday the 19th or Sunday the 20th. Hope to see you there!

A Hudson Valley Sewing Retreat?

I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say I live in one of the most beautiful places in the country. Beacon is situated in the Hudson Valley, between the scenic Hudson River and tree-topped mountains. Our downtown is quaint but hip, with galleries, restaurants, and boutiques. 

As you know, I travel around the country to teach. But I'd love the opportunity to teach a weekend workshop in my home town, surrounding by all this gorgeousness.

But I want to gauge your interest in this idea! What I'm imagining is a weekend filled with sewing, food, nature--but mostly sewing. Participants could work on their chosen projects, while I do demos on some of my favorite topics like fitting, patternmaking, lapped zippers, steel boning, bound buttonholes, tailoring, etc.

I would arrange it so that room/board and some meals were included in the retreat cost. Travel to Beacon is pretty easy. It's 80 minutes from Grand Central Station in NYC by train, or you can fly into the local airport in Newburgh, NY. The earliest it could happen is in the spring, so there's plenty of time to arrange details.

What do you think? Any interested parties out there?

On Vacay

Hellooo, readers! I'm visiting family this week. And despite my best intentions to post while away, I'm just having too much fun.

Did I mention that I have a niece?

She is delicious--I mean, adorable!

We are spending some serious quality time together this week. I take my role as "eccentric aunt" very seriously! I bought her that picture book about the gay penguins and also--a little pink ukulele!

She is a ukulele prodigy!

From here, I'm heading west to see my folks. I plan on continuing to have too much fun to blog, so let's meet back here next week, ok?

Hope you're all doing great!

California Adventure

Good morning, readers! I'm writing this from lovely Los Angeles. I've had a whirlwind few days! I arrived on Friday afternoon and drove to Anaheim for the Craft & Hobby Association show.
Remember how I was making my design, Butterick 5814? Well, I finally finished it on the plane. (Don't worry, I'm going to do some more proper posts on it, plus that 3/4 length sleeve tutorial.) I desperately wanted to wear it that night, since I was going to Butterick's company dinner. They're celebrating their 150th anniversary! I finished it just in time to take a cell phone pic (I call it "Self Portrait with Toilet") and then rush down to dinner, where I had the most amazing time catching up with the Butterick/McCalls folks.

I wore it with a vintage cardigan since it was chilly.

Also, another week, another shade of pink hair! My last dye job was looking weirdly patchy (purple-magenta in places, pink in others) so I went for an emergency touch-up before my trip. We used a mix of Special Effects Atomic Pink, Cupcake Pink, and Cherry Bomb. I think I've found my perfect color!

The next day I had my book signing at the Butterick booth! I wore the scallop waist skirt and Peter Pan collar blouse from my book.

I met some kindred spirits.

 And caught up with friends, old and new. (That's Haley from The Zen of Making on the left there.)

 I also got to see my friends from Creativebug!

Yesterday was my big party at Sew L.A.! It was fabulous, to say the least.

Christine Haynes and the other ladies there went all out with a retro picnic-theme. I put tons of garments from the book and my Butterick line on display.

Everyone came all decked out in their retro finery!


See more fab pics on Christine's blog. Thank you so much, Sew L.A.!
Now I'm heading out for a couple days of exploring Los Angeles, starting with the garment district. (I'm sure I need more fabric, right?)

No Sewing, Just Organizing

Wondering why things are a little quiet here on the sewing front? Well, I've embarked on the mother of all organizing projects. Or should I say mother-in-law of all organizing projects? You see, Jeff's mom, Joan, was here for Thanksgiving, and she's an organizing guru. She offered her help to re-do my sewing room, which was a disaster area. I'm really lucky, because I don't know how I would have done it without her!

We spent Thanksgiving day going through stuff and sorting, and then the next day we made an Ikea pilgrimage.

First, Joan suggested using a currently empty wall as a storage space. So what you see above is my new Expedit unit, filled with Drona boxes and Kassett boxes.

The Dronas are primarily fabric storage. Readers, I went through each piece of fabric I own, and measured its width and length. Then I labeled a swatch that is kept pinned to the outside of the box so I know what's inside.

This basically took me forever. But I'm pretty sure it's going to change my life.

Oh! I also spruced up an old lampshade with pompom trim!

I also organized my sewing magazines.

Even though it's looking good at this point, I still have a lot of work to do. I hope I can get through it quickly, because I'd really like to start sewing again. Wish me luck!

Happy Weekend

I was setting up to take some pictures of my finished coat (!) and couldn't resist doing an impromtu Rosie-and-me shoot. Isn't the light kind of pretty? Very late fall afternoon, golden hour-ish.

I've been covertly working on trousers a lot lately. These are some high-waisted jeans that I practically live in. I feel like I'm really making some breakthroughs in fitting my basic pant pattern, which I will write about soon!

In the meantime, have a fabulous weekend!

Hurricanes, Bunnies, Coats, Etc.

Hello, readers! With Hurricane Sandy set to hit the east coast today, I wanted to post a quick announcement that the sew-along may be disrupted this week. Our region is pretty much expected to lose power due to high winds. I sure do depend on that power stuff! I will do my best to get a post up today on the coat's next steps, though.

Halloween may also be disrupted, but I am still going to insist that Rosie don a costume. While we were originally going to be witches together, I stumbled across a better idea for her.

What is that I see in the bottom right corner?

A bunny! Okay, it's actually supposed to be a lamb costume, but it really looks like a bunny. And Rosie would be the cutest little bunny, don't you think?

That's her in her new winter coat, which I made from a fabulous cheetah print fleece. (And yes, that's me in my jammies and fuzzy socks in the background.)

Anyway, bunnies! If all goes well, you'll be seeing Rosie all bunnied-up in the next few days.

Most importantly, I hope everyone is staying safe throughout the storm. Batten down those hatches and stay dry!

"Diet" vs. "Lifestyle Change"

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Somewhere along the way, the word "diet" became a dirty word in our lexicon. (You've heard the jokes: "diet is a four-letter word," "the first syllable of diet is DIE," etc.) The bad reputation comes for a good reason, too. Traditional diets have been shown to not really work in the long run, leading only to years of yo-yo weight changes, body loathing, and an unhealthy relationship with food.

The word diet has been pretty much universally replaced with the term "lifestyle change." At first, I was on board with this, even as corporations started adopting it as a marketing tactic. It sounds good, right? "Weight Watchers is a lifestyle change, not a diet!" It sounds way more fun, frankly.

And then something changed: I actually went on Weight Watchers a few months ago. Before my book was released, I discovered that I'd gained about 15 pounds and no longer fit into the clothes featured in the book--the ones I was supposed to wear to events and signings. I wanted (actually, needed) to fit back into those clothes, but I was also disturbed by such a quick (and practically unnoticed) weight gain in my life. If I kept it up, where would I be in a few decades?

Weight Watchers comes highly recommended, so I tried it. Plus, it's so retro! It was founded in 1963 by a Brooklyn homemaker. And it worked: I followed the plan (more or less) and lost exactly 15 pounds. Yay me. Everyone who notices says I look thinner in my face. Is it possible to lose 15 pounds from one's face? Apparently. (Below, the evidence.)

March 2012

October 2012

I was somewhat conflicted about being on a di--. . . I mean, lifestyle change. My views on body image and weight in the media are well-documented here. Would it be hypocritcal to go on a . . . lifestyle change? Overall, I'm a big believer that women should do what they want with their bodies, so that attitude won out.

But all along the way, I was annoyed by the company's insistence that I wasn't on a diet; I was making a lifestyle change. How are the two mutually exclusive? Hasn't dieting always been a lifestyle change--one where you eat less? And honestly, being on Weight Watchers kind of feels like being on a diet. I love food, and there was certainly an amount of deprivation involved. Some days I felt like I couldn't stand to see another salad. This whole "lifestyle change" business seems to be just another way to market weight loss products to women, right?

(And since I know you're going to say it: of course it's good to aspire to a healthy lifestyle. But when did "healthy lifestyle" become a synonym for "thin"?)

P.S. I was also going to use this post to rant about how people are using Pinterest for "thinspirational" messages (which share a lot in common with pro-ana messages), but I was pleasantly surprised by something. If you search "thinspiration" in Pinterest, you get this message:

Interesting that they use the wording "eating disorders are not lifestyle choices." (Emphasis mine.) Big props to Pinterest!

Stuff 'n Thangs

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When Jeff and I lived in San Diego, we always drove by this little thrift store on our way home. It was called Stuff 'n Thangs. Since then, that's been my favorite term for any seemingly random assortment of items. Which is what I have for you today! Many things to share, readers. (Oops, I mean thangs to share.)

*The book giveaway! Would it surprise you to know that I received over 700 email entries for my scholarship book giveaway? It's true. I will be sorting through them today (thank you, Gmail filters!) and sending notifications to the winners. 

*I have a book trailer! It's very Bewitched-inspired. Love twitching whiskers on Henry. 

*Also: a new Creativebug course! This one shows you how to make a 40s-inspired peasant dress from the Portrait Blouse pattern from my book. (The pattern is included as a PDF printout with the course.) Don't forget that until the end of October, you can get $10 off a Creativebug membership with the code GERTIE10.

*Here's the sample dress I made for the Peasant Dress Course.

In the course I show you how to elongate the Portrait Blouse pattern for a dress, add gathers at center front and back, add rows of elastic at the waist (my method uses channels rather than elastic shirring thread), baby hems, and a delicate little bias binding at the neckline.

*If you'd like to see a video of me walking around San Francisco in the Peasant Dress, you're in luck!



*Creativebug is also doing a fab giveaway for my book and a three-month membership. Once you enter, you get my waistband finishing class for free!

*I'll be working on a coat sew-along post today, so watch out for that later on!

Meet Rosie

We have a new family member! Meet Rosie, an adorable miniature pinscher mix who captured our hearts last weekend at Pets Alive, an animal sanctuary in Middletown, NY. I'm happy to report that everything is going great, even with Henry and Pip, the cats. We were nervous to adopt a dog after our last try (blogged here), but we learned so much from that experience! We knew what to look for this time.

We went to Pets Alive so we could meet lots of different types of dogs. It's an amazing place, and all the animals look happy to be there. We knew we needed a mellow, not-too-big dog to fit in with the cats. We spent a few hours meeting dogs, walking them, and getting to know them. We met Rosie (then called Carmela) and knew she was a good candidate: sweet, quiet, friendly, easy to walk. We slept on it, came back the next morning, and we knew she was ours when she gave us a shy little greeting and climbed into our laps. She's been a blast to have around: a great cuddler, goofball, lap dog, walking partner, and companion. We are so lucky!

We learned a bit of her backstory. She came from Puerto Rico, where Pets Alive has another location. She was found abandoned on the side of a highway with her three puppies, who were very sick. Pets Alive rescued them and nursed them all back to health. Rosie came to New York, where she had a better chance of being adopted.

A few pics. You might notice that I made her a kerchief to match my blue roses dress. We looked mighty snazzy walking around town, if I do say so myself.

Many more pics to come, I'm sure. Welcome home, Rosie!

Greetings from Hat Land

Hello, readers! My brain is out of town this week. It's currently residing in the strange, magical land of Millinery 101 at the Fashion Institute of Technology, where finals are due tomorrow. That's when I will present my first collection of hats to the class. I'm somewhat terrified.

You see, at the beginning of the term we had to present a "mood board" (I've come to loathe that term) and the instructor wasn't very taken with mine, to say the least. Here, you can see it if you want. (Click to make bigger.)

My theory was that I would make a collection of vintage-inspired hats that are wearable today. Emphasis on wearable. I don't think I've quite succeeded in that, but I have kind of learned how to make hats, which was the aim. Here are a few of my favorites.

Anyway. I'll admit to being in kind of a dark place about the whole thing. It's so hard starting out at something, wanting it to be perfect, and not being able to really make your vision happen. It's so much like learning to sew! I don't mean to be so negative, but I knew you all would understand.

I have tons of finishing little finishing touches to do, so my brain and I are going back to Hat Land. I hope to be back in Dress Land next week!