Op/Ed: Being Left-Brained and Creative

Hey all, and welcome back to my Op/Ed column! This is a friendly little space where readers can respond with alternate views to posts I've written. I'm very happy to introduce Caroline, who has a unique take on the right brain/left brain dichotomy.

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First of all, many thanks to Gertie for letting me join the conversation! I'm a long-time reader of the blog, so I am delighted to share my thoughts on the idea of left/right brain approaches and
creativity.

Though my education was in the humanities, I have always considered myself more left-brained than right-brained. Both statistics and geometry fascinated me in school and I soon grew to appreciate geometry more as I delved deeply into knitting and sewing. I saw the structures and mathematical basis for socks, for example, in the excellent book Simple Socks, Plain and Fancy, as a framework for
creative projects.

Some crafting people have the talent of looking at a picture of a finished project, finding inspiration, and improvising their way to a similar object. They don't rely on someone else's clear, detailed directions to tell them how to make it. I have no such luck! While thinking about Gertie's post, I realized that 90% of the projects I decided to wing (instead of following a pattern) ended up either unfinished or taken apart. Personally, I prefer to let someone else do the initial design legwork, whether it's the pattern writing team at Vogue or an indie designer I've found on Ravelry. I may not be working from scratch or my very own brilliant idea, but I still have creative leeway in choosing colors, materials, and sometimes deviating in a small way from the directions. Even as I see my own left-brain-leaning approaches -- basing artistic decisions on established, analytical constructs and thoroughly reviewed data -- I am unconvinced that being left-brained makes me inevitably less creative or even that left/right tendencies have to be either/or. Still, I do wonder whether others consider relying on someone else's designs to be less impressive than designing projects out of pure brainstorming.

Essentially, I take joy in the architecture that underpins the design and supports the more nebulous creative aspect of handicrafts. I'd love to hear more thoughts from folks who consider themselves left-brained or who are somewhat disinclined to deviate too far from instructions. Can or should we draw value assumptions on following directions versus venturing into uncharted crafting territory?

A resident of Atlanta, Caroline enjoys Buffy the Vampire Slayer, reading too many books, and knitting Aran sweaters during the summer. You can follow her on Twitter and her blog.

Op/Ed Column: on Fashion Policing

Hey all, and welcome back to my Op/Ed column! As a reminder, this is the space where readers can respond with opposing views to posts I've written. When Kelly wrote to me that she was disturbed by the tone of last Friday's post on noticing fit and construction issues in others' clothing, I knew you would all be interested. Kelly graciously allowed me to reprint her thoughts here. So, without further ado, here's what she had to say.

Introducing Gertie's Op-Ed Column: by Elizabethe!

I am super excited to be unveiling a new blog feature today - an opinion column written by YOU, my brilliant and beautiful readers. The idea for this new series came about the day of the fateful apron post, which you might recall set off a bit of a controversy in the comments. I was especially struck by the thoughtful words of regular commenter Elizabethe and knew I had to find a way to work her opinions into a post. And who better to write the post than the lady herself? Please read on for Elizabethe's op-ed piece!

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I want to thank Gertie for the chance to do the first reader Op-Ed. There are so many great comments on every one of Gertie’s posts that this is really an honor!

A while back, Gertie posted a series of patterns that seemed, to her, designed to “anchor” women to domesticity – remember the dress with the oven mitt actually attached? “Woman, don’t think of going so far from the stove that you wouldn’t need an oven mitt attached to you!” the pattern seemed to say to Gertie. I have to admit, I was a little taken aback by her response. I had a completely different feeling for the chic shirtdresses with matching aprons, and with dresses that feature so prominently the tools of domesticity. I thought, how cool! These are some patterns that take domesticity seriously, and think women should be dressed well no matter what they are doing.

The truth is, the various women’s movements have always had mixed feelings about what domesticity means for feminism. Does feminism mean women should be more like men and compete in a “man’s world” or should feminism mean traditional women’s work should be given a more valued place in society? I think the post-feminist movement of the late 20th century has answered a resounding “both.”

Indeed, women’s worlds never could be defined so neatly as “at work,” or “at home,” and some of these patterns Gertie posted reflect that on a practical level. A woman wearing a chic sheath dress with a matching apron does not think she’s going to “just be home” all day. A woman in a well-cut shirtdress could make her kids breakfast in the morning without worrying about getting grease stains on her dress, whip off her apron and go to a meeting with a local politician, serve on community board, or run a business from her home. Even if she “just” stays home, a woman wearing a nice outfit says to her kids and spouse, the people she interacts with on a daily basis, and herself that she thinks being at home is just as important as being at work.

Elizabethe is a wannabe home sewist and recently Ph.D'd historian. She works from home as a freelance copywriter when her two little boys decide to nap.

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Many thanks to Elizabethe for kicking off Gertie's Op-Ed Column! Want to contribute? I'd be delighted! I'm looking for readers to write op-ed posts on the discussion topics we cover here: feminism, body image, pop culture, and how this all relates to sewing and vintage style. The goal of this column is to provide diversity and balance to the views already expressed here. Take issue with something I've written? Want to bring up a debate of your own? Please e-mail me at gertie@blogforbettersewing.com to propose an op-ed post.