I just ordered this coat from Etsy, which is going to be custom made from my measurments. It looks like a duvet! How lazy! I will be a walking nap this winter, which is perfect for a mother of an 8 month old and a 2.5 year old. I’m always tired.
Who knows how it will turn out! Will the arms ACTUALLY be long enough for my 5′ 11″ body? Is the oversized-ness of it going to be way too oversized? It’s all very exciting, and nerve wracking.
Your New Family
How does the saying go? Never share your dreams, or maybe, listening to someone else’s dream is a tedious and confusing experience. Well too bad. Stop reading. Things are about to get fuuuuuuuucked up around here.
Prologue- I thought the 2012 phenomenon was a well known bit of pop culture- you know, that the world is scheduled to end next December 21st, 2012? Apparently not everyone knows about this, but you should! Some believe that whammo! we’re wiped out as a civilization, and others believe that this will be the beginning of a positive new era in culture and spiritual belief. I happen to be married to an eschatologist- someone who believes in the end of the world, so hey, I am not gonna say I haven’t thought about it.
On to my dream.
You know in your dreams when you have this other knowledge of the dream world around you without it actually being spelled out? Right, so this whole end of world thing was happening, I knew that’s what it was. It wasn’t negative or dramatic, or terribly panicked. No bloodshed. Just happening.
I was driving and I needed to get gas in order to get home to my family. I pulled up to the gas station, and there were many people there trying to do the same thing, but there was no gas. And I felt the knowledge that there was never going to be any gas ever again. So I left my car at the pump and started walking.
I made it home to my husband and daughters and we hopped into my husbands work van which had some precious gas, and we headed out for the country because that seemed like a good place to go. Because . . . there was no more electricity- and there was never going to be any electricity again. At least until some shit got sorted with this new era. We were driving, and ended up in a small town because we needed something (don’t remember what) It was desolate. I went into a store to see if I could find it, and did, and explained to the shopkeeper woman that I really needed this but I didn’t have any money. She gave it to me and said it was okay, because money didn’t exist anymore. Money didn’t exist anymore. I realized that in the new era, helping others was common and I should accept the help, and it was to be our new way of life.
We continued our travels into the country, looking for a temporary place to live where we could find water and have fires and maybe find food. My thoughts were consumed with thinking of what my husband and I had to offer in the ways of skills, trades and products we could make in order to survive in a world where there was no gas, no electricity and the big one- no money. I felt at peace with the post 2012 era- I felt like we would survive, that we had a lot to offer others, and everything would work itself out and be fine. The end.
I had this dream over a month ago and it keeps coming up in my thoughts. It’s about a post-economic-apolocalypse world and it doesn’t seem that unrealistic. No aliens, no zombies, no giant meteors.
No gas. No electricity. No money.
What do you think?
I stumbled upon these quilts- so beautiful in their random imperfection. They really are the opposite to fussy cutting. So what’s better or more impressive- the loving abandon shown below, or the pursuit of perfection in a fussy cut?
Click for a bigger view. See more of the magic here.
Veruschka by Richard Avedon, 1967
I heard a great sewing term on Sewing With Nancy a little while ago. Sewing With Nancy is a long running American sewing show that I can occasionally catch on PBS. It’s kind of dry and awkward, which makes it amazing- the real life version of that skit on Saturday Night Live with the two women on the radio food show. . . Delicious Dish!
Anyway, I happened to catch this quilting segment a while back, and they used the best term ever to describe the process of cutting something out where the fabric patterns have to line up with each other over multiple seams- FUSSY CUTTING!
My long-lost always honest studio assistant Danielle used to often use the word fussy to describe a design wrought with finicky and unnecessary details. It is ingrained in my psyche.
When fussy cutting is done right- the result is often very impressive.
Check it- the obvious, and relatively easy fussy cut- the pattern matches in the front crotch seam of the shorts. And what gets me all riled up- the open jacket’s pattern matches exactly with the shorts pattern underneath. Wow. Great cutting and great casting, as the model’s proportions would have to be perfect to pull this off. A real head shaker.
MARC JACOBS RESORT 2012
Another example- this one is more fussy sewing than cutting, all seam allowances would have to be perfectly the same. I like this because it has a quilting vibe- definitely a reference that I think is coming down the pipe for Fall 2012.
Proenza Schouler Spring 2012
My own example, from my fall 2008 collection. I (meticulously) cut each piece individually. I had this sample around since then, but someone bought it at last springs Clothing Show for 40 bucks. I wish I had kept it. 40 bucks is kind of an insult to the effort. Oh well.
FUSSY CUTTING!
So I went downtown to the fabric district around Queen and Spadina in Toronto today to pick up a few supplies. I paid for more than enough parking time, and had over an hour left on my ticket as I was getting ready to leave. These two cute girls pulled up behind me as I was packing the stroller back in the car, and I spontaneously decided to give them my parking ticket with the extra hour.
On the way home while I was on the highway, I noticed that I had a parking ticket shoved in my windshield wipers. I thought, “that’s weird. Is that from this weekend, or just now? Did I miss a sign or something?” When I got a chance to look at it when I got home, it turned out it was from today, and the infraction was “failure to display reciept in windshield”. Which is total BS! I paid, and displayed – and those girls have my ticket to prove it.
So yeah, what are the chances. . . my spontaneous gesture costs me 30 bucks.
I am trying to quit attributing everything that happens in my life to some sort of mystical force, but really, why?
I’ve been workin my bum bum off on this! Please do me the honour of perusing my new webstore.
20% everything until June 30th. Coupon code- welcome20
I just came across this little nugget that I wrote five years ago, in an attempt to put myself in a nutshell.
“My aesthetic is based on a complex recipe of contradictions and loves. My inspirations can be somewhat cerebral, yet the outcome totally wearable. I believe in simplicity and functionality. But each piece will have an element of surprise and perhaps be a bit challenging, and require some guts from the wearer. I believe in the individual as a form of inspiration. I don’t design with a specific person in mind, but I get excited about maybe meeting the one who will fall in love with it. I use a lot of recycled materials, not because I feel the need to make a statement, but because it makes sense in a mathematical equation kind of way. X + scissors + sewing machine = Y I have a huge love for cotton, especially the vintage variety. So there you go, that’s what you get with me- maybe cotton, maybe recycled, definitely wearable, definitely loveable, 100% Canadian wholesome prairie wheat goodness.”
Still true. Especially the part in BOLD.
I’m a nerd. I like what I like. I just ordered these gems from L.L. Bean! Happy Birthday to me.
Black duckboots! So hardcore.
I also ordered these pants, which are embroidered all over with little ducks, impossible to tell from the crappy picture but they’re there. Oh yeah. I may have to alter them to make them skinny, we’ll see how they look. Then there will be nothing stopping their infinite coolness ; )
the embroidery!
the pants!
