Me-Move-May: More than Pretty Dresses

Aha! I found my computer.

See, my entire life is in boxes, and my camera battery went kaputso and the charger is god-knows-where. So I can't prove to you that since my graduation I've been keeping up with the Me-Made-May challenge, but it's just been the same reiterations over and over. The past few days, my Mad Men headbands have been keeping the hair off my face as we packed and unpacked the truck, and right now I'm taking a break from trying to fit our clothes into a single closet. I never thought I could get so excited about Wonder Hangers and storage contraptions.

My partner and I have been living apart for the past year and a half so now we face the challenge of combining two households in one, and if I can say so, he's sort of a clothes-and-shoe diva (sorry, darling, it's true). The man easily has more shoes than I do and he's a tall man so everything takes more room. Unfair. I'm actually worried about my fabric stash. In the 2001 film, Love the Hard Way, the protagonist played by Adrien Brody (for whom I have a serious weakness) writes his novel in a storage unit. Depending on how things go, I likewise might be whipping up my summer wardrobe in a space the size of a hobbit cave. Who says sewing isn't a luxury? It not only requires some moolah and lots of time, but adequate space!

Anyway, enough of my closet-mania. I thought I'd randomly share some links/thoughts.

-The long drive was helped along by Red Bull, Chex Mix and several CraftSanity podcasts. I particularly loved this interview with my current designer-crush Wendy Mullin and this one with designer Cal Patch. I am definitely buying both of these women's books: Mullin's Built by Wendy Dresses: The Sew U Guide to Making a Girl's Best Frock and Patch's Design-It-Yourself Clothes: Patternmaking Simplified. Anyone have these? Any recommendations?

-Lisette at Vintage or Bust is hosting a fabulous Ruby shorts sew-along! I have been aching for a pair of these and the warm weather is making this a necessity (now where is my machine?). I'm going to be wicked late to this party, but join us and/or peek in on the participants!

-Check out Gertie's post and accompanying comments on Retro and Race, inspired by Beyonce's retro style in her "Why Don't You Love Me?" video. I'm too zonked to offer a meaningful, intelligent response but to say I live for discourse like this. My academic work focused on post-colonial literature, and I'm intrigued by history, society, perception, etc. Popular culture reflects this, including the clothes we are wearing. They're so much more than pretty dresses. (And beyond the "retro and race" issue -- am I the only one that finds the basic premise of the song troubling?)

-Speaking of being more than pretty dresses, Jessica at A Yen for Craft writes about the crafting trends in this fascinating post. Jessica poses interesting points, particularly what it would take to make crafting go mainstream (and are we there, or close?), and is this new slow-fashion/clothes movement comparable to the Slow Food movement? I formerly maintained an organic garden and it changed my outlook on food, my eating habits and my relationship to my body. Now sewing, I absolutely concur that there's a lot of overlap between the benefits of these movements. Perhaps what they say is true: Anything worth having is worth working for, and for me that means either making it yourself, spending the time to understand essential processes, or forking over extra money for quality goods.

-Carmencita B had a wonderful post on "Letting Go," specifically of letting go of inevitable sewing mishaps and how every seamstress has a different threshold. I'm trying to reform my sewing-shorthand-sloppiness and I'm getting better simply because I realize there are some mistakes that are going to drive me bonkers if I don't fix them. A former-me would not finish edges/seams and now I literally can't not do it. Nor can I handle any highly visible crooked seam. Those sound like no-brainers but it wouldn't've fazed me before, I was just delighted that I managed to put two pieces of fabric together. And then there are just the mistakes that constitute my learning curve that may be unfixable and I have to live with that. Where's your threshold? What can't you live with?

My partner and I have been talking about how it's the seemingly marginal activities that can be defining and shaping factors in our lives. For example, I'm learning how to focus in the creation process of clothes because that's where it matters. In comparison, a former-me would have simply thrown everything in my closet, with no thought to livability, organization, practicality, etc. But now I'm taking my time because all this work now saves me time later. Perhaps that's just patience I'm learning, but I'd like to think all the lessons we learn in our creative lives benefit us in all facets of our lives. What do you think?