Minimal Monday: Making and Producing

I've been sewing for 20 years. I started with hand quilting and in 2010 began to sew garments. Since then, I've had existential sewing crises every 18 months or so. Most of them have been fueled by projects gone wrong, but my recent interest in minimalism has introduced a new element of sturm to the drang. Or vice versa. #fancywords.

Am I sewing for the pleasure of making, or to produce ever more clothing? I mean, I realize that sewing inevitably results in stuff: muslin/toile, garment, and scraps scraps scraps. To say nothing of the environmental impact of making and transporting fabric.

Unlike quilt making, garment sewing is very much product-driven for me: a lot of the initial appeal lay in marrying pleasure to necessity: I'll sew my own clothes!  But my style preferences could make it easy to overproduce---I'm more likely to emulate Eileen Fisher than Kate Spade. Simple silhouettes still require attention, but nowhere near the fuss and fiddling of gathers, floppy bows, and ruffles. Hats off to my fellow sewists who enjoy those things--I can barely get myself to do buttonholes.

So how do I temper my love of making things with my wish to live more simply? Perhaps by shifting my focus to making instead of producing:

Technical Practice. AKA extreme muslin-ing. When Peter of Male Pattern Boldness first started his blog, he sewed every day using old bed sheets and thrifted fabric, his creations ranging from cocktail dresses to men's underwear. This approach reminds me of my husband's dedication as a classical musician. He spends hours playing scales and etudes in addition to his concert repertoire, all in preparation for an ephemeral "product." I could practice on scraps in between projects to hone and stretch my skills (maybe including buttonholes).

Meditative Stitching. The Alabama Chanin method of sewing unites the zen of hand quilting with forgiveness of fitting jersey knits. For me, a heavenly combination. I took a class from Natalie Chanin in Denver recently and the high sustained me through the 8-hour drive back to Albuquerque. I feel myself drawn more and more to this kind of sewing and there are times when I'd like to jettison fitting pants, installing zippers, and matching grain lines in favor of hand-sewing bliss, Make Nine be damned. However, this statistic (via Fringe Association) makes me more determined than ever to produce some of what I need when ethical, local, and/or second-hand sourcing isn't feasible.

So it's probably more realistic to balance my focus instead of shifting it entirely. My closet purge and modules are proof that I have the luxury of taking my taking time on projects, from pattern choice to final product. And in between, I can enjoy the making.

Do you ever struggle with making vs. producing?

Minimal Monday: Magic Capsules

A lot (okay, the majority) of my research on reduced consumption/simplification/minimalism has focused on clothing. Behold my platonic ideal:

I get that this wardrobe won’t transform my quasi-suburban house into a warehouse studio. But I do imagine a freer, more actualized self, much like the women in the Title Nine catalog:

Vocation: Nonprofit Communications
Avocation: Knitting and Sewing
Kryptonite: Naps
Fridge: Cold-brewed coffee and string cheese

The pressure (real or imagined) to have a consistent but not redundant "look"  has stopped me from paring down my wardrobe. As a former colleague used to say, these might be “old feelings that are not appropriate for the situation I’m in right now.” I entered the workforce in 1992 in a large but conservative city. Weekend- and work-wear were distinct categories, business casual environments were rare, and dressing for the job you wanted meant owning a week’s worth of different skirt suits.

I'm the one on the left.

It’s 25 years later. I live in a casual city in the laid-back southwest and work part-time for a nonprofit. I’m pretty sure no one thinks about my outfit frequency. With this in mind, I dove into my wardrobe.

The resulting "system" is a 6 Items or Less/Miss Minimalist mash-up. I've designated four "modules" of roughly 6 items each: Fall/Winter work,  Fall/Winter home/errands/dates, Spring/Summer work, and Spring/Summer home/errands/dates. The home/errands/dates capsules definitely skew towards home/errands. Unless you go on a date to the grocery store, which is a very real thing when your kids are little.

I'm going to re-visit my Make Nine list this week, and this whole exercise has caused me to rethink (for the 800th time) my approach to making clothing.

Have you ever experimented with a small-ish wardrobe?

Minimal Monday: Status & Simplicity

One of my goals for 2018 is to reduce my consumption and pay off my smallish-but-nagging unsecured debt by April. I’m on track to be debt-free after selling several scarves on eBay. Vestiges of an old life, I originally bought them as much for their covert display of prestige as for their beauty and craftsmanship. They’re devoid of logos but signified my taste to the Right People.

The relationship between consumption and status-seeking seems obvious. But over the weekend I came across this article in the New York Times by Jacoba Urst. She mentions simplicity as a “form of cultural capital" and cites Joel Stillerman, who coined the term “post-materialist values”:

…But minimalism is also meant to project taste, refinement and aesthetic knowledge. “‘These people,” he said, “are making the statement that ‘I can afford to have less. I appreciate books and travel and good meals.’”

As someone who grew up in a household that could only afford to have less (without the travel or good meals), this resonates with me. Choosing minimalism is a privilege. Something to think about as I move towards “less”: what’s motivating my purchases? Because I don’t want socks-sponges-hand cream to be the new scarves.

 *For all 3-4 of my readers: “Minimal Monday” will now be a thing.   

Three New Tricks

1. Warm Water with Lemon

I started drinking this as a substitute for my General Foods International Coffee arrival-at-work habit. Mid-afternoon fatigue has driven me to seek out every possible culprit, but the embarrassment of typing "General Foods International Coffee" should have been motivation enough to quit. Anyhow, warm water with lemon is surprisingly enjoyable (even without honey) and meets my need for self-soothing via warm beverage. 

2. Writing 

In a notebook, with a pen. I read The Artist's Way years ago but never got into the morning pages habit. I don't do the prescribed three pages and I write in the afternoon, but it clears my head and wakes me up. 

3.  Strength Training & Stretching

20 minutes, every other day. Unless it's realllly windy or <30 degrees outside, I look forward to running errands on my bike or jogging several times a week. Sit ups, crunches, push ups, not so much...to say nothing of stretching. My new "routine" consists of two reps each of 15 chest flies and 15 tricep-somethings on a Swiss ball, one run-through of this core routine (ignore shame-y illustration) and two of these stretches.

Learning any new tricks or habits lately? 

January Check-In

I started this blog at the end of 2017 to chronicle the year leading up to my 50^th birthday, and to document my progress toward my goals.

So far I’ve mostly blogged about sewing but other stuff has happened too. Like shopping. I fell off the wagon to the tune of 5 yards of wool double-knit that popped up after months of an online wool double-knit drought. (Whither Vogue 8151?)  

Still, I’ve discovered that an amazing thing happens when you don’t shop: you don’t spend money and that money will be available for other things later on. Buying less is critical to buying-less-but-better. Eureka.

Shopping aside I’m trying to be mindful of my consumption in general. I’ve stopped reading all but a few “style blogs”—a lot of content aimed at (and created by) women over 45 preaches self-actualization via eyebrow pencil and handbags and it’s not doing me any good.

However I’m still consuming cookies on the daily, which *is* doing me some good.

Do you have any 2018 goals? How are they coming along?

Time's Up

I didn't watch the Golden Globes. But yesterday I weeded through the online and radio coverage, a thought-provoking mix of righteousness and black couture gowns. At times my cynical side found it hard to distinguish pageantry from advocacy. Thanks to women like Lauren O'Connor, standing up against sexism and harassment now promises risk-free brand equity for Hollywood's elite.

As Gabrielle Union suggested in an interview last month,  we need to pass the microphone. 

So I was heartened to hear Oprah Winfrey (no stranger to branding, I know) thank "...all the women who have endured years of abuse and assault because they, like my mother, had children to feed and bills to pay and dreams to pursue."

Women like Christie Van and Miyoshi Norris from the Ford plants in Chicago. And the women of color in Alabama who bailed out our collective butts last month.  It's 2018, and  if we want to see a new day dawn then we better follow their example and get it in gear. 

One Week In

The first week of 2018 has been a productive one, no doubt thanks to the spring-like weather (minus the dusty nap-inducing winds that we'll get in March).


Eating/Health/Fitness
Christmas cookie consumption down via attrition; jogging up thanks to the warm temps that are simultaneously morale-boosting and frightening given that it's January. My heart aches for the residents of Boston whose cars are trapped in chunks of ice due to lack of global warming. But I digress; this is the fitness part of the check-in! We received four boxes of chocolates as gifts (3 lbs total). I appreciate the built-in portion control.

photo: Buffetts. 

Shopping 
I'm inordinately proud that I haven't, which reveals the frequency of my habit and suggests that I better keep my arrogance in check. The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao, yada yada.


Creating 
I've been working on useful things, per my goal of balancing product and process. I finished quilting my Tamarack jacket and made two practice welt pockets. I'm in it to win it and am whipping out the rhyming cliches. When my interfacing arrives I'll insert the pockets into the garment itself.

I also cast on some fingerless mitts to wear in my cold office, if it ever gets cold again. And I did two swatches for my Indium pullover.

How's your 2018 been so far?

goals

photo: focus..damn it!

Eating
-Just get back to normal. [Remember that a day with out Christmas cookies and bourbon-spiked eggnog does not equal starvation rations.]

Shopping 
-Don't, at least until April. I have a relatively small amount of debt and there's no reason it shouldn't be paid off by the end of the first quarter.
-Exceptions:  Fabric for the Jalie Eleonore pattern that's been sitting on my sewing table, and supplies (zipper and bias tape) to finish my in-progress Tamarack jacket. Which brings me to....

Creating 
-Find that ever-elusive balance between product and process. I primarily wear neutrals, so maybe don't knit any more brightly-colored lace shawls.

These only see the light of day when I open my closet.

Instead focus on useful things, like this Tamarack:

Quilting the back. 

Listening
-Pay attention and listen deeply. Notice when my mind wanders to my Ravelry queue or mountain of laundry or diet coke.


Onward and upward!

and so it begins

In roughly 11 months I will celebrate my 50th birthday.

It doesn't feel "old," but it feels significant--much more like a milestone than turning 40 did.

And man, a half-century can really fly by in a haze of misspent energy.

There are things I'd like to do more of and things I'd like to do less of, from eating to shopping to creating to listening.

Can an aging dog learn new tricks? I'll share the results of my experiment here.

Glad you stopped by.