Present Joys

I haven’t tumblred in quite a while! This is partially because I didn’t want to disturb the Meryl Streep photograph at the top of my website. But also because it’s been a crazy past few weeks. First, I counseled for a week at church camp in Geneva, Ohio. I have included a photo of me with actual children as photographic evidence of this. If you look closely, you can see the smoke from a campfire behind me. Camp was superlative. If possible, I will tell you more about it later.

Upon my return home, I found my house with no electricity. We spent a whole week without power! It was too hot inside my house to enjoy playing accordion or knit. I ended up reading pretty much all day long. I got all the way through Christ of the Covenants and made a good dent in The English Hymn: Its Development and Use in Worship, a fascinating survey of English hymnody written in 1915.

So I have only just got back to normal life (read: accordion, freelance work, sewing). And this includes tumblring. Tomorrow I will post a shirtmaking update! I also need to recap a recent concert. But mostly I just wanted to say hello, tumblr. I hope you’re doing well.

Meryl Streep, 1981

Last week, I made a special father’s day shirt for my dad, who is a very serious guitar player! I cut this shirt from a new pattern based on my existing pattern, one of my dad’s existing shirts, and some direct measurements. He wanted a very easy-fitting shirt. The fit isn’t perfect (I should say there are minor “lateral balance problems”), but it’s cool and he was happy with it. Overall a success! And it’s always good to remember why I have a policy of not making clothes for other people—too stressful!

I made one other shirt for myself this week, in a blue-green soft chambray. The fabric is the same as the orange stuff I used a few weeks ago, however, the cut is much better and truer. I gave this shirt a more “normal” collar shape, that is, not spearpoint-shaped. I pleated the sleeves into the cuffs. The most exciting thing about this shirt is the color; it’s this wild blue-green. The warp is a cool, purple-blue and the weft is a warm green-blue; combined, they make a very intriguing robin’s-egg color. How will I ever be able to accessorize this?!

I ran out of pearl shirt buttons after I finished my dad’s guitar shirt. I’m planning a trip to Cincinnati in a few weeks, where I’ll be able to get some more deadstock pearl shirt buttons at Banasch’s. Until then, anything I make will have to do without buttons until then!