Present Joys

The campy-listening thing, I think, is false. I don’t think that there is any such thing, actually. This happens with age, that at some point you might have told yourself and others that you listened to the Backstreet Boys because it was funny. But in fact, you were enjoying it; it’s just a different kind of enjoyment for you. But I don’t think that ironic-distance appreciation is actually a different or lesser appreciation. I think most of that irony is an attempt to say, ‘These aren’t exactly my kind of people, and I don’t picture myself sounding like that, but I still like it.’ I don’t believe in ironic appreciation. I think if you like something, the core of it is you like it.

New music from the Welcome Wagon

I had lunch with my sunday school class today. We talked about bridge for about a half hour, among other things. I love these people to death.

It’s been two weeks since my last shirtmaking post, mostly because I had some trouble with my patterns which took time to resolve. More on that later. The first shirt here is a seersucker “fun shirt”—something I’ve wanted to make for a while now. I used leftover grey seersucker from the shirt I made a few weeks ago, along with 1.5 yards each of red and green seersucker from Jo-Ann’s. I had no idea how much fabric to buy since I knew I’d be using three different colors instead of just one piece—turns out, I probably could have gone with just 1 yard each. The shirt is a popover, i.e, it’s got a front placket like a polo shirt that’s about 11″ long.

Fit-wise, trying to make a popover was tough enough—I shouldn’t have complicated it by using seersucker, which is notoriously stretchy and difficult to measure. The shirt turned out alright, but the center front. Cutting a popover really showed me that my pattern wasn’t as good as it could be, especially around the neckline. After this realization, I spent almost a whole week just working on a new pattern. I went back to my favorite shirt draft and drew everything out from scratch. You can’t really tell, but I dramatically altered both the neckline shape and the armscye. On my old pattern, the armscye was 21″ around—on my new pattern, it’s only 18″. It takes a little longer to put on my new shirt pattern, but the higher armhole means it fits better and gives me more flexibility. I cut three new shirts from my new, improved pattern.

There’s a short-sleeved shirt in red, white, pink, and cool grey fabric from Sew to Speak. I thought the colors looked very nice for summertime, which is ironic because the fabric itself has scarves on it. Nothing too special; just a better fit!

I also made a long-sleeved shirt out of Kaffe Fassett “shot cotton” from Sew to Speak. The fabric is wild and glorious—it’s as light as a feather, yet perfectly opaque, and it’s brilliantly-colored. I used bright yellow cotton thread to do all the stitching, instead of the typical white, and I think it gives the shirt a little character. The sleeves are gathered into the cuffs, a technique I still really enjoy.

Finally, I made a casual shirt out of grey fabric with foxes on it, again from Sew to Speak. It’s got a straight hem instead of shirt tails, designed to be worn untucked! It’s some of the coolest fabric I’ve ever seen.