The Fashion Freedom of the Sewing Machine

26. May 2016 · Comments Off on The Fashion Freedom of the Sewing Machine · Categories: Domestic

And yes, there is freedom unimaginable in it – that bit of technology available since the last half of the century before last. A sewing machine, a pattern, a small degree of skill with them both, and personal fashion style is your oyster. One will never again be held hostage to the fashion trend of the moment, especially if said fashion trend is desperately unfattering, unfitted to make a good impression for the profession or occupation that you are in, otherwise unsuitable, and expensive. What brought this on was a discussion on another author website regarding certain fashion preferences, and a lamentation that it was so hard to find exactly what would be suitable, fitting, comfortable and all … and I am remembering how this was so not a problem for me, when I was working in an office and business professional was the order of my day and wardrobe. If I could not find exactly what I wanted – a black lightweight wool slightly-below-knee-length pencil skirt, to give one example – I could just buy a yard of suitable fabric and a seven-inch zipper, and go home and make it in an afternoon.

There’s an enormous freedom in being able to make exactly what I wanted, and make it to fit, and in a flattering color. Oh, usually it costs something to sew an outfit yourself, considering the costs for the pattern, the notions and the fabric – usually as much as just purchasing it off the rack on sale, but not near as much as full price from a quality outlet like Talbots’ or Neiman Marcus, and for a pittance in relation to having it tailored individually.

I have read that home sewing is one of those things that is just not done so much anymore, or not so much as was done routinely in past decades; certainly not for every-day clothing, when tee shirts and jeans are the backbone of every day wardrobes for most Americans. But there are still enough people doing it, enough people certainly to keep the pattern companies in business, and fabric and notions departments in mass. For special event clothes, costumes and crafts – I would say that there is still a good market in catering to the home seamstress or tailor. It’s just one of those once-widespread skills – like cooking – which is now more of a hobby than an every-day practice.
But still a darned useful skill to have.

Almost Done

19. May 2016 · Comments Off on Almost Done · Categories: Book Event, Domestic

Well, not quite everything, of course. I am speaking of the Edwardian-style suit that I was moved to construct, as something eye-catching to wear at an author – especially a multi-author event – of which I do have a few, coming up over the next months. The Second Chronicle of Luna City was done and put to bed – that is, uploaded, signed-sealed-and-delivered to LSI last week, and so I had a bit of time to devote to other-than-writing chores. I finished the suit, re-trimmed a flamboyant wide-brimmed hat to go with, a small bead and lace-trimmed hand-bag ditto, bought all the parts to make a small fake-fur tippet, of the kind that I used to see the elderly church-ladies wearing … although I still do have to make the tippet. It will be the kind made to look like a small furry animal biting its’ own tail.

This should amuse small children immensely – much as it used to divert my brother JP and I, seeing the ladies at church, with their menageries of furred stoles, slung about their shoulders, glaring at us over the back of the pews with their very-realistic glass eyes. The furry stoles, not the elderly ladies, I mean. Those stoles had glass eyes, little toothy jaws, and little black noses, and sometimes dangling paws as well. Yes, we were often horrifically bored during long sermons. Fancying that the little furry stoles were live animals, and might come bounding over the pews amused us at least as much as sorting out the various Biblical stories and parables limned in the splendid early 20th century windows of a church which was designed to look sort of like a minor English cathedral, inside and out. (Granny Jessie was a member from earliest days, Mom and Dad were married there, all of us were christened, and my sister married there and still is an active member. Supposedly, it was made in sections from poured concrete and supposed to be faced in stone, but the Depression put paid to that ambition, and eventually everyone agreed that the concrete had weathered so nicely, that why go to the bother and expense?)

The next event on my author schedule is a book festival in Wimberley, Texas, on June 11, at the Wimberley Community Center. There will be forty other writers there, so – standing out in the crowd is imperative. Then, following in July, there is the second annual San Antonio Indie Book Fest – this will be at Say Si, in downtown San Antonio on July 16th. There’s nothing set yet for August, and I have not yet heard anything firm about the Giddings Word Wrangler, in September. I’ll have a full supply of my books to carry me through the year, and am investigating the possibilities of drop-cards, so that buyers who want an ebook edition can buy the card from me. We have finished up all but a single one of the Watercress Press projects as well – so until a new one pops a head above the parapet, I’ll be working on my own books from here on out, for the foreseeable future.

The Hat Project

01. May 2016 · Comments Off on The Hat Project · Categories: Domestic, Uncategorized

So, having decided to update my author ‘drag’ — that is, a bit of eye-catching something to wear when doing an event — I found a pattern for an Edwardian-style suit; a straight long skirt and jacket at a Hancock Fabric store. Yes, one of those which is going out of business, sadly. Yes, the bargains are nice — but this will put us down to one single chain fabric store, and the limited selections at Hobby Lobby and Michaels . Yes, I am old-school enough to have gone into absolute mourning when a local San Antonio institution, Scrivener’s – which was an eccentric and upscale vendor of hardware, stationary, gifts, hardware, housewares and who knows what else — closed out the fabric department, and then within a year or two, closed down entirely. They had marvelous fabrics, and quality notions and buttons – and oh, heck – I am getting weepy just recalling. No, I couldn’t afford much of their very best – but they had quality, in the old-fashioned way, and I was viewed with affection and respect by their salesladies, as I was one of the very few of their customers who tacked the extremely difficult Vintage Vogue designer patterns. They always did well by me, when I had a sewing project.

But anyway – the Edwardian-style suit; that will need the appropriate Edwardian hat to go with, and just this weekend I was able to get cracking on that, starting with a wide-brimmed black felt number manufactured in China  that someone must have bought for me a good few years ago; my daughter, possibly, when she was stationed in California. I remember having to wear it on the flight home, where once arrived, it went into the closet to emerge … possibly not until now.

The nice thing about it being wool felt is that it could be re-shaped, with damp and steam. The brim of it was upturned and tripped with a yard of black plush fake-fur. I removed that – oh, I have plans for that narrow strip of plush fake-fur, but that will be another project entirely.

 

And no – not by any means are these authentic Edwardian lace, tulle or trimmings; this is not meant to be a historical reenactor costume, but something eye-catching and splashy, made with materiel readily available at ordinary retail outlets. It took about two and a half hours, all told. The finished suit itself won’t be anything particularly authentic, either – grey polyester suiting, so as to look good and relatively wrinkle-free on those occasions when we have to set up, and haul tubs of books around.

Computers, Books, Progress and All

14. April 2016 · Comments Off on Computers, Books, Progress and All · Categories: Domestic, Random Book and Media Musings

Coming up for air, after more than a week of … well, stuff. Firstly, Blondie and I decided to bring out the sequel to Chronicles of Luna City at the end of this months, rather than try and do three books all at once at the end of the year. I have the sequel to Lone Star Sons to write, and The Golden Road to finish – those last two got set aside in the rush to finish Luna City and Sunset and Steel Rails in time for the Christmas market season. Inspiration, OK? It strikes where it will. So – finishing that sequel and going through editing and layout, and devising new pictures for the chapter heads … and right in the middle of all that, my main computer chooses to not be able to internet. Seemed to be a purely mechanical thing – as in some connection in the innards not being able to connect – and I had some handy work-arounds, which were sabotaged by the wireless router crashing shortly thereafter. And then my daughter’s computer crashed utterly and irretrievably. Sigh.

This is why we have a spare everything, in boxes in the closet. Computer, monitor, router … and also why I back up everything to a thumb drive and an external hard drive as soon as I finish writing a chapter. And a laptop, which those generous people running the Amazon Vine program offered me earlier this year. I will never forget that horrible day around Christmas 2007 when I was just about ready to sit down and write that fifth chapter for Adelsverein: The Gathering – where Carl and Magda meet cute on the bank of a river when she is desperate and he is heroic – and the then-current computer crashed, taking all four previous chapters with it. My dear late friend, Dave the Computer Genius was able to sort out the crippling virus infestation after a couple of days, retrieve all my files (including the chapters!) and revive the then-current computer unit to serve for a few years more … but prepared is to be forewarned. Hence the redundant back-ups. And I also bought into some particularly effective virus-killing programs and have used them religiously ever since. This is my livelihood, OK?

Still, it does take some time to migrate everything to the new unit/units. It’s rather like a PCS – moving into a new space. There is some time required to settle everything familiar into the new location, get comfortable with the layout, locate the new electrical switches – especially because the new units and the laptop came already pre-loaded with Windows 10 … as well as some kind of leftover function that made me sign-in repeatedly, if I walked away from the computer or didn’t move the mouse or strike a key in one minute. Took two days to sort that one out, which tends to tell on the writing time, let alone re-installing certain necessary programs, which I was foresighted enough to have on original discs. (What is with this thing about paying a monthly fee to have certain programs available – a rant for another occasion, I think.)

Anyway, now settled into the new work-space and picking up those writing projects set aside, and thinking about new ones. What to work on when I finish The Golden Road? I’ve been toying with the thought of a WWI novel, since there are characters in The Quivera Trail and Sunset and Steel Rails of an age to have been affected by it. I may still do something of the sort, but writing about how the 19th century world came to an end in bloody mass-slaughter of men and empires, not to mention a certain degree of confident optimism … at this present depressing time, I don’t need any additional depression. I’m toying more energetically with the idea of an adventure set in the American Revolution; how the original Becker paterfamilias came to America as a Hessian mercenary, and deserted at the end of the war to stay behind, marry a local girl named Katerina, and set up a prosperous farm in Chester County, Pennsylvania. That would be more to my liking – picking up the circumstances briefly mentioned in Daughter of Texas, with a young Margaret Becker fondly recalling her grandfather; the wisest, kindliest and most humorous man of her acquaintance, who made certain that she and her brothers spoke proper German.

How careful he had been in speaking the old language, ensuring that she and Rudi said words in the proper way, so that Oma Katerina laughed and laughed, saying that the children sounded as if they had a broomstick up their backsides, so prim and careful with words and sounding like proper children of Hesse. Margaret had never thought that Opa had been sad about leaving his family, and his soldier comrades. The story of Opa and Oma had a rightness about it, the comfort of a familiar fairy-tale for children; of course young Opa Heinrich should stay in America and marry the young Oma Katerina. That was the happy ending which all fairy tales had.

That will be an interesting book to write, although I shall have to stretch my research library in a whole ‘nother direction; I do have some materiel about late 18th century America and life in the colonies – but more will be required.
And I will have to find the time to get out the sewing machine and start to work on my author-garb for the upcoming year – the Edwardian-style walking suit and a towering period hat to wear with it.

The New Thing

06. April 2016 · 4 comments · Categories: Book Event, Domestic

We went to a Hancock Fabric outlet this last weekend – my daughter wanted to take advantage of the going-out-of-business bargains. She has developed an interest in needlework and embroidery of all sorts, and since we try to live rather frugally – well, sales prices do have their appeal at all times. But it is with sorrow that we visit the Hancock Fabric outlet within our neighborhood. We have both worked in a going-out-of-business-enterprise, so we can comprehend the absolute sorrow and shock of the employees. Upon my retirement from the military, I took on a temporary sales job in the Marshall Field’s outlet in San Antonio, which was closing – and part of that was that a fur-coat concession took up a small part of the retail outlet. Which experience gave me no end of insight into the whole ambiance of high-end department store retail sales… and yes, I sold fur coats, for a basic wage plus a small commission on sales. Which did mount up, as the months wore on, towards closing of the Marshall Field’s store. We lived on the paychecks from that job for simply months, as Blondie joined me on the fur salon sales force … but never mind. I can wholly and deeply sympathize with the employees of the Hancock Fabrics store, even past the point of merely apologizing as a customer for their situation. No, I do not want to say anything about how the sales floor will contract and contract again, the shelves will empty out, as the discounts grow deeper and deeper. The store will become a bare husk of what it was – and at the end, locked doors with a pile of pathetic and picked-over goods. So sad, so sad … since I do not have to put on the whole office-work skirt suit and all, every day, I have kind of gotten away from the sewing and tailoring that I used to do for myself then, and with my nieces both well beyond the age of wanting cute little dress-up outfits … but I will miss Hancock Fabrics anyway.

In grey, with a black velveteen collar...

In grey, with a black velveteen collar…

The only time I really have to make an effort these days is for author events, where one simply has to make a splash, especially if there are other authors there. And depending on the genre or book, some authors do dress to impress and attract the eye. Another member of the on-line author circle I belonged to early on had a couple of books set in 19th century China. He had a full set of Mandarin robes with suitable accessories and that always made a bit of a splash at signings. On his advice, I have tried to do something with a sort of movie cowgirl look for book events. Lately I’ve been thinking that straight period 19th century might work better. But since we usually have to set up, and haul heavy boxes of books back and forth, the full crinoline, bonnet, bustle and trained gown is absolutely out. But there was a possibility in the Butterick Patterns costume section; an Edwardian walking suit; slim skirt, tailored jacket over a high-necked blouse. So, I bought the pattern, and there was some grey polyester suiting going for practically nothing – not that I am a fan of polyester, or that it will be in the least period-accurate. It will look nice and wrinkle-free without a lot of pressing and steaming.

I have some high-laced shoes already, a wide-brimmed hat which can be dressed up with lace, netting, plumes and whatever to match, and a replica ladies’ pocket watch on a fob; voila – new look for me on the very busy author scene for the rest of the year. Since I am going to try and bring out the second Luna City Chronicle, another Lone Star Sons book, and finish The Golden Road all in time for Christmas, I will simply have to have something smashing to wear …

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