How to R2-D2

This year for Halloween we had a three year old who wanted to be R2-D2, accompanied by a Princess Leia mommy and a Han Solo daddy. Leia and Han seemed easy. Buy, borrow, or steal appropriate clothing and get a fairly popular wig. R2 was going to be more of a challenge because I wanted something more charming than store bought. I searched Google Images and pinned to Pinterest. I came up with a plan:

We spent an afternoon at a craft store trying to find just the right materials: foam, felt, glue, and something to craft the headpiece from. For the headpiece we ended up with a plastic army helmet glued to the inside of a salad bowl, both from a dollar store.

We crafted.

I bought a full Princess Leia costume, complete with hair-buns wig and ended up hating everything about it. So I Freecycled it and started from scratch, changing my concept to Hoth Leia. White yoga pants on sale for $5 and a beautiful white vest and snow boots that I'll wear this winter anyway paired with a long-hair wig that my mom helped braid. Han had to buy a henley shirt and black vest, supplying his own pants and boots. We bought $5 blasters and decided to keep them fake looking by not painting them black.

Star Wars family complete!

This was Muffin's first Halloween in the United States so we had to go the extra mile for her. Although, she's only three so the extra mile didn't have to be too far. We drove to a nearby neighborhood where a friend of ours was having a small party. We trick-or-treated at about five houses then went to our friend's for pizza and "grown-up" treats. Muffin ate too much candy but she didn't have school the next day so we could have a later night than usual and manage her the next day without too much difficulty. (Friday night she slept for twelve hours.)

I'm going to skip over Thanksgiving this year -- dinner is at my aunt's house and Mike most likely won't be home for it anyway -- and jump right into Muffin's First U.S. Christmas.

I'm Losing the Battle Against Long Pants

Muffin and I are in a battle of who could care less (to quote Ben Folds).

 Her school has a dress code policy of girls wearing leggings or shorts under dresses and skirts. I’m fine with this; Muffin spends a lot of time in the sandbox and leggings provide extra protection from sand getting into places it shouldn’t. With the Hyderabadi style of khurtas worn over pants or leggings, Muffin has embraced the the local fashion and wears dresses with leggings and sometimes even wears jeans under her dresses. I’m okay with all that. I want her to have confidence in choosing her clothes and expressing herself.

Here’s my problem. Summer is upon us. It’s near 90 degrees (32 C) when I drop her off at school in the mornings and pushing 95 degrees (35 C) by the time I pick her up. Each day seems warmer than the previous day. Muffin is insisting on wearing ankle-length leggings or pants every day and she is a little sweatball by the time school is over. She won’t wear shorts. She won’t even consider knee-length or calf-length capri pants. Long pants, Mommy, long pants.

Last week I told her that it was the last week for wearing long pants. Starting on Monday, she would need to wear short pants to school. I have lost that battle every single morning this week. On Monday, once she was at school, I reduced her collection of leggings from about ten pairs to three. I showed her! Then I felt a bad about feeling vengeful toward a preschooler, so I took out a bunch of fabric and patterns to plan a new summer wardrobe for her; this week I've cut out a few items for her already. At Mike’s suggestion, I’m also going to trim several inches off the leggings and sneak them back onto her shelves to see if she notices they are shorter.

She’s rotated through those three pairs of leggings every day this week and today I’d had it again. We hadn’t even left the house yet and we were sweating already. I told her if she wanted to wear long pants she had to put them on herself. If she wanted my help, I was going to put shorts on her. And what do you know? She battled with a pair of leggings for a few minutes, threw them aside, picked up a pair of jeans, and put them on. I lost again. (And damn, is she smart!)

Today I’m going to hold off work on her Easter dress in order to chop and hem all of her pants into shorter lengths. It’s not as if they’re going to fit her next winter and we’re moving from Hyderabad summer to U.S. summer so other than a couple pairs of jeans and sweatpants (for chilly beach evenings in Rhode Island), she doesn’t need anything but summer clothes.

Should I be more flexible and just let her wear the damn leggings and be sweaty? Is she wearing them because she knows it annoys me so much?

The Smallest One Was Madeline

I started thinking about Halloween costumes months ago. You need to start planning early so you can figure out what you can buy locally and what needs to be ordered from the United States. I can buy a lot of fabrics here but not a lot of other craft supplies. Some ideas were heavy on things that needed to be ordered or purchased whole rather than made. After a while I gave up the idea of a family costume and decided just to concentrate on Muffin, because my October activities calendar was filling up. Eventually I decided I could easily make one really great dress, so I gave Muffin the choice of Olivia or Madeline, two of her favorite characters.

She chose Madeline. I turned to the books for inspiration. I decided on a yellow hat and cape with a blue dress and found a vintage pattern -- 1970's Simplicity 7410 from Lanetz Living -- that was perfect for the cape and dress. I opted for the sleeveless dress because it's 80 degrees outside and it would make my life easier.

I got a little stuck on the hat. I couldn't find a suitable hat locally and I was afraid ordering one would result in a crushed hat. None of the patterns I had in my stash seemed appropriate. I turned to the internet to find hat tutorials. I couldn't find a good hat tutorial, but I did see a lot of Madeline costumes -- all of which looked like the modern cartoon rather than the classic book, which made me a little worried about my cape and my color choices. (And I'm sorry, but grown women wearing Madeline costumes rather than Madeline-inspired outfits is a little sad looking.)

Still full of indecision about the hat and having a little bit of self-doubt about the costume in general, I went fabric shopping for my blue and yellow fabrics. I knew exactly which store I wanted to go to, but my driver suggested an expo instead. Against my gut instinct I agreed to stop in at the expo. And after fifteen minutes I'd assessed the whole place as having many lovely fabrics but nothing that was anywhere near what I was looking for. It felt kind of good to continue on to the shop I'd originally asked my driver to take me to, walk in, and find the exact fabrics I wanted right away. I bought cheap "matching fabric," the material used to make the blouses worn under saris. It comes in all shades of solid colors and it was at least a cotton/poly blend if not 100% cotton (I could live with a  blend for this project.). I brought it home, washed it, realized it was a little too see-through and decided to line the dress, and gave my driver a swatch to take back to the store to buy another meters' worth for the lining. With my blue and yellow fabric and some black ribbon from the grocery store I was ready to sew a Madeline costume.

I made the cape first. Muffin was thrilled with it. As I started working on the dress she became anxious about my progress and started "working" in the sewing room with me so she could monitor how things were going. She has a Madeline doll and I keep some craft supplies especially for keeping Muffin entertained in the sewing room. While I worked on her Madeline dress she worked on clothes for her Madeline doll. It was kind of sweet and it was the first time she did independent projects while allowing me to sew, so it was a nice milestone for us.

With a Halloween party bearing down on us I still had to figure out a hat. I went back to my patterns and decided to use the sunhat from Butterick 3846 with the brim turned up. I made the brim slightly wider to give me a little more to play with. I was prepared to "starch the hell out of it," as I'd read in one of the many hat-making tutorials I'd poured over in the last few weeks, but it actually worked out quite nicely with just some interfacing. The hat and cape were so cute together that I didn't care anymore that it didn't look exactly like the book or exactly like the cartoon. Muffin looked like a little French boarding school girl and the vintage pattern added a bit of style.

Her new black Mary Janes arrived in the mail just in time to finish off the look.

Something that irks me...

Something that irks me... The perpetuation of unflattering clothing.
You can't tell me that model looks fashionable by any means. Part of the reason for home-sewing is to get clothes that fit you perfectly, unlike retail clothing that is mass produced (which most people should take to a tailor for altering, but do not). So why would anyone choose to perfectly fit a pair of pants that is inherently unflattering?

You would assume that someone who designs and sells patterns is part of the fashion industry. What part of the fashion industry says it's okay to let women buy this pattern? (According to the website it's "back in stock" and "available for immediate delivery," which leads me to believe it's pretty popular.) I'm sorry, but tapered ankles make your hips look wide. It may be an optical illusion. You may have perfectly reasonably sized hips and be proud of them. But is this really how you want to show them off? And that high waist! Waistbands are supposed to be below the belly button these days. Seriously. Stacy and Clinton grate on my nerves but sometimes they make good points, and two of those good points are tapered ankles and high-waisted pants. Whoever is responsible for this pattern is enabling bad fashion.

There's a reason the Mom Jeans bit from Saturday Night Live is still so funny. Because it's unfortunately true.

of a different color

A few weeks back did anyone else notice that Hillary was always wearing a bulky, textured, hideous blue jacket? Other than Wonkette?

It must be the texture, and not the color, that's the source of her power because last night she was wearing the same awful jacket in a different awful color: Pink! Surely there must be better-fitting, less bulky jackets for her out there.

Or her fashion consultant is a secret agent from a rival campaign... pretty boy Jon Edwards?

(Blue jacket montage from Wonkette. Pink pic from Reuters/Yahoo News. Click on images to enlarge them, if you dare.)

I've gone through this phase before. I'm hoping it's easier to stick with it during the warmer summer months. And that my motivation is stronger this time.

Dressing nicely when I leave the house. I bought these shoes months ago and tonight they make their public debut. Carrie on Sex and the City works from home and manages to get dressed up when she goes out. Laura Bennett has her studio at home with her 27 children and manages to look fabulous. I work from home. I have the clothes and the shoes and the means for buying and making more if I want to. I really have no excuse.

I want these.

I've been dreaming of these for weeks. They are satin Pucci pumps. I've already designed a whole wardrobe around them.

early morning random stuff

My laptop cam takes photos in mirror image.

This pattern is the first from my recent Lanetz Living spree that I'll be tearing into. For knit tops for my SWAP I had planned on using a tried-n-true Jalie t-shirt pattern. But I'm going to give this one a try. I'll do a muslin first. Normally I wouldn't for a t-shirt, but this pattern uses a zipper, and I think that's odd for a t-shirt. However, the fabrics I'd like to use are stretchier than the ones recommended (stretchy polyester--ick--I can feel the static electricity in my hair just thinking about it), so I'm hoping I can at least get the v-neck over my big head without a zipper. (Click the image to see it larger.)

Join the campaign to bring "riv" back into use!

Vegan Fashion in the New York Times.

Origami High Heels, as seen on Manolo's Shoe Blog.

My head is buzzing with sewing projects. I've basically divided up my stash and patterns into four SWAPs:

1) Think Pink! -- the official one I'm doing for the Timmel Fabrics contest (2 of 11 pieces done)

2) Part II of that one (only 9 pieces planned for that)

3) A black & white inspired SWAP (I've expanded this plan to 12 pieces; one piece is nearly done -- a skirt I started last year that just needs hemming now.)

4) A Fall Colors SWAP, including some of the garments I sewed and planned on sewing last fall (4 of 11 pieces done)

If I can complete #1 and do a few pieces of each of the others this year, I'll be happy. Many of the garments I have planned can cross-over and be worn with garments from the other SWAPs.

Yesterday I went through my stash and added some yardage to my bag of clothes to give to Salvation Army. There are some fabrics I know I will never sew and I should give them a chance at someone else's home.

Yesterday I also cut out the solid pink fabric for my reversible coat. Tonight I hope to cut out the boucle fabric for the other side.

fashion rant

What are these women putting in their handbags and why so much stuff? Ouch! My Bag Is Killing Me! I can understand if you have a kid you need to carry a load of necessities. But:

“I carry an iPod, a book, a backup magazine in case the book doesn’t go over well, makeup, a phone, my wallet, extra shoes and workout clothes, most of which I won’t even need, but it’s nice to know that it’s there.”

Um, only bring workout clothes on the days you actually workout?

“I had over $2,000 worth of stuff in that bag,” said Ms. Thompson, who works in retail analysis for Cynthia Vincent, a fashion company in New York, “my iPod, digital camera, cellphone, glasses, sunglasses, makeup kit and a ton of other belongings, including a Care Bear that I’ve had since I was born.”

Seriously? Drop the Care Bear. She's 24 years old. Can you imagine how many germs that thing must be harboring by now?

The American Chiropractic Association recommends that a handbag weigh no more than 10 percent of its owner’s body weight.

To me that seems reasonable. Even a super-slim woman should be able to fit the daily necessities in one bag and keep it under 10 pounds (with the exception of a laptop I guess. but maybe that gets it's own bag on the other shoulder to balance things out?) I admit I like a bag large enough to carry a book. But I try to limit my traveling books to paperbacks so they aren't huge and bulky and heavy. And if I bring a magazine or newspaper I generally throw it out (err, I mean recycle) at the train station so I don't have to be bothered carrying it around all day. Cell phones and ipods are small, so they fit perfectly fine in a small- to medium-sized bag--if your bag is too big they get lost.

Okay, so to test my crazy ranting theories, I just weighed my regular daily bag--used for shopping and other errands, sometimes driving, sometimes on BART, sometimes on foot--and it's about 5 pounds. I have a rather large paperback (Foucoult's Pendulum still!), faceplate for the car stereo, cell phone, ipod, keys, chapstick, lip gloss, and pack of Kleenex. If I were going to the gym or carrying a laptop I would need a separate bag or a much larger one. Funny that no one in that article mentions carrying a laptop as one of their necessities.

Sasha Charnin Morrison, 42, the fashion director at US Weekly, admitted that her bags are so large that she often gets stuck in revolving doors. “They may not be practical, but so what?” she said. “When it comes to fashion, being practical is a huge bore.”

What's so fashinable about getting stuck in a revolving door? Sounds idiotic to me. If it's fashionable to clumsily lug around a huge bag, then I prefer to be a loser who is sleek enough to cruise through the turnstiles.

And, forgive my snarkiness here, but you should not complain about pain inflicted by your handbag! You are not an athlete or laborer. If your purse forces you into an MRI, lighten the load. And be thankful that the lifestyle that lets you afford such a fashionable giant handbag also lets you afford health insurance for your stupid injuries.

What do you think?

Pic is Louis Vitton Silver Streak, from The Purse Blog. While cruising for pics, I found this adorable site: Frankly, My Dear...

dressy

This morning, via Swagger Design, I found A Dress A Day. I can't stop browsing. It really makes me anxious to get on with my raincoat and then SWAP. But I have a few stitches left on some presents to finish up. I am going out to buy trims and notions this afternoon so I can finish those gifts over the weekend. By Sunday I hope to be drenched in raincoat fabric.

Think Pink! Garment List

Okay, I could probably blog about my SWAP all day long. For now, here is my list of planned clothing.

1. Reversible Coat. One side is a boucle that has pink, brown, and purple in it. The other side is a candy pink twill. Modified from Simplicity 4403.
2. Jacket in white cotton pique. New Look 6487.
3. Wrap Dress in "Raspberry Sparkle" rayon jersey. New Look 6429.
4. Wrap Dress in "Elephant" rayon jersey. New Look 6429.
5. Shirt Dress in photographic floral print cotton. Modified from Simplicity 7731 (a vintage pattern).
6. Shirt Dress in tan cotton twill. Modified from Simplicity 7731 (a vintage pattern).
7., 8., + 9. Simple Ts in celery, lilac, and aubergine rayon jersey knits. Jalie 2005.
10. Skirt in solid gray. New Look 6570. --Done! 1/2/07
11. Floral print skirt. McCall's 3341. --Done! 1/2/07

Some pics of my fabrics and patterns.

Oh, and my raincoat fabric arrived yesterday! I started cutting out the pattern piece immediately. I love this fabric.

Think Pink!

I'm pleased to show off my SWAP storyboard!

Think Pink!
Subtitle: Pink is the color of breast cancer awareness. Visit AvonFoundation.org or Komen.org for more information.

having kittens

Do I really need these? Oscar de la Rentas on sale until Friday... I have two days to think about it. They have some good reviews from Zappos.com. I've never ordered from Zappos but I've heard good things about their shipping and return policies, from their own testimonials and from people I actually know.

It seems like I'm splurging quite a bit on myself lately. But I'm also buying and making many Christmas presents. I can't post much about them in case the recipients read this. And I'm staying on top of housework and healthy eating. I sent Mike a box of home-baked cookies. I think I've earned a couple gifts for myself. When I buy fabric I have to actually make the fabulous clothes. These shoes will take no work at all.

I think it would be too much print if I wore them with my yet-to-be-made raincoat. So what else in my wardrobe, existing or planned, can they be worn with? They would definitely fab up a couple dresses and skirts I have.

Rationalizing, rationalizing.

I have a sickness

I'm obsessed with wanting to make coats. I was browsing fabric.com and I was supposed to be shopping for linings and keeping my eye out for 2 more shirt fabrics, all for my SWAP. But I was diverted by faux furs on sale. I bought two different ones. So, I have four potential coat fabrics now. At least one has to be used for my SWAP. One definitely has to be a raincoat. What in the world am I going to do with four coats? Especially two furs?

Fab.

I feel inspired by Swagger Design to try and be more fabulous. Since I work from home I find myself wearing jeans, t-shirts, and flip-flops or sneakers every day, even when I leave the house. So, armed with inspiration and information I'm going to try and make an effort. Wear jackets to pull an outfit together when I'm out of the house. Even if that outfit is jeans and a t-shirt, wearing nice, clean, well-fitting jeans and t-shirts will make a difference. Wear shoes other than flip-flops and old sneakers. I do like wearing heels and skirts, but feel like they are too dressy for trips to Target and the grocery store.

I don't have kids. I don't commute. I should have the energy stored away somewhere for making myself look more presentable on a regular basis.

One thing I do feel good about is my workout routine. I've graduated to doing some of my arm reps while sitting on the giant ball. I told Mike last night that I'll be well-balanced by the time he gets home. And I thought I caught a glimpse of a tiny bicept popping up.

I am also planning a fabulous SWAP! Details forthcoming. I'm almost done with my plan.