Sewing, & other skills kids don't learn in school anymore

There was an interesting article in the Washington Post this weekend, about specialized classes in sewing, cooking, wood-working, among others, skills that used to be taught in school but aren't now.

Back in the paleolithic, I learned sewing & cooking when I was about 12, along with all the other girls in my public school. The boys went to wood-working. (I don't even know if they had 2 classes, or just one.) I was lucky because my mother cooked & sewed and so I already knew most of what was being taught, which were quite basic skills. So when I wanted to make something at home, I had my mom's advice & know-how to back me up.

It's interesting that parents find such classes worth paying for, perhaps to ensure their children are more creative or learn some hands-on problem-solving skills? I also liked seeing the co-ed classes; I definitely would have enjoyed a wood-working class back when I was 12...if nothing else it might help a bit with shelving in our tiny closets!!

What do you think? Should public schools include this type of class? Do you wish you'd learned to sew at an earlier age? Why/Why not?

Making my own yukata (cotton kimono) or Lost in Translation?!

Remember this link? Of an old Japanese pattern book?  Of course you do!  So, I'm thinking of doing some translating...Japanese into English (if I can find my Japanese-English dictionary!) and miniature doll-sized pattern into human sized. 

And why am I thinking about doing this?  Because I think I mentioned that my hapi coat, which I got in Japan in 1994 is worn thru.  And because we've just moved...and I don't want to scare the neighbors.  In our previous house, the bathroom was upstairs & the windows weren't so display-like!  Here, I could cause some heart attacks running between the bathroom & bedroom.  Now the big decision--use some cool Japanese-print fabric or some of my West African?  Or both?  I need to modify the pattern a bit...I want a yukata (cotton kimono), but shorter.  Hapi coats are shorter (almost too short--above the knee), but voluminous--I would like a kimono/yukata because it will be more flattering...but below the knee--not to my ankles as most kimono are.  I may change the sleeve length a bit too.  

Of course this is all well & good sitting here at my computer with Bella nearby for some ear-scratching.  We'll see how soon I get my yukata; we haven't finished unpacking yet!  

Why I'm not online much: We are MOVING (for the last time?!)

Yes, that is Bella, overseeing the move. She's an excellent manager, apparently, because while I was at work Marc got most of the packing done.

Unfortunately we picked 2 of the hottest days of the year--with high humidity & bad air quality, too!  Oh boy.

NO Plastic Bags! Make your own shopping bag!

My friend Vicki, in Pacific Grove, CA, is part of a program to disallow plastic bags within the city limits.  Plastic bags are a huge problem there--they end up in Monterey Bay & kill all sorts of wildlife, mostly sea turtles & sea otters.  So here are a few ideas for making your own re-usable shopping bag. The first is how to turn an old t-shirt into a shopping bag.  And the other site is a list of 50+ different sites that have "how-to" instructions to make your own shopping bag, so you don't need to make the paper or plastic decision ever again.

Recycle a T-Shirt into a shopping bag!  Instructions here. 

And another site with many patterns for making your own shopping (or book) bag.

The photo is from Essie's Handcraft Cuteness on Flickr.  

Ways to get a tailor's mannequin (dress form)

1. Buy one from here

2. Make one with duct tape. My roommate thinks that he's the only one allowed to use duct tape around here, so he'd get to help, for sure.

Bella, however, is more interested in this fashion item!

Caring for & displaying those darned textiles

When the roommate & I started travelling oh these many years ago, we spent some time trying to figure out what we could collect that pretty much all countries would have.  We also wanted something non-breakable & not too pedestrian.  Well, we did end up collecting lots of coins, paper money & stamps, but we finally settled on textiles.  We met a couple collecting ceramics!  Yikes.  Breakable & HEAVY!

Textiles are great, because they are not heavy, and they fold & mush, so are pretty easy to get into a backpack.  And often we ended up wearing what we bought (for instance, in Bali, it's polite to wear a shirt--not a t-shirt--plus a sarong, whether you're male or female to a temple or festival).  And in Nepal, we needed warm jackets--we got lovely woolen ones we still wear.  Our yukata & hapi coat (Japan) still serve as summer housecoats, though mine is on its last legs.

However, it wasn't until I worked at the Brooklyn Museum that I found out that, in terms of care, textiles are a royal pain in the patooti!  The BM was trying desperately to divest itself of its textile collection of 19th century items.  Why? Because textiles need to be kept out of the light, you can't touch them with your hands (oils!), they are hard to clean, and, unless you collect polyester, they will eventually disintegrate; and don't forget moths!  All of these things make textiles extremely labor intensive, and not really worth the $$ for a museum like the BM without a huge endowment, especially if it's not a textile-specific museum.

So, the roommate & I do our best.  I purchased 4 dozen pair of white cotton gloves (see photo).  We wear these whenever we're handling our treasures.  We never use the same pair twice & I wash & dry them over & over. When cleaning, we use a technique we learned at the Quilt Studies Center in Lincoln, Nebraska:  place a piece of screen (from a screen door) over the item, hold it down at the edges & vacuum.  This gets all the dirt sucked up, without hurting the item.  BTW, the Quilt Studies Center is great fun.  Amazing collection, great archives, and lots of helpful info.  Unfortunately I also learned there that you should re-fold your quilts every 3 months so the folds don't become permanent!  Which is a hassle, but we try...

If you'd like a more hints about caring for your textiles, the Textile Museum here in DC has a How-To-Care-For page, which also includes how to hang sturdy textiles, if you'd like to try that. There is also a once-a-month ask a curator/conservator meeting wherein you bring your treasures & they tell what it is, where it's from & how to care for it.

So what did I forget to tell you?  Any great hints or ideas you have had about caring for or displaying your collection?  Please let me know...

More on craft/sewing room spaces - these are great, but too big! +GeekDesk!

Here are some nice rooms if you have a hankering to look at nice studio set-ups.  My problem is these rooms all seem to be much larger than what I'll have available...

I thought I'd found the perfect furniture at Crate & Barrel: the Bedford pieces you can fit together yourself.  But then I figured out all the furniture measurements & tried to fit them into my 10' x 6' room (thanks to my roommate's purchase of 1/4" graph paper--so helpful!).  Basically, I could fill up the room, but not be able to walk around in it!

Tricia Coyne / Gainesville Sun

So now I'm wondering about a standing desk for my sewing machine.  Check these out at Geek Desk...one of the problems my husband & I have is that we are tall (not real tall, but taller than average) and we find that even 36" high counters in the kitchen aren't high enough if we're working more than an hour or so.  And I use our kitchen table (30") for my cutting board, and have to stop every 1/2 hour or so because my lower back needs a break.  When we lived in Abu Dhabi, we had an Ikea Galant corner desk, plus a longer side piece attached & it was great because we had it raised all the way up  to 36".  For cutting strips for quilting and the cutting board, it was great.  But I had my sewing machine on another regular table at 30", which I sat at.  The photo is from this article in the Gainesville Sun about how unhealthy it is to sit & how a treadmill desk might fix your lower back problems. Now I heard that John Dickerson loves his new standing desk (and of course all the scary news about how as humans we evolved moving, not sitting), so I'm wondering if any other sewing goddesses have tried this?

Music?  How about the theme from Lost in Space?!