forays

[ritaxis]

We went to the woods along Empire Grade just across from upper campus but while we found some pretty things, and lots of fresh, shiny black bambi poop and dead bambi by the road, we found nothing to bring home.

I have been way too sedentary lately, for several reasons. I've been discouraged: I've been under the weather: I've been trying to be productive writing. The under the weather thing is the reflux/asthma/other stuff revolving door, which makes it hard to breathe for coughing and weird throat, and makes me just want to sit very very still.

So I've been trying to break through the cycle of that and I may have done so. Anyway, the result of all this sedentariness is that crashing through the underbrush was very tiring on those muscles that lift the legs when you step over branches and things. So I exercised them a little when I got back.

Also I submitted five stories today, including two I never got the rejections for, but dog, I am tired of waiting and feeling stymied. So I sent the GPS highway robbery story to "Amazing Journeys," and the bitter Gulf War piece to "From the Trenches," an anthology being put together by Carnifex Press, and the last people in the world/quilt block story to "Dark Energy." I sent the social worker story to "Futurismic," and I sent the self-aware minefield story to "The Intergalactic Medicine Show." And I added some words to the rain story, which still has no resolution.

Aynathie, I've started reading, but I'm really behind. I'll send you comments Wednesday (my time) and Thursday.

On other fronts: I am such a busy little bee: I have also nearly finished making myself a linen shirt for the holidays. A long time ago I bought these three pieces of linen, a warm rosy-golden brown one, a sagey-minty one, and a white one with a complicated woven-in pattern, to make an outfit of. I figured that with me making so little money this year, if I wanted holiday clothes I better make them out of what I have.

The pissy part is that the pattern I have is marked with the same size I buy clothes in at the store, but I had to add four inches to the shirt to get it to fit anything like the ready-made clothes with the same size number. I don't care whose fault it is, but I want them to stop doing this. Is it so hard to have an industry-wide standard which applies to all secotrs of the industry? Isn't it in the pattern companies' interests to present patterns which work for the regular customer without having to be redrawn?

I don't know if the cloth is pure linen or linen/cotton/rayon. Whatever it is, it wrinkles like crazy and feels delightful on my skin.

Comments

[sciamanna.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about the MS, there is no rush! Some comments have started to come in, but by no means a majority :-)

Congrats on submitting! That will be my next hurdle, and I'm already worrying...

Sewing and fit

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

About that pattern: pattern sizes aren't the ones that have changed. They're nearly the same as they were thirty years ago (waists and hips are ever so slightly larger; breasts are less pointy). Sizes of clothes sold in retail stores have no standardization whatsoever from year to year, or from company to company. In extreme cases, the size may vary wildly within a particular clothing company from style to style. It's all driven by the companies' perception of customer vanity, and it's worst in expensive clothes, which tend to be labelled two sizes smaller than the size they might be defined at, if size were defined.

The measurements shown on the pattern envelope for the breast-waist-hip circumference should be correct. That won't guarantee a good fit, since patterns (and all ready-made women's clothes) are designed for a B-cup. If one is larger (or smaller), one has to choose between having the shoulders fit and altering the chest, or having the chest fit and altering the shoulders, neck, and armscye. Having spent a lot of time going to school to learn how to do all these alterations, I can and do make them. They are simple enough in theory; in practice, they're still simple, but one has to remember to do them and to do them in sequence.

More sewing

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

I'd like to second kate schaefer - sewing patterns haven't changed size since I've been using them (I have, though) but clothing from stores - I'm surprised you have a single number size you think of as yours.

On top of that, totally consistent sizing would only help people with one exact body shape. Most commonly, the shirt size that fits me is 12 (or that store's equivalent) but over the last several years, with the loss of shoulderpads and the return of close-fitting shoulders, I need to buy a larger size (relative to my bust) to fit my shoulders in. Similarly if the design happens to be close-fitting just below the bust - I have a very large ribcage, but this isn't an issue with most styles.

Then there's all the variation between hip and waist measurements, and where the increase in size is - up and down, and front and back, and so forth. Pants fitting and sizing is the worst thing ever unless you're happy with paper bags.

I can't remember my fabric tests at the moment - I think linen, cotton and rayon all burn cleanly, but my vague memory is that linen has a crisp smell the other two don't. Of course, you'd expect the linen smell, so what you need to know is what burning cotton or rayon would contribute.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Like I said, I don't care whose fault it is. Somebody's lying to me, though.

(I think I end up in the same position, though, because I think if I ignore the sizes like a good girl and try to go out and buy new patterns -- I'm using all things I've had for a while, and before you ask, yes, I've been the same store sizes all this time allowing for the store insconsistencies, so it seemed reasonable that I'd only have to add a little to make the pattern work -- anyway, I think that I end up with no patterns I like in my size, and I have to remake them anyways, so I think I'll stick with the remade ones I already have.

I wish I never had to buy anything ever.