Self Image

I'm working on my fitness level...again.  I'm reading up on various dietary guidelines (AKA/PC Lifestyle changes) and have been exercising for a week now.  I know in my logical brain that I am overweight and need to loose some pounds.  I know this as fact.

But I didn't understand.

I have been cruising the fitness tags and fitspo and and all that crap on Tumblr.  I cannot count how many before/after photos I have seen.  How many of you can guess where this is going?

That is correct.  I just worked out, took off my shirt, kept the shorts on you sick monkeys, and took a photo of myself.

Wow...ouch.  Nothing will kick you in the self-esteem balls like a photo of your own unrealized stomach.

Those of you with small children should run screaming from the room now.  You have been warned.

This is me after one week of exercise and a moderate diet.  I hope that after a few weeks and then months I will be able to post after picts.

McCalls M6613 - 2

Ok, back to work on McCalls M6613.  I spent yesterday afternoon copying and tweaking the pattern based on the results of my muslin.  I'm going to be making the main shirt in black with a royal blue contrast fabric for details like the inside collar, inside yoke, and possibly the sleeve button tabs.  Just a few bits and pieces of color to keep it from being solid black.  I have all the pieces cut and ready to start sewing.

Plus, I have enough leftover of each color to start considering what to do for my next shirt.  After I complete this project I might be able to do up a second short-sleeve version.  We shall see.

Sewing reminds me a bit of cooking.  Most anybody can follow a basic recipe and get a basic result.  If you drop some flour, baking powder, yeas, and water into a bowl, mix and apply heat, you will get bread.  Now, will it be the nice fluffy consistency of store bought bread...no.  Will it be a tasty muffin or croissant?  Nope.  Same with sewing.  If you follow the pattern and instructions, you will wind up with a garment that greatly resembles a shirt. but it's still very much a learning process.  How does you machine handle this fabric or that.  Will it run a simple seam at the same even pace as a felled seam?  How does this fabric work with that interfacing?  How do you turn those collar points right side out?

I'm learning, slowly & steadily, garment by garment, seam by felled seam, I'm learning.

Valentines Day Gift

SO I made something for my wife for V-Day.  If you have read this blog in its entirety you may come to realize that she is a bit of a Marilyn Manson fan.  Just a bit...*cough*FANGIRL*cough*

I had the idea a few weeks ago that a Manson themed stuffed animal would be absolutely adorable for her for Valentines Day.  Her favorite incarnation of Manson is a character referred to as Omega and is depicted with a rather Bowie-esque make-up job of blue eye-shadow, red & black hair and multicolored contact lenses.  I found a downloadable pattern for a stuffed bear that I thought could possibly evoke a cat if I pointed the ears and tail.  I'm not looking for absolute physical accuracy, just a passing resemblance, you see.

Well lets recap:
Concept - A+
Thoughtfulness - A+
Preparation - B+
Execution - umm...well...We both agree its sort of a bear/cat/raccoon hybrid that is a bit on the creepy side. Now, fortunately, creepy appeals to my wife.  Especially when attempting to invoke the Manse.

He is slightly under stuffed, due to being my first attempt at making such a creature.  He does have the Manson inspired multi-colored eyes and red embroidery on his black head stripe thingy as well as on his paws.

Fashion vs Style

It's sort of a sexist thing to say, I understand this going in.  However, I believe it to be true.

Leave fashion to the women.  Men should work with the concept of style.

Another way to say this would be that I will never make a pair of skinny jeans.  Or bell-bottoms for that matter.  Both are examples of fashion overriding common sense.

If you managed to find a pair of Levis from 1913 that were miraculously preserved (and that fit) you could wear them today and they could easily be incorporated  in a styled appearance.  Case in point:  The following pict is a reproduction pair from the design specifications of 1933 and this guy could walk down the street now and nobody would even look.  Likewise a pair of basic straight leg jeans produced today would be just as useful to a modern gentleman of 2113.  Now try that test with anything that is considered a fashionable garment or part of any trend.

Now, for some contrast examples:

See what I mean?  Fashionable in the 70's does not equal style...anywhere...anytime.  Hipster kids need to go eat a cheeseburger and then buy clothing that fits.  

Guys need to stick to classic style and personalize it a bit here and there.  If a guy tries to follow a fashion trend, eventually there is a going to be a time of regret.  Usually pictures will be involved.  Possibly polyester or slogan t-shirts.  Please, can we stop this madness.

McCalls M6613

My first work-in-progress post. Woot!

This is a muslin for a shirt I am working on using McCalls M6613 sewing pattern.  I'll probably modify it slightly to suit me better and I've got this cross posted to a sewing forum to get construction/fit tips.  The end shirt will be basic black with royal blue highlights.  I'm going to at least do the inner yoke and collar lining in the blue and there is a version with the little tabs that fold up and button when your sleeves are rolled up.  So, probably those in blue as well.  Also, I think I will keep the mandarin collar.  The pattern has a standard fold down design, which is nice, however, I have always liked the banded collar look.

I already have a list of things to fix on the pattern before I work on the final draft.
-The cuffs are two different sizes due to a folding issue.  Note to self: Your eyeballs are not nearly as calibrated as you think, use a friggin ruler.
-I need to figure out how to shrink the collar about an inch all the way around to get that fitting correctly.
-There is a little puckering at the armscye which should clean up if I do a bit more ironing during the construction stages and take a bit more care with the pinning steps.

I have David Page Coffins book on shirt-making which I will be referencing quite a great deal over the next week or so.

Wish me luck!

Camera!

Ok, between this blog and a forum I have been frequenting, I have commented on the need for a camera a few times.  This is the point I will casually smack myself in the face.

I have a camera.  Not a huge fancy anything, but a reasonably decent Olympus point-n-shoot.

The picture is more to test the Blogger picture function than anything else.  I'm fairly sure you all don't really care what my camera looks like.  But now that it is plugged in and charging, one of my goals for tonight is going to be to take a couple of snaps of my shirt-muslin.  I want to be able to do a basic work-in-progress and completed project theme in this here blog, but well...without a camera its sort of pointless.  I mean really, I can tell you that I just hand tailored a traditional styled bespoke suit out of the most wonderful tweed.  But without picts to back that up I'm probably lying out my ass.

So, hopefully tomorrow, I will be posting a snap or two of my current work in progress.

Also, I found Hot Patterns.  I'm thinking that the name is a little hokey, and they only have three patterns for men, but, the three patterns are about perfect.  I ordered a shirt pattern that is sort of a vintage railroad work shirt that has a bunch of the style and design ideas I have been thinking about and a jeans pattern that is both simple and classic at the same time.  I am very excited to see what these two look like in person and then eventually completed as wearable garments.

If I can get to the point of being able to turn out a button-down shirt and a pair of jeans that can pass as store-bought.  I may never have to shop for clothing again...well, except for socks and underwear and whatever else I might want.  Oh, and shoes.  

Don't judge me!

Buttonholes!

How the hell did society exist before the internet?  Everything and anything is available online.  If price/cost was no object I could buy an island have a house built and fully stocked without leaving my own living room. Yes, I already have plans for the Powerball Jackpot that I have yet to win.

Basically, I am excited because with the power of the interwebs at my beck and call, I was able to track down the exact part number for a vintage buttonholer add-on for my vintage Kenmore 385 sewing machine, find a new-old stock one for sale and get it shipped to my door for ten bucks.  How freaking cool is that?

So, last night I made buttonholes...lots of buttonholes...big ones, little ones, standard oval shaped ones and even keyhole buttonholes.  WOOT!

I was able to finish off a shirt-jacket that I had constructed a few weeks ago and was completely finished, except for buttonholes.  Now, a good steaming and ironing and it will be fantastic.  All I need now is some interfacing and some buttons and I can start working on my next project.

He he he...buttonholes...Give me a cutting table and a few more sewing machines and I will take over the world!

Ok, maybe not the whole world, but my front room at least.

This post is not a post

Not really a post, I swear.  Just random thoughts I have floating around my brain.

My next sewing project is going to be a shirt.  Sort of a basic collared camp shirt/bowling shirt.  Design-wise, whats the difference?  Not too much by way of a collar stand, light interfacing in the collar itself.  Buttons and short sleeves.  Whatever.  Its going to be black with dark blue insets and collar.  I may try to do a Nehru/Mandarin collar, blue outside and black inside with stiffer interfacing.

Or, what I probably should do is actually follow a pattern until I get a bit better at the finished product stage. I have McCalls M6613 (Version B) that will suit nicely I think.

Balance

Ah, the quest to find balance in life.  The happy medium between fantasy and reality.  Basically walking the line between what is wanted or desired and what can one can afford.

I want two or three new sewing machines and a ton of fabric and a cutting table and extra rulers and paper and books to teach me pattern drafting and...and...and...

What I can afford, hmm, a needle and thread and a roll of leftover Christmas wrapping paper.  If you open my wallet a tumbleweed falls out, how it got there to begin with I'll never know.

So, the quest in life, is to find the balance between the two.Scale down the dreams and work within the bounds of reality to make dents in the fantasy.  While at the same time, not lowering yourself to a puritanical existence.  Don't let the reality of the situation stop you from having some fun and getting some of the things you want, or doing the things you want to do.

Case in point: My wife and I went and met Manson (as previously mentioned).  Was it cheap, no.  Was it an easily afforded expenditure of time and money, again, no.  But we had a BLAST!  We took some time off work (vacation days earned through dedicated work over the course of years) and used some rainy day cash that could have been more responsibly used for bills.  No bills went unpaid in the course of this adventure.  No utilities are going to be turned off as a result.  No animals were harmed as a result of filming.

What good is working 40+ hours a week, every week, if you never do anything for yourself?  Is this your life?

Monday - Work
Tuesday - Work
Wednesday - Work
Thursday - Work
Friday - Work
Saturday - Laundry, errands, clean the house, and sometimes Work.
Sunday - Finish the errands, change the catbox, worry about having to go back to work on Monday.

Make time for fun and adventure and enjoyable activities.  Balance the work with some play.  Don't let the bills pile up too much, but spend a little something on yourself once in a while to remind yourself why you work so hard.