I learn things

Went to bed last night with a headache, woke up with the same headache. (Or I suppose it could be a different one, but really, who cares?) Sought expansive deep breaths by going out for a walk; headache remained, but I enjoyed our half-hour ramble over the hilly trails. It’s that time of year in the Bay Area when the hills start to green from the first rains of fall and winter. The air is chilly and clear, and in the early morning, when the sun still hides behind fog, that vibrant green just bursts out in all its growing glory. I love being out on mornings like this; I think it reminds me of being a kid, going to school at that time of day and being so carefree and excited to be outdoors.

No morning pages, yet again. There’s usually something going on when I skip my pages a few days in a row; it’s a sign of escapism. It’s like not wanting to go to yoga… or not wanting to go to drawing studio, which is me right now. The class started forty-five minutes ago and I’m still at home. I intend to go after I finish up this entry, but I need to leave early because I’m going to help sort fabrics for FabMo tomorrow morning and I have to be in Palo Alto by 8:30 AM, so I may not get in more than an hour’s practice. Still, it’s better than nothing.

Before lunch I typed up notes from some Chinese American history books I skimmed yesterday, and reread a short story I wrote some years ago which I hope to use as the basis for a novel. At the time my classmates and Prof Louie said the story was fun to read, but went nowhere; I see their point now. I used an episodic, anecdotal structure, and the whole thing doesn’t quite hang together… but oh my, parts of it are really, really good. I think I can say that with some level of objectivity. I’m actually kind of stunned at how good the good parts are; reading them, I feel as though they are the work of someone with a far better mind than my own, a far more skilled and more subtle writer. It’s more than a little unnerving. But of course, the not-so-great parts are there too, and it’s going to be a big trick to turn this into a novel without letting the structure walk all over me. Well, I’m prepared to spend years on this if I have to, and I’m willing to set it aside again and again to let my writing ability catch up with my ideas. Anyway, it was interesting to revisit the story after so much time has passed.

After lunch, I started typing up guides for myself for the craft projects I have designed recently: my reversible totes, my yoga mat bag, my eye-pillow case, and Mousemarket‘s patch cash apron. They’re all still fresh in my mind right now, but as I keep crafting and designing more and more items, I may forget the techniques and certainly the measurements for these early projects. So, good documentarian that I am, I’m writing it all down!

I also made my first skirt today — first skirt, and first garment ever, if you don’t count aprons (and I don’t). I tried to make a skirt from a pattern when I bought my first sewing machine, but the size wasn’t right. So I just attempted this one without a pattern. I measured my hips, my waist, and the length from my waist to my knees, and then cut pieces out of a vintage printed cotton I bought at a yard sale in Englewood, CO, a year ago (while visiting Ying). I should have made a muslin first, but I just didn’t feel like going through the trouble! I sewed the sides of the skirt together (leaving an opening for buttons/zipper later), then stood in front of the mirror, pinning for darts.

Okay, so I have no idea how to do darts properly. They’re meant to help fabric (which is, of course, straight sheets of material) go around curves (like my hips), but how do I know how long to make them or what angle to set them at? How do I make them not pucker at the bottom? I don’t know the answers to these questions. I should ask Diane, whom I met at last month’s FabMo sorting, but I’m afraid the answers will be complicated. I kind of want to just experiment and find out on my own, if possible. On today’s skirt, my darts came out uneven and bumpy, and I fixed them somewhat, but they’re still weird. The ones in the back are oddly placed, which I’m not sure I can do much about, since I can’t see my back and I doubt Erik wants to learn how to pin darts. ;b And then the skirt as a whole came out too big, but I’m not sure where/how to trim it down. And it’s all kinds of unfinished… unlined, inside seams ready to fray at first washing… But I’m still wearing it right now, because I’m proud of myself for making a skirt without a pattern, and in about two hours. 🙂

I did learn a lot from making this skirt. I got more button-sewing and buttonholing practice (I need to learn to sew buttons on by machine, because it’s really tedious by hand), measuring practice, and practice in pinning something to fit on a human body, and I know a little more about darts now than I did when I started. So I’m pleased, and looking forward to trying another skirt sometime — and properly, with a muslin, and finished seams, and all that.

Oh, and I really have to learn to put in zippers sometime. I’ll need to get a zipper foot for the machine first, but that’s okay, because I am also badly in need of more bobbins, so I have to go to Stonemountain anyway.

After dinner, I went through all my listed items on Etsy and updated their tags. This should get lots more people to my shop, and it’s all thanks to Erik, who understands how the internet works a lot better than I do. He had gone through Etsy and noticed that searching for stuff like “reversible tote bag” or “eye pillow” did NOT turn up my items, which it really should have. So he brought it up to me, and I was confused. We did a little exploring, and figured out that the search relies on the “tags” form I fill out while listing items — something I had not realized. I’d thought that tags were just to categorize, so I was using them only minimally, e.g., to place my totes in the “bags and purses” category. It turns out we are allowed up to 14 tags per item, and these will determine what search phrases our items turn up for; hence, even though my silk eye pillows are clearly applicable to a search for “recycled sari eye pillow,” they wouldn’t come up in that search because I didn’t put “recycled” or “sari” as tags for those items. But that’s all fixed now. 🙂

Less than two hours left now in the drawing studio… should I just stay home and do another self-portrait instead? It’s not a bad idea.

**edit**

Damn eyes!!! And my right side is too big. BUT… it’s oodles better than all my previous attempts.