Thursday 15 May 2008

Gear

Dorian asked me this morning what I was doing today. I said, I am going to make myself some winter clothes. He said, can you make me some? I don't remember whether I said I would or not, but in the event I didn't. (Not that I managed to actually sew anything together for myself either, there is a huge pile of cut-up cloth on the coffee table which I did today and it's all ready to go, but when I ran out of things to cut and it came to the crunch I couldn't bring myself to get out the sewing machine; I kept thinking about the book club I've rashly agreed to go along to which is meeting tomorrow night and I haven't yet started on the book which has large type but also 584 pages; each time I picked it up I just mutely put it down again without beginning, it is The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, and when I looked in the back just now to see how many pages I inadvertently read the last line: and the book club meets at 7pm.) I would have happily have made Dorian something, but when I looked in the basket where I keep my patterns there weren't that many patterns there for men's manly clothes.

Actually there were only these:

Father Ted Suit with bonus costume for admiring Lovely Girl to wear



Bad as it sounds I might actually use this pattern - the womens cassock has a big deep pleat in the back and would make a good winter coat base shape, as it's got no silly shaping in the front.


Liberal Party Dick Dacks




Not suited to winter, nor to any other season when people can see you.


Harajuku Sailor Loli-Goth Suit



I would have made this but I didn't have quite enough white bias binding, so what would have been the point. D has no white shoes either.


Space Boy



Basil would will look amazing in this, don't you think?

17 comments:

tigtog said...

You have the best pattern collection evah.

Anonymous said...

I'm particularly tickled by the "No Exchange" stamp on the cassock. As if you'd buy something like that by accident.

Must get the machine out here and finally finish my shirt. It's only been a couple of months... I gave up on finding time to make myself a coat and bought one yesterday. I spent the car trip home stroking it.

Mel said...

I am just deeply impressed that you own all these patterns. Also, while I'm here I should add that your reading habits put me to shame. I wish I could get through more and more erudite books.

lucy tartan said...

There's no special skill to amassing a lot of dressmaking patterns - unless forcing yourself to go through them all in the op shop is considered advanced.

Mel I guess reading erudite books is essential to my job.

Kate, patterns are always stamped 'No Exchange' when you buy them, and I don't quite understand why - obviously it wouldn't be good to return a cut and used pattern - on an exact par with taking aback a jigsaw that you'd lost some pieces of - but I don't really know why they can't seal the envelopes and let you return them if you get home and think the purple velvet would work better as an anorak than a smoking jacket.

Anonymous said...

1.Great patterns.
2.Book Thief is a good read but can't be rushed!
3.Dick togs are known in our house as doctor togs. Our son, then 3 or 4, wanted to know what the D in DTs stood for and we thought dick was a bit rude. So we told him doctor and the myth persisted until he was about 9

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

"there is a huge pile of cut-up cloth on the coffee table"

Oh God, flashback CITY. This post gave me a very itchy treadle foot.

I wonder if the 34-year-old Janome still works. It did beautifully to make the tablecloths for my father's wedding in 2004 (which, astonishingly, worked out much cheaper than hiring them with the tables if you factor in my sister's awesome bargaining skills but not my free labour), and was indubitably nicer, but who knows what havoc another four years stashed under the desk may have wrought. To the machine, I mean, not the tablecloths.

lucy tartan said...

I can post you some ready cut-out bits of cloth if you want to see if the machine still works.

At 34 it should still have a few good years in it before deserving consignment to the scrap heap. One hopes.

Janet said...

The men's smock over the cassock looks remarkably like a lot of the women's wear around at the moment...

I have heaps of sewing cut out from last summer still, sigh. But cutting out is really the best part... alright off to the sewing machine

meli said...

i read the book thief last week, and found it one of the most comforting, amusing and enjoyable books i've read for ages - kind of strange given the subject matter... but i finished reading it in an airport, bawling my eyes out. not a good look.

Ampersand Duck said...

My mum has a whole heap of safari suit patterns I could dig out for you if you want...

Kirsty said...

Mz Tartan, you should do a Google search: 'What does saumensch mean'. It will take you to my blog as it does so many others who are looking for something pertinent to discuss about The Book Thief when they haven't actually read the book.

PS You do know that book clubs are today's quilting circles, except that instead of plotting the feminist revolution the focus is on the consumption of wine, erm coffee?

PPS Dorian should get white shoes especially

Zarquon said...

Why does the pattern with the least material cost the most? It's a pair o' dacks.

genevieve said...

oh HEH. I will send my daughter a link to these patterns, LT. She would like a spaceboy just to print out and hang on the wall, I think.

Unknown said...

Every priest needs a blonde ingenue to sew his cassocks.

Anonymous said...

The Tormentor in all his 11 y o glory noted the Dick Dacks, snorted & retorted - "Penis Pouches". The youth of today. Really.

Lefty E said...

Just gave me a flashback - my first job when I was 16 was hauling huges boxes of dress patterns around in a factory.

Aside from that, I remember Mum always having them around when I was a kid. Are they still big these days, or is it all off the rack in this global era of cheap tailoring in SE Asia?

Mindy said...

If you ever come across a pattern for a 'tennis' dress in a size 3-4 let me know. I saw lovely ones for sale from an internet company, but the price for something the toddler will grow out of in three months was just abysmal. Haven't been able to find a pattern for love nor money though.