Listen, Skirt

Greetings, O Capable Ones!


Today, a wonderful one-hour project for you....don't be shy, step right up!  To be sure, you'll need a little more than one hour, because you'll have to read through this, and watch the tutorial once through, and gather some ingredients and tools:

scissors
thread
sewing machine (or, more time, more patience, and a needle and thimble)
elastic; 1 inch wide
1 or 2 yard of fabric
pins
iron

One thing- you will want to pre-wash your fabric, so that your skirt won't shorten or shrink.  Ironing the fabric after the washing tames it, making cutting and seaming easier.

If you are timid about cutting up your fabric- you can make a practice skirt with an old sheet first.  Also, if your skirt isn't as right-on as you'd like, you can cut off the waistband and make napkins out of it in a jiffy.



Here is your tutorial, from the lovely Brett Bara. 


Now, for your hour of skirt sewing fun, some music choices:

For calm, methodical workers, for extra nervous cats, for beat-loving seamsters.


Happy stitching!

Starry Night: August

     This is Pat Steir's print "Starry Night:  August."  This is Pat Steir. 


      I hope you will look tonight, at the Perseid meteor showers.  The night sky bends my thoughts  towards two poles:  One;  to the infinite and connected;  we are all a part of this vastness of space; I am but one grain of sand making up the whole.  Two;  to the ever startling awareness of how immense all that is "not me" really is- the way you might just tilt off and away into that depth, and fall for eons.


     A good and starry night, to all.

Summer's waning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Give a little listen; watching not required.

 

 

 

Lotte

 

Sarah, Ella, or Billie?

 

Chet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you'd like more September Songs, try:

 

 

Liberace

Lou

Willie

Gracie

 

 

Or, this compendium.

 

Mrs. Necessity

Dearest Ones,

 

     You know how it is, when you are driving down the road, or washing dishes, or even sweeping the porch, and maybe you hear a song- maybe the radio, maybe the neighbor’s garage, or maybe it even flashes across your mind, and you are catapulted, rocketed, sent.  You hear and see and you know that it is alright, and it’s truth and it's beauty and it’s meaning.  You know, in this scrap of enlightenment, that it all fits together.

 

     In this small minute, when you know-all and understand-all, in this time driving down the road, and that slips away so suddenly, I found a little message to myself.  It was like this:

 

NPR’s news had come on,  so I rolled the dial to the college station.  The DJ is an old college prof. of mine, and he said, in his bedroom voice, that here was someone you just didn’t hear near enough of these days:  Frank Zappa.  And the band played on, and later, when I was making a little object, an almost-sculpture- darning tufts of wool onto a branch- I thought, of course!   I am growing dental floss.

 

 

 

This clarity, from the sober light of the outside, may seem to you like satire; a lampoon, a spoof; but I tell you sincerely, that the message of the music explained a fleeting truth to me, and I wish it for you, too.

I'm on my Way

Hello Little Ones,


If this doesn't charm you, I don't know what will.  Today there is also this lively blog, and another song.

For your visual pleasure, a drawing Harvey made some years ago- this drawing illustrates "everything you need for photography."

C'est tout!

100 frocks

Dear Busy Ones,

     Do you know The Hundred Dresses?  By Eleanor Estes?  It's been on my mind because I have wanted to show you this wonderful project,  100 Acts of Sewing.  I had the pleasure of meeting this fine person at the Maker Faire a few years ago.  You can purchase her dress pattern here, on Etsy.

     When you aren't sewing up a dress in homage to Sonya Philip, you can read Eleanor Estes books.  I expect you might think that you don't have time for reading children's authors.  To this objection, I quote another great author,  Kate Douglas Wiggan, from Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm:  "When joy and duty clash, let duty go to smash." 

     Feeling a little less busy yet?  Here's something related, I think, and quite possibly my favorite youtube video.

sound and vision

Dear Those Who Would,

 

     Today's little treats are loosely associated and  absolutely necessary to the project.  The first is a fine auditory adventure- do you know, my friends, of the glass harmonica? 

Listen on...

 and on...

Isn't it delightful?  If your appetite for unusual instruments is merely whetted, try a brief introduction to the ondes Martenot and the cristal Baschet.



     Now, a little feast for the eyes.

 

These contemplative and formal pieces were painted by Pegan Brooke-  I hope you will, what do they call it?  Internalize;  I hope you will internalize their beauty.  Ms. Brooke is having an exhibit this month at the Friesen Gallery.  Please look at more if you have the time.


Au revoir,