Summer Reading

I'm not one to follow trends, I just help set them. So you won't see me devouring the latest Harry Potter book. In fact, I've yet to read the first. You also won't see me with iPhone, I'm still working with pen-and-paper, particularly a little match-book size of a book from a Chicago paper shop. That notebook is a little too small for me so I think I'll start using index cards from Levenger.com to sketch out my next swimsuit collection, hats, and add phone numbers to my Gmail account.

So you can well imagine I don't read e-books, just lots of tomes from the local library. I was delighted to check out some excellent books on sewing last week. They are Sewing With Knits by Connie Long, Stitch With Style, Beverly Rush; and Sewing Lingerie That Fits, Karen Morris.

Just that first book alone has me in awe. Knits are my favorite fabric of the moment. Who knew you could crochet loose loops on a machine-made sweater knit? (I didn't.) Or my flame-stitch fabric is called a raschel knit? (Now I know the fancy name for all those Missoni zig-zag textiles.) Or that you can great your own ribbing? (That was truly an Aha moment for me). That and so much more makes me want to actually purchase Sewing With Knits for my well-edited book collection. I'll be able to make bathing suits that will be the envy of the lifeguards at the YMCA, the carp and frogs at the swimming hole at the national state park. They might even hire me to make their attire. The Stitching book hails from the 1970s, but still there's a lot that can be used in today's clothes. I'd love to try some of their appliques on a sewing machine (don't get me started on felting...I just saw Viking's felting machine last night at Vogue Fabrics. You can create on a machine what would take hours to do by hand.) Lingerie That Fits? All those knit scraps are going to become underwear some day. This book will help me do it in style with a better understanding of fit and technique.

Just so you know, not all my reading's about hand crafts. I've got Steve Allen's Make 'Em Laugh. Got to be able giggle when you nick your finger on a machine needle as I did Sunday afternoon while I was working on a black batiste blouse. I didn't bleed, but I've got a little scab. I don't really know what happened - I just know I was fixing something - a loose thread, crooked fabric - when the machine needle jogged up, then down, and I went, "Ow!" I looked at my index finger and there was a little bit of cut epidermis where they had been previously been a smooth surface. I think I might need to stay away from the felting machine - which actually has a plastic guard around its multi-prong needle. If I can hurt myself on one sharp little tool, I can only imagine the potential for pain with multiple sharp points.

Yellowjackets: A Sewing Hazard?

On Sunday I was a woman on a mission to escape my hot apartment. So I filled a Nordstrom's bag with yards of black batiste, reams of matching fabric trimmed with white lace and rickrack, a pattern, notions, and made like a female bandit for Vogue Fabrics in Evanston. Not before stopping at a nearby Starbucks for their reduced-fat turkey bacon breakfast sandwich. But I didn't leave with a frappucino in hand. No, I kept my hands busy knitting my summer sweater. When the hands of the clock inched toward 12 noon, I made a beeline across the street for you-know-where.

As soon as I paid my $5 at the business desk at Vogue, I got this nicely typed out gift certificate for $20. Yes, after using the store's classroom 10 times, they reward you for all the money you've given them (not to mention the countless yards of fabric that you've taken off their hands for forever and three days). So the happy, sweaty camper I am, I gleefully stash the certificate in my purse for another day and promptly got down to having fun.

It took me a while to get started. At least an hour before I slice my fabric with scissors, during which assorted employees came through to take their break. Pat, who mans the notions counter, noshed on a sandwich in front of one of the many Viking sewing machines, while I studied instructions for my pattern (Simplicity 4179).

I'm finally cutting the fabric when I feel this pain in my finger. I look down. Did I cut myself? No, I see a bug on my digit. It stings me and flies off to land on the rim of a nearby garbage can. "A bee just stung me!" I cry, holding my poor little hand. "It's over there on the garbage can!"

Pat leaps up and smashes the bugger with a wadded piece of paper. It turns out it was a yellowjacket, not a bee, which I really wouldn't want to kill since these insects make honey, which I really like on my daily bowl of oatmeal.

My extremity is throbbing with the stinger still visible when I walk out to the notions room. I see Pat's colleague, the raven Avida. She tells me she killed the stinger's friend earlier in the ribbon room. Great. She encourages me to go upstairs to get ice. I'm not a store employee, but it's ok for me to the second floor, which I've never explored in all the years I've visited this shop? That feels forbidden...like going into King Tut's tomb.

Even so this is heady stuff. To go where no shopper goes? Wow. Avida shows me the way - a narrow staircase off the main room. Even though my finger is swollen and pinker than a watermelon, I soak up my surroundings. Unfortunately, the break room is very ordinary. A beaten-up microwave, a basic white refrigerator, faux wood paneled walls and fiberboard tables. Typical lunchroom furnishings. Somehow, I expected thousands of swatches on the walls, a bounty of dress forms, rare buttons and fashion designers hiding out from their day jobs. But it was ordinary. Now at least I can say I've seen the top floor!

With a wadded piece of brown paper towel and ice, I returned to the classroom. I finished cutting and started sewing.

Yesterday when I returned to the premises at least three people asked how I was feeling. I'm certain they want to make sure I could buy more fabric. If I died from a yellowjacket sting, I can't reduce their stock one iota. I'm sure my swift recovery was an answer to their prayers. While I was there, I saw Ace Seamstress Mac Berg in action (she did a demonstration on how to create chenille strips; see the above photo). I also used my gift certificate. More fabric for my collection, of course!

Enough about me. Have you ever gotten hurt sewing?